JW Grom, Polish Special Forces

The JW GROM is the quintessential special forces unit of the Polish Armed Forces. Not as well known by the general public as the Navy SEALs, for example, but they have earned the respect of elite units like the DEVGRU, or so Mark Owen tells us in his book “No Easy Day”, were he remembers the days when he operated with them. Now, they are not unknown in airsoft either, or at least not for the Canary Island based team HGR 2305 who have spent years recreating this unit with great success. But lets hear it from them.

In the underworld of airsoft there has always been talk of a certain event in which a group started playing by waiting in the middle of the sea waiting to be picked up by a Zodiac motorboat, what do you know about this?

This was the Gungnir exercise, from July 20 to 21, in 2019, one of the most complete events, due to its variety and complexity, in which we have participated.

It was a war game in infiltration through the aquatic environment. A Zodiac motorboat picked us up at sea and took us to a beach where we swam with all our gear to shore, and once there, we hid in some buildings. We changed into our direct action gear and a number of operations began by the deployed units aimed at establishing a network of observation posts (OP) to identify the enemy and obtain all the necessary information for subsequent missions, regarding their position, number and security measures of their base. Finally, at nightfall, the OPs are dismantled and the units falls back and gathers to organize a joint attack in different phases in a sandbox and execute it.

Not only you look cool when you play, but because of the environment where you play –terribly hot during the day to freezing temperatures at night–, what type of gear do you use in a MilSim?

Normally in any MilSim event, unless it has a very established structure with very clear objectives, we always carry two types of equipment to be able to adapt to each type of mission: direct action and green side/reconnaissance. With this we seek to optimize the material and adapt it to the mission, thus following the recreation as much as possible.

Based on this, we wear both fleeces, such as smocks or raincoats that allow us to continue with the event, enduring any humidity or rain that we may have. As for the heat, a camelback is a must, especially in events held in desert areas such as those of Fuerteventura or in general in summer time.

It doesn’t have to be easy to find the material to recreate a Polish special forces unit, I don’t think you will find it in the catalogue of our usual airsoft brands, how do you do it?

Although the team has been active in events and on social media since 2015, we started the project in 2013, when we were looking to participate in the MilSim mode by recreating a unit, choosing the JW GROM.

During those first two years, we dedicated ourselves “in silence” to thoroughly investigating JW GROM with the few means available (photos, videos, forums, documents, etc.), to learning about JW GROM and its history, as well as to find out about the “kit list” that we wanted to recreate, based on 2011 -2013, having met many operators, ex-operators and other contacts that have allowed us to obtain information that otherwise we would not have obtained as well as material used by said unit, so most of this comes directly from active or retired operators.

Then there is some of the more generic stuff you can get on gear sales pages, or online.

In all these years you have been in contact with operators (both retired and active) of the Polish armed forces. How do they see what you do, do they feel pride or do they have the “Stolen Valor”  issue of the Americans?

Our contacts and relationship began during the aforementioned two years of learning and information gathering (from 2013 to 2015). During a conversation with a Polish journalist, we were offered an interview to appear in “Polska Zbrojna”, a magazine of the Institute of Military Publications (Wojskowy Instytut Wydawniczy), under the Ministry of National Defence (Ministerstwu Obrony Narodowej).

As a result of that, JW GROM found out about our project and we started to be in contact and developed friendships with several operators and ex-operators.

We have always been surprised by the kindness, the desire to help and the pride they feel for a group of people from another country to recreate and admire their unity and their work, to the extent that in 2016 we went to Poland to meet them and some of its facilities, an amazing and unforgettable experience.

We were going to go to Poland again in 2021 for the 30th anniversary, but due to COVID-19 it was impossible for us.

But the military are not the only Poles with whom you have had dealings, is it true that you have appeared in the Polish media?              

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of JW GROM, a special program was made on POLSAT TV with 8 episodes, a total 8 hours runtime, called “GROM – Making history” (GROM – tworzymy historie), and we were invited to participating, showing images and our videos as well as an interview.

In addition to being featured and participating in the issue of the government magazine "Polska Zbrojna", there are several of our publications that are disseminated by other media via Facebook or Instagram, including the official JW GROM account.

Going back to airsoft, we know that you like to surround yourself with people with a similar spirit to yours. In fact, there is something of an embassy… a team of SEAL reenactors… and a somewhat complicated situation, just like “13 hours”.

Another great event in which we were lucky to participate. We had to defend an embassy day and night together with one of the teams with which we have the best of connections, the G.R.A.T, which, as you say, recreates the Navy SEALs.

It was quite hard to defend the position for so many hours, with waves of enemy attacks coupled with missions that we had to carry out outside said enclosure, all of this coupled with activities typical of a nation such as elections in which we had to provide security for.

To reach this level of rapport and performance in the game, do you set up team training or is it something that comes naturally in the weekend games?

In the end it is something that always happens in all areas, people with the same interests, concerns and goals end up joining together and sharing time to reach that goal.

The main goal as a team, not forgetting to have fun, is to get to work together, smoothly and with a level of competence in the MilSim events.

To do this, we carry out training in which we work on individual aspects, formations, movements and other teamwork skills, as well as other more complex exercises, with similar teams and with the same mentality, aimed at working together and efficiently in various areas: reconnaissance actions, communications, execution of joint attack maneuvers, etc.