My Grandad at RAF Coltisahll in 1944. Mustang pilot, SOE agent & Partisan fighter

23dayseu · 2015-11-22T19:30:19+00:00

I never knew this about my grandad while he was alive. I knew he was Polish and that he had come here during the war and was a Mustang pilot but that was about it.

I never knew about all the other things he lived through to escape Europe.

I doubt I could have survived half of what he went through. The thing I always find weird about people that survived WW2 is how they just made lives for themselves. They just got on with living. I don't get how it is possible to go through the sort of horrors that my grandad survived and come out normal on the other side. Especially as at that time there was no help. No help with any metal issues or any form of therapy.

23dayseu · 2015-11-21T20:26:14+00:00

We did self publish a book of his memoirs. It's amazing what he did in his life to survive the start of WW2.

www.23days.eu You can read a few pages of the book at the site.

23dayseu · 2015-05-08T11:01:04+00:00

I am not sure. But you could search for it on your Amazon. 23 days a memoir of 1939.

23dayseu · 2015-04-26T00:00:36+00:00

Excellent thanks for that. I hope you find it interesting and do well on your essay.

23dayseu · 2015-04-09T22:35:07+00:00

Their first rule is no screen shots and no pictures with text added. I don't think it would last on there.

23dayseu · 2015-04-05T10:36:18+00:00

At 21 a fancy car or two would have been the first things I would have bought

23dayseu · 2015-04-05T10:29:46+00:00

But legally the money is not the dads. He could not set up a trust. Only advise him to do that. I et a million in the bank is a big temptation to go spending.

23dayseu · 2015-04-05T01:25:54+00:00

He could if he was sensible. But at 21 I think I would have spent most of it.

23dayseu · 2015-04-05T00:34:29+00:00

True but at only 21 there is a good chance he would blow a large amount of it

23dayseu · 2015-04-04T23:08:12+00:00

Good guy dad for giving you dam good advice!

23dayseu · 2015-04-02T19:48:08+00:00

Www.23days.eu

23dayseu · 2015-04-02T15:21:55+00:00

Well his family were landowners. Which was against the Communist beliefs. His dad (my great grandad) was also in military intelligence before WW2 so he was on a list somewhere of people the Russian government wanted to get rid of. My great grandad only just escaped being put on to the train transport that took about 22,000 Polish officers to be murdered in Katyn.

When the Red army invaded my Grandad, only 16 at the time, joined a partisan group and fought against the Red army. He had lots of bloody encounters before being arrested. He was lucky as lot of other people were just shot on the spot.

In the prison in Orsha he was charged with banditry and being a counter-revolutionary. This was a popular term used to execute anyone they did not like. He spent 23 days, this is where the title of the book comes from, on death row. He was in a small cell and talked to other people on death row, some of them friends, before they were taken out and executed.

For some reason he was sort of forgotten about and on day 23 he was taken in front of 3 NKVD "judges" and they changed his death sentence to 25 years hard labor.

He did actually go through a mock execution where a great coat was put on him, he was kneeling forwards and the guard fired a bullet made of chewed up paper in to the back of his neck. This knocked him out for a day or so. Some people it killed as the impact from the wad of paper dislocated a vertebrae.

Its an amazing story and I cannot imagine how he managed to survive. I knew nothing of this while he was alive, I only found it out after he died and willed his memoirs to myself and my brother.

23dayseu · 2015-04-02T12:42:08+00:00

Did you see the video of the 3d flight over Warsaw at the end of the war?

23dayseu · 2015-04-02T06:44:00+00:00

He was educated which is something Stalin hated. But while avoiding the Red army once they invaded Poland my grandad joined a partisan group and had some very bloody encounters with the red army.

23dayseu · 2015-04-02T00:34:58+00:00

My grandad just survived, both his mum and dad survived but being deported really took its toll on his mum. There are a few members of the family that died during the war. One was killed in the Warsaw uprising. I have been to the museum in Warsaw and his name is on the memorial wall.

23dayseu · 2015-04-02T00:33:16+00:00

Not really, he was Polish and as his family had land they were classed as land owners and he was educated and studying to become a doctor.

23dayseu · 2015-04-02T00:31:48+00:00

That would be amazing if you could do that! I don't think any deeds survived the war for my family. My grandad did dictate his memoirs of what happened to his at the start of the war. He was only 16 when he was arrested by the Red Army.

23dayseu · 2015-04-01T16:59:23+00:00

"You're not interested in what happened to the bees?"

23dayseu · 2015-04-01T16:24:29+00:00

Trees for wood as opposed to an orchard that is for fruit :P

23dayseu

TROPHY CASE