MoD lauds Polish commandos
Polish Defence Min Antoni Macierewicz met in Warsaw with soldiers from Poland’s elite GROM special forces unit to thank them for their service in missions in many parts of the world. On Saturday, MoD welcomed special forces units that had flown in from Afghanistan.
During the meeting in Warsaw, in an address to GROM's soldiers Macierewicz said: "You perform an extremely dangerous kind of service, full of dedication and very much needed for the country".
He also remarked that the unit - which is deployed in a variety of special operations and unconventional warfare roles, including anti-terrorist operations and missions behind enemy lines during various international conflicts - "has gone through fire and water, taking its baptism of fire in an armed struggle full of heroism".
Macierewicz added: "This unit well illustrates the history of the Polish Army, the reconstruction of an independent Polish Army. You have fought in some of the biggest battles in world history; you participated in them. Your name 'GROM' (Polish for "thunder") sounded like a thunder in the ears of the entire world. The Polish people were proud of it. They could not see your faces, but they saw your deeds. And those deeds spoke for themselves. I am convinced that this will also be the case in the future, that your actions will serve the country to an even greater extent. Because we are living in difficult times today – a time when people like you are needed. That is why we are with you today and we thank you for your service".
Macierewicz also thanked the soldiers’ families for standing by their men as they performed their dangerous service for the country.
The head of the National Security Bureau (BBN), Pawel Soloch, who also took part in the meeting, reflected that GROM was "an elite unit full of professionalism and dedication".
During the meeting Macierewicz presented GROM soldiers with medals and decorations in honour of their service.
At the end of the ceremony, deputy Defence Minister Bartlomiej Grabski and the BBN’s Soloch paid homage to fallen soldiers by lighting candles at special memory sites within the unit’s compound.
GROM, launched in 1990 and currently commanded by Col. Mariusz Pawluk, is Poland’s elite counter-terrorism unit named in honour of "the Silent Unseen of the Home Army" (see: NOTE 1 and 2). (PAP)
Over the years GROM has accumulated substantial experience in combat missions in various parts of the globe. The GROM soldiers remain continuously at the ready to carry out special operations in any climatic conditions, for which they have exercised during special training missions in a variety of climatic zones ranging from the harsh Nordic weather through the South American tropics. The lessons learned and the experience gained this way provide valuable inputs to the GROM’s training systems which are constantly upgraded in response to new emerging threats to the national and international security. [Source: GROM website, grom.wp.mil.pl]
While most of the unit's operations remain classified, some of the known ones include a hunt for war criminals in Kosovo in 2001; a mission in Afghanistan in 2002-2004; a mission as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003–2004 and 2007–2008; and protection of Polish and international civilians during the Euro 2012 soccer tournament in Poland and Ukraine.
GROM is one of the national special forces that are featured in a video game series called Medal of Honor: Warfighter. The series also features commandos from other countries, including the US Navy Seals and the British Special Air Service (SAS).
On Saturday Antoni Macierewicz along with dep MoD Michal Dworczyk and the Polish Special Operations Forces (SOF) commander Brigadier General Wojciech Marchwica welcomed special forces soldiers returning from duty in Afghanistan. He stressed some of them took part in the famous rescue operation to have freed people held hostage by Taliban forces.
Around 50 special forces soldiers from the Lubliniec unit arrived in the Wroclaw airport in an American air force plane. At the welcoming ceremony, the defence minister decorated and promoted them to higher ranks.
"These are the soldiers whom I mentioned last month. I said thanks to them more than ten people held hostage by the Taliban had been set free. These are the soldiers who captured a prison in the Helmand province, which is under almost total control of the Taliban", Antoni Macierewicz recalled.
The operation in question involved the rescue of four policemen, two soldiers and five civilians, who were abducted, held prisoner for four months, beaten and tortured by the Taliban. They were set free by Afghan units with the support of Polish special forces. As the defence minister emphasized, not only were the hostages rescued, but much weaponry and information was also secured.
"These people are the bravest of our special forces soldiers. Thanks to them, we can also stand side by side with American soldiers, with NATO soldiers, and tell them straight to their face: we are not free riders, we are paying with our men's blood and sweat for your service in our country", Antoni Macierewicz added.
The defence minister said the operation had been one of the toughest yet and would become part of Poland’s history. It was made possible by the contribution of the military counterintelligence service. "The raid took 4 months to prepare, took place on enemy territory and was completed without a single casualty. This is a testimony to the great professionalism of the Polish special forces soldiers", Antoni Macierewicz stressed.
The defence minister said that because of the Polish support, the Afghan soldiers were now able to withstand assault from the Taliban, "who are currently involved in an international system, an international front stretching from the Balkans to remote Asia, separating the free world from the one bringing death, destruction and terror".
The MoD chief emphasized that Poland owed its security "to these 250 Polish soldiers in Afghanistan, who are preparing and training the Afghan army. And equally to the soldiers stationed in Kuwait, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, so many places around the world, where the Polish soldier, together with NATO soldiers, protects the peace".
As part of NATO’s Resolute Support mission, Poland supplies personnel for the mission’s command, as well as experts to advise the Afghan military chiefs, police command, and institutions affiliated with the defence and interior ministries.
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NOTE 1: The Home Army (AK) was the main resistance movement in Poland when it was occupied by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II. It was formed from the Union of Armed Struggle (ZWZ), which in turn evolved from a clandestine organisation called the Polish Victory Service (SZP).
The SZP was launched on the night of Sept. 26, 1939 by a group of senior officers led by Gen. Michal Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski, with the participation of Warsaw Mayor Stefan Starzynski. It became the nucleus of a nationwide resistance movement known as the Polish Underground State.
The Home Army, whose allegiance was to the Polish government-in-exile, was one of the largest and best organised resistance movements in Europe, with the total number of fighters put at anywhere from 200,000 to 600,000.
In his book God's Playground. A History of Poland, prominent historian Norman Davies said that "the Home Army could fairly claim to be the largest of European resistance [organisations]".
The so-called Polish Underground State, which operated from 1939 to 1945 and by many was looked up to as a model of conspiracy administration, was subordinated to the Polish government-in-exile, which was first based in France and subsequently in Great Britain. In Poland the government-in-exile had an impressively developed administration with secret courts and prosecutors, underground schools and universities, publishing houses.
The Home Army was the armed wing of the Polish Underground State. Along with various combat activities, the AK was also widely involved in rescuing Jews, among others, by means of the famous 1942-founded Council to Aid Jews (Rada Pomocy Zydom) codenamed 'Zegota' - the only organisation in Europe and a unique one on a global scale established to defend and provide help to Jews in ghettos and elsewhere.
The successive commanders of the AK were generals Stefan Rowecki (until June 30, 1943) Tadeusz Komorowski (until Oct. 2, 1944) and Leopold Okulicki (until Jan. 19, 1945).
The culmination of the AK's armed struggle came with the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. The AK's wartime losses totalled about 100,000 soldiers killed in fighting or murdered, and about 50,000 taken to the Soviet Union and imprisoned.
In early 1942, the Home Army had about 100,000 soldiers; by the summer of 1944 the number had risen to 380,000. These included 10,800 officers. Poland’s famous Silent Unseen elite special-operations paratroops were also part of the Home Army.
The Home Army's activities did not end with the end of WW II. After 1945 the AK's so-called Enduring Soldiers fought the Soviet regime.
Under communism AK soldiers were persecuted by Poland's authorities, especially during the Stalinist period. Many of them were handed death penalties; others spent many years in prison.
NOTE 2: The first Polish so-called Silent and Dark Ones elite paratroopers (also called the 'Silent Unseen') landed in Poland on the night of February 15, 1941 near Skoczow in southern Poland after a long flight from Great Britain over Germany.
Serving first in the Union for Armed Resistance (ZWZ) operating in German-occupied Poland and later in the Home Army (AK), The Silent and Dark Ones were the elite of the "Fighting Poland".
The Silent and Dark Ones - Polish soldiers trained in Great Britain for special operations (sabotage, intelligence, communication and underground operations) - were first sent to German-occupied Poland from Great Britain, and from the end of 1943 from Italy. All of them volunteered to join the force.
Their parachute missions to Poland were organised by the Polish section of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) together with the 6th Chapter of the General Staff of the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces responsible for contacts with the Chief Command of the Home Army.
The first drop, code-named Adolphus, took place on the night of February 15 and 16, 1941 near Skoczow in the Cieszyn Silesia region, in the Germany-annexed zone. A two-engine British Whitley bomber brought over Poland three paratroopers: captain Stanislaw Krzymowski (aka Kostka "Cube"), Jozef Zalbieski (aka Zbik "Wildcat") and courier Czeslaw Raczkowski (aka Wlodek).
The first flight to German-occupied Poland was organised as an experimental one but since the route over Germany was considered too dangerous, the entire operation was suspended for nine months. The mission was finally resumed with flights to Poland over Denmark or Sweden.
A flight to Poland and back took from 11 to 14 hours. Flights were organised only at night. First, paratroopers were taken to their occupied Homeland aboard Halifax planes, and later on board of American Liberators.
At the end of 1943, the Silent and Dark Ones' base was moved to Brindisi in Italy.
In all, 2,413 officers and soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces volunteered to join the elite unit. Only 606 successfully completed the rigorous training, 579 of whom qualified for the operation.
Three hundred and sixteen Silent and Dark Ones were dropped in Poland during 82 flights organised between February 15, 1941 and December 26, 1944. Out of 316 paratroopers flown to Poland nine were killed before their planes reached their destination (three were killed in an air crash near the Norwegian coast, three were shot down over Denmark, and three were killed in parachuting accidents).
Ninety-one took part in the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, 13 of them were killed. In all, 103 Silent and Dark Ones were killed during World War Two. Nine were murdered by Poland's communist authorities after the war. (PAP)
