Catalogue

The first soldiers to form the 2nd Polish Corps were prisoners of war captured after the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939. Those prisoners were kept in Siberian labour camps and by the time Stalin went into the war against Hitler in 1941, about 20,000 of them had already died of malnutrition and exposure.

After the Soviets joined the Allies in June 1941, the formation of the Polish Army in the East became possible. After many efforts by the Polish Government in Exile, permission was given to form the Polish Army from those unfit PoWs. They had to march through Siberia and the Tian Shan mountains of Kazakhstan all the way to Iraq, collecting other Polish PoWs from various Soviet gulags and camps along the way, together with thousands of civilians. Many of them died on the way to Iraq.

Once in Iraq, they became an independent part of the British Eighth Army, and shortly afterwards the 2nd Polish Corps took part in the Battle of Tobruk. After the African campaign they were sent to the front line in Italy. There the Polish Corps became famous for their victory in the long Battle of Monte Cassino, after which one of the biggest Polish military cemeteries was created.

Polish soldiers continued through Italy liberating several key German strongholds in Piedimonte, Loreto, Castelfidardo, Ancona, Castelferretti, Falconara, multiple towns and villages in Esino, Arezza and Tuscan areas. They liberated Bologna, where many of the Polish soldiers married local girls.

After the war, the majority of the 103,000 strong Corps remained in exile, not wanting to return to a Poland still remaining under Soviet occupation. They were, instead, placed in Polish Resettlement Camps in Africa, Italy and later in the UK. One Resettlement Camp was at Brancepeth. Polish soldiers were placed at Brancepeth mainly to help the British in recruiting former Polish soldiers into the British Army. The War Office authorities wanted to improve numbers in the Army by recruiting aliens, including approximately 6000 Poles. All applicants were expected to be trained soldiers able to speak English, of good character and medically fit.

Polish soldiers from the Brancepeth camp most likely helped to process and test the Polish applicants in the British Army's Northern Command. Sergeant Michal Krzywoszanski and Corporal Boleslaw Wozniakowski, posted to 68 P.T.C. in Brancepeth and attached to No.4 I.T.C. H.Q. Coy. from 20 March to 2 July 1947, likely served in the Polish staff section of No.4 I.T.C. H.Q. Coy. processing or testing applicants.

The minority of Polish soldiers who did return to Poland after the war were often imprisoned by the Police, suspicious of any Western influence. Many were sent into the hands of NKVD [Soviet secret police] for interrogation, never to be seen again. Ex-2nd Polish Corps soldiers who returned to Poland were refused employment, were persecuted by the communist regime and many sent back to labour camps in Siberia together with their families.

Krzywoszanski and Wozniakowski were among the Polish soldiers sent to Brancepeth, where they could learn English, and undergo further military training to be incorporated into the British Army. Most eventually settled into civilian life and found employment in the area. Some emigrated, but only a minority returned to Poland.

Boleslaw Wozniakowski married Lilian Shepherd of Willington in 1947.
Michal Krzywoszanski emigrated to Canada in November 1947, to settle in Montreal. He was reunited with his wife and son in 1958 when they were allowed to leave Poland for Canada.