Rear-Admiral Joe Bartosik RIP

Kyt · Jan 16, 2008

Rear-Admiral Joe Bartosik - Telegraph

Rear-Admiral Joe Bartosik, who died on January 14 aged 90, was the only Pole to reach Flag rank in the Royal Navy, earning a reputation in the process as a latter-day Captain Bligh.

Bartosik was a watchkeeper in the Polish sail training schooner Iskra and was visiting Casablanca when he heard of Hitler's invasion of his home country. Leaving the ship in Morocco, he and most of the crew considered joining the French navy in France, but decided instead to join the Free Polish forces at Plymouth.

As second gunnery officer in the 35-knot destroyer Blyskawica, he was credited with shooting down two Luftwaffe aircraft during the Norwegian campaign. In May and June 1940 he took part in Operation Dynamo, the successful evacuation of the beaches at Dunkirk. Later Blyskawica, one of the few ships that could keep up with the liner, escorted the Queen Mary.

In 1941 Bartosik became gunnery officer of the British-built but Polish-manned destroyer Garland, seeing action in the Mediterranean and Atlantic as well as in the raid on Spitsbergen. He then held a Polish staff appointment before returning to Blyskawica for Operation Neptune, the Allied landings in Normandy, when he bombarded targets on Sword beach.

After a further spell of staff duties, Bartosik became gunnery officer of the elderly Polish cruiser Conrad, named for the author Joseph Conrad when the British deemed that all other Polish names risked offending the Russians.

Conrad spent the early months of 1945 under repair, then was stationed at Wilhelmshaven to garrison the Polish 1st Armoured Division.

Bartosik helped to carry Red Cross supplies to Norway and Denmark before Conrad was returned to the Royal Navy in September 1946. He was awarded a Virtuti Militari, a Cross of Valour and a British DSC.

Józef Czeslaw Bartosik was born at Cracow in undistinguished circumstances on July 20 1917 and entered the Polish officer cadet school housed in an old monastery at Torun on the Vistula, graduating as top student.

Towards the end of 1945 Bartosik wrote a treatise about the Free Polish navy returning home, but, realising that the Soviet shadow was falling over his homeland, decided to remain in Britain.

In 1948 he was one of just three Polish officers, out of several hundred who volunteered, to be accepted for transfer into the Royal Navy, though this involved dropping from a wartime rank of lieutenant-commander to acting lieutenant. Rejecting contact with his fellow Poles he rose steadily, serving as an Admiralty desk officer from 1952 to 1953 and commanding the destroyer Comus before being appointed deputy director of plans at the Admiralty. He was then sent to sea again as captain, 5th Frigate Squadron, stationed at Scarborough.

Bartosik was reckoned an "outstanding" officer with a single-minded devotion to duty. But after the war this instinct increased to the point where he lost all sense of proportion.

He was a fastidious dresser, a handsome and dashing figure who had great personal magnetism - if you were not serving under him.

To his superiors he was reliable and effective: once, when a Nationalist warship tried to stop the British merchantman Helikon entering Foochow on the Chinese mainland, Bartosik fired warning shots, then took Comus alongside them and stared down her captain "eyeball to eyeball".

To his seniors' wives he was charm personified, kissing their hands and speaking in his softly accented English, but tales of his ruthlessness to officers under his command were legendary. His juniors described how his bullying made their lives a misery. All his ships seemed devoid of kindness and mutual respect, and each one was unhappier than its predecessor.

After commanding the Royal Naval Air Station, Culdrose, he was given the guided missile destroyer London. Then, after an unexpected reorganisation of the service, he was promoted to Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Operations); this meant that he served one tour as a rear-admiral and was appointed CB.

In retirement he worked for a container shipping company before settling in Gloucestershire, where he took up picture-framing. He wrote The Faithful Ship (1947), published in London (in Polish), about his service in Garland.

Joe Bartosik married, firstly, Pam Bowman, in 1943. They divorced in 1969 and in the same year he married, secondly, Jeannine Patricia Scott (née Bridgeman).

He is survived by a daughter and two sons by the first marriage; a third son predeceased him.
Click to expand...

spidge · Jan 16, 2008

The amount of Poles who successfully filled requirements during ww2 never ceases to amaze me.

Log in or Sign up

Rear-Admiral Joe Bartosik RIP

Kyt Άρης

spidge Active Member

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

Rear-Admiral Joe Bartosik RIP

Thread Tools

Kyt Άρης

spidge Active Member

Share This Page

Useful Searches