Aspirant Rank

[prosty zolnierz]

Aspire - direct one's hopes or ambitions towards achieving something - OED. whilst I basically understand the Polish promotion system, cadet officer etc, can member(s) explain to me what exactly was an ' Aspirant '. thanking contributor(s) in advance.

[harryamb2]

looking to become an officer.

[A.J. Zawadzki]

I’ve always understood it to be synonymous with “chorąży” – i.e warrant officer, the most senior non-commissioned rank. The term Aspirant seems to be more commonly used in the ranking systems of police and firefighting rather than the military.

Cheers,
Tony

[Krakow1]

On the way to be Officer, less than Lieutenant more than Chorazy. If that makes any sense.

[Krakow1]

And if my memory is correct a famous Aspirant Tadeusz Monsior was a Polish Commando.

[Krakow1]

Also not long ago a Parachute badge attributed to a Grenadier, badge #4667 was for Aspirant Grzegorz Ziembicki, O.VI, Mon.
I do not ever remember seeing term Aspirant in regular Infantry, or any other Branch, only Commando and Grenadier.
And I think that maybe it was also a carryover from the Police rank to a Military one.

[Krakow1]

Another aspirant was Jan Piwnik, the famous "Ponury" . He was a Aspirant of State Police before 1939.

[prosty zolnierz]

interesting. thus an ' in transit ' rank, a rung on a ladder. I noticed in Lory's great tome that some Frenchmen who went through the Polish training regime were ' Aspirants ', the terminology a recognised French Army rank. Not a commisioned rank ' per se ' but accepted in all aspects as one.

[andrzejku98]

Hi Everyone,

I found the following photograph taken in France in 1940 showing General Sikorski speaking with an Aspirant (Note the inverted chevron on his Cap)

(click on picture to enlarge)

Although the Aspirant Rank was used in France from 1939 to 1940, it seems to have also been adopted whilst in the UK, those of you who might have a copy of Issue 8 of the Military Illustrated "Past & Present from 1987 in which is an article on Polish Armoured Units UK & North - West Europe, 1940-47 written by Krzysztof Barbarski.

On Page 19 is a photograph detailed as follows: Blairgowrie, Scotland, February 1941: a group of officers and aspirant officers (note inverted chevrons on berets) of 1st Tank Regt.

The top left shows a Sierzant and a St.Sierzant (with chevrons inverted).

Hope that this helps a little

Best wishes

Andrzejku