The 14th Jazłowiec Cavalry Regiment was one of the most distinguished units of the Polish cavalry throughout its nearly 1000-year history. A symbol of the regiment's glory is its banner, decorated by Jozef Pilsudski with the Virtuti Militari Cross for the campaigns of 1918-1920. The banner, which miraculously escaped destruction or capture by the Germans during World War II, is now kept in the Polish Institute and General Sikorski Museum in London.

Throughout the first period of its history, from the formation of the first squadron in Kuban in the summer of 1918, through its sojourn in Odessa, Bessarabia and Bukovina, to the campaigns of 1919 and 1920, the regiment did not have its own banner. It only came into being at the turn of 1920/1921 on the initiative of a group of alumnae of the Immaculate Sisters' Institution in Jazlowiec. The banner was presented to the regiment by Marshal Jozef Pilsudski on 20 March 1921 in the meadows near Tomaszów Mazowiecki.

It corresponds to the provisions of the Act on emblems and colours of the Republic of Poland of 1919. The banner's lobe is a square measuring 65 x 65 cm, sewn from damask. On its right side there is a crimson bachelor's cross, with a gold laurel wreath inscribed in the centre with the inscription HONOR AND DAY. The left side looks similar, with the centre of the cross being white and the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the laurel wreath.

The 14th Cavalry Regiment belonged to a small group of military units, which were awarded the Virtuti Militari Fifth Class Cross for exceptional merits in the Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Soviet wars (the honour was awarded to 15 infantry regiments, four cavalry regiments, one sapper battalion and twelve batteries and artillery divisions). The Virtuti Militari Cross, numbered 2514, was pinned to the banner by Marshal Piłsudski's hand during a ceremony on 20 March 1921. The blue and black ribbon, originally tied to the banner's spar under the head, is also a symbol of this award. It shows traces of being hit by rifle bullets from 1939.

Next to it is also a second ribbon in the national colours, with the inscription honoured for extraordinary valour in the 1939 CAMPAIGN IN POLAND embroidered in gold byre. Its genesis is rather complicated. Just before the capitulation of Warsaw in September 1939, by the decision of General Juliusz Rómmel, the banner of the 14th Jazłowiec Cavalry Regiment was entitled to be decorated for the second time with the Virtuti Militari Cross. Guided by the principles adopted for decorating soldiers, General Rómmel awarded the order a class higher, i.e. Class IV. This decision was taken in great haste, without examining its compliance with the rules of decoration. Already after the end of the Second World War, the chapter of the Order found that the statutes did not provide for the possibility of awarding the Cross of Virtuti Militari twice to a regimental banner. In order to respect the distinction of the regiment, it was decided to replace the second bestowal of the Order of War Virtuti Militari with just such a ribbon. The ceremonial awarding of the banner took place on 12 November 1966 at the Sikorski Polish Institute in London.

Another inseparable element of the banner was a head in the shape of a silver eagle, resting with its talons on a base with the regiment's numeral. It is now in the Museum of the Polish Army in Warsaw. However, the spar of the banner has not survived, most probably destroyed before the capitulation of Warsaw in 1939.

Charge at Wólka Węglowa
In the September campaign, the banner accompanied the 14th Jazłowiec Lancers Regiment on its entire battle route, from Poznań to Warsaw. The heaviest battles were fought by it during the breakthrough to encircled Warsaw after the lost battle over the Bzura River.

On 19 September 1939, the famous charge at Wólka Węglowa took place. Weakened in the previous fighting and lacking artillery support, the Polish cavalry units had little chance of forcing their way into Warsaw through the tightening ring of German tanks and motorised infantry. The commander of the 14th Jazłowiec Cavalry Regiment, Colonel Edward Godlewski, decided that the only chance of penetrating the enemy lines would be to act rapidly on horseback and exploit the effect of surprise. As it turned out, this was the right decision and the regiment, despite heavy losses in killed and wounded, broke through to Warsaw. The charge at Wólka Węglowa was the last in the history of Polish cavalry, executed with the forces of an entire cavalry regiment.

While breaking through the German lines, the banner was in the hands of Corporal Franciszek Maziarski, who had graduated from the regimental non-commissioned officer school with first place in 1937. Before falling to the ground, however, he managed to hand the banner over to Corporal Mieczysław Czech, who luckily made his way with it to Bielany.

Contrary to a later legend, perpetuated by, among others, the Italian war correspondent Mario Appelius, as well as several Polish authors, at Wólka Węglowa the Cavalry Lancers did not charge with the banner unfurled. In fact, it was placed in a protective leather cover, from outside which only the silver eagle on the spar and the ribbon in the colours of the Virtuti Militari, shot through with German machine gun bullets, were visible. Pulling the banner out of the cover would only have threatened to focus German fire on it, resulting in its loss.

Later history of the banner
On 24 September 1939, in the barracks of the 1st Cavalry Regiment at the Royal Baths in Warsaw, a muster-up of the 14th Cavalry Regiment and a farewell of the banner took place. Then it was dismantled and given for safekeeping to the Narbutowicz family, owners of a tenement house at 25 Nowogrodzka St. The banner's lobe was hidden in a mattress, while the head with the eagle was hidden in the attic.

The tenement avoided destruction during the Warsaw Uprising, as well as demolition by the Germans after its fall. The Narbutowiczs were displaced along with the civilian population of Warsaw in October 1944, but managed to return to their flat as early as March 1945. Although it was ransacked by looters, the mattress with the hidden banner luckily survived in its place. Only the head with the eagle was stolen, but years later, in unclear circumstances, it was found in the Museum of the Polish Army.

The banner's lobe, together with the Virtuti Militari Cross and ribbon, was taken to the United Kingdom after the end of the Second World War and deposited in the Polish Institute and the General Sikorski Museum.

Jazłowiec and Lwów
Finally, it is worth mentioning in a few words two places particularly associated with the 14th Jazłowiec Cavalry Regiment.
The first is Jazłowiec, where the regiment fought its first major battle on the lands of the Republic of Poland after its arrival from Romania. On 11-13 July 1919, together with units of the 10th Infantry Division, the regiment broke through the defences of the Ukrainian army on the Stypa line. Great credit for this was due to its commander, Major Konstanty Plisowski, who after this battle was exceptionally promoted to colonel with one rank omitted, and the regiment was given the honourable name of the Jazłowiec Uhlans.

From that time onwards a special relationship was established between the Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the uhlans, who were frequent guests at the jazlowiec chateau . The symbolic closure of this unique relationship was the coronation of the statue of Our Lady of Jazłowiec by Primate August Hlond, which took place on 8-9 July 1939 Due to the already tense international situation, not the whole regiment took part in the ceremony, but only two squadrons together with Colonel Godlewski, the flag post and the orchestra.

The second place, included in the history of the 14th Cavalry Lancers Regiment, was Lvov Lychakiv. The regiment moved into the former Austrian cavalry barracks in the autumn of 1921 and was quartered there until mobilisation in 1939. There were two complexes located on Lychakivska Street: the first in the immediate vicinity of Bartosz Głowacki Park (the so-called Barracks on Juniowiec) and the second at the intersection with St. Peter's Street (today Miecznikow Street), not far from Lychakivsky Cemetery. The barracks buildings have survived to a large extent to this day, and some of them are used by the Ukrainian Border Guard.

ca. 1920/21