They do not like being compared to GROM in the media. After all, it was the red berets from Bolesławiec who supplied personnel to this elite unit, established in 1990—not the other way around. (What is more, our commandos formed GROM’s instructor corps.) We present the history of the Bolesławiec special company, a unit that remained secret for a long time.
The 62nd Special Company was formed in 1967. The soldiers from Bolesławiec, whose distinctive feature for more than a quarter-century of the unit’s existence was their red berets, took part in missions in countries including Vietnam, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Cambodia, Iraq, Angola, Namibia and Yugoslavia. As the commandos themselves recall: “We did everything to ensure that the words ‘Soldier of the 62nd Special Company’ were synonymous with integrity, courage and strength.” The servicemen also contributed to Bolesławiec’s development; they worked on renovating educational institutions and government offices.
For a long time, the company was concealed under the identification number JW 2457. (At that time, the Polish Army had only three similar formations.) During its 27 years of existence, more than 500 professional soldiers served in its ranks, training over 2,500 commandos.
When the unit became public after Poland’s political transformation, the Bolesławiec commandos, wishing to demonstrate their distinct identity, undertook efforts to officially continue the combat traditions of the war-renowned 1st Independent Commando Company (1942–44). As Warrant Officer Wyrwał later commented: “Former Polish commandos, scattered around the world, received the news with disbelief—that someone in Poland, that a unit of the Polish Army, had dared to take the initiative to continue Their combat traditions. They still remembered the time when people were imprisoned for singing ‘The Red Poppies...’.”
After three years of efforts, they succeeded. Importantly, the Bolesławiec company was the first unit in the Polish Army to adopt the traditions of units that had fought in the West. For the ceremony transferring the traditions of the 1st Independent Commando Company to the Bolesławiec soldiers, held in September 1993, the last surviving commandos in the West came to our city. They arrived from Canada, the United States, Argentina, Great Britain, Germany and Czechoslovakia. Some of them visited their homeland for the first time since the end of World War II.
Unfortunately, when former soldiers of the 1st Independent Commando Company transferred their traditions to the red berets from Bolesławiec, a decision was made at the General Staff of the Polish Army to disband the Bolesławiec company. Less than a year later, the unit was dissolved. “Who did it bother?” asked General Roman Polko, former head of GROM.
Every first Saturday in September, the commandos meet to pay tribute to their predecessors and commemorate the existence of the unit and the people who served in it. As Lieutenant Colonel Andrzej Żdan, the former commander and current president of the Association, says: “A soldier of the 62nd Special Company ceases to be a soldier when his obituary is posted.”
This year, the Association of Former Soldiers of the 62nd Special Commando Company “Commando” will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the unit’s formation. More information is available on the website of the Association of Former Soldiers of the 62nd Special Commando Company “Commando”.