大象传媒

The following is taken from my father鈥檚 recollections of his escape from Poland and arrival in the UK.

Spoken account: Warsaw

"On the first day of war (3 September 1939), England and France declared war against Germany. In the early afternoon we were off duty and gathered outside as it was a lovely day. We noticed, high up in the sky, three heavy bombers approaching our way. We were so happy and were shouting loudly, 'England comes to our help!' This happiness didn鈥檛 last long as a few bombs exploded not far from our camp. They were German bombs."

Diary extract: escape from Poland

'5-9-1939: I have been sent to collect [a] car with full equipment and join the front line, but instead we have to go back through Siedlce - Biala Podlaska - Helm- Tomaszow Lub' to Hungary.'

Spoken account

"On 5 September the order came for us to go to the warehouse and collect a radio station and join the HQ 51 Div. I had just finished a course as a radio operator with higher equipment, so I was put in charge with one driver and two radio operators. On arriving at the warehouse we found that there were 22 cars and all had to go to different HQs."

Then the order came to take all material from the warehouse and load it into the cars, leaving my father and his colleagues to walk behind.

They left Warsaw on foot, following the car on the road. The Germans start bombing the road and surrounding villages - most were on fire, traffic was slow and so following the car wasn鈥檛 a problem.

Spoken account

"After 25km we stopped to unload the car and join our HQ. Here again orders came through that we had to go with everything in the car until further notice. On the road there was more and more damage by German bombs, making it very difficult to go forward, but after about 50 km we caught up with the car."

My father managed to get into the car and then started to make room for his friends. So a few parts of equipment ended up in the fields and after a few km everyone was inside. They connected the radio station and listened in to the news from Warsaw: they knew where the Germans and the Russians were and so managed to reach the Hungarian border by 4am on 18th or 19th September 1939 - with some luck as by 6.00am the road was closed by the Russian army.

Diary extract: interned in Hungary

'19-9-1939: Hungary - Sajoszentkiraly near Putnik. We have to leave everything to the customs officer and the army (except for my pocketwatch from my R Station - still with me and still going) and we were told that we are interned soldiers from now on. Hungarian army took us to Sajoszentkiraly - it was a building belonging to the customs office between Hungary and Czechoslovakia but in 1938 Hitler offered part of Slovenia to Hungary and that building was Hungarian.'

Spoken account

"When we arrived at Sajoszentkiraly it was a mix of soldiers and we did not know each other. As time went on - and we had plenty of time - we played cards, chess and so on and when letters started to arrive from Poland we shared all the news we had. All the letters were censored by the Germans, who put a wide mark across the envelope, which allowed you to read the address.

At the start the Hungarians were fairly good to us as they only had a small guard. In charge was a Hungarian officer (reservist) and we had our Polish one. In the building there was room for 300 plus, all sleeping on the floor. We had to walk about 2km to the village where there was our only pub. When we emptied all bottles from here we had to walk to the nearest town of Putnik, 10km plus, to have a drink and fun.

One day after Christmas, four of us walked, early as usual, to town for a drink. In the camp it was normal, but on our return, late at night, we took a short cut to our latrine, which was far away in the corner of the field. Unknown to us and after we had left the camp that day, an order had come from higher office to guard the camp. Later on they put soldiers on every side and corners, which were also fenced. Altogether six soldiers were on duty. So one soldier fired his gun into the air and we were surrounded by their soldiers and taken to the office and asked to give an explanation to the Hungarian officer. Of course, every man in that building was awake and wondering what was happening. We were lucky not to be court marshalled.

A few days later, the police brought in four of our boys, who tried to get back to Poland and had been arrested at the border, with another five who tried to go to France via Budapest. So these boys had a court marshal by the commanding officer, who was the highest rank and was in charge of a few camps in our area. We were hoping that our officer in the camp would decide [on the] punishment as in Hungary the punishment was called SPANGL: one soldier ties your feet with a belt, another one your hands behind your back and they hang you on a hook with your feet off the ground after a few minutes you loose consciousness and faint. Another soldier then pours a bucket of water on you. Half an hour was equal to 3 days in gaol.

The Geneva convention states that interned soldiers in any country must be punished by the same punishment that exists in his country, so we said, 'NO!' to that CPT. When he started this performance on the field outside our building he soon changed his mind and called our commanding officer when a grenade exploded not so far from him.

Then we went on hunger strike until a high ranking officer arrived from Budapest. Two days after they came and promised that this would not happen again not only in our camp but at any on Hungarian soil.

As the situation in Hungary was not safe any more, I decided to get out. A new Polish Government had been formed in Paris, they wanted every possible man to join the army.

In the Hungarian army that guarded our camp there were a few Slovaks and this helped a few of us to leave. The problem was how to get to Budapest. On every railway station was the police, checking every train. Before we left camp we dressed in new civilian clothes, poor and cheap, and we managed to reach Budapest by the end of April.

In Budapest we had to wait for some documents to cross the river into Yugoslavia. We crossed the river by boat and on the other side was a coachman and two horses waiting for us to take us to Zagreb.

In Zagreb the weather was nice and warm. We had to wait for five days for new documents in order to go through Italy to France. Luckily I had a passport as a student. As the weather was warm in Zagreb there was plenty of entertainment I started to reduce my clothes, knowing that in France I would be a soldier again. First my hat, then overcoat and my jacket. With good memories I left Zagreb."

Diary extract

'1-5-1940: In Modane; cold night. I arrived in the South of France on 1 May, in the Alps only in my trousers and shirt. I was very disappointed - they gave us accommodation in an old jail, bed [with] no mattress, only one blanket. Inside was wet and cold; it was better to stay outside -even at night you couldn鈥檛 sleep. I paid the price of having a good time in Zagreb.

After a few days they took us by train to a Polish camp Coetguidan.'

Diary extract

'30-5-1940: Left to Arpajon to join commander 10 BK. Then I received a French uniform and only a First World War rifle, and we went to defend France near Dijon, myself and 21 others. We were supposed to be radio operators but there was no equipment for us to use but luckily for us we had a lorry and driver. Soon we reached our destination but Frenchmen [were] happy saying, "Fini le Gare [sic]" - that was bad for us. We had a problem.'

Diary extract: strategic withdrawal to Bordeaux

'1-6-1940: Marne-Avise-Balat (near Paris) - not for long [as] Germans move fast. The Germans moved fast from a different direction and they [appear] more skilful as it was in Poland they bombed and strafed the the road. As a result from the 22 of us that set out only 12 reach Bordeaux.'

Diary extract

'11-6-1940: we turn back through Dijon, Clemont to [the] port [of] Bordeaux. To make that journey took us almost a fortnight. No food supply, but there were plenty of apples and tomatoes in the gardens.... One evening, coming through a village, it was very quiet - all the people [had] left their homes, [and] the only noise came from animals and chickens.

On the empty farm we stopped, then we organised to have a nice meal. We killed two chickens, boiled the water in the middle of the floor in the kitchen and, as the water started to boil and the chicken made some noise, one of our friends, who was watching the road, called, "Germans coming!" We took the chicken to our lorry and hanged it in the middle. We put the fire out and continued our journey eating the chicken slowly although it wasn鈥檛 really cooked but it was warm and we enjoyed it.

Churchill sent a few boats to Bordeaux to take us to Great Britain. Our Government had now moved to London from Paris.'

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