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"This story was submitted to the People's War site by CSV/´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Nottingham on behalf of JULIAN KAWECKI with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions"

52 years ago this month — to be exact it was 10 February 1940 — at 1.30 — a knock came on the door of our home in Poland and we were surrounded by Russian soldiers. They ordered us to move out and we were taken in the clothes we stood up in to an unknown destination. I found out afterwards that my mother had managed to hide a few photos in her clothing. We had to leave everything else behind.

We were taken by cattle trucks on the railway to Siberia — a journey that took us three long weeks herded together with little food and melted snow to drink. We ended up in a Siberian many families to one hut with wooden benches to sleep on. The young men of the families were taken away from their parents — I was just sixteen years old at the time — to work in the Siberian forests cutting down trees for the Russian army. In the Spring we allowed to return to our families in the Camp. Conditions were very poor — we had little food, were covered in lice, and at night the bugs came out of the walls to feeds on our blood — they were hungry too! The temperature was often down to minus 35 degrees and the winter lasted eight long months. Lots of people died of cold and hunger combined.

In October 1941 the German army attacked the Russian people and the Russians gave us our freedom. We were told to flee to the south and were sent to Tashkent. Many of the men were determined to join up with the Polish army and we waited instructions here. During this time my father developed pneumonia and died. As there was no wood to make a coffin I risked my life by stealing part of a fence to cover his body before burial. I noticed that the Russians in the primitive hospital where he died had removed the three gold teeth he had.

I joined up with the Polish army in Czok-Pak and in 1942 moved to the Polish party head quarters in Russia. While here I heard about a typhus epidemic in the camp where I had left my mother and sisters and knew people were being buried in mass graves. I did not know that my family were safe until much later when my mother told me that my sister was taken to the camp mortuary as she was so ill that everyone thought she was dying but my mother took her out and with much love and a prayer she survived…….. In August I was moved to a port on the Caspian sea and on to Iran. My job was to control the fleeing Polish families who had left Russia and send them to allied refugee camps. I was once again reunited with my family. They were then sent to camps in India for their own safety. I wondered if I would ever see them
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In October 1942 — a few days after m y 19th birthday — I was transferred to army headquarters in Iraq. In 1943 I applied to join the Polish airforce in England and after taking oral, written and medical examinations, I was accepted to come to England to train with the airforce. The ship I came on journeyed via South Africa and South America —we had to change course several times after being chased by Japanese submarines!!!! Eventually we arrived in Scotland

and we were sent to Preston to start training in the airforce. In July I was enlisted in the Polish airforce under British command.

We were moved first to Yorkshire for a basic English language crasher course, then on to Blackpool to await my posting. I moved to Northants and started training in navigation etc. After this I started flying training at Hucknall Aerodrome near here and flew alone for the first time in February 1945 in a Tiger Moth plane.

I then moved to Newton aerodrome near Nottingham and flew Harvard 2B planes and then moved on to become a Spitfire Fighter pilot. Just after this time Germany surrendered so our fighting skills were not needed. Many of the spitfire pilots did not survive so if the War had continued I might not have survived too as many of my fellow men were killed.

I managed to contact my family through the Red Cross and they were brought on a refugee ship to Melton Mowbray near here. They decided to emigrate to Canada as it was a country with much promise after the War and we also had distant relatives there. So after spending a year in England they set sail for their new homeland. They could not return to Poland as the Russians had taken over their homes. My sisters both married in Canada and have six children of their own and now eight grandchildren. As for me I married my wife who lived in Annesley Woodhouse and she was once a pupil at Annesley school!!!

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