大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from cvsberkshire on behalf of Kazimierz Pakula and has been added to the site with his permission. Kazimierz Pakula fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.
Kazimierz Pakula鈥檚 Story. Part One 1939-1940
A Young 鈥淲ould-be Pilot鈥檚鈥� Escape from the Bomb Terrors of Europe to Security in England.
My name is Kazimierz Pakula and I was born in Kamionna near Miedzychod , Poland in February 1920. This was five miles from the German border. If I had been born a few months earlier, before the boundaries were changed after local uprisings, I would have been born in Germany. When I was eight years old I saw an aeroplane for the first time and immediately wanted to be a pilot. I did well at my Gimnazium and Matriculated in May 1939 at the age of 19 and I was passed medically fit for the Air Force.
In the July and August of year 1938, I had gone to the Gliding Camp in South East Poland and qualified as a glider pilot which meant I would be accepted at the Officer Cadet School at Deblin to start in the coming October of 1939. My father had to sign a contract so that if I crashed an aircraft he would pay for the damage! I spent the Summer of 1939 at a Polish Air Force Base near Lodz doing Pilot鈥檚 Training, and, as war was expected, the course was accelerated and I qualified to fly the basic 鈥榩lane known as RWD8 which was Polish designed.
I returned home for two weeks, then, on August 28th 1939, a telegram arrived telling me to report to the Polish Air Force Base at Lawice, near Poznan, home of the No. 3 Polish Air Force Regiment.
Leaving Home.
Dressed in my best shirt I marched to the station. En route I stopped at the cemetery to say 鈥楪ood-bye鈥� to my Mother, who had died recently, and embraced my Father whose last words were 鈥淒o not forget God鈥�. At the Air Force Base, in a group of similar ages - all about 19 years old- instead of the beautiful blue air -force uniforms we had expected the Sergeant instead handed out old second-hand khaki ones and odd sized boots. We were very disappointed! As we had no radios there or contact with the outside world we did not know what was going on or whether the war we expected had started.
On September 1st. we were having our usual mid-day dinner of pea soup, sitting out of doors, when suddenly six aeroplanes appeared heading towards us. The Corporal shouted 鈥淒o not be afraid, Boys, they are ours!鈥�. A few seconds later bombs started falling aimed at the barracks, or possibly the petrol station near by, and we all dived for the basement , then we all put on our gas masks as someone shouted 鈥楪as鈥�. Fortunately this was a false alarm. When all seemed clear we left the basement and I returned to the cookhouse for more lovely pea soup! I went outside again to discover the others had all gone so I reckoned they would have made their way to a small copse some distance across fields. This turned out to be the case, but, en route, I had to jump into a bomb crater when the 鈥榩lanes returned and bombed again. Late in the afternoon a small group of four to five of us returned from our hiding place in the copse to the barracks to collect food which we filled into sacks and we also stuffed our pockets with sausages to be told off by the Sergeant, 鈥淒on鈥檛 steal鈥�. Later that evening we marched from West Poznan, that station having been bombed, to another station to await transportation to Central Poland. There were no hot meals for the next few days on the train we took, so, we lived off our sausages and some sweets and chocolates provided by a colleague who had robbed a shop (as they had been taken they were not really so sweet after all) .
On September 7th,1939 we were in the Warsaw region travelling towards Deblin ( like Cranwell in England) which was in the South East of Poland but our destination was then changed as Deblin had been bombed. Instead we went to a village where we were accommodated in empty houses which were probably married quarters of Deblin Base before the occupants were evacuated. When I read the headlines in a newspaper that read 鈥�500 bombers over Berlin鈥� I actually believed it was true but we still did not really know what was happening elsewhere. It was many years later that I learnt all Polish Air Force Units had been instructed to evacuate to Romania. One beautiful day I was watching the 鈥榩lanes overhead when bombs started falling. I had a lucky escape as one fell close by me but did not explode, however another hit the house next to mine injuring the occupants who had been playing cards. It was not until the following day that the village Headman came to help and the injured were treated. No local people had come until then, no ambulances or any arrangement made to give aid to the wounded. I was shocked.
First Encounter with the Russian Army.
We were next loaded onto a train towards the Carpathians. There was a town full of Polish Army, here we lived off a barrel of apples we found, then on towards the Romanian Border (I discovered later). On September 17th. we slept in a barn in a village near Horodenka and we woke to the sound of aeroplanes overhead. One of our number went to investigate and came back to tell us that the near-by town was full of Russians so we moved on to another village . Here we marched in a column into a village that was silent, no dogs barking , and the Polish Eagle was over a building where two men were removing documents from the building into a car. Suddenly there was a big bang and we all dived into a ditch. A moment later a large Russian tank drove to the front of our column and stopped. A few of us tried to turn up a side road but then a machine gun started firing over our heads and we realised we were surrounded by Russian Infantry who appeared from nowhere. 鈥淗ands up鈥�, and 鈥淭hrow everything down鈥�, were shouted at us and with their bayonets fixed we were marched to a school that had been converted into a field hospital. We were lead back through the village and I was shocked to see the two Polish men we had seen earlier loading a car with documents were lying in the ditch groaning and it seemed as if they were dying. This was the only occasion throughout the war when I saw the victims of war face to face.
We were locked in and kept without food (though the locals did bring us some -throwing it over the gates), for four to five days until we were piled into cattle trucks and escorted, still by the Russians, and driven to the East. I worked out the direction in which we travelled by the Pole Star which I could just see through the ventilation in the truck. We were taken across the Old Polish Border to a huge cowshed used as a Holding camp on the Russian side which was a collecting point for Polish Air Force, Army, Priests, Nuns and all kinds of Middle Class people, all of whom had to register . The next day I saw one column led away and they would be sent to a labour camp though I only heard this many decades later. After 2 to 3 days we were given a little food from a field kitchen which consisted of a loaf of bread among ten people and some thin hot barley soup.
I made a friend at the camp who told me when we were taken to the train to be moved I should go to the end of the column and try to escape. This I did and jumped into a ditch along with a few of my companions and everyone just seemed to melt away. We had only had young soldiers in charge of us, no officers or NCOs, so I don鈥檛 know if they deliberately let us get away or didn鈥檛 know how to stop us! We made our way to the nearest (Russian) town where we bought food then we thumbed a lift from the last lorry of a Russian convoy of 50 or so and now we were heading West back towards Lwow in Poland. A few miles from Lwow we got out and thanked the Sergeant for the lift.
(We did not know that at a meeting between Ribentropp and Molatoff in August 1939 an agreement had been made to divide Poland between Germany and Russia.)
We reached the town of Lwow on foot where the head of the Citizens鈥� Committee , which was formed of a mixed Polish population to care for refugees, arranged for us to have food and a Dance Hall to stay in . This Hall was full of people, including children, and many of these were families from Silesia, mainly the families of Railway workers. Fortunately I still had my overcoat although I had no bedding unlike most of the others . To eat we had cabbage soup and a piece of bread daily and we were dry. I found a friendly fruit-stall owner in the market to whom I gave help in return for an apple a day but I took others too and I even spent one evening by invitation at his modest house. The Russians meanwhile were still driving round the town in order to frighten the people.
After a few days I went to the University looking for a study course I could enrol on. I was interviewed by the Dean and given a piece of paper to say I was a student so I could get a student grant and I took this to the Education Dept. where the Polish Officer -in鈥攃harge had been replaced by a Ukrainian but the Secretary was still Polish . She told me it was most unlikely I would get a grant but whispered she could put me in touch with the Polish Underground Army. After some weeks I and a friend were told to go to the kitchen door entrance of the hospital three times a week to get a mid-day meal so we were still reasonably well fed.
October came, it was getting cold, and we were contacted by the Underground and given new clothes more suitable for Winter but no more shoes. We went to Mass frequently, many times a day and to different Churches, to keep warm. Once the Priest performing the Mass was the Chaplain from my old High School but he was no help. Our plan was to return to our homes in Poland to collect Winter clothing then return to Lwow. At a town on the border called Przemysl I even slept in the Vestry of a Church in a coffin which was ready for All Soul鈥檚 Day . The Jews in the Przemysl area were being expelled by the Germans and were not allowed to cross the bridge into the town but had to wade through the cold river. We abandoned the plan to return to our homes at the Border and returned to Lwow.
Instructions Arrive from the Underground.
Finally a message came through from the Underground with instructions that I was to go to the extreme South of Poland. I was given 500 ZLOTYs (拢50 approx.) , told to catch a certain train by myself, not to talk to anybody and on arrival at Drohobycz I was to turn left outside the station. From there I and others were passed from one house or haystack or barn to another, sleeping during the day time and moving at night . I even had a proper eiderdown at one house. Once we had to retrace our steps as there was a problem crossing the Border. Finally the guide explained our route and gave us our directions. We were to go over a hill which he pointed out and this we did and during the night of 5th. and 6th. January 1940 we moved into Hungary. I then made my way to a small house. However the people there did not speak Polish and called the Police. I and others were imprisoned for the night but it was all very friendly and under the care of the locals I was taken by sledge to a Polish Refugee camp run by Hungarians and on to a village near Lake Balaton. Here I was allocated to a farmer and his family at Szabedhidweg who cared for me.
As I was an illegal immigrant I decided I ought to move on and try and get to France and travel there via Budapest. Once two of us were on a train when we had no tickets and the Inspector was very unfriendly and took us to the station master as criminals. He however told us to go quickly and catch the train for Budapest which he indicated. This we did. On arrival at Budapest I went to the Polish Consulate and arranged photos , got clean clothes and did all required for a new Passport . I was given a ticket and told to return to Szabedhidweg temporarily then ,after 14 days, my instructions came to return to Budapest to collect my ticket and Passport . Now I would be a student travelling for study in France.
It was February 1940, and Italy was not yet at war. The train I caught stopped at Zagreb and Milan and Modena and into France- my destination. Near Marseilles at Sept-Fonds on about February 22nd. I met up with the Polish Unit acting under French authority and stayed at a camp built originally for Spanish Civil War refugees.
On March 14th. with my Passport as an 鈥楨leve pilote鈥� I was taken to Lyons Foire, the Polish Air Force Reserve Camp. There we were based in an exhibition hall and had to do a 鈥淪quare Bashing鈥� course. We were all awaiting training at this camp.
Searching for the Polish Army in France.
In June 1940, again, we had no contact with the outside world or radios and were quite unaware of what had happened at Dunkirk that Summer. We Polish Student Pilots were now told we were to be trained as despatch riders for the Army instead of Pilots. We were very angry and disappointed to be told this. We were sent to Granville, in Normandy, but there was no Polish Army there, then further orders to report to the Infantry Brigade which in the meantime had left for the Paris area. Eventually we found that Brigade. It was a lovely day and it was here that a Polish Army General, (who might have been Maczek), told us 鈥淏oys what can I do with you?. I am now preparing my Brigade for a battle!. I can鈥檛 train you, please go to town and direct the traffic鈥�.
The roads were full of people streaming away from Paris, civilians and farmers, all retreating and heading to the South West. I heard the sound of singing and approximately fifty Polish Infantry lorries were heading the other way, to the North East. We had further orders to go South West ourselves. We slept in a forest in the vicinity of Arpajon where we met a Priest who asked for volunteers to form a unit to rescue a surrounded Polish Division. He made us make our last confessions and promise to fight honourably. We were given grenades but no rifles. We spent the nights in cowsheds and barns. The river, which might have been the Loire but I鈥檓 not sure, was obscured by smoke which hid the sun and made the skies dark. We slept in a farm building and in the yard we met the farmer鈥檚 wife crying because of the bad news about France collapsing. (The Germans had occupied Paris on June 14th). There were German patrols in the vicinity so we changed our plans again and asked the Mayor of the town if we could have some buses to take us to La Rochelle so we might get a ship to Britain. He agreed reluctantly on condition we took the drivers too!.
Leaving France for Britain.
We went via Orleans and the locals we passed were cheering, 鈥淟a Guerre fini鈥�. We arrived at La Rochelle in the evening and found the ship we were to travel in to Britain had been sunk. However, another ship called 鈥楢dverpool鈥�, a collier ship from Scotland, was empty and we boarded along with all kinds of people including French Army Officers and Priests. We set sail on June 19th., I was exhausted, and found a place to sleep in a heap of coal dust in the hold!. As we headed North there were sounds of shooting during the night. We arrived at Plymouth on Saturday June 22nd. 1940.
I remember that after months of difficult travelling I felt I had reached a country which, in my opinion, had always been the most powerful in the World and we would be safe here.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.