Tribute to Polish WWII special-ops unit
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
19.12.2016 14:43
A series of events was held in Warsaw on Sunday rounding off a year of tribute to a Polish WWII special-ops paratrooper unit known as the “Silent and Unseen.”
Monument to the Silent Unseen in Dębowiec, southern Poland. Photo: D T G/Wikimedia Commons
The elite unit was created in Britain to operate in Nazi German-occupied Poland. February 2016 marked the 75th anniversary of their first landing in Nazi German-occupied Poland.
The Polish parliament declared 2016 a year of tribute to the special-operations soldiers.
After a mass in St Alexander’s Church in Warsaw on Sunday, wreaths were placed at a monument to the Silent and Unseen.
Leszek Żukowski, president of the World Union of Former Home Army Soldiers, said that the Silent and Unseen fought in an extraordinary way for the Polish cause during the war.
Of the over 2,600 soldiers of the Polish Army who volunteered for training with the special unit, only 606 completed it and eventually 316 of them were secretly parachuted into Poland.
Only is still alive, 95-year-old Aleksander Tarnawski. Earlier this year, he attended a commemorative ceremony in London.
In total, 103 of the Silent and Unseen were killed during World War II.
(mk/pk)