Polish Uniform Portraits and ID

[Ogorek]

and a sergeant - pilot no less

[cjohnson]

Thanks to all who have contributed to this discussion. I have been working on a very difficult branch of family history, in which I have been unable to even independently confirm that my great-grandmother was from Poland. We had only a few scraps of evidence, including a photograph of someone who is supposed to be her brother, in uniform. Luckily, the uniform is distinctive and, having looked through these photographs, it seems fairly certain that they were in fact from Poland. We don't even have a good idea of their surname.

If anyone has an idea of when this uniform dates from (I don't know when this man was born, but his sister was born c. 1889 and came to the United States c. 1905) or what rank it indicates, I'd be glad to know.

[EmilPL]

Hello,
This picture was probably taken during the Polish-Soviet war in 1918-1921.He is wearing a American uniform which were common during the war.He holds the rank of Corporal and is wearing a marks mans lanyard and also a machine gunners badge on the lower sleeve of his left arm.

[cjohnson]

Thank you so much for your help. That's very useful information!

[EmilPL]

No problem
Do you own any of his medals or badges?

[cjohnson]

No, in fact I don't even really know his name. Very little was passed down. My great-grandmother never learned much English, and the family doesn't even really know their surname.

[EmilPL]

Well thats sad
He also might of fought in World War one,If you knew which region he came from I could tell you what country he fought in (Poland didnt exist at the time)

[Robert Sloma]

For those of you who have been following this thread I've located three additional ca. 1919 uniform images attributed to Ludwik Korwin Bienkowski that kind of follow on the heels of three other uniform pictures that I posted some time back. <http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... &start=435>
These and the previous digital images all contain versions of ca. 1919 Polish uniforms. As I stated before I thought that Louis may have been from a unit in the Poznan or the larger Wielkopolska region. I would like any help with information that people could provide about these uniforms.

Ludwik Korwin Bieńkowski portrait

LKBphototoMarysi copy.jpg (58.07 KiB) Viewed 2920 times

One studio portrait of Ludwik Korwin Bieńkowski. Is the ribbon for a Virtuti Militari? Ludwik was Podporucznik most of his career and left the service a Kapitan, is the rank insignia consistent with this information? As I understand, one star may represent the rank of Chorąży, or “Standard-bearer" or Podporucznik.

Ludwik Korwin Bieńkowski portrait with hand tinted collar pennants

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A second photo appears to be a close up of the first portrait
with hand tinted collar pennants visible that may identify him in the 26th Cavalry regiment if the photographer paid attention to details.


A third image shows Ludwik pictured with his younger brother Bogdan who supposedly served in the Polish army ca. 1919-1921. Is Bogdan's uniform an infantry uniform or could it also be a cavalry uniform? Unfortunatly, I did not have a scanner with me so copies were made with a hand held digital camera and not extremely clear. There appear to be two badges on Bogdan's uniform. One looks like an eagle, possibly facing right. and below appears to be a circular wreath like badge. I believe that I read on this site that cording is representative of a marksman's award. I'm trying to determine what regiments or pułks these three brothers were in, but am not having much success. I would sincerely appreciate any information that could be gleaned from the uniforms. I also posted some information on another site regarding Ludwik's sabre, for those of you who may have an interest in this period or the cavalry specifically. <http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?t=97816>

Ludwik Korwin Bieńkowski and brother younger Bogdan Bieńkowski (with moustache)

BKB&LKB copy.jpg (56.06 KiB) Viewed 2920 times

Thanks.

[Halibutt]

One thing to note is that in the early days (I mean between 1918 and late 1920s) the Polish Army used all sorts of uniforms, usually bought cheap from Western Powers. Blue uniforms of the French, Italian WWI jackets and trousers, American jackets, home-made jackets from WWI Russian fabrics, you name it. Hence so many types of collars, different pockets and sleeves.

Rank insignia were pretty uniform though.
Cheers

[kttnz]

Here are some Polish Army group pictures from just before WW2

I believe that my father Stanislaw Antczak (b. 1921 near Poznan) is in these pictures and if you have any information about the units, uniforms etc etc I would be really grateful - I know very little about him at that time.

The portrait picture is of his brother Voytek Antczak who we believe was killed by the Russians possibly at Katyn - any info on his uniform and the badges he is wearing would be really interesting.

[kttnz]

A few more pictures of Stanislaw Antczak.

Now he seems to be part of the US army??? With a Polish badge on his arm??? Perhaps 1946

I have some more photos - but they are only variations on what I have posted. If they might be of interest/useful let me know.

[henryk]

Wojtek (Wojciech) Antczak is not on the list of known Katyn victims. But there are thousands yet to be found.
The A list:
http://electronicmuseum.ca/Poland-WW2/k ... kmw_A.html
Information on Katyn:
http://electronicmuseum.ca/Poland-WW2/k ... l/kmw.html

[Ogorek]

the first pictures are with the elite KOP - the border defense corps deployed on Poland's eastern borders.

The "American" uniforms are of the Polish Guards and Labor Service - a para-military unit that, among other things, guarded German prisoners, and assisted teh US Army on occupation duties.

They were formed from Polish ex-POWs, displaced person, former slave laborers and former underground soldiers who managed to escape from Poland to Germany shortly after teh war.

These were in existence (and also with British forces) until teh late 1980's.

[kttnz]

Ogorek - thank you **very much** for the information. To be clear - is the portrait of Voytek in KOP uniform or just the group photos?? I have one fairly similar group photo dated 6-6-1939 is it worth posting here??

Henryk - thankyou. I had not thought there might be a list of victims..

[Godot]

New to this forum, I am of Polish descent & I am finding this absolutely fascinating. My Father was Polish, he served in the Army for a very short while until he escaped into Hungary, eventually making his way to the U.K. & joined the Polish Navy, along with my Godfather,who still alive & living in the US, he is of US/Ukrainian origin.

Once I have found out how to post photos I will.

The Huge Shock of all this is that I believe there is a never seen before photograph of him marching in the very first days of the War, in the Army. I nearly had a heart attack. It was posted by a Lady known here as sylvieK4 on Page 2, I think.

I think I shall enjoy it here !

I have just found this link, you may well have it already, I don't think it belongs in this section, should be the German one :
http://visboo.com/colour-photographs-of ... rmany.html

It would me nice if Sylvie could contact me via this forum & pass on any info she may have

Best Regards

Godot