Polish Medals, documents & Red Cross Letter

[Piwo2]

Richard,
While I cannot comment on the last medal ribbon I can assure that I have a number of Polish groupings that include wound cloth depicting the medal ribbon rather than an actual medal machine ribbon. The practice of wearing unissued or unauthorized medals goes way back. I believe the Poles where entitled wear the British Defense Medal but not the British War Medal but you will l photos of Polish soldier wearing both.
What a wonderful grouping showing a his service.....too often they were lost or sold or even discarded. Thanks for sharing it all.

Piwo

[NilocKrals]

Hi Richard, thats a good read and you're so lucky to have those possessions. It looks like my father 30006317 - PRIVATE WLADYSLAW GLADKI trod a similar path to your grandfather from a Soviet camp, down through North Africa and then in Oct 1942 joined 5 Machine Gun Battalion, 5 Kresowa Infantry Division, 2 Polish Corps, 8 British Army. I've posted a brief history eleswhere on this forum. We visited Monte Casino in 2015 and trecked through the areas where the Polish Army had been. Have alos been to Belarus this year and established a family connection as one of his pre-war kids is still alive. The APC DISCLOSURES 5 (POLISH) folk at MOD have been most helpful (address below)
MINISTRY OF DEFENCE, APC DISCLOSURES 5 (POLISH), Building 1 (Ops), RAF Northolt, West End Road, Ruislip, Middlesex HA4 6NG, Tel.: 020 8833 8603.
They sent me all his service records and his medals list (below) but they have all 'gone missing' over the years since he died
Wlad’s “Theatre of Operations”:-
14 Feb 1944 to 23 Apr 1944: Action on the Rivers Sangro and Rapido/Southern Apennines
24 Apr 1944 to 18 May 1944: Battle for Monte Cassino/Gustav-Hilter line of enemy defence
23 Jun 1944 to 04 Sep 1944: Battle for Ancona/Goths line of enemy defence
05 Sep 1944 to 09 Oct 1944: Rearguard of 8 British Army
10 Oct 1944 to 01 Jan 1945: Action in the Northern Apennines
02 Jan 1945 to 08 Apr 1945: Action on the River Senio
09 Apr 1945 to 02 May 1945: Battle for Bologna/Lombardy Plain

Medals: Polish: Army Medal.
British: 1939-45 Star, Italy Star, Defence Medal, the War Medal 1939-45.

Cheers