Polish Military Decorations and Medals

The Polish Genealogist Updated on

A Polish medal, or the small award document that came with it, can show which unit a relative served in, where he fought and roughly when. This guide covers the main Polish decorations of the twentieth century, the British campaign medals issued to Polish servicemen, and the archives that hold award records.

Research a particular medal or decoration

Use the individual guides to connect an inherited award with a named Polish soldier, the relevant campaign and the records behind the family story.

The main Polish military decorations

The oldest Polish military decoration, the Virtuti Militari, dates from 1792. Those most often found among family papers are:

  • Virtuti Militari: Poland’s highest award for gallantry in war, established in 1792. Most twentieth-century awards date from the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1921 and the Second World War.
  • Cross of Valour (Krzyż Walecznych): for gallantry in action, established in 1920 during the Polish-Soviet War. It was awarded again in the Second World War, including to soldiers of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) and the Polish Armed Forces in the West.
  • Order of Polonia Restituta (Order Odrodzenia Polski): an order for distinguished civil and military service to Poland, established in 1921.
  • Cross of Merit (Krzyż Zasługi): in gold, silver and bronze, for civil and military merit. During the Second World War a version with swords was awarded for wartime service.
  • Monte Cassino Commemorative Cross: for soldiers of the 2nd Polish Corps who took part in the battle for Monte Cassino in May 1944.

Where award records are held

Award papers are divided between Polish and British institutions:

  • Central Military Archive (Centralne Archiwum Wojskowe, CAW), Warsaw-Rembertów: personnel files of the pre-1939 Polish Army and award files, including Virtuti Militari awards for 1920-1921.
  • Institute of National Remembrance (Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, IPN): post-war state and security-service files, including papers on former underground soldiers and award proposals made after 1945.
  • Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, London: records of the Polish Armed Forces in the West and the government-in-exile, such as unit war diaries.

Little of this material can be searched online by name. Many files are arranged by unit, so the soldier’s regiment, ship or squadron usually has to be established first.

Medals of the Polish Armed Forces in the West (PSZ)

Soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Polish Armed Forces in the West (Polskie Siły Zbrojne, PSZ) often held Polish and British medals side by side. A typical group for a man of the 2nd Polish Corps in Italy might include the Monte Cassino Commemorative Cross, the Cross of Valour and British stars for North Africa and Italy. Men of the 1st Polish Armoured Division, which fought in Normandy, Belgium and the Netherlands in 1944-1945, and of the 1st Independent Parachute Brigade, dropped near Arnhem in September 1944, sometimes also received Belgian, French or Dutch awards. The combination of medals in a group is itself evidence: it narrows down the theatres in which a man served.

British service files and campaign medals

British-held Polish service papers can provide unit, posting and medal evidence. Our guide to Polish service records held in the UK describes the current official request route. We interpret British papers already held by your family and investigate the service further through Polish and continental sources.

British campaign medals found in Polish groups include:

  • 1939-1945 Star: for operational service, normally six months.
  • Defence Medal: for non-operational service, including service in the United Kingdom.
  • War Medal 1939-1945: for 28 days’ full-time service in the armed forces.
  • France and Germany Star: for operational service in north-west Europe from June 1944 to May 1945, which covers the 1st Polish Armoured Division.

Home Army (Armia Krajowa) decorations

The Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK) was the main underground army in occupied Poland. Its soldiers carried out sabotage, intelligence work and partisan operations, and fought the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. Decorations were awarded during the war itself. Home Army soldiers received the Cross of Valour, and during the Warsaw Uprising the Virtuti Militari was conferred by order, for example on 11 and 23 August and 9 September 1944. More awards followed after 1945, from the government-in-exile in London and, after 1989, from the Polish state.

Decorations found among Home Army veterans’ papers include:

  • Cross of Valour (Krzyż Walecznych): awarded during the war and afterwards for gallantry in action.
  • Home Army Cross (Krzyż Armii Krajowej): introduced in London by General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski on 1 August 1966 for soldiers of the Home Army, and recognised by the Polish government in 1992.
  • Warsaw Uprising Cross (Warszawski Krzyż Powstańczy): established by a Polish act of 3 July 1981 for those who took part in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.
  • Partisan Cross (Krzyż Partyzancki): established in October 1945 for members of partisan units that fought the Germans in Poland. Many soldiers passed over by the communist authorities received it only after 1990.

Home Army papers were destroyed in the war, hidden, or seized by the post-war security services, so one soldier’s traces are usually scattered. Relevant holdings include the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), the Polish State Archives and, in London, the Polish Underground Movement (1939-1945) Study Trust, which holds some 40,000 personal files of Home Army soldiers assessed by its verification committee after the war. A medal document or a wartime pseudonym from the family often decides which file belongs to the right man.

Award files from 1918 to 1939

Between the wars, decorations were granted on written proposals that described the deed and the soldier’s service. Proposals for the Virtuti Militari and the Cross of Valour for the Polish-Soviet War are held by the Central Military Archive (CAW). The Cross and Medal of Independence, established in 1930 for work towards independence before 1918, was granted on questionnaires completed by the applicants themselves, so these files can describe a man’s underground or legionary past in his own words. In 1933 the Independence Cross with Swords was also conferred collectively on the fallen and deceased insurgents of 1863. Award files give units, ranks and dates, and the right one is far easier to find when the soldier’s date of birth and unit are known.