Kazimierz Chartonowicz

Born:

30 July 1922, Baranowicz

Death:

25 September 1944, Oude Kerk

Number:

30451

Rank:

lance corporal

Department:

1st (Polish) Independent Parachute Brigade, Airborne Anti-tank Battery

Cemetery:

Onbekend / Unknown / Nieznany

Section/row/number:

Plot XXV Row B Grave 17

Field grave location:

Garden house Kate ter Horst/708772 Oosterbeek (S. of Benedendorpsweg)

April 2026: Kazimierz Chartanowicz: Third Identification Confirmed by Mróz

Polish soldier Kazimierz Chartanowicz, killed during the Battle of Arnhem, will finally receive a headstone with his name. Researcher Mateusz Mróz has convinced the authorities with his work. This is already the third soldier officially identified thanks to him.

Life and service 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. Mróz’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.

Fieldgraves of Skaczko and Chartanowicz.
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. Mróz has already informed the family near Ełk in Poland.

Hope for a Named Headstone Before the Commemoration

The hope is that the stone will be replaced with one bearing his own name before September 22, the day of his death. Information via, among others, Facebook post Mateusz Mróz
Previous identifications concern Edward Trochim and Edward Morchonowicz