大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People鈥檚 War Website by Anne Wareing of the Lancashire Home Guard on behalf of Brownisla Wolski and has been added to the site with his permission..

I was in Warsaw when the war started. A group of us around 50 decided to escape from the Germans and go to Moscow and getting there any way we could. It was around 2000miles, most of which we must have walked. We did however try and get a train, but were pushed from it when it was still moving when the ticket collector realized we had no tickets.

Around 6 of us were taken prisoner in the Ural Mountains, but managed to escape after a few months. We were in a town called Yaraslav, where, we were stopped by the police. They asked what we were doing there and we told them we were running from the Germans and trying to get to Moscow, as we had families living there. This of course was a lie, but it did the trick and we were given passes for the train.

Once in Moscow we were walking in the streets when we spotted a Polish Officer in uniform. We went up to him and asked what he was doing there and he told us he was recruiting in Moscow for the Polish Army, to go and fight the Germans and that young lads like us should be happy to go and fight for them. So we applied, but as I was only 15 at the time I was too young, so I joined as an army cadet. In due course I was transferred to the Army Artillery Unit, spending time in Palestine before going to Iraq, where after a few months I applied and was accepted in the Air Force.

Through India and South Africa I eventually came to Scotland, landing in Glasgow. I ended up at a base near Ruislip where it was intended that I should train to be a radio operator. Unfortunately I suffered a mastoid in my ear, so that put pay to that, as my hearing wasn鈥檛 as good as it should have been.

Finally I went to an air force base near Chester, working in the massive stores there, where they kept all types of ammunition and parts. I stayed there until the end of the war; then signed on for a further 2 years, being released in 1947.

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