Polish soldier Kazimierz Chartanowicz, killed during the Battle of Arnhem, will finally receive a headstone with his name. Researcher Mateusz Mroz has convinced the authorities with his work. This is already the third soldier officially identified thanks to him.
Life and Struggle of Chartanowicz
Kazimierz Chartanowicz was born on July 30, 1922, in Baranowicze, near Grodno. As a 17-year-old boy, he was deported by the Soviets to a Gulag in 1939. After amnesty at the end of 1941, he joined the Polish Army in the USSR, first in the 4th Tank Battalion and later in anti-tank artillery. In 1943, he volunteered as a paratrooper and received badge no. 3519.
On September 18, 1944, he landed near Wolfheze with glider no. 890 as part of Operation Market Garden deployment. His unit first took position with their anti-tank gun at the British headquarters in Hartenstein and then moved to the south side of the perimeter in Oosterbeek, near the Old Church and Kate ter Horst’s house. He was killed by a mortar shrapnel that hit his face and pierced his helmet. Probably buried on September 22 near Kerkpad 2, behind Ter Horst’s garden.
Years-Long Fight for Recognition
After the bodies from field graves were transferred to the cemetery after the war, Chartanowicz was listed as “no known grave” for over 82 years, despite British reports from 1945 about his field grave. Mroz’s research points with nearly 100% certainty to unmarked grave 25.B.17 at the Airborne War Cemetery in Oosterbeek, next to his comrade Józef Skaczka.
Source Gelders Archief.
The CWGC refused for years to recognize Polish evidence, despite dossiers from the Polish Ministry of Culture. Now the ministry has received confirmation: the identification is correct. Mroz has already informed the family near Ełk in Poland.
Hope for a Named Headstone Before the Commemoration
The hope is that the headstone will be replaced with one bearing his own name before September 22, the day of his death. Information via, among others, Facebook post Mateusz Mroz
Previous identifications concern Edward Trochim and Edward Morchonowicz