Chaplain Hubert MISIUDA
1st Independent Parachute Brigade
Hubert Misiuda was born to August and Emma (nee Palaszynska) on 23 March 1909 in Nieborowice, Rynicki District, Poland. He was one of the couple’s 13 children. He was the first Polish chaplain of the Polish Armed Forces in the West to complete a parachute course. He took part in the raid near Arnhem. He was killed while crossing the Ren River, hit by a bullet from a machine rifle, on the night of 24-25 September 1944. He was 35 years old.
After the division of Upper Silesia his family decided to live on the Polish side and moved to Lasowice, which is now part of the Tarnów Mountains.
He joined the Oblat Brothers in 1932 and completed philosophical and theological studies at the Theological Institute in Obra near Poznan. He was ordained a priest in 1937 and was sent to Madagascar and the Netherlands as a missionary.
When there was news that war was imminent, Bishop Józef Gawlina directed him to the Infantry School, which he graduated with distinction.
After completing the Infantry School, he became a chaplain at the Central Military Training Center in Loudéac, France, from which he transferred to the 3rd Light Artillery Regiment.
After the fall of France, he worked in the English hospital in Marseille for 9 months. Subsequently, he worked in internment camps of Polish combatants in Algiers and Morocco.
On 23 November 1941 he was named Chaplain of the Miranda del Ebro camp in Spain. He was recalled to England where he became the Chaplain of the 2nd Rifleman’s Battalion before transferring to the 1st Independent Parachute Brigade. He was the first military chaplain to complete the parachute course.
In September 1944, he took part in a paratrooper action near Arnhem in the Netherlands, as part of Operation Market Garden.
He was killed during the return crossing through the Renen River on the night from 25 to 26 September. He was seen entering the river with other soldiers, but he never reached the other bank.
The other soldiers insisted on searching for his body. He was found and officially confirmed dead. They found that during this crossing he had been hit by a machine gun bullet.
General Sosabowski wrote about him in a book titled "The road led to a downfall": "For three days, Chaplain Misiuda wandered across the battlefield, blessing, hearing confessions, treating wounds, registering deaths, collecting identification tags. During these days and nights, right at the edge of nervous exhaustion, he gave support to those who were faltering in spirit simply by his presence."
Chaplain Hubert Misiuda was buried in the Arnhem-Oosterbeek War Cemetery in the Netherlands along with 79 Poles buried in that cemetery. He was posthumously marked with the Cross of Valor.
Source: Translated from Basia Brzezińska’s "P-tv.nl Historia" Facebook post
Chaplains of the 1st Independent Parachute Brigade during exercise, jumping off the parachute tower. Franciszek Mientki and Hubert Misiuda at Largo House, November 1942. Both jumped in combat during Operation Market Garden.
The image of the Madonna of the Parachute was made by the instructor Albina Bratka and was transferred to the Royal Castle chapel in Falkland, where services for paratroopers were performed by Chaplain Hubert Misiuda.
Chaplain Hubert Misiuda was buried in the Arnhem-Oosterbeek War Cemetery in the Netherlands along with 79 Poles buried in this cemetery.