polish Germans in polish army

[gebhk]

Steve - thanks for that and I appreciate the attachment - especially the poke, repeated oft elsewhere about Poles and other groups (such as trade unionists) who had no track record of treachery yet who were debarred from sensitive positions, while groups which had spawned many (and we all know who they were), were not. However I am not so sure about your conclusion . Firstly, of course, the regulations refer to peacetime and I suspect in wartime the concern with recruits having a 'full career' would be substantially less. Secondly, even under the peacetime regulations, there was nothing to debar someone like myself from joining as a pongo or NCO in the army. The lower classes apparently could have a perfectly adequate career in the army without going anywhere near sensitive information.

So I suspect if push had come to shove I would most likely have been conscripted and would have had a short career as a brown job and a sticky end - the usual career trajectory of a stubble hopper in any man's army since time immemorial . Unless I got a cushy number as a translator.......

Off course if it had all gone nuclear, the whole issue would have become somewhat academic

To avoid being banned for ever for off-toping, herewith another 'German' story. Lt Gerhard Büllow, a graduate of the Grudziadz cavalry officer school and an officer in the 17 Lancer Regiment of the Polish army was taken prisoner in 1939 and placed in Oflag Woldenberg. Despite fluency in German, he refused to use that language in his meetings with his cousins, high-ranking WH officers. A translator was required. Büllow refused to leave the camp on the grounds that he was a Polish officer.

[Steve]

Gebhk, I doubt very much that an English version of PSZ w DWS Tom 1 could sell in sufficient numbers to cover its costs so my advice would be don’t do it. It was interesting as to what went on during the fighting on the Hel peninsula. I have never come across any mention of the ON mutiny before or the fate of the KOP. Of course as mentioned there are not many sources in English on the matter.

Maybe you would have been called up in wartime but I can assure you that you would certainly not have got into the British army apprentice school during the 1960s because I knew someone who tried. If they wouldn’t take young men into the apprentice school then it is unlikely you would have got into any branch.

Gebhk if your parents are Polish presumably you know of Penley the old Polish camp. I passed it the other day and you may be interested to know it is still open in a small way. Apparently the hospital there now takes very old Polish people who British hospitals or old people’s homes have trouble coping with.