Vintage Military - Part 48

 Conscription and Recruitment - Poland

As in other countries, Polish conscripts and recruits were examined naked.  Above, in 1928, recruits in the 1st Cavalry Regiment born in 1907 are examined in the barracks in Warsaw (that makes them 21 years old).

Weighing and measuring the recruits born in 1907.  Disclosure: I darkened the photo to show detail.

The recruitment and conscription committee in Garwolin, Poland in 1937.

A recruitment committee in 1939, just before the Nazi invasion.  Disclosure: I brightened the photo slightly.

The preceding four photos were taken by Narcyz Witczak-Witaczyński.  He fought for Poland in World War I, then was captured and conscripted by the Bolsheviks.  He escaped back to Poland and fought against the Bolsheviks.  After World War I he became one of Poland's most popular military photojournalists.  After Nazi Germany took over Poland in 1939, he created a resistance organization, of which he was head of counterintelligence and editor of an underground magazine.  He was arrested by the Nazis and died in a concentration camp in 1943.

I have many more photos of naked Polish soldiers by Witczak-Witaczyński that I will show in a future post.

Above, Polish troops in the Middle East in 1942.  The caption says, "The first thing on arrival in Palestine for the Polish troops is a thorough medical examination, treatment if necessary, and cleansing of clothes."

What were Polish troops doing in Palestine?  They were called Anders' Army.  At the beginning of WWII, Russia, which was allied with Nazi Germany, invaded Poland and captured Polish prisoners of war.  When Germany invaded Russia, Russia suddenly switched sides and the Polish POWs were released and formed a military unit under Władysław Anders.  Russia, unable or unwilling to feed Anders' Army, deported them into Iran, where they made their way to Palestine, at the time a British territory, and were put under control of the British.  Ultimately they fought in the Italian campaign.

We end with a photo by Andrzej Baturo of Polish army recruits in the 1970s.  Yup, still naked.