Books

[Piwo2]

Polish Air Force in England
Mazovia Bomber Squadron





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[Piwo2]

For the Philatelic in us all.........

[Reynard]

Hmmmmm, might be kinda useful... :-) I have a list of field post addresses in my grandad's stuff that I know I filed not too long ago. I wonder if they'll match what's in the book...

(Soz, not been around much recently, but glad to be back)

[dastier]

ON THE RIVER EBRO-
UGE TO LIVE

by Dr. Boleslaw Wysocki

Cambridge, MA 1986

Printed by Vine Lane Press, 2 Vine Lane, London, SE1 2JP

Again going through things I thought I would share this book with everyone along with a private note from Dr. Wysocki and some photographs of the POW cap he wore at Miranda de Ebro Concentration Camp in Spain.

Piwo

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Obit July, 2012
Dr. Boleslaw Wysocki, 91, a Polish expatriate who wrote eloquently about the horrors of life in a Spanish concentration camp during World War II, died Monday at his Cambridge home.
A retired professor of psychology at Boston College, Dr. Wysocki was the author of "Urge to Live," a memoir of the three years he spent in the Miranda de Ebro concentration camp, which was operated by the fascist government in Spain. He said he was inspired to write the book, which was published in 1988 and is now out of print, when he realized most Americans did not even know there were Spanish concentration camps.

I was going back over some oft the posts I missed when I saw this...

...interestingly on a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio program today, mention was made of how the Spanish courts had ruled against the construction in Spain of a statue commemorating the members of the International Bridgades. (who fought for the Republican government during the Spainish Civil War)

The CBC journalist interviewed a British expert who stated that Spain never conducted a Truth and Reconcilliation process after the death of Franco and subsequent restitution of democracy. He offered further opinion that the Spanish government and people had not come terms with Spain's fascist past. He went as far as to state that those in power today hold similar views. (I believe he used the term Neo Nazis to describe some of them)

[ChrisW01]

Thanks for posting this.

Which unit of the 1939 Polish Army did he belong to that made its way to Hungary in Sept/Oct 1939?

Chris.......

[fuzzywazzy]

Hello gentlemen,

First time poster, long time reader. I was able to borrow this book from a library and uploaded it to the website Scribd. Has anyone else tried uploading their books to that website for the sake of history and free information? I would love to read some of these books.

In Their Country's Service- Women Soldiers of the Polish 2nd Corps

[dastier]

Thanks for posting the link.

After looking through the photographs from In Their Country's Service- Women Soldiers of the Polish 2nd Corps I was able to clear up the mystery (at least for me) of a drawing depicting a Polish soldier wearing British battledress but armed with a SVT-40!!!



Turns out it the drawing depicted a soldier in Anders' Army - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia on its march to freedom. While still in the Soviet Union these soldiers were issued British uniforms but equipped with Soviet weaponry.

Poles armed with SVT-40 semi automatic rifles. Note detachable 10 round magazines.


Poles armed with M91 or M91/30 Mosin Nagant rifles.




Horse Artillery with Soviet 76-mm divisional gun M1939 (F-22 USV).

[dastier]

Here's a link to a personal recollection of a Polish deportee who escaped captivity in the Soviet Union and became one of the patriots of In Their Country's Service- Women Soldiers of the Polish 2nd Corps...

Emilia's Story

[StefanM]

Hello gentlemen,
Has anyone else tried uploading their books to that website for the sake of history and free information? I would love to read some of these books.

As a legal (and moral) principle one needs to consider the issue of copyright infringement when copying and uploading or distributing content because such activity may in fact be illegal without establishing copyright ownership.

However in this case under Polish copyright law because the "work" was produced by a servant or servants of the State (Polish forces propaganda department) it can be considered to be in the public domain as are most similar books produced by the Polish forces information and propaganda departments of the period. Photographs are considered (under Polish copyright law) to be in the public domain unless they have the photographers copyright notice stamped on the reverse.

I am all for "free information" but only if it is legally free of copyright ownership otherwise it is simply theft.

[StefanM]

Here's a link to a personal recollection of a Polish deportee who escaped captivity in the Soviet Union and became one of the patriots of In Their Country's Service- Women Soldiers of the Polish 2nd Corps...

Emilia's Story

Thank for posting Mike

This snippet is most interesting:

"...While the Army was in Italy, more heated discussions were held as the agreements that had been made at Yalta between Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt became public. For us, the most important of these was that Poland, the country we were fighting to free from the hated Nazis, would become a part of the Soviet sphere; hundreds of miles of Polish territory would become part of the Soviet Union. What were we doing, fighting in Italy? We believed that we were fighting for our homes and families, but then saw that the Allies, the British and the Americans, had betrayed us to the Soviets. Didn’t they understand how evil Soviet intentions were?

For some of us, the course of action was clear, we would pull out of the fighting in Italy and prepare for a march to Poland. By then, we were a massive army—perhaps one of the few in history that grew in size with each battle as many German prisoners were revealed to be Polish. These volunteers swelled our ranks and gave us confidence that we could conquer any foe.

But General Anders, a deeply respected figure, dissuaded the Army from its independent march and put us back into line with our British and American allies. These were bitter times for us, who had gone through so much."

The sentiment reminds me of a short article that appeared in the Catholic Herald 22 February 1946 :

Lwow and the Atom Bomb

'One atom bomb is all we need and our Lwow will again be freed.'.
The Warsaw correspondent of the Manchester Guardian in an article underlining the degree of popular Polish resistance to Russian occupation mentions that he heard this rhyme being sung in a Warsaw café to the air of a Russian Military March."

There is not much written or recorded about the Polish forces in Italy mood for independent action to pull out of fighting on the Italian front and to march to Poland...just the odd snippets such as the above.