ONE OF A KIND. THE LAST CAR OF MARSHAL JOSEPH PILSUDSKI IN THE POLISH MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

Abstract

The article is an attempt to recreate the fate of the most interesting of the vehicles belonging to the automobile column of GISZ – the General Inspectorate of the Armed Forces. It survived the turmoils of war and today holds pride of place among the exhibits in the Polish Federation of Engineering Associations’ Museum of Technology. This unique vehicle is an American Cadillac, a Series 30 Fleetwood 355D 7-passenger limousine, ordered at the end of 1934 for Marshal Józef Piłsudski, Inspector General of the Polish Armed Forces and Minister of Military Affairs, and delivered to Poland at the beginning of the following year. Based on the production series model, this Special Edition was produced specifically for Józef Piłsudski and incorporated an extensive range of modifications and facilities, enhancing the user’s security and comfort. The Cadillac 355D remainedat the disposal of the General Inspector of the Armed Forces until September 1939. It appears to have been used quite extensively by the Independent Automobile Column, as evidenced by numerous „requisitions to remove defects” in the Column’s workshop. During the September Campaign of 1939, the Cadillac 355D was used by the Commander in Chief, Marshal Edward Śmigły-Rydz. Between the second half of the 1940s and the late 1950s, the Marshal’s Cadillac was at the disposal of the Polish Ministry of Public Security and then, in 1956, it was relegated to the Museum’s stores in Wroclaw in a totally devastated state. On 7th November 2014,a ceremonial presentation of the restored Cadillac 355D – Marshal Józef Piłsudski’s last motor car – took place outside the Belweder Presidential Palace and it was subsequently put on public display in the Łazienki Palace Gardens.