Bolesław Paulski

Born:

02 September 1919, Tuczyno, Ziemia Wileńska

Death:

02 December 1944, ziekenhuis, Duitsland

Number:

28826

Rank:

rifleman

Department:

1st (Polish) Independent Parachute Brigade, Airborne Signals Company

Cemetery:

Onbekend / Unknown / Nieznany

Section/row/number:

The text below is thanks to Graham Francis, treasurer of the Arnhem 1944 Fellowship.

From Poland to the UK

Bolesław Paulski was born in Tuszyno, Wilno, which is modern day Vilnius in Lithuania. His parents are listed as from Dzisna which is about 200km north east of Wilno in the extreme north of modern day Belarus. Both places will have come under Russian control in 1939 so there is a strong possibility that he and his parents were in Siberia when he volunteered for the Polish forces and that he came ‘the long way’ around to the UK. This can be concluded on the data of him enlisting in de Polish forces being April first, 1942.

Wounded at Hartenstein

Bolesław had the Polish service number 28826. He was one of the Signals Company who landed in glider number 890 on the 18th September. This glider also carried the Polish war correspondent Marek Święcicki and Captain Zwolanski. This means he was in the advance party of 10 gliders that landed ahead of the main glider landings and planned para drop on the 19th.

He was wounded on the 20th in the grounds of the Hartenstein Hotel (the current Airborne Museum in Oosterbeek). Apparently he had a fractured skull. He is recorded in the Roll of Honour as being treated in the St Elisabeth Hospital in Arnhem. Probably he will have been moved from the Hartenstein area to the Schoonoord or Vreewijk dressing stations and then during one of the temporary ceasefires was moved to the hospital on the 21st or 22nd.

Germany and missing

It is not known when he was moved from the hospital to Germany. He doesn’t have a German POW record card, but then they were created when people were transferred to POW camps and it is not known that he was ever moved from a Res Lazarett ( hospital) to a camp. He dies on the 2nd Dec in Germany with no known grave. Unfortunately ther is no record where specifically that was.