Czeslaw "Chez" Guzenda (1911 - 1982) - My Father |
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Czeslaw Guzenda was born on 22 June, 1911 in Sulmierzyce in the District of Odolanow, Poland. He grew up on the family farm near Bydgoszcz. He was apprenticed as a cabinet maker in Warsaw and later joined the Polish Navy in or around 1933. He arrived in Leith, Scotland on 1st September, 1939 as a Ship’s Carpenter (Cieśla) onboard the O.R.P. Błyskawica after the triggering of Operation Peking. He later rose to the ranks of Bosun and Chief Petty Officer. He was on the O.R.P. Błyskawica throughout its operational and regular maintenance periods until it was sent back to Poland in 1947. He was temporarily stationed on the ORP Conrad whilst the ORP Błyskawica was repaired. He was awarded the following medals (Photos):
He was decommissioned and elected to remain in England, achieving British Citizenship that year. He married Isle of Wight resident Vera Maud Cole in 1946 and had a son, Leon, in 1947. Czeslaw attained the Certificate of Master Cabinet Maker and worked at J.S.White’s shipyard (where the Błyskawica and Grom were built) and later at Vospers and the Naval Dockyards in Portsmouth, Hampshire. He died as a result of mesothelioma (asbestosis) on 24 August, 1982 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK, most probably as a result of his exposure to the hazardous substance during his time in the shipyards and Naval Dockyard. Coincidentally, the verdict of his inquest was delivered on the day that the "Mary Rose" was raised from the bed of the Solent, visible from outside the Coroner's Court in Southsea, something that he would have liked. He was survived by his wife Vera, son Leon, and daughter, Christine. |
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WARTIME EXPERIENCES |
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Crew Rosters and Service Record:Czesław Guzenda appears on the nominal crew list of ORP Błyskawica as of 1 September 1939, with the rank of Stoker-Joiner (matroś–cieśla) and service number 412/32. This indicates that he joined the Navy in 1932 and was part of Błyskawica’s original wartime crew. He remained with the destroyer through the entire war, one of the few Polish sailors to serve continuously from 1939 to 1945. A post-war Polish naval archive notes: “Petty Officer Czesław Guzenda… was born on 22 June 1911. He served on the destroyers ORP Grom and ORP Błyskawica”. His long service on Błyskawica spanned Atlantic convoys, the Norwegian campaign, the Mediterranean, and Normandy." |
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North Africa Campaign IncidentBłyskawica suffered one of her worst enemy-inflicted damages on 12 November 1942 during a Luftwaffe air raid on the port of Bougie (Algeria). Several near-miss bombs raked her hull. The destroyer was hit by four bomb splinters/explosions that pierced her plating and wrecked parts of the engine room, causing serious flooding . She also sustained heavy casualties (4 crewmen killed outright, 1 died of wounds in hospital, and 46 wounded) .The crew heroically controlled the flooding by plugging holes with wooden wedges and collision mats until the ship could be stabilized. Błyskawica limped to port for emergency patching after this attack. A “brief yard repair” was done (likely in Algiers or Gibraltar) to install temporary plating over the shrapnel holes – accounts mention that the ship “went to the shipyard for a short time” after Bougie . Photographic evidence from other incidents (e.g. the 1944 Musketeer collision) similarly shows crude planking and steel patches along Błyskawica’s hull while under repair. These wooden reinforcements, placed by CPO Guzenda and his team, were vital to keep the destroyer seaworthy until permanent steel plating could be riveted in place, possibly in Cowed, before proceeding to Plymouth, where he and some others were hospitalized for a week or so around that time. |
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Role in Damage Control:As the Ship’s Joiner, Guzenda was responsible for carpentry and hull repairs onboard – a crucial role when the ship took damage. It was often Guzenda’s expertise that guided the shoring up of bulkheads with wooden beams or the plugging of splinter holes during emergencies. While individual crew accounts of the 1944 incidents are scarce, it is almost certain that Chief Carpenter Guzenda was directly involved in the damage control efforts after both the Musketeer collision and the January 1945 rudder incident. His skills would have been critical in securing the temporary wooden rudder jury and patching hull breaches. Polish sources note that Błyskawica’s crew had a very experienced damage control team, including long-serving petty officers like Guzenda.For his wartime merits, Guzenda was awarded the Cross of Valour in 1943 (likely for his actions during the North African campaign, such as the Bougie air raid damage control) and also received the British Sea Gallantry Medal (with 2 bars). These honors underscore his courage and contribution to keeping Błyskawica afloat under fire. |
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Atlantic Convoys in 1945:In early 1945, after Błyskawica’s refit, CPO Guzenda rejoined the ship for Atlantic escort duties. Błyskawica helped escort troopships and even the battleship HMS Nelson in February 1945. She then participated in Convoy CU-55 from New York in late January 1945 and other late-war convoy operations. Her logs show Błyskawica escorting ships between the UK and North America through March 1945.By war’s end, he was among the most seasoned members of the crew. In May 1945, Błyskawica anchored in Rosyth and later took part in Operation Deadlight that winter, which scuttled surrendered U-Boats. When the Royal Navy handed Błyskawica back to Poland in 1946, Guzenda’s name was recorded among the veterans still aboard. His family recounts that he served on the ship until its final days in UK service, and was demobilized after nearly seven years of wartime and post-war duty on her. |
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Postwar Acknowledgment:Czesław Guzenda’s legacy lives on through Polish Navy records and his family’s accounts. The Polish Institute & Sikorski Museum in London holds personal narratives of sailors; one such entry confirms Guzenda’s awards and background. Fellow crew remember “Mr. Guzenda” as a quiet hero who could jury-rig a fix for almost anything. After the war, he stayed in the UK but remained proud of the ORP Błyskawica. In later years he was invited to reunions of the ship’s veterans. He passed away after a long life, but not before seeing his beloved destroyer become a museum ship – the oldest preserved destroyer in the world – in Gdynia, Poland.In summary, Chief Petty Officer Czesław Guzenda was an integral part of ORP Błyskawica’s story. His presence is documented from the outbreak of war in 1939 to the final Atlantic convoy missions of 1945, providing a human link to the ship’s many battles and the repairs that kept her fighting. |
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| Other ORP Błyskawica Crew Members | |
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September 1996 - April 2025 site.