Polish Units In Britain

[Thomas McCall]

Can anyone please tell me where Free Polish Forces were stationed during the war and their movements around the UK.
Thanks

[Kiwiwriter]

We published a bunch of articles on the Free Polish forces in England in a recent issue of The Europa Magazine. It was pretty comprehensive, even including the Polish-manned railroad artillery unit.

Contact Games Research/Design, and you can order a copy. They have a website.

It took a while to set up what became the 1st Polish Armored Division and the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade.

[MalcolmII]

There is a Memorial to the Polish Armoured Division at Duns in Berwickshire, Scotland where they were stationed and trained.
A good book is the Lion and The Eagle by Dr Diana Henderson.
Aye
MalcolmII

[angie999]

I also think the Polish Parachute Brigade was based in Scotland, but I don't know where.

Was Anders' army in Britain after they left the Soviet Union and before they were in Italy, or did they stay in the Middle East?

[salientpoints]

Check out http://www.chaileyairshow.com/

and get a copy of 'For Your Freedom and Ours: The Kosciuszko Squadron - Forgotten Heroes of World War II' ISBN 0099428121

Cheers

Ryan

[BeppoSapone]

I think the answer to this must be "all over the place", although some areas would have more. Besides the places cited, they were also in Sussex.

Squadrons of Poles flew from the airfield at Coolham, and there were several camps containing soldiers in the Horsham area. One was at Broadbridge Heath on the Worthing Road - where the Tesco Superstore is now. Others were based at Warnham including, IIRC, Polish Special Forces.

There was also the Free Polish Navy. I am not 100% sure how the naval system works, but Polish ships were based at British ports.

I have the papers af a Polish sailor who escaped to England on the destroyer "Burza" at the start of the war. He was based at Leith, then Portsmouth and then Plymouth. This is the usual sad case. He emigrated to Chicago after the war, and never got to go home. His home town was in eastern Poland and had been, not just occupied, but incorporated into Russia!

[laufer]

Originally posted by angie999@Sep 15 2004, 11:40 PM
Was Anders' army in Britain after they left the Soviet Union and before they were in Italy, or did they stay in the Middle East?

Quoted post

That's correct. Before they went to Italy they spent some time in Palestine (some Polish Jews joined the Sionists there) and in Egypt.
http://www.andersarmy.com/

I believe there was a Polish military camp in Galashields, Scotland.

Navy
Big chunk of Polish Navy has been destroyed during the 1939 campaign. Part of the fleet was sent to the British naval base at Leith in Scotland just before the war. The Polish Navy was also supplemented with leased British ships. At different stages of war It consisted of 2 cruisers and a number of smaller ships, including 3 destroyers and 2 submarines, that escaped from the Baltic Sea in 1939. I think that the Polish ships were based at various places in North Sea, Atlantic and Mediterranean.

Cruisers:
ORP "Dragon"
ORP "Conrad"
Destroyers
ORP "Blyskawica" (Lightning)
ORP "Grom" (Thunder)
mentioned ORP "Burza" (Storm)
ORP "Garland"
ORP "Orkan"
ORP "Orkan II"
ORP "Huragan" (Hurricane)
ORP "Piorun" (Thunderbolt)
Escort Destroyers
ORP "Krakowiak"
ORP "Kujawiak"
ORP "Œl¹zak"
Submarines
ORP "Orze³ (Eagle)
ORP "Wilk" (Wolf)
ORP "Dzik" (Warthog)
ORP "Jastrz¹b" (Hawk)
ORP "Sokol" (Falcon)
ORP = "the Ship of the Polish Republic"
Submarine chasers
CH-11
CH-15
And several other minor ships, transport ships, merchant marine auxiliary vessels and recce boats.

Regards

[Kiwiwriter]

The Orzel had the misfortune of getting sunk during the Norway campaign, I believe.

The destroyer Piorun was in Vian's flotilla that chased the Bismarck.

The destroyers Slazak and Krakowiak, and the cruiser Dragon, provided gunfire support at Normandy on D-Day and thereafter.

[jackie]

HI
My father was on the ORP Slazak for some of the war- does anyone have any information or even has relatives who were on that destroyer? I have recently got his military records from northolt and would be intested to find anyone with info about the varioous battles and places where this ship may have been- my father sadly died 2 years ago and never spoke of what happened to him during the war!
Jackie

[Kyt]

Jackie,

how's your Polish?

Marynarka Wojenna RP

and:

Niszczyciel eskortowy ORP "¦L¡ZAK"

Forgot to add that I use the following for Polish translations - it's very hit and miss, and you have to cut and paste blocks of text, but neither babel or google do Polish translations (but the site can be slow to load):

http://www.poltran.com/