The Cadillacs at the Heart of Polish Independence
Overseas enthusiasm for U.S. domestic-market machinery can sometimes surprise you: for instance, Japan’s only factory Porsche racer, Tetsu Ikuzawa, owns not one but two delivery-mileage Ram SRT-10s. Yes, the ones with the Viper engine. In Japan. Further, though few members remain, there exists a club in Estonia for fans of the Pontiac “Dustbuster” Trans Sport minivans. They used to have an annual gathering to have the vans blessed by an Orthodox priest. Sometimes, though, Americana is not merely part of a fandom, but at the core of a country’s history.
Two years ago, we profiled US1275X, a Type 57 Cadillac that served with US forces in WWI and is believed to be the last remaining fighting Cadillac of its time. The car had just the kind of storied history you’d expect from such an artifact, but most of its compatriots did not return from across the Atlantic. Thanks to an email from Poland, we have a little clue as to what happened to at least some of the Cadillacs that stayed behind.
Non-enthusiasts are often surprised to find out that T.E. Lawrence (known to many as Lawrence of Arabia) used Rolls-Royces for his hit-and-run warfare tactics, and it is perhaps curious to find out that early Cadillacs were also ships of the desert. But in the early days of the automobile, these now-luxury brands grew their reputation for steadfast reliability. A Cadillac or a Rolls-Royce could boast ornate coachwork, but the backbone of the vehicle was durability and serviceability. When you are looking for something to support troops, artillery, and tanks, toughness in the field is just the asset wanted.
Here’s a quick snapshot of the Type 57 Cadillac. Equipped with a 90-degree, 5.1-liter V-8, it had 70 hp and a stout 175 lb-ft of torque. The control layout would be familiar to a modern driver today—you could jump right in one and drive it off down the street without too much difficulty (especially as compared to a contemporary Model T, which has a bit of a learning curve). Approximately 2000 are thought to have been shipped overseas as transport vehicles, beginning when the U.S. entered WW1 in 1917. They were known as Liberty Cadillacs.
A Cadillac was of course suitable transportation for officers, and that is of course what they were used for. The original owner of US1257X was Dr. John Hopkins Denison, who purchased the car himself and was ranked as a Major for the duration of the war. He mostly used it for support work well away from the front lines, though it did manage to get holed by a bullet once.
After the war concluded with an armistice in November of 1918, many of these Liberty Cadillacs were decommissioned. US1257X survived partially because Dr. Denison returned to Europe in 1920, used it for touring around, and then had the car shipped home himself. At the time of the original article written on 57X, research seemed to indicate that the rest of the cars had been sold off for scrap. But, it turns out, not all of them met that fate.
Among the political changes that marked the aftermath of WWI was the re-creation of Poland as an independent country. Partitioned into thirds by the Prussian (later German), Austro-Hungarian, and Russian empires in the eighteenth century, it hadn’t existed since the fall of Stanislaw II Augustus, the last king of Poland, in 1795.
Chief among the reasons the Allied powers granted Poland new independence, confirming the decision with the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, was the farsighted work of Marshal Józef Piłsudski. Piłsudski, a man who knew how to pull off a truly spectacular mustache, is considered to be the father of Polish independence, and he fought for it his entire life. Once interned in Siberia by Imperial Russia, he had formed the Polish Legions in WWI, fighting against Russia on the eastern front on behalf of the Germans.
But he was no supporter of the Central Powers. Piłsudski held secret meetings with French and English military leaders to assure them that he was only interested in expelling the Russians from his country—the Allies were probably further assured by the Polish forces in France fighting alongside them against the Germans. As soon as Russia became less of a threat, he withdrew his support and was imprisoned by the Germans. He predicted the outcome of WWI correctly back as far as 1914, so it appears that his chess game was to push back the Russian line, then negotiate with the other two countries who had partitioned Poland after their eventual defeat.
The success of the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution led to the end of fighting on the Eastern front, marked by a treaty signed between the Central Powers and now-Soviet Russia in March of 1918. President Woodrow Wilson, seeking to use WWI as a way to spread democracy, declared the independence of Poland as the thirteenth of his Fourteen Points speech of that same year. In November of 1918, Piłsudski was freed from prison, returned to Poland, and was given the title of Chief of State. And here is where Cadillac comes back into the picture, because shortly thereafter, the Soviets attacked.
Vladimir Lenin saw Poland as a stepping stone for spreading the communist revolution throughout Europe. The Soviet-Polish war of 1919-1921 was messy, as Piłsudski’s forces were initially moving eastwards to establish Poland’s original borders, but the attack of the now-strengthened Red Army was relentless. By August of 1920, the Soviets were at the gates of Warsaw.
Liberty Cadillacs were part of the support vehicles for Polish forces, including Piłsudski’s own personal transport, badged 770. This was his first car, and he is known to have enjoyed the speed it provided. Not only would these have been used as officer transportation, but the Cadillacs also appeared to have functioned as support vehicles for Polish aviators. This last was a common use for Rolls-Royces in the early days of WWI, driving out to pick up pilots who had crash-landed short of home base.
From the seat of his Cadillac 57, Piłsudski directed a counterattack that hit the Red Army in its poorly defended flank, crippling it. Polish forces moved swiftly, securing a victory that would come to be called “Miracle on the Vistula.” Some historians regard this battle as one of the most important of the twentieth century, as it effectively halted this early western spread of Soviet ambitions. Instead of rolling revolutions across Europe, it would be an uneasy stalemate with the West, broken by WWII. Polish forces won several follow-up victories, a peace treaty was signed, and the country’s borders remained inviolate until 1939.
On November 11, 2014, Polish then-President Bronislaw Komorowski unveiled a freshly restored Cadillac Fleetwood Special 335D. The last Cadillac owned by Marshal Piłsudski, it was delivered to Poland in 1935, only months before his death. Hidden in Romania when Germany invaded in 1939, it would later see the rise of communism in Poland. Piłsudski was certainly not popular with the pro-communist element for his battles with the Soviets, and the secret police were said to have used the Cadillac for target practice.
President Komorowski related one of Piłsudski’s quips, that a Rolls-Royce was only good for driving to the grocery store—a Cadillac was the only car he wanted to be chauffeured in. The Fleetwood then went on to be part of that year’s Independence Day parade, after which it was placed on permanent display at Royal Lazienki Park in Warsaw. This is where you can find it today, sitting under glass like the remains of Lenin.
Piłsudski’s Cadillac 57 is of course long gone, but the love of the brand stayed with him through his long years as the de facto head of a reborn Polish state. To him, a Cadillac meant liberty to his people. No wonder he loved them.
