Rockets Hit Their Targets
As early as June 1945, the first subunit of the Polish Army arrived in Bolesławiec. The barracks complex left behind by the Germans was then shared with the Red Army soldiers stationed there since February. Over the years, the number of Polish Army soldiers increased, while the Russians left the town. At the same time, the garrison was transformed from an infantry garrison into an artillery one, and then into a missile garrison. The personnel of the present 18th Missile Regiment continues the traditions of the 18th Brigade, which existed for almost 31 years. The launches carried out recently combined the missile traditions cultivated on the one hand with, on the other, a symbolic reference to the nearly exactly 30th anniversary, falling in those days, of the first combat launches of missiles—the counterparts of the “famous Scuds.” At that time, necessity required them to be carried out far from their homeland’s borders, at the Kapustin Yar training ground in the Volgograd Oblast. Now, they were carried out from an area until recently used by the troops of the former USSR. The combat equipment currently possessed by our missile troops makes it possible to carry out missions even at the training grounds near Bolesławiec.
These historically significant missile launches were carried out by subordinates of Maj. Krzysztof USSA. As the regiment commander, Col. Stanisław CHWOJNICKI, emphasized, all the soldiers who took part in the exercises worked for the final success. Therefore, the ceremonial order summarizing the training honored a by no means small group of commanders at all levels, launcher crew members, topographers, calculators, signalmen, meteorologists, logistics personnel, traffic controllers... Among the soldiers who enabled us to admire the missiles speeding toward their targets at truly lightning speed, amid the deafening roar of engines and clouds of exhaust mixed with the earth torn up by the missile, were the officers Jacek DYMARSKI, Piotr GRADZIK, Tadeusz KOMARNICKI, Grzegorz SOBOLEWSKI, Henryk WĄSOWICZ and Henryk ŻUKOWSKI.
Warrant officers Piotr ANDRZEJEWSKI, Tomasz DERESZYŃSKI, Paweł GRYGLEWSKI, Tomasz REJMAN and Andrzej ŻAROWSKI; non-commissioned officers Mirosław BOSEK, Robert GLINEUR, Andrzej NIEDBAŁA, Waldemar WAWRZYNOWSKI and Marek WOŹNIAK; and conscript soldiers: senior corporals Tomasz SKRZYPCZAK and Grzegorz TUTAJ, corporals Grzegorz BIAŁEK and Dariusz DUMA, bombardiers Andrzej GALIK, Krzysztof KOSIŃSKI, Krzysztof ORAWIEC and Artur PŁÓCIENNICZAK, and gunners Tomasz JĘDRASIAK, Paweł WALIGÓRA, Krzysztof WASZCZAK and Dariusz ZIĘTEK.
Numerous guests observed selected elements of the exercises, the preparation process and the missile launches. They included representatives of the senior command of the missile and artillery forces—the Missile and Artillery Forces Directorate of the General Staff and the Silesian Military District, the Higher Officers’ School of Missile and Artillery Forces in Toruń, and Polish Army missile units—as well as Mayor Józef Król, the garrison chaplain, Rev. Capt. Wojciech MROSZCZAK, Rev. Prelate Władysław Rączka, and the headmaster of Secondary School No. 1, Stanisław Małkowski. Immediately after the successful completion of the combat missions, the head of the missile and artillery forces of our district, Col. Zygmunt DEMIDOWSKI, thanked all the personnel for their efforts and, in recognition of the results achieved, presented several soldiers with material awards. In front of the regiment’s subunits, he presented them to senior corporals Grzegorz MATYSIAK and Andrzej OGONOWSKI, corporals Krzysztof SOLAREWICZ and Roman WŁODARCZYK, and bombardier Paweł KRAWCZYK.