Z. Tydda Polish O.S.S. Para Behind German Lines

[vonStubben]

A friend of mine just bought this M42 SD Heer helmet with a scrubbed decal out of a private home where it's resided since 1945. The skirt is painted with the name Z (Zygmunt) Tydda. The liner is also marked Tydda 04-312/R.

He has learned the a Zygmunt Tydda was a WWII Polish paratrooper who worked for the O.S.S. and was dropped behind German lines, dressed in German uniform, yet working for the Allies. It's said that he was captured by U.S. troops sometime in 1944.

Can anyone confirm this information? The 04-312/R doesn't seem like a feldpost number to me....but I'm not sure.

Thanks for the help.

[soldbuch]

FP Nr 04312 - mainly related to harbour Kdo Cherbourg and 1 mention of Marine bord flak Bordeaux, this would be fine with being captured by US troops but OSS link I dont know.

[101combatvet]

The story sounds flawed.

[vonStubben]

Zygmunt Tydda

I guess it's time to resurrect this old thread. In checking my PM's this morning I had one waiting for me from the grandson of Zygmunt Tydda. It turns out this story is true and he can tell us what we want to know about him so I've invited him to join the thread. My friend still has this helmet and I'll be seeing it tomorrow to take more photos.

vS

[DailyLlama]

Hi all

Zygmunt Tydda was my grandfather. He was born in Dusseldorf, to Polish parents who were on holiday, and then returned to Bydgoszcz where they lived. He was in the Polish Army when the Germans invaded, and after the surrender, was forcibly conscripted into the German Navy.

He served aboard a ship until its capture by the Royal Navy in around 1943, whereupon he was taken to a processing centre, and they discovered that he was Polish rather than German. With his military experience, he was somehow entered into a unit belonging to the newly formed OSS. He went to Scotland and did a rigorous training course similar to the Jedburgh units. He became part of the "Cocktail" missions, and was dropped into Germany along with his partner (and my father's godfather) Bob. In civilian attire, they moved around posing as workers, gathering intelligence and information, and radioing it back to London.

They evaded capture by German forces, although they were caught by French police (who failed to search them properly, as Zygmunt was wearing a "Mae West" radio around his neck, and they didn't notice it. They were able to call for help from the prison cell, and local resistance fighters helped them to escape!).

Towards the end of the war, he served in the SHAEF group, working directly for General Patton. He was with an American unit who was the first into one of the concentration camps (apologies, I can't remember which one at the moment), and spent the last few months of the war, and sometime afterwards, hunting down Nazis for the Nuremberg trials.

We have all sorts of documentation - forged German travel and work permits, sheets of forged German ration stamps. Letters from Walter Donovan, citations for a Bronze Star, plus his Polish Army Uniform, French, British and American medals.

My only regret is that he died in 1979 when I was just over 1 year old, so I don't remember him at all.

[Lou58]

Thanks VS, and DailyLlama for your Grandfathers service history, he was a very lucky to survive the War with his role as a OSS agent behind enemy lines, they sure were brave women, and men that did a top service for their Countries.


Lou

[vonStubben]

Here's the helmet.

[vonStubben]

........

[Dennis S]

I’m not doubting the extradonary story, but at what point was he able to keep his German helmet ????

I cant imagine a POW being able to keep it .