7th Hussars


The Mermaid of Warsaw


This is a relatively recent badge worn on the lower left sleeve of the khaki no.2 dress, and before that on battledress. The left hand badge is embroidered white worsted thread on red felt (4.25x5cm) and the right hand version is for officers worked in silver wire (3.75x4.75cm). It was worn on the uniforms of the 7th Hussars and continued to be worn by the Queen's Own Hussars after 1958 and also by the Queen's Royal Hussars after 1993.

The badge is a battle honour conferred on the 7th Hussars by the 2nd Polish Corps, commanded by General Wladislaw Anders, after they fought together against the Germans at Ancona and Rimini in Italy in 1944. The badge is referred to as the Syrena or mermaid badge, or the Maid of Warsaw. The image is of a mermaid fighting with sword and shield, the symbol of Warsaw and used as a badge by Polish soldiers. The legend told of the love between Syrena the mermaid and a Polish warrior who was killed by Swedish soldiers. She took up arms against the Swedes in defence of her lover's city. The name Syrena comes from the sirens of Homer's Odyssey, sea maids whose singing was so beautiful that sailors were lured to their doom, and was used as the name of a mermaid in the film Pirates of the Caribbean.

The high regard in which the regiment was held by the Polish army is illustrated by SSM O'Connor who recounted that he was in the Polish Field Dressing Station in Italy. Casualties were so heavy that the FDS could not cope with the numbers coming in. However, to his astonishment, whenever a 7th Hussar tank crewman was brought in he was taken, on the insistance of both staff and Polish casualties, to the head of the queue.


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by Stephen Luscombe