Where was the name taken from of several units of the Polish Air Force throughout its history most famously the founder of the Kościuszko Squadron during the Polish–Soviet War and was a Soviet prisoner of war for a time?
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Kościuszko's Squadron The name Kościuszko's Squadron or Kościuszko's Escadrille, taken from the Polish-Lithuanian hero Tadeusz Kościuszko, has been borne by several units of the Polish Air Force throughout its history. Each used the insignia designed by Eliott Chess, an American pilot serving with the Polish Army during the Polish-Soviet War. One of the most famous pilots was Merian C. Cooper, producer of the 1933 movie King Kong, who was decorated for valor by Polish commander-in-chief Józef Piłsudski with the highest Polish military decoration, the Virtuti Militari. During WW II the Kościuszko Squadron was formed by refugee Polish pilots who joined the RAF and played an essential role in helping save England during the Battle of Britain and of their betrayal by the United States and England at the end of World War II.
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Merian C. Cooper Merian Caldwell Cooper (October 24, 1893 – April 21, 1973) was an American aviator, United States Air Force and Polish Air Force officer, adventurer, screenwriter, film director, and producer. Cooper was the founder of the Kościuszko Squadron during the Polish–Soviet War and was a Soviet prisoner of war for a time. He was a notable movie producer, and got his start with film as part of the Explorers Club, traveling the world and documenting adventures. He was a member of the board of directors of Pan American Airways, but his love of film always took priority. During his film career, he worked for companies such as Pioneer Pictures, RKO Pictures, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He is also credited as co-inventor of the Cinerama film projection process. Cooper's most famous film was the 1933 movie "King Kong". He was awarded an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement in 1952 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.
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Czesław Gęborski Czesław Gęborski (] ; 1924 – 2006) was a captain of the security forces of the People's Republic of Poland. He is best known for his role as commander of the Łambinowice transfer and internment camp created in the former German Stalag VIII-B. In October 1945 he was dismissed from the post and charged with setting fire to one of the barracks in the camp and ordering gunfire on the inmates trying to put out the flames, an incident in which 48 prisoners lost their lives.
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Radosław Group Radosław Group (Polish: "Zgrupowanie Radosław" ) was the codename of a group of Kedyw, a Polish World War II Armia Krajowa organization, units during World War II created shortly before the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising.
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Natalya Meklin Natalya Fyodorovna Meklin née Kravtsova (Russian: Наталья Фёдоровна Меклин , Ukrainian: Наталія Фёдорiвна Меклин ; 1922–2005) was a World War II combat pilot in one of the three women-only Soviet air regiments. They were nicknamed the 'Night Witches' by their German opponents.
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Battle of Berezina (1919) The First Battle of Berezina was a battle fought around the Russian town Berezina in the Polish-Soviet war. It ended with the Polish capture of the town and the capture of 1000 Russian prisoners.
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Tuliszków Tuliszków ] is a town in Turek County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland, with 3,406 inhabitants (2004). In World War II, Tuliszków was home to one of the first Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland following the Nazi German and Soviet invasion of 1939. The ghetto was formed in December 1939 or January 1940.
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Aleksander Waszkiewicz Major General Aleksander Waszkiewicz (Russian: Александр Вашкевич , often transliterated as Vashkevich; 1901–1945) was a Soviet military officer of Polish descent. He served in the Red Army as commander of the 793rd Rifle Regiment during 1942–1944 and later as Deputy Commander of the 116th Rifle Division in 1944. Transferred to Polish LWP in 1944 and assigned as commander of the 5th Infantry Division of the LWP. He died in the Battle of Bautzen (1945). According to some sources, he was captured and tortured before his death.
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Stalag VIII-E Stalag VIII-E (also known as Stalag 308) was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp located next to the village of Neuhammer, Silesia (now Świętoszów, Poland). It was about 15 km south of the camps Stalag VIII-C and Stalag Luft III at Sagan, Germany, (now Żagań, Poland). It was built on a large German Army training ground that is still in use today by the Polish Land Forces' 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade.
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Cedric Fauntleroy Cedric Errol Fauntleroy (1891–1973) was an American pilot who in 1919 volunteered to serve in the Polish Air Force during the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–1921.
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Brian Evans (RAF officer) Brian Herbert Evans (14 February 1920 – 31 March 1944), was a Royal Air Force bomber pilot who was taken prisoner during the Second World War. Notable for his part in the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944 he was one of the men recaptured and subsequently murdered by the "Gestapo".
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Konstantin Rokossovsky Konstantin Konstantinovich (Xaverevich) Rokossovsky (December 21 1896 – August 3, 1968) was a Soviet officer of Polish origin who became Marshal of the Soviet Union, Marshal of Poland and served as Poland's Defence Minister. He was among the most prominent Red Army commanders of World War II, especially renowned for his planning and executing of Operation Bagration, one of the most decisive Red Army successes of the Second World War.
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Antoni Kocjan Antoni Kocjan (12 August 1902 – 13 August 1944) was a renowned Polish glider constructor and a contributor to the intelligence services of the Polish Home Army during World War II.
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Joe Tarnowski Josef "Joe" Tarnowski (19 March 1922, Maniewicze – 12 September 2010, Edinburgh) was a Polish-Scottish electronics engineer and intelligence officer. He was a spy for the "Armia Krajowa" after the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland (now western Ukraine) under the terms of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, before being arrested by the NKVD, tortured, and sentenced to the Vorkuta gulag in Siberia. His transportation orders signed by Nikita Khrushchev.
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List of subcamps of Majdanek The following is a list of subcamps of the Majdanek concentration camp run by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. The list, supplied by the Majdanek State Museum, identifies two German categories of the KL Lublin/Majdanek subcamps; the "Arbeitzlagers", and the so-called "Kommandos". The satellite camps were named "Aussenlager" (external camp), "Nebenlager" (extension or subcamp), and "Arbeitslager" (labor camp). Some of them were less than ten kilometers away from the main camp, with prisoner populations ranging from several dozens to several thousand.
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Włodzimierz Godłowski Włodzimierz Józef Godłowski (7 November 1900 - 1940) was a Polish neurologist and psychologist. A professor of the Stefan Batory University in Wilno (Vilnius), he was also an officer in the Polish Army during the German and Soviet invasion of Poland. He was made a prisoner of war by the Soviets in 1939 and was murdered in the Katyn massacre in 1940.
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Tadeusz Kościuszko Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko ("Andrew Thaddeus Bonaventure Kosciuszko"; February 4 or 12, 1746 – October 15, 1817) was a Polish-Lithuanian military engineer and a military leader who became a national hero in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and the United States. He fought in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's struggles against Russia and Prussia, and on the American side in the American Revolutionary War. As Supreme Commander of the Polish National Armed Forces, he led the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising.
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Ukrainian Liberation Army The Ukrainian Liberation Army (Ukrainian: Українське Визвольне Військо, УВВ; "Ukrainske Vyzvolne Viysko", UVV ) was an umbrella organization created in 1943,<ref name="Abbott/Pinak"> </ref> providing collective name for all Ukrainian units serving with the German Army during World War II. A single formation by that name did not exist. A designation was used by Ukrainian nationalists in reference to a number of companies and local "Ostbataillonen" of Hiwi volunteers ("Hilfswilliger") desiring to free their own territories from the Soviet rule. They included enlisted Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) captured from the Red Army. The core of the Liberation Army wearing the УВВ sleeve badge (right, since 1945) originated from the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Ukrainian) reorganized in April 1945 into the Ukrainian National Army (UNA) active until the German surrender in May 1945.
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Museum of Pawiak Prison Muzeum Więzienia "Pawiak" (Museum of Pawiak Prison) is a museum in Warsaw, Poland, established in 1965. It shows the history of Pawiak Prison which was notably used during the German occupation between 1939 and 1944.
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NKVD prisoner massacres The NKVD prisoner massacres were a series of mass executions carried out by the Soviet NKVD secret police during World War II against political prisoners across Eastern Europe, primarily Poland, Ukraine, the Baltic states, Bessarabia and other parts of the Soviet Union from which the Red Army was retreating following the Nazi German attack on the Soviet positions in occupied Poland, known as Operation Barbarossa.
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Adolf Pilch Adolf Pilch (22 May 1914 – 26 January 2000) was a Polish resistance fighter (codenames "Góra" and "Dolina"). He became part of the Polish special forces ("cichociemni") trained in the United Kingdom, and was parachuted into occupied Poland on February 17, 1943. There, as a member of the Armia Krajowa Polish resistance, he organized a cavalry partisan unit in the Nowogródek area, and broke through to the Kampinos forest near Warsaw, taking control of this area. At its height of operations his unit consisted of up to 1000 men. Between 3 June 1943 and 17 January 1945 his partisans fought in 235 battles.
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Rudolf Prich Rudolf Prich (August 6, 1881 – 1940) was a Polish military officer and a major general (pol. "generał dywizji") of the Polish Army. He was among the Polish officers murdered by the Soviet Union during the Katyń massacre.