| THE POLES IN THE GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN
Piotr Nykiel © Those who claim that there was no military conflict in the world without at least symbolical participation of Polish soldiers do not exaggerate. So it was even during WWI despite the fact that Poland, which lost its independence in 1772-95 and regained it in 1918, did not then exist on the map of Europe. The division of Polish territory between three great powers - Russia, Germany and Austro-Hungary - forced some Poles to fight against each other on different fronts of the Great War, including Gallipoli. It seems that most of them fought for the Ottoman Empire. They were the descendants of Polish officers and soldiers who, after three lost insurrections (against Russia in 1831 and 1863 and against all three occupants in 1848), fled to Constantinople to continue their struggle against Russia - long a common enemy of the Poles and the Turks. In 1842 they built a Polish village near Istanbul and named it Adampol (1). From contemporary Polish residents of this village, we know of four of their ancestors who served in the Ottoman army on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915. Brothers Alfons and Jozef Wrzostek were killed in action, and the location of their graves – as was the case of most Ottoman soldiers – is unknown. The other two, Marek Gazewicz and Jozef Dohoda, returned safely to Adampol when the war was over. Unfortunately, the families of the above mentioned four soldiers did not retain any documents concerning their service on Gallipoli. Because of this, it is impossible to tell anything about the place and units in which they fought, or even the exact dates of death of the first two. However, there was one Ottoman soldier of Polish origin about whom we posses a little bit more information. He was Ludomil Rayski (1892-1977), veteran of the Polish-Soviet war (1920), founder of the Polish aircraft industry, general of the Polish Air Force (in the late 1930’s) and veteran of WWII. His father came to Turkey after the 1863 insurrection, became Muslim, then fought in the Crimean war and, when retired in 1889, came back to Krakow (Southern Poland, then Austria-Hungary). When WWI broke out, Ludomil, after a short period of combat service in Polish units of the Austro-Hungarian Army, came to Turkey in 1915 to serve for the Ottomans (because of his father, he had dual citizenship – Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian). He began service on March 1, 1915 as a car driver in the Dardanelles Fortified Zone’s Transportation Unit. From Turkish sources we know that in this period the Turks had only two cars in the whole Dardanelles area. Thus we can assume that in the combat of March 1915 (including the main struggle between the forts and the Allied Navy on the 18th) young Rayski – who doubtlessly spoke fluent German and Turkish – served as the personal driver of the Turkish-German high command. In September 1915, he finished aviation school in Maltepe and came back to the Dardanelles as an air observer. At the late stage of the Gallipoli Campaign, Ludomil was twice wounded while flying over enemy positions. After hospitalization, he finished the pilot’s course and until the end of WWI served with the rank of lieutenant in the Fifth Air Regiment in Izmir. Turkish historiography describes him as one of those who had the greatest record of combat missions among all Ottoman airmen. Although we know only a few details of Ludomil Rayski’s service in Turkey (2), there is no doubt that he was a brave soldier, as he has received several high decorations from the Sultan, including the War Medal (Harp Madalyas?), Liyakat and Mecidiye. The only Poles who died in the Dardanelles and whose graves are known were André Lubinsky [Andrzej Lubinski] and ?Glodkowsky [? Glodkowski – first name unknown]. They fought in French units, and thus were buried in the French Cemetery at Cape Helles. Unfortunately, we also have no data about service records in their cases, as well. Some Polish surnames among the German military advisors to Turkey and the crews of Goeben and Breslau also require further research. _______________ (1) The place still exists under the Turkish name Polonezköy. Most of its present inhabitants are Turks, but around 90 Polish-speaking Catholics of Polish origin still live there. (2) From the War Chronicle of the Fifth Air Regiment in Izmir (unfortunately, only the part concerning the year 1918 was preserved), we know that between January 23 and 28, 1918 he defended Goeben from British bombing raids after the ship was heavily damaged and grounded in the Dardanelles following her mission to Imroz. First published in: "The Gallipolian", No. 105 - Autumn 2004, pp. 48-50. |
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