Polish Navy Petty Officer Uniform

[cichociemny]

Sorry guys I am away on holiday. I love seeing Polish Navy items.

However this uniform is made up in my opinion. Polish Navy Petty Officers (Bosmani) wore bulion embroided eagles on their caps which are VERY scarce, I have only seen a handfull originals. That is the first alarm, the second alarm are the rank stripes, these are postwar, wartime ones had a layer of red felt/wool:

Here is a photo of a rank stripe I used to own:


https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/attac...e-img_0748.jpg

Plus I don't like the cheap dodgy way they are sewn on, anyone in the Military knows this is a major no no.

I don't have my books however I am 99% certain there is something wrong with position of them also, wartime Bosmani wore them on the bottom half of the sleeve.

[Gary J]

The Peaked cap is by Gieves .. a well known, and probably best manufacturer of Naval officers hats ..

Gary J.

[Esco]

Thanks for sharing your concerns, cichociemny. The rank stripes look postwar indeed, however I think their position is correct (actually post-war navy is bottom). Buttons though look genuine to me, and to be honest I never seen set of perfectly matched Polish WW2 Navy buttons for sale. I've seen some copies but they were primitive casts, easy to distinguish from originals. So it is hard for me to believe this one's made up.

It may be old Polish Navy Border Guard (Morski Oddzial Strazy Granicznej) post-war uniform with stripes re-attached in different position and sewn on genuine WW2 buttons (like the one below):



Anyway, tomorrow I am going to the museum to compare with confirmed originals.

Thanks for identyfying the cap Gary J. It looks genuine to me too and for sure it is not a Petty Officer (Bosman) cap. I think it is the one worn by sailors, like on below period photo:

[Esco]

I have checked in the Polish Army Museum and literature. Basically Cichociemny was right - position of the rank is wrong and it is post-war patch (period patches had red underlining). Tunic looks genuine though at it seems like somebody attached post-war Petty Officer (Bosman) patches to the WW2 other ranks sailor's uniform.

For the reference below picture of Polish Petty Officer WW2 jacket attributed to Bosman L. Nowaczyk of ORP "Garland".