Monte Cassino Cross

[Fran]

Finding the ring and searching through the forum, I found this link listing his unit with his name, and getting into great details about the Italian Campaign.

Poland in Exile - Polish Commando Units

My research has moved faster in a couple of hours than in my whole mother's life, it got us very emotional to say the least

[Fran]

here are some pictures of the ring

Attachment 1378779

Attachment 1378781

Attachment 1378783

Attachment 1378784

Attachment 1378786

[Fran]

this thread gets into details about the ring

WW2 Polish Commando Ring.

[andrzejku98]

Hello Fran,

Many thanks for your post, your request for any further information, try the Polish Institute and General Sikorski online resources, click on the link below.

PISM Archive, Documents C

Best wishes

Andrzej

[conrado]

Fran,

Deposits of PSZ soldiers in the West are in the Central Military Archive (Centralne Archiwum Wojskowe) in Warsaw, Poland. All indications are that your grandfather's deposit is right there.

Scrap of a list of soldiers whose deposits are located in CAW:



These deposits are issued to the families and heirs of these soldiers. To be able to collect the deposit, you must provide documents confirming the closest relationship with the deceased.
The deposit may be transferred only at the CAW headquarters upon presentation of the documents listed above (from which copies are made) and completion of the transfer protocol.


Your grandfather was not in 2nd but in 1st Platoon. He was in the rank of starszy strzelec (Lance Corporal). There is one of the first page of Battle Log of the 1st Platoon with the soldiers name list:



Link to the Battle Log of the 1st Platton:
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Regards
Konrad

[conrado]

Fran,

Another information that would be interesting for you is that your granfather was injured during the action of his platoon on the river Garigliano in Italy on 1st of January 1944. Around 10:15 p.m. after crossing boats on the river, his platoon entered the woods. After walking 25 meters they came across a mine whose explosion caused your grandfather's injury.

Below is a very short scrap of the Battle Log of the 1st Platoon describing this incident:



During the Italian Campaign of World War II, the Liri-Gari-Garigliano rivers stood at the centre of a system of German defensive lines (the most famous of which is the Gustav Line) around which the battle of Monte Cassino took place in 1943-1944. Rumours tell that the waters of the river ran red in the Cassino area during the famous battle, because of the blood of the many corpses of soldiers.


Regards
Konrad

[Fran]

fantastic, thank you so much Konrad, it is absolutely incredible to find traces of him after all these years not knowing where to search

[Fran]

Thank you so much Andrzej as well, I'm finding his name everywhere on these diaries, the hardest part for me being that I don't speak Polish.

My mother could, but she hasn't spoken in 30 years. It is fantastic though!

[Fran]

I went through the proverbial rabbit hole with your link to these diaries Andrzej, and after a couple of hours looking into it, it looks like the page Poland in Exile - Polish Commando Units has lifted and translated this document http://pism.co.uk/C/C56_IV.pdf, sometimes incorrectly.

I have learn A LOT today, and I'll certainly learn more tomorrow!

I'll post some pictures when I have them, it'll certainly help clarify some details.

Thanks a lot to the both of you!

[Fran]

here are the pictures of what my mother sent of what she owns, including the Cross, his dog tags, military papers and some pictures of him and his buddies.

I can't seem to be able to post the pics in the correct orientation, weird.