Polish Units In Britain

Discussion in 'United Kingdom' started by Thomas McCall, Sep 12, 2004.

  1. Thomas McCall

    Thomas McCall Senior Member

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

    Kiwiwriter Very Senior Member

    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.
     
  3. MalcolmII

    MalcolmII Senior Member

    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
     
  4. angie999

    angie999 Very Senior Member

    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?
     
  5. salientpoints

    salientpoints Senior Member

    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
     
  6. BeppoSapone

    BeppoSapone Senior Member

    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!
     
  7. laufer

    laufer Senior Member

    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?
    [post=28170]Quoted post[/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
     
  8. Kiwiwriter

    Kiwiwriter Very Senior Member

    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.
     
  9. jackie

    jackie Junior Member

    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
     
  10. Kyt

    Kyt Very Senior Member

  11. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

  12. jackie

    jackie Junior Member

    The Slazak was originally a British ship called HMS Bedale -it was commisioned by the Polish Navy.
     
  13. jackie

    jackie Junior Member

    HI Kyt
    My Polish is pretty non existant!!! Although I using the web I have translated some info from one of his service records but it was a slow and arduious task and even so I'm not sure how much sense I've made of it!!!
    Jackie
     
  14. jackie

    jackie Junior Member

    Thanks OWen- I think he was on it from about 1943 (wish I could speak Polish- I'd be able to make more sense of the records I've got then!)
     
  15. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

  16. Kyt

    Kyt Very Senior Member

    Jackie, I've been working on translating the site I posted earlier Niszczyciel eskortowy ORP "¦L¡ZAK" and will post it when I've made more sense of it (which is probably minimal because the translator isn't brilliant). But the site is good for giving most of the ship's activities.
     
  17. marek_pk

    marek_pk Senior Member

  18. jackie

    jackie Junior Member

    Niszczyciel eskortowy ORP "¦L¡ZAK"

    Looks like it survived till 1979 when it was scrapped.
    HI KYT and Marek
    Thanks for that info- some of the web sites you mentioned are really good and have lots of interesting stuff on them.
    Thanks again Jackie
     
  19. Lucyna Artymiuk

    Lucyna Artymiuk Junior Member

    Hi

    I rrun a yahoo group for descendants of Polish airmen

    I invite you to join this group and website created by children of former members of the Polish 300 Bomber Squadron based in UK during World War 2

    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/300polishsquadron/

    This yahoo group is a result of the recent contact I made with other children of former members of 300 and other polish squadrons. We have exchanged photos, stories, our fathers experiences. I have created this yahoo group as a forum where others can join this interaction. We will post
    photos, documents and links gradually - and invite you to do so as well. Please introduce yourself, details of your fathers/family members service record (if known) and your interest in this group when you join and please
    promote this yahoo group to others who may be interested.



    Let us cherish and honour our fathers' or family member's memory. Let them not be forgotten heroes. LEST WE FORGET.

    Czesc ich pamieci (Honour to their memory)

    Lucyna ARtymiuk
    Melbourne, Australia
     
  20. davidbfpo

    davidbfpo Patron Patron

    A short YouTube documentary: ORP Orzeł. Still on Patrol (12m) on the Orzel, by Roger Pickering who advocated the memorial to the submarine at Rosyth. Published by the Polish Embassy (London). See:
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2022

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