Hey Armor / Tank guys

What kind of tank is this?

I think the pic was taken in 1944 or 1945, whenever the Netherlands was liberated. The soldiers are Poles, but I don't know if they were from the UK, which I believe had a Polish group of soldiers they supported, or from Russia.

Cromwell A27M

In reply to moparman76_69:

With Monty as commander, no less.

OK, so that would be the English, basically then, leading a Polish unit. Interesting. That's my grandfather in front putting my uncle on the tank. Grandma (Oma) is at the left and my mother is standing under/between what I would think would be a coaxial 30 cal.

The English and Americans pumped a lot of equipment and manpower into the war before actually getting directly involved.

This is a WW-II era Polish Tank

That picture was at the end of the war, after they were NAZI (German National Socialists) occupied for years, Breda, southern Netherlands. Fighting was on that street and there was a dead Polish soldier there.

Should be Polish 1st Armored Division. Breda was liberated at the end of October 1944, but the division remained there over the winter of 1944-45. There's apparently a monument to the division in the city and an annual commemoration.

In reply to Dr. Hess:

I like that photo , your grandfather looks very happy

Yeah. They were all real, real happy to get the Germans out of there. They had been hiding in the basement during the fighting.

I asked mom once what it was like living under NAZI occupation. She said there was a boy down the street. He caused trouble. The Germans went to his father and said they would either beat the boy up or beat the father up. The father thought, well, a beating for the boy might knock some sense into him. The next day, the Germans dropped the boy's body off.

Mom said "We were very, very happy to be delivered from the Germans." She said Breda is south of "the big river" that the Germans controlled and there was big battle between the Polish soldiers and the Germans. Many Poles died. They drove the Germans out, then the tanks came in a big caravan. That's when the picture was taken. Opa took out a flag and hung it up. The neighbors suggested he take it down, because if the Germans came back, they would kill him, so he took it down. After the war, the Poles couldn't go back to Poland because the Russians would kill them, so many of them stayed living in Breda and married Dutch girls.

Unfortunate situation but a cool story.

My grandfather was an officer on a British destroyer that forced a German sub to the surface. The officers looted the sub and I have a very nice pair of Zeiss binoculars with a swastika on the case.

Thanks Grandpa!

Polish units able to escape before the Germans sealed off the country made their way to England, then re-trained and supplied with English and American gear as the Free Polish Army. They served with distinction in all aspects of the European theater.

No. 303 squadron were tenacious during the Battle of Britain. The Poles shot down more Germans in a shorter amount of time than any other. 126 kills in 6 weeks.

Were they flying P47's?

Hurricanes.

aH, Now I see it!

Bob Johnson's book "Thunderbolt" described a Polish pilot (can't remember his name) in the 56th. On one mission a P-47 pilot was following the Pole as he was chasing a Me109. For some reason, despite having perfect shot opportunities, the Pole was never firing. The other P-47 pilot watching finally got fed up and shot down the Messerschmidt. When they got back to base he asked the Pole why he didn't fire. The Pole responded he had run out of ammo and wanted the kill so badly he was trying to run the Me109 out of gas while over Germany.

That wasn't Gabby Gabreski, was it?

In reply to Appleseed:

No, it was Mike somebody. I no longer have the book. This was a Polish pilot, not an American with a Polish name.

Edit: Memory coming back a bit. I want to say it was Mike Gladych, or something like that.

Edit #2: Holy crap, I still have functioning grey matter. Check this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boleslaw_Gladych

Linkee no workee.

In reply to Jerry From LA:

Try it now. Sorry about that.

Works now. Gladych was a very interesting fellow.