ARNHEM 1944
ABOUT THE PLATOON LEADER MORCHONOWICZ
At the end of the eighties Mrs. Cora Baltussen
sent me the Polish part of the list of people died in Arnhem,
drafted and titled in English “The Roll of Honour”.
There are, among others, names of nineteen people on this list with the note “No known grave”.
There is also the name of platoon leader Edward Morchonowicz.
I met this Non-Comisioned Officer in summer 1943 soon after my adding
to the 7th company located in a small village Freuchy not very far from a castle,
namely the Falkland palace where there was headquaters of the batallion.
From my former companions I found out that platoon leader
maybe a corporal by then) Morchonowicz served earlier in some cavalry regiment in Poland.
I don’t know if he exchanged there a horse for a motorbike but in France
and in Great Britain he was in motorized unit.
Anyway, preparing young armourers for the warfare seemed, at that time,
a little boring so he asked his commander for transfer to just organized Parachuters Brigade.
The commander didn’t agree as he valued his work in the detachement too much.
So Morchonowicz decided to be less valuable so that they would let him go.
His behaviour was so censurable that he was soon degraded and finally achieved his goal.
In Parachuters Brigade he quickly came back to his former rank
and he was equally valued by his new superiors as the previous ones.
Edward Morchonowicz was born in November 1915 in Roztocze Lubelskie, in village Zolkiewka.
Perhaps his family was there only temporarly (alike mine-shortly before the 1st World War).
I heard about the Morchonowicz family of Tatar origin in Podlasie
but it could as well be other Morchonowicz family of the same origin in Roztocze.
During the times of many struggles with Tatars their prisoners of war
were settled as so-called “Muslimowie” in Zamojski’s properties.
Earlier similar things happened in king’s and duke’s properties in Lithuania and Suwalszczyzna,
and those Tatar settlers were called “Lipki”.
Even the word “ulan” (Eng. uhlan) derrives from the name of the Tatar family
from which came many of the commanders of the cavalry in Poland.
Coming back to Edward Morchonowicz - he was direct in contact, sociable and a real brother.
However he had one characteristic that suposedly annoyed him
especially in his contact with the subordinates - he stammered while talking.
It disappeared while singing which he liked very much.
I can still remember him riding stuffed bedford and singing “Antek Manka tak wywijal...”.
He was generally liked, merely formal so we all surprised when he reported
on one of his younger companions shooter Michal Biszko.
Michał came with us from the Near East. He said that, before war, he was a member
of a circus crew in Lviv. He was calm, never bothered anyone.
During the report before the commander of the company the whole thing solved.
Platoon leader Morchonowicz presented his arguments and together with further explanations he said:
“And w...why did he m...monkeyed me?”.
It occured that Biszko never monkeyed anyone, he just stammered too.
Before action Biszko was sent to 9th company and contrary to most
of his companions jumped on October 21st in Grave.
And Morchonowicz, in 8th company by then, jumped on October 21st in Driel.
We can only speculate upon his further life.
In the “Roll of Honour” we find the note that he was killed
on October 21st and additionally in “Wykaz poleglych i zmarlych zolnierzy P.S.Z. na obczyznie”
edited in 1952 by the Institute of Sikorski in London they wrote by his name that he was:
“Killed in Helmelsche Berg, Oosterbeek”.
Helmelsche Berg is a property outside Oosterbeek, west to the town.
I had the oppotunity to visit it during my last stay in Holland.
I had also the Dutch book by G.H. Maasen “Oosterbeek verwoest, 1944, 1945”
where among many pictures of war injuries of this beautiful place there
is also a picture of a large household ruins. Just near them,
with a beautiful bush in the background, there is a soldier’s grave with a white cross on it.
The inscription says that on the October 24th 1944 the house was fired by a German tank.
Till that time it was na asylum for over 250 people fled from other endangered houses.
How could platoon leader Morchonowicz be there?
After crossing with other sodiers from 8th company a river dam on the Rhine
he must have dug an anti-tank trench near headquaters of the Brigade,
where his company was to be a reserve of the defence and he took part
in its reconaissance parties in the neighbourhood.
Finally in the night he got through with his friends to the north bank of the Rhine.
The crossing or rather the struggle with the river, as everything took place
under German gunfire, began at 11.00 pm. They used rubber life-boates which weren’t very suitable
for that due to their hard steering, especially in strong current - about 1,4 m/sec.
In this situation, and with small number of boats having room for no more than four people,
particular crossing groups reached the north bank in dispersion.
Most of the soldiers of 8th company who managed to get through the river
with Lt. Alfred Smaczny, took positions in the south-west part of the defence line
in Oosterbeek, north to Benedendorpsweg street.
Hemelsche Berg was in consiberable distance to north-west from this line.
In its neighbourhood there were Borders Regiment positions as a part of the west defence line,
among which there were few Polish bombardiers from armour-piercing artilery working as an infantry.
And must have found himself platoon leader Morchonowicz and shooter Mieczyslaw Krzeczkowski
from the same company who also died near Hemelsche Berg.
There is a case connected with the second Polish parachuter killed which became a symbol.
For some time I knew him as the “nameless from Mook”.
As the “Roll of Honour” informs on the war cemetary in Mook
there are the remnants of Polish parachuter buried formerly in Wemelsche Berg.
There is an inscription of the name on the tombstone which says: “T. Ojczyzno”,
and in official documents it is written as “Ojczyzno Tobie” (there is an English name Toby).
After consulting with the Dutch my friend J. Lorys explained that the supposed name
is in fact the inscription on the reverse of the parachuter’s eagle
"(Tobie Ojczyzno" = "For You Fatherland")
and the alleged miltary record number is another number of parachuters badge.
On the mentioned list of the killed there is still unrevealed
the name of the parachuter buried formerly in Hemelsche Berg,
that is why I called him the “nameless from Mook”.
Several years later I found out that his name was Krzeczkowski.
The both parachuters from 8th company killed near Hemelsche Berg -
shooter Mieczyslaw Krzeczkowski and platoon leader Edward Morchonowicz
were posthumously honoured with Krzyz Walecznych (The Cross Of The Brave).
Maybe we could find out more about the details of their death from their aplications for honouring.
Slawomir Kwiatkowski
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Strona utworzona dnia 10-02-2004
przy pomocy programu Pajączek NxG Standard