Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/739629
GROM the heir to Silent Unseen BY: JW GROM, Michał SitaRSki PHOTO: JW GROM, BaRtek BeRa, aRchiWuM MJR. alekSandRa PROciuka Probably most of our foreign readers does not know the fact that Polish top military special mission unit, the GROM, is heir to Silent unseen or cichociemni, the elite special operations paratroopers of the Polish army in exile, formed in Great Britain during World War ii to operate in oc- cupied Poland. those ultimately brave men escaped from country after the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 and Polish defeat but decided to return to occupied country after they were given such chance and fight against the nazis. Short story about those brave men: German intelligence agents operating in Great Britain never found a trace about them. they have never assembled together, even there were 316 of them (including one women), in the line. they never formed a military unit as we understand. during the Second World War, the Silent unseen, cichociemni, Polish secret commandos trained by the British Special Operations executive (SOe), were parachuted in small teams or individu- ally to Poland occupied by Germans. the famous and honorable name of Silent unseen appeared between 1941 and 1942 in the training camp hidden between foggy hills of Scotland. it was perfectly describing the character of the missions silently performed by those elite troops in the dark nights. Silent unseen conducted operations in silence and in the darkness. and that is how the name was created. the origins of the name are obscure and may never be known with certainty. On the very beginning the name was also used to describe the men who volunteered to become secret paratroopers because they suddenly disappeared from their units and no one knew what had happened to them. in September 1941 it became official and was used in the documents. the candidates for covert operations were recruited by Section Vi of the commander-in-chief's Staff (Oddział iii Sztabu naczelnego Wodza) of Polish armed Forces in exile responsible for training of paratroopers. they were all volunteers. in 1942 the section was renamed to Special detachment. Recruited soldiers were taking part in multiple training courses organized by Polish forces and British SOe – the training program was changed over the time of war. the courses were divided into main four parts: basic, specialty, supplemental and practice. the full training program was scheduled for few months. the different education pipeline was dedicated for sabotage experts, guerrilla units commanders, radio operators, intelligence operatives, staff officers, armored warfare instructors, pilots, propaganda specialist or documents forgers. all of the candidates had to finish the parachuting training and so-called "kurs odprawowy", the final course preparing for life in occu- pied Motherland and learning new false identity. all soldiers who passed the training were sworn in as members of the home army. www.fragoutmag.com