Share Your Polish Militaria Highlight of 2012

[A.J. Zawadzki]

All of a sudden here we are in the final few weeks of 2012. I thought it might be fun to share our personal hobby highlight of the past year. It may be an addition to your collection, perhaps finding the final item to complete a set, or discovering a piece of information that you have been seeking, maybe a great book you read, or even meeting and spending some time with a veteran.

Anything and everything from all eras of Polish military history qualifies. And if you have trouble picking one single highlight then feel free to tell us about the others too.

Cheers,
Tony

PS I’ll share my highlight later, but first let’s hear from you . . .

[StefanM]

Not really a militaria highlight.

My highlight was the discovery online of the photo below taken in 1941 outside apartment block on ul. Śniadeckich 8, Warsaw, Poland.



This followed an earlier and purely chance find in Radomskie archive that led to finding out the last known address of my grandfather found in a German Warsaw telephone directory of 1941: ul. Śniadeckich 6, Warszawa. He was listed at the same address in the 1942 directory also.

Also in the same archive in a 1940 German Warsaw telephone book his address was confirmed at ul. Pańska 28. This section of Pańska became incorporated into the "Little Ghetto" so the family would have been forced to move to another part of the city which I now know was Śniadeckich 6. My grandfathers final fate remains lost to history.

ul. Śniadeckich 6 is the building with balconies in the background behind the guy on the right so it is interesting to see how the street looked in 1941—at the time my grandfather (who according to the telephone directory entries was a businessman) lived there... weird to think that he might have been in the building when the photo was taken.

Below is ul. Śniadeckich during the Warsaw Rising 1944.




The other highlight of the year has been the many enjoyable, informative and often lively "conversations" I have shared in with everyone on this great forum... so a big thank you to all

[Gary J]

My highlight was to see the "new" discoveries of "lost" and unknown to familys - Polish Parachute Wings !
There has been a couple this year which "we" (The forum) have been able to help "fill in the gaps" for the families concerned.

It's always good when this happens, and shows that the forum has far greater worth than just collecting ..

Gary J.

[cichociemny]

I had a good Polish Navy year. For the first 6 months picked up nothing then in the last few months a few eagles, cap, a nice photo album, some documents and a really nice painting of ORP Blyskawica.

One highlight was reading 'Granatowa Zaloga' by Bosmanmat Wincenty Cygan. He was a sailor on ORP Blyskawica in 1939, in 1941 was on ORP Piorun and in 1943-44 was a sailor on ORP Dragon witnessing the death of many friends. Unlike most Polish Navy memoirs written by officers this one was written by a seaman.
It is a amazing book, full of adventure, girls, alcohol, bar fights, problems with NCO's and officers, problems with Brits. I never knew how much the Brits were angry at the Poles by 1944, he writes that most times he went out on leave it would end up in a fight... The book has great details on food, uniforms, decorations and anger as some crew get Krzyze Walecznych others not, even tho they also did as much work.

Another highlight was reading 'Niezlomny' by Komandor ppor Zbigniew Weglarz, great memoir of a Polish Navy officer who starts the war on ORP Burza, follows his war adventure and the decision to go back to Poland only to be arrested. Very sad towards the end but a great read if you know Polish, you really get into the book.

[A.J. Zawadzki]

Regards,
Tony

Stefan, definitely a super discovery, and I can relate well the thrill you experienced. This is exactly what was intended for this thread, even though the term militaria in the title is perhaps not entirely suitable, and why I expanded further in the initial post.

And Gary, well said. There’s been some great moments on the forum this year in this regard.

And speaking of the thrill of discovery, our own Adrzejku did an super bit of research for me that amazes me to this day. This is just a quick post from work, so need to expand on this later.

Cheers,
Tony

[A.J. Zawadzki]

I had a good Polish Navy year. For the first 6 months picked up nothing then in the last few months a few eagles, cap, a nice photo album, some documents and a really nice painting of ORP Blyskawica.

One highlight was reading 'Granatowa Zaloga' by Bosmanmat Wincenty Cygan. . . . Another highlight was reading 'Niezlomny' by Komandor ppor Zbigniew Weglarz, great memoir of a Polish Navy . . . Very sad towards the end but a great read if you know Polish, you really get into the book.

Hi Cichociemny,

There are few things as enjoyable as a good book to get lost in. Thanks for sharing your experience with these books. Sounds like ones I would want very much to read if only my reading comprehension skills were a wee bit better. But I’m working on it!

Please feel free to share pictures of your ORP Blyskawica painting and any of your other items.

Cheers,
Tony

[cichociemny]

Hi Tony

Call me Nick ;-) My friends called me Cichociemny as I used to go out with them for a beer wearing aviators and a dark burberrys rain coat and occasionally 'oficerki' with breeches haha heres a pic of cichociemny, me circa 2 years ago:

ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

It really is a great book, he writes about Admiral Swirski's visit on ORP Dragon, most of the crew have a big hangover and Swirski is giving a speech 'you have been given a cruiser and will now be going into battle' suddenly someone in the back yells, ' yeah... and you're going to London...'

Ill post some pictures in the Polish Navy thread very soon.

[A.J. Zawadzki]

. . .It really is a great book, he writes about Admiral Swirski's visit on ORP Dragon, most of the crew have a big hangover and Swirski is giving a speech 'you have been given a cruiser and will now be going into battle' suddenly someone in the back yells, ' yeah... and you're going to London...' . . .

Hi Nick, good one!

Thanks also for the pic of yourself, although I much prefer the ones of Cynthia, Victorya, and Tania that popped up at the top of that web page!

Cheers,
Tony

[StefanM]

I had a good Polish Navy year. For the first 6 months picked up nothing then in the last few months a few eagles, cap, a nice photo album, some documents and a really nice painting of ORP Blyskawica.

Would like to see your painting of ORP Błyskawica

Attached is a photo of ORP Błyskawica anchored of southern England at Plymouth in March(?) 1942.



It belongs to Błyskawica veteran Feliks Keidrowski who before enlisting with the Polish Navy in May 1942 served with the Polish Independent Carpathian Rifle Brigade and took part in the ‘Siege of Tobruk’, Libya. Feliks escaped from Poland 1939 via Constantia, Romania and Turkey, and reached the Palestinian port of Haifa on 11th November 1940. He joined the Navy after the Carpathian Brigade officially ceased to exist on 3 May 1942. In August 1942, he took part in the North Atlantic Convoys, carrying cargo outbound from the British Isles to North America during the Battle of Atlantic his crew also escorted aircraft convoys to Malta.





ps. maybe I should have posted this in the Polish Navy section

[StefanM]

An update to my 2012 highlight.

This is one of the Generalgouvernment Telephone directory's I mentioned finding my grandfather's Warsaw address. If anyone knows the whereabouts of 1943, 1944 Generalgouvernment directories please post archival source or drop me a PM