A new (fictional) British unit

[Legbreaker]

On the first day of the new year, the NATO heads of state declared their support for a Polish government in exile, headed by a committee of Polish emigres. While the news was greeted with scattered worker uprisings in Poland, the majority of the Polish Army remained loyal to the central government, and open resistance was soon crushed. An underground movement began forming, however, and by spring small guerrilla bands, leavened by Polish Army deserters, began to harass Warsaw Pact supply convoys and installations.

Sure, they declared support, but that's a far cry from actively providing supplies, funds, weapons, etc.
Even so, later in the year when the nukes were tossed about, their (relatively minor) importance is virtually destroyed. We can see in the books that by 2000, they've only got 650 troops split between the two free brigades, and one of those brigades is on the verge of going their own way.

Perhaps these two units are the ones that were formed by ex-pat volunteers along with more local deserters

[simonmark6]

Whilst I can see a better use for Polish speakers than lumping them in a single regiment, there is a precedent for the UK to do such a thing and therefore the unit as posited could exist in the TK2 universe. the argument that the US isn't raising units of US Iraqis is an interesting one but not 100% relevant because they were certainly raising a lot of Iraqi units in Iraq.

Would the US and Canada raise such units I doubt it in the US but Canada might as it has more of the British "local regiment" tradition. Especially if teh British version seemed successful.

[Badbru]

Whilst I do like the write-up I can only really see it happening in the UK because of the precedence. What one has to remember is that most emigres are essentially settled refugees who fled their home country precisely to avoid war, conflict, and/or persecution. Those few who feel deeply passionate enough about their home country may return to fight for it, but they're more likely to do it by joining their adoptive nations military if that'll put them there, or, going back and joining a resistance style force incountry. We've seen this in the independence wars in the former Yugoslavia where ethnic Bosnians, Serbs, and Croats from all over the world returned to Yugoslavia and joined their respective malitias, armies, what have you. I suspect you'd find alot of fluent, and strangely accented english speakers in those two Polish Free Legions.