# Identify a Polish WW2 Uniform from a Photograph Source: https://www.polishgenealogist.co.uk/military/identify-polish-ww2-uniform-photograph/ Last updated: 2026-10-12 Summary: How to read a Polish WW2 uniform in a family photograph: POLAND titles, eagle badges, formation signs, pennants and rank, and the records they lead to. Publisher: The Polish Genealogist (professional Polish genealogy research, polishgenealogist.co.uk) --- A photograph of a relative in uniform is often the only military document a British family has. Read carefully, it can tell you which Polish force the man served in, roughly when the picture was taken and sometimes his regiment and rank. That is enough to request the right service file and to begin research in Polish archives. This guide explains the main things to look for on a Polish Second World War uniform worn in the West: the shoulder title, the cap badge, the formation sign, the collar pennants and the rank insignia. It also explains what the uniform cannot tell you, and how a researcher turns a photograph into a documented service history. > **Have a photograph in Polish uniform and little else?** Send us the picture, the name and what the family remembers. We identify the force and unit, request the service file and follow the man through Polish, British and international records, explained in English. [Start from the photograph](https://www.polishgenealogist.co.uk/services/polish-military-service-records-research/) ### First question: which uniform is it? Polish servicemen in the West wore several uniforms in turn, and the cut of the uniform dates the photograph before any badge does. - **French uniform, 1939 to June 1940:** the Polish Army in France wore French khaki with Polish eagles and rank insignia. Few of these photographs survive in British homes, because most of the army’s papers and kit were lost in the evacuation. - **British battledress, from 1940:** after the evacuation to Britain the Polish I Corps in Scotland, and later the 1st Armoured Division and the Independent Parachute Brigade, wore standard British battledress with Polish buttons, badges and rank insignia. This is by far the most common uniform in family photographs. - **Khaki drill and tropical kit, 1941 to 1945:** the Carpathian Brigade in North Africa and the 2nd Polish Corps in Iraq, Palestine, Egypt and Italy wore British tropical uniform with the same Polish insignia. - **Royal Air Force uniform:** Polish airmen first wore British uniform with Polish rank badges; from 1941 they wore a Polish variation of RAF dress with Polish rank insignia and badges. - **Naval uniform:** under the Polish-British naval agreement of November 1939 Polish crews wore Polish naval uniform aboard ships lent by the Royal Navy. ### The shoulder title: POLAND The clearest marker is the word POLAND at the top of each sleeve. In the army it was a curved cloth title with white lettering on red. In the Polish Air Force it took a different form: a rectangular black patch with rounded upper corners, the word POLAND above an eagle, embroidered in pale gold thread. The RAF Museum describes it as one of more than forty country titles worn by Allied and Commonwealth personnel in the RAF. If the photograph shows this black and gold patch, the man was an airman, not a soldier. ### The cap badge: the Polish eagle Polish soldiers and airmen wore the crowned white eagle on an Amazon shield, the pattern introduced in 1939, on berets, field caps and peaked caps. The 2nd Polish Corps, formed in the Soviet Union and the Middle East, used eagle badges made locally in 1942 and later, which are cruder than the pre-war die-struck pieces and are a clue to a Middle East or Italian photograph. A British-pattern cap or helmet with a Polish eagle is normal for 1940 to 1947; a Polish pre-war field cap (rogatywka) in a British setting usually dates a photograph to the first months after arrival in 1940. ### Formation signs and unit badges From 1941 Polish units under British command wore cloth formation signs below the shoulder title in the British manner. Three are common in family photographs. - **1st Armoured Division:** a stylised winged hussar, black on orange, worn on the left arm below the shoulder title. The division trained in Scotland from 1942 and fought from Normandy to Wilhelmshaven in 1944 and 1945. - **2nd Polish Corps:** the mermaid of Warsaw with shield and sword, embroidered in gold on red. Below it a regimental or brigade sign may appear; the Independent Carpathian Brigade had its own square patch. - **Polish Air Force:** squadron badges were worn on flying jackets and painted on aircraft rather than sewn on the uniform; the POLAND title and Polish wings identify an airman, and the squadron comes from the service record. Formation signs changed as units were re-formed, so a sign dates the photograph as well as naming the formation. A man photographed with the 1st Armoured Division sign and later with the Polish Resettlement Corps was the same soldier at two points in his service. ### Collar pennants and regimental colours Polish cavalry and the armoured and reconnaissance units descended from cavalry wore a two-colour pennant (proporczyk) on each collar in regimental colours. The 10th Dragoons, for example, wore red over orange; the 4th Armoured Regiment in Italy wore a black, red and orange pennant with a scorpion. Infantry, artillery and other arms used their own collar patches and arm-of-service colours. The colours cannot be read from a black and white print, but the shape of the pennant and any emblem on it can, and a specialist reference or a museum collection then narrows the regiment. We do this comparison as part of research. ### Rank insignia Polish forces kept their own rank system throughout the war, even in British uniform. Officers wore stars on the shoulder straps, with braid for field officers; non-commissioned officers wore bars or chevrons; the same grades carried different names in the infantry, cavalry and artillery (sierzant, wachmistrz, ogniomistrz for the sergeant grade). A clear view of the shoulder strap therefore gives the rank, and the service file will show when it was reached. ### Airmen: the gapa and the wings A Polish pilot wore the gapa, the Polish pilot’s badge, above the left breast pocket: an eagle in flight holding a laurel wreath in its beak, designed in 1919 by Wladyslaw Gruberski. Observers and other aircrew had their own versions of the badge. Many Polish airmen in Britain also wore RAF wings or a brevet alongside the Polish badge, so a chest with two flying badges is a normal sight. A green-painted wreath is often said by collectors to mark operational experience; treat that as an interpretation rather than a rule. ### What the uniform cannot tell you A uniform identifies a force and sometimes a formation. It does not give a service number, a date of enlistment or a place of birth, and badges were swapped, borrowed and worn out of regulation. Two men in the same studio portrait may have served in different units. The photograph is the starting point for the documents, not a substitute for them. ### From the photograph to the records Once the force is known, the service file follows. For soldiers and airmen who served under British command, the personal file is held by the UK Ministry of Defence, which also holds about 119,000 Polish Resettlement Corps records; our guide to [MOD Polish service records](https://www.polishgenealogist.co.uk/military/ministry-of-defence-mod-polish-service-records/) explains what the file contains. The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London holds unit war diaries, orders and personnel lists of the Polish Armed Forces in the West, and the Central Military Archive in Warsaw holds pre-war service records and material transferred from Britain. For 2nd Corps men the [Anders’ Army records](https://www.polishgenealogist.co.uk/military/polish-anders-army-records/) add the questionnaires written in 1943, and for awards the [decorations guide](https://www.polishgenealogist.co.uk/military/polish-military-decorations-and-medals/) shows what a medal ribbon in the photograph may mean. Look at the back of the print as well. A photographer’s stamp from Perth, Edinburgh, Bari or Ancona places the sitter, a pencilled field post number identifies the unit, and a dedication gives a date. These small details are often what turns an unnamed uniform into a specific man in a specific regiment. ### A worked example An illustrative case, not a client file. A family in Leeds has a studio portrait of a young man in battledress with a POLAND title, a winged hussar sign on the left arm and a pennant on each collar, stamped by a photographer in Forfar. The hussar sign and the Scottish studio place him in the 1st Armoured Division before it left for Normandy in July 1944. The pennant shape points to a cavalry-derived armoured or reconnaissance regiment. With his name and approximate year of birth, the Ministry of Defence file confirms the regiment, the service number and the place of birth in Poland, and the Polish parish register then gives his parents. ### Official sources - [RAF Museum: the POLAND uniform badge](https://rafmuseum.org.uk/support-us/adopt-an-artefact/poland-uniform-badge) - [RAF Museum: service dress cap of a group captain in the Polish Air Force](https://collections.rafmuseum.org.uk/collection/object/object-360966) - [Imperial War Museums: Polish Army shoulder title and formation sign](https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30095287) - [Ministry of Defence on its Polish service records](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/minister-for-the-reserves-gifts-ww2-records-to-polish-government) - [Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, London](https://www.pism.co.uk/) ### Related guides - [MOD Polish service records](https://www.polishgenealogist.co.uk/military/ministry-of-defence-mod-polish-service-records/) - [Polish military records: a research guide](https://www.polishgenealogist.co.uk/military/tracing-polish-military-service/) - [Polish military decorations and medals](https://www.polishgenealogist.co.uk/military/polish-military-decorations-and-medals/) - [Polish Air Force records in the UK](https://www.polishgenealogist.co.uk/military/polish-air-force-records-uk/) (Polish military research) > **Research service:** Need help tracing a relative’s military service? · 10, 20 or 30 hours of research for one person · [View research packages](https://www.polishgenealogist.co.uk/services/polish-military-service-records-research/) --- Research help: The Polish Genealogist researches Polish family history, military service and citizenship evidence in Polish, British and international archives, with reports in English. 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