Re: Seeking information on my Granddad - A Polish Paratrooper
Here is the after action report translation.
" They landed in the enemy's rear 19 March 1945 very close to the village, so they had to immediately go back in to the forest, where they looked for each other for more than four hours. When they found the container there were four germans by it, one of them armed. They decided to take back the container, Sergeant Gawor attacked them from the front while firing both of his pistols, germans started to run, two of them fell, one close to the container. Two germans escaped to the village. While that was going on Sergeant Nowicki had unpacked the container and taken equipment in to the forest.
They started to walk through the forest and after an hour they found a road, on which they observed germans that were transporting their parachutes and the empty container. So they burried their equipment and went to complete the mission.
For eight days they walked around, however being extremly hungry they had to show themselves to germans. They were arrested, went through long interogations, but were let go after three days and assigned to forced labor, and separated.
After three days of looking around,talking, consulting, Sergeant Gawor went on a Sunday with a Polish Woman that he used to have a legitimate reason to be in the woods, to see if the burried cases are still there.
That evening at a party he found out about 6 Polish men that were hiding in the woods. Together with Sergeant Nowicki they picked three of the men to help them, and on a second night they went to retrieve the cases and luckily came back with them. But because of a guard at the village they hid the cases in a hay stack, and brought the cases to their own lodgings after a day.
The next Sunday before noon in the Sergeant Nowicki's room thay coded the report and tried to send it from the barn.
After 25 minutes into the yard came a vehicle carrying SS men, Sergeant Gawor who was on guard at the moment thought that they have been found out. So he alarmed Sergeant Nowicki who stopped working having just established a connection. Unfortunately the SS men have stationed themselves in the barn, so Sergeant Nowicki had to roll up the antenna, and any later tries to establish connection were not succesfull. Also taking the equpment out of the barn became impossible and they could be found out at any moment.
In the meantime Sergeant Gawor was gathering inteligence on his own, speaking with german soldiers every time he got a chance.
After their 37 day stay in the enemy's rear, the American Army showed up.
Sergeant Gawor found out about SS and SA soldiers hiding in the vicinity, and he along with other Poles did a round up, killing one of the germans.
25th April 1945 they were taken by Americans.
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by A.J. Zawadzki
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