The two-finger salute is a

salute A salute is usually a formal hand gesture or other action used to display respect in military situations. Salutes are primarily associated with the military and law enforcement, but many civilian organizations, such as Girl Guides, Boy Sco ...

given using only the middle and index fingers, while bending the other fingers at the second knuckle, and with the palm facing the signer. This salute is used by the

Polish Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Siły Zbrojne Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, abbreviated ''SZ RP''; popularly called ''Wojsko Polskie'' in Poland, abbreviated ''WP''—roughly, the "Polish Military") are the national armed forces of ...

, other uniformed services in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, and, in some countries, the

Cub Scouts Cub Scouts, Cubs or Wolf Cubs are programs associated with Scouting for young children usually between 7 and 12, depending on the organization to which they belong. A participant in the program is called a Cub. A group of Cubs is called a 'P ...

Two-finger salute in Poland

The Polish two-finger salute is only used while wearing a headdress with the emblem of the Polish eagle (such as military hat

rogatywka Rogatywka (; sometimes translated as '' peaked cap'') is the Polish generic name for an asymmetrical, peaked, four-pointed cap used by various Polish military formations throughout the ages. It is a distant relative of its 18th-century predec ...

) or without this emblem (such as

Boonie hat A boonie hat or booney hat is a type of wide-brim sun hat commonly used by military forces in hot tropical climates. Its design is similar to a bucket hat but with a stiffer brim. The Australian giggle hat has a thinner brim. Often a fabric ta ...

or helmet). The salute is performed with the middle and index fingers extended and touching each other, while the ring and little fingers are bent and touched by the thumb. The tips of the middle and index fingers touch the peak of the cap, two fingers meaning ''honour'' and ''fatherland'' (''Honor i Ojczyzna''). OddawanieHonorow

It is not clear when the two-fingers salute appeared in Polish military forces. Some see its origin in

Tadeusz Kościuszko Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko ( be, Andréj Tadévuš Banavientúra Kasciúška, en, Andrew Thaddeus Bonaventure Kosciuszko; 4 or 12 February 174615 October 1817) was a Polish military engineer, statesman, and military leader who ...

's 1794

oath Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon ', also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise taken by a sacrality as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to g ...

. Others state that it came from Polish soldiers in the

Congress Kingdom Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...

army around 1815 (

partitioned Poland Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of ...

). At that time, the Tsar's Viceroy in Poland, Grand Duke Constantine, said that Poles would salute him with two fingers and use the other two to hold a stone to throw at him. Another legend attributes the salute to the remembrance of

Battle of Olszynka Grochowska The Battle of Olszynka Grochowska was fought on 25 February 1831 in the woods near Grochów, on the eastern outskirts of Warsaw. The Polish army, commanded by Józef Chłopicki, succeeded in preventing its Russian counterpart, under Hans Karl ...

in 1831, when a soldier, who had lost in the battle all his fingers but the middle and index ones, saluted his superior with the wounded hand and died after it. During

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

the salute was a subject of some controversy, as most of the Allied officers were unfamiliar with the gesture and saw it as disrespectful. Polish soldiers serving in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

were ordered to use an open palm salute instead.

Cub Scouting

Wolf Scouts experience colors aboard Marine air station 121115-M-OB827-038

Many

Cub Scout Cub Scouts, Cubs or Wolf Cubs are programs associated with Scouting for young children usually between 7 and 12, depending on the organization to which they belong. A participant in the program is called a Cub. A group of Cubs is called a 'P ...

sections also use a two-finger salute. The salute was devised by

Robert Baden-Powell Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, ( ; (Commonly pronounced by others as ) 22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941) was a British Army officer, writer, founder and first Chief Scout of the wor ...

and originally represented the two ears of a wolf cub, since the original programme was based on

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)'' The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

's ''

The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' (1894) is a collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, w ...

''.Baden-Powell, Rober
''The Wolf Cub's Handbook''
Arthur Pearson (p.15) However, Cubs in several national associations now use the three-finger Scout salute used by the rest of the Scout Movement.

References

External links

The Cub Scout salute
{{Gestures Polish culture Polish military traditions Greetings Hand gestures Salutes Gestures of respect