A General’s Gift

Experienced collectors know that great finds come via both hard work and serendipity. A chance meeting in 1972 between two Army veterans, and one of those men’s Polish ancestry led to a gift of a fascinating piece of World War II memorabilia. Fifty years later a meeting this author and the inheritor of that item regarding a shared piece of their life experience led to this article.

William C. McMahon was born January 10, 1895 and in 1914 was enrolled in the U.S. Army Military Academy at West Point where he became a member of the distinguished graduating class of 1917. His classmates included Matthew Ridgway and Mark Clark, his roommate. As a young cadet future General McMahon also interacted with Dwight D. Eisenhower (USMA Class of 1915), who was his cadet company commander. Upon graduation McMahon would serve in WWI. Moving through the postwar Army ranks like many of his classmates, by June 1941 he was acting assistant chief of staff of the Fourth Motorized Division at Fort Benning. By June 1942, he was promoted to Brigadier General and made assistant division commander of the Eighty-Third Division. By December 1942, McMahon was promoted to Major General and by February 1943 assumed command of the Eighth Division. In December 1943, the Eighth Division was shipped to England for final preparation for combat on the Continent. He would then command the Eighth Division during its July 1944 landing on Utah Beach.

After some concerns about the progress of the Eighth Division during the invasion, McMahon was replaced by Donald Stroh. Thereafter he served in Italy under his former roommate General Mark Clark. It was at this point in his career that General McMahon obtained the rare and unique photo album of Polish Corps commanders who fought in Italy which is the subject of the article. At the end of WWII General McMahon would remain in Austria with U.S. Forces. He served as Chief of Staff for the Fifth Army from 1947-1949, then retired from the Army in 1949.

In a textbook case of serendipity, in 1973 General McMahon would cross paths with an Army Reserve officer named Richard A. Majka. As a Lieutenant Richard Majka fought in the Korean War as a platoon Leader in 1952-53 with the 25th Infantry Division (“Tropic Lightning”) and the 27th infantry Regiment (“Wolfhounds”). After his service in Korea, Majka continued his military career in the Army Reserves as a medical officer. He eventually retired after 30 years as a Reserve officer with the rank of Colonel.

Majka’s Army travels and his civilian job as the Comptroller of the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Buffalo both brought him in contact with many interesting people, one of whom would be General McMahon. The retired General came to Buffalo in 1972 to meet with Majka in order to donate money from his deceased brother’s estate to Catholic Charities. The conversation between the two men revealed their shared experience as Army Infantry officers and Majka’s Polish ancestry. General McMahon returned to his retirement home in Florida but had a surprise in store for Col. Majka.

A few weeks later Majka received a letter and package from General McMahon’s home in Maitland, Florida dated January 7, 1973. Knowing of Majka’s interest in military affairs and his ethnic background through their discussions, McMahon sent Majka a very special historical item. To partially quote the substance of McMahon’s letter: “Mr. Richard A. Majka: the Polish Liaison Officer of the Polish Corps in Italy gave me two copies of the enclosed item and I thought that you might like to have one of them. The Polish Corps had a distinguished record in Italy. It was part of General Mark Clark’s command in the 1945 Italian offensive which ended with the German surrender there”.

General McMahon’s gift to Richard Majka was a photo album that appears to have been commissioned by the senior officers of the Polish Corps who served in the Italian campaign in WWII. It contains photographs, autographs, and the unit patches of each of the Corps Commanders of the Free Polish Army involved in the liberation of Italy, as well as the President of Poland and the British General commanding the Free Polish forces. The hand-tooled leather cover, hand printing of each person’s information, and rough cut of each page all indicate that this item was made as a custom, low production memento for the highest ranking officer of the Polish Corps who served in the Italian Campaign. The Polish Corps fought the Wehrmacht in some of the toughest, bloodiest battles of WWII in Italy including Monte Cassino. One can only imagine how personal these battles against the Germans must have been to the men from Poland.

An unusual aspect of the album is that it not only indicates the name, rank, and unit of each person pictured but often adds the insignia of the Polish unit associated with the officer. Actual signatures of each of each officer in many cases are also shown in the album. The first page of the album show Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz, President of the Republic of Poland. (Fig 5) Raczkiewicz was the President of Poland in exile from 1939 and until 1945. He was the internationally recognized Polish Head of State. In 1939, when Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany, he escaped to Angers, France where the government-in-exile was established. In 1940 he moved to London and joined additional members of the Polish government-in-exile. The second page show a photograph of Lt. General Sir Richard Loudon McCreery(1898-1967) G.O.C. of the British 8th Army. Notation in the album as G.O.C. means “General Officer Commanding”. General McCreery had an extensive combat and command record in both world wars including the Battle of France and El Alamein. He is included in the album since he was given command of the VIII Army of the United Kingdom, and by 1944 was involved in the first battle of Monte Cassino in which the Polish Corps would play a major role.

The third page of the album contains a photograph of Lt. General Wladyslaw Anders G.O.C. of the 2nd Polish Corps. Anders was a general of the Polish Army and later in life a politician and prominent member of the Polish government-in-exile in London. He led the Polish II Corps throughout the Italian Campaign, including the capture of Monte Cassino. At the end of the war he was deprived of the citizenship and military rank by the Soviet-installed communist government of Poland and remained in exile in Britain. He died May 12, 1970, but with the collapse of communist rule in Poland in1989, his citizenship and military rank were posthumously reinstated. The 4th page shows and image of Major General Zygmunt Szyszko-Bohusz G.O.C. of the 2nd Polish Corps. In 1940, he was a Commanding Officer of the Polish Independent Highland Brigade during the Battle of Narvik in the Norwegian Campaign with forces under his command succeeding in capturing the Ankenes Peninsula during May 1940. Between 1943-1945 he became Deputy General Officer Commanding the 2nd Polish Corps in Italy. He was the recipient of both the Gold and Silver Cross of Virtuti.

We find on page 5 the image of Major General Bronislaw Duch. Duch first served during WWI, 1914-1918 in the Polish Legions. After Poland regained independence, he served in the Polish Army acting as commander of the 39th Reserve Infantry Division. Unfortunately Poland was overrun by Germany and the Soviet Union in September 1939. Duch managed to evade capture and had successive commands in Western Europe. At the time of the album he was commander of the 3rd Carpathian Infantry Division of the 2nd Polish Corps. The 3rd Carpathian Rifle Division participated in the North African and Italian campaign as part of the British Eighth Army. The division fought in some of the most difficult battle of the Italian campaign and distinguished itself in the Battle of Monte Cassino and in the dash for Ancona and Bologna.

The sixth page of the album shows the image of Major General Kazimierz Wisniowski, Chief of Staff of the 2nd Polish Corps. He is given credit for a major share of responsibility in the success of the 2nd Polish Corps in Italy due to his untiring effort, energy, and devotion to duty to duty which was a constant inspiration to his staff. It was his planning and careful execution of his Commander’s order that resulted in the success in the battle for Monte Cassino and the breaking of the Gothic Line.

As we examine page 7 of this unique album we find the image of Major General Sulik G.O.C. of the 4th Kresowa Division. Nikodem Sulik had an interesting military career beginning in the Russian Army in a part of Poland which belonged to the Russian Empire. He had extensive service in the Polish Army but after the Soviet invasion of Eastern Poland on September 17, 1939, Sulik was in skirmishes with the advancing Red Army troops and joined the Polish resistance. In 1941 Sulik was arrested and tortured by the NKVD but was later released. He was able to eventually join Anders’ army and with the 5th Kresowa Infantry Division which landed in southern Italy in February 1944 and entered the line as part of the Polish 2nd Corps. In May he also took part in the fourth and final battle of Monte Cassino, during which the Polish Corps suffered a 15% casualty rate. He has also been named as Nikodem Sulik-Sarnowski in searching his military career. The eighth officer making this historic album is Major General Bronislaw T. Rakowski of the 2nd Armored Brigade. In one of the major Polish awards it was stated that Major General Rakowski led the 2nd Polish Armored Division with great determination and skill throughout the campaign in Italy, from the exploitation of the success at Monte Cassino and during the advance on the Adriatic Sector. His tanks fought extremely well in the breaking of the gothic Line.

As we near the end of the album of dedicated officers of the Polish Corps we encounter our 95th general officer in the album. Major General Klemens Rudnick G.O.C. of the Lwowska Infantry Division. Like many of the previously mentioned officers in the album he fought in the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland, after which he joined the Polish resistance movement in the city of Lwow occupied by the Soviets. He too was arrest by the NKVD and sent to prison in Moscow but concealed his identity and survived. When released he took the post of deputy of the 6th Lwow Infantry Division. By April 1942 he became commandant of the 6th Infantry Division. He fought in the Battle of Monte Cassino and the Battle of Bologna. The final officer of this unique album is Major General and Doctor Boleslaw Szarecki who in 1943-1945 was the Chief Medical Officer of the 2nd Corps in Italy. As Consulting Surgeon and Inspector of Hospitals he was an inspiration to all ranks of the Polish Medical Units. This was particularly so during the Battle for Monte Cassino. When the surgeon of a field medical unit was killed by shellfire, Dr. Szarecki remained there operating throughout the battle. While every one of the Polish officers in this unique album had much more complex military records tracing back to WWI service, our short descriptions are mostly based on the Polish Corps in the 1944-45 period during the Italian campaign.

One of the last images taken of General McMahon would be when he was photographed being interviewed by the media while attending funeral services for his friend and West Point roommate General Mark Clark at the Citadel Military Academy.General Mark Clark (May 1, 1896 – April 17, 1984) was not only General McMahon’s classmate at West Point but would also serve as his commanding officer during the Italian Campaign in WWII. General McMahon died on March 24, 1990 at 95 years of age.

It has been said that everyone in the world is connected by six degrees of separation which really explains the exponential power of relationship. In this story of General McMahon’s gift, the first degree of separation was between himself and Mark Clark as West Point roommates and classmates. The connection very probably led to McMahon being summoned to Join Mark Clark in Italy. Clark’s service with the officers of the Polish 2nd Corps in the liberation of Italy provides the 2nd degree of separation. The third degree of separation was when General McMahon carried out his brother George’s wish upon his death to provide a bequest to the Catholic Charities in Buffalo, New York via interaction with Richard Majka. In doing so, the General and Richard developed a bond while fulfilling his brother’s final wish. McMahon’s subsequent gift of the Polish Corps Photo album was treasured by Richard Majka as a special and unique piece of history. Richard left us in August 2020 leaving the album to his son, David Majka. Now the 4th degree of separation would occur. David Majka had long ago developed a strong interest in military history due to his father’s Army service, and he safeguarded the photo album due to its connection to his father and Polish heritage.

A 5th degree of separation occurred linking this author to David Majka due to Majka and his wife’s ownership of the historic John Frew House in Pittsburgh, previously owned by Bob Goron before his death in 1995. David and his wife Connie met Goron before his passing and eventually came to own this historic landmark house. This author, who had worked for Goron at the house in his youth, contacted David Majka to provide him a copy of the June 2023 Military Trader/Military Vehicles issue containing the story of Bob Goron and the 90th Division’s landing at Utah Beach, the same landing area for General McMahon. The Polish Corps album is now preserved by David Majka. While a 6th degree of separation remains in the future, our story illustrates how military collectors preserve history and develop everlasting connections.