Orders, Decorations and Medals

The Second World War honorary C.B. group of twenty-three awarded to General M. T. Tokarzewski-Karaszewicz, Commander of the Polish Forces in the Middle East, late Commander of the Polish Underground Armies “S.Z.P.” (in German-occupied Poland) and “Z.W.Z.” (in Soviet-occupied Poland): his 2nd class Order of Military Virtue was awarded for his command of these Polish Underground Armies

Poland, Order of Military Virtue, 2nd class neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel, unmarked; Order of Military Virtue, 5th class breast badge, silver and enamel, the reverse officially numbered ‘2528’; another similar, of later post-war manufacture, unnumbered; Order of Poland Restored 1918, 3rd class neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; Independence Cross 1930, with swords, enamelled; Cross of Valour 1939-45; Cross of Merit 1918, 1st class with swords, enamelled; another, without swords, enamelled; War Commemorative Medal 1918-21; Army Active Service Medal 1939-45; Long Service Medal for 20 Years; Latvia, Order of the Three Stars, 3rd class neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; Medal for the 10th Anniversary of the War of Liberation 1928, with crossed swords on riband; Roumania, Order of the Crown, 1st type, Grand Cross set of insignia, by J. Resch of Bucharest, comprising sash badge, silver-gilt and enamel, and breast star, silver, with gilt and enamel centre; France, Legion of Honour, 5th class breast badge, silver and enamel, with gold and enamel centre; Victory Medal 1918; Great Britain, The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, C.B. (Military) Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel, in its Garrard, London case of issue; 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals, these last five in their original addressed card forwarding box, generally good very fine (23) £3000-4000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Ron Penhall Collection.

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Polish Order of Military Virtue (Commander, 2nd class) Official Decree dated 11 June 1945:

‘For courage and initiative in maintaining continuous armed warfare with the organizing of the Services Towards Poland’s Victory (S.Z.P.) and later the Organization of Armed Warfare (Z.W.Z.), which units eventually became the Underground Army that played such an important part in the course of World War Two.’

Honorary C.B. London Gazette 10 January 1946. The original recommendation states:

‘As General Officer Commanding 3rd Polish Corps, this officer was responsible for all polish military personnel in the Middle East and had to contend with many para-military as well as military problems. Many of these were of an intricate, political nature, but in dealing with them General Tokarzewski-Karaszewicz always showed himself to be a most able, tactful and co-operative officer. His relations with General Headquarters were invariably excellent, and he also by his efforts gave great assistance to the 2nd Polish Corps in Italy. The fact that the Polish troops in the Middle East were a well-disciplined body of men, serving, as they did, under trying conditions, is largely due to the personality of this officer.’

Michal Tadeusz Tokarzwski-Karaszewicz was born in Lwow in January 1893 and completed his education at Cracow University. Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1912, he attended various military courses in Austria and France in the period leading up to the Great War.

Appointed a Battalion Commander in the 1st Brigade of the Polish Legion in August 1914, he was shortly afterwards wounded by a gunshot in the chest at the battle of Laski, and on returning to duty as a C.O. of the 5th Regiment of the Polish Legion, he was arrested by the Austrians during the “Oath Crisis”. But by November 1918 he was back in command of his old regiment and at his own initiative recaptured Lwow. Finally, having been advanced to Colonel, he re-organised the 1st Infantry Division, participated in the actions against Vilno and was present at the capture of Dzwinsk.

By the time of the invasion of Poland in September 1939, Tokarzwski-Karaszewicz had risen to the rank of Major-General, and he served as a senior commander in the forces under General Tadeusz, but was compelled to make his way to Warsaw when his units were routed by German Panzers early on in the campaign. Here, on 27 September 1939, as enemy bombs and heavy artillery reaped havoc all around, he was summoned to the War Department by the city’s C.-in-C., Lieutenant-General Rommel - shortly before it, too, was laid waste by enemy fire. The latter, about to make his way with the Polish Government to Roumania, ordered Tokarzwski-Karaszewicz to remain behind and to establish a military underground, and he duly accepted ‘full responsibility for the organisation of armed resistance against the occupying powers, and the preparation of the country’s moral and physical readiness to begin open warfare when the conditions were favourable’. Here, then, the origins of what became known as the Home Army (the “Armia Krajowa” or A.K.), which later fought with such extraordinary courage at Warsaw.

First of all, however, Tokarzwski-Karaszewicz established a resistance force which became known as the Service for Poland’s Victory (or S.Z.P.), but because of his known affiliation with certain senior socialist politicians - and his undoubted personal political ambitions - this landmark organisation was quickly matched by the formation of the “Z.W.Z.”, this last under the auspices of General Sikorski, who had set up Headquarters in Paris. The latter, of course, would shortly emerge as victor of the political rivalry then dominating the scene, and become the head of the Polish Government in Exile and the Free Polish Forces. And it was indeed from Sikorski’s command in London that Tokarzwski-Karaszewicz was ordered to take command of the Z.W.Z. in soviet-occupied Poland shortly afterwards, an order that was as good as a death sentence since he was so well known in that area in the pre-war era. So much so that his fellow resistants did all within their power to counter the command, but without result, and accordingly they were not in the least surprised to learn that their ex-C.O.had been arrested by the Soviets immediately after crossing the border from the German-occupied zone in March 1940.

In point of fact, however, Tokarzwski-Karaszewicz was in possession of a false passport, and although imprisoned in grim conditions in the interim, the Soviets did not actually discover his true identity until early 1941. The timing was crucial - had they established his senior military status on capture, he may well have ended up in a shallow grave in Katyn - like 5000 other Polish officers. Moreover, because they did not establish that status until early 1941, when he was transferred to Lubianka Prison in Moscow, the tide of war moved in his favour, or rather did Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union. That July, the Polish Government in Exile signed a new treaty with the Soviets, a treaty that survived until the discovery of mass murder in the forests of Katyn in April 1943.

Thus it was, in one of those peculiar changes of fortune that are not unknown to occur in war, that Tokarzwski-Karaszewicz found himself charged with establishing a new Polish Army for service on the Eastern Front, an exercise placed under the overall command of General Wladyslaw Anders, another ex-inmate of Lubianka Prison. As it transpired, and with Stalin’s blessing, this significant force was transferred to the Middle East in August 1942, where Anders created the Polish 2nd and 3rd Corps - and he chose Tokarzwski-Karaszewicz to command the latter. Both forces went on to serve with great distinction, especially in the fighting in Italy, and by the war’s end overall command of the Polish Forces in the Middle East had devolved to Tokarzwski-Karaszewicz. He was awarded the C.B.

The General, ‘a dynamic officer with piercing blue eyes’, who later commanded the Polish Resettlement Corps,died while visiting Casablanca in 1964 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.

Sold with the General’s uniform tunic, complete with Sam Browne belt and A.D.C’s aiguillette, together with rank insignia, medal ribands, metalled “Poland Fights” badge, etc.; his 1939-45 War identity tag; a War Office letter, dated 21 March 1949, regarding the completion of his contract with the Polish Resettlement Corps; a series of certified statements of service and entitlement documents, the majority signed and dated in the late 1940s / early 1950s, and which indicate the General was further entitled to the Polish Cross of Valour 1918-21 and Yugoslav Order of the White Eagle; and a Certificate Of Merit issued by the ‘Pulaski Memorial Day Parade Committee’, dated 9 October 1960.

Also see Lot 129 for his Divisional Gold Presentation Bracelet.