Over the next four days, the soldiers will cycle more than 350 kilometres, together with veterans from other military units, to reach the finish in Bydgoszcz on 29 May. In this year’s fourth edition of the Veterans’ Rally, the Bolesławiec regiment is represented by six soldiers: warrant officer Paweł Łazowski, sergeant Tomasz Kędziora, lance sergeant Wojciech Kruszelnicki, senior corporal Adam Kopeć, senior private Rafał Stempak and private Marek Grzybowski, who will cover the planned route in four stages of nearly 100 kilometres each.
The rally’s opening ceremony was solemn. After receiving the report and hearing an account of the origins of the Veterans’ Bicycle Rally, the commander of the 23rd Artillery Regiment, Colonel Paweł Świtalski, introduced this year’s participants. Three of them are taking part in the rally for the second time.
As last year, armoured troops from the 10th Armored Cavalry Brigade in Świętoszów and air-defence troops from the 4th Anti-Aircraft Regiment in Czerwieńsk will join the artillerymen along the route. It is already a tradition for the soldiers of the Black Division to stand together and cooperate to achieve the common goal of commemorating those killed or injured in operations outside the country.
After words of recognition and the commander’s handshake with each cyclist, they left the barracks to the applause of the soldiers of the 23rd Artillery Regiment, who promised to keep their fingers crossed for them all the way to the finish line. This year’s 4th Veterans’ Bicycle Rally will end on 29 May in Bydgoszcz, where the Central Observances of the Day of Veterans of Operations Outside the Country and the International Day of United Nations Peacekeeping Missions Participants will be held.
Capt. Remigiusz Kwieciński