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Hello from Northumberland


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Hello Everyone,

 

This must be the bit that everyone dreads. Introducing themselves to a forum of their peers and trying not to sound like either a complete idiot or an arrogant sod. I'll do my best and try to hit the middle ground...

 

My interest in military vehicles, particularly wartime British, goes back to childhood and for the last fifteen years or so, I've been actively engaged in all sorts of activities from organising local military vehicle events here in Northumberland, attending commemorations all across the UK and Europe specifically Normandy, Norway and Market Garden.

 

I am in a fortunate position that the interest in the vehicles and their restoration and attendance of many events is very much a family affair with three generations regularly out and about at home and abroad. My father in law has an interesting collection of WW2 British vehicles and I have spent many happy hours trying to perfect gear changes in one of his Matadors.

 

As far as restoration goes, I have assisted with a wide variety of tasks but my only foray into restoration myself was a GMC CCKW 353 A2 which we still have. Unfortunately, work pressures made it very difficult to complete the work but it was eventually done with father in laws help - not my finest hour.

 

My reason for re-joining the forum (I had an old profile that lapsed) is that I am on the verge of acquiring a Bedford QLW tipper which needs quite a lot of work but having learned from my experiences with the GMC and am confident I can get it up and running and back on the road. I hope that I will be able to learn much from the wise folk on this forum.

 

I have always been astonished by the willingness of people in the MV world to help others..

 

 

As and when the Bedford is ready, I will finish it as 11th Engineers Company of the 1st Polish Armoured Division in honour of my uncle who served with them all the way to the German surrender of Wilhelmshaven. Sadly he died in 1961 so I never got to hear his story first hand.

 

I hope that this is a worthy introduction and I look forward to being part of the forum.

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Welcome too from another Northumbrian ex-pat. Yes, Richard, I think the initials DT might just fit as there aren't many people in Northumbria with two (or more) Matadors and then there was that fine Diamond T .

Good luck with the Bedford QL tipper, a great choice of project. Numbers and pictures when you have time, please.

Best wishes,

Mike.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Apologies for the delay in responding to the kind messages - I've been in Norfolk.....

 

Nothing stays secret on here obviously and, yes, I am the son-in-law of the man with the Matador(s). His help and advice is going to be invaluable with the QLW which has now arrived! Really looking forward to getting started on it...

 

We'll be at a few shows over the summer, War & Peace, Croft etc so hope to see you somewhere. I'll be homing in on QLs with the intention of picking brains....;)

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Hi and welcome, what is the connection with Korporal Jozef Pawlica, I gather he was an engineer in the Polish equivalent of the RE?

 

Korporal Jozef Pawlica was my uncle and served with the 11th Engineer Company of the Polish 1st Armoured Division. He escaped from Poland in September 1939, re-joined the Free Polish forces in France and was subsequently evacuated by sea to Glasgow when France fell.

 

Like many Poles, he was moved to the east coast of Scotland to work on coastal defence where he met my fathers sister and they were married in 1942.

 

He went ashore at Arromanches on 30th July 1944 with the Polish 1st Armoured and was with them all the way through the NW Europe campaign ending up in Wilhelmshaven.

 

Sadly, I never knew him as he died young in 1961 so I have used his name as a commemoration of his service and that of the Poles in general who did so much for very little reward at the end of the war.

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Hi and welcome, what is the connection with Korporal Jozef Pawlica, I gather he was an engineer in the Polish equivalent of the RE?

 

Don't think my previous response posted.... Korporal Josef Pawlica was my uncle and served with the 11th Engineer Company of the Polish 1st Armoured Division. He escaped Poland at the end of September 1939 and rejoined the Polish Free Forces in France. After France fell he was evacuated by sea to Glasgow and, in common with many Poles was shipped to the east coast to defend Scotland from potential invasion in 1940.

 

He met my fathers sister and they were married in 1942 - he went ashore at Arromanches on 30th July 1944 and served throughout the NW Europe campaign ending up in Wilhelmshaven.

 

Sadly I never knew him as he died in 1961 aged 49 - I use his name in commemoration.

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Sadly, I never knew him as he died young in 1961 so I have used his name as a commemoration of his service and that of the Poles in general who did so much for very little reward at the end of the war.

 

Quite so, my father was Polish and was one of over 200,000 Poles who were given UK citizenship after the war to soften the blow of Churchill's Yalta betrayal. He was a lawyer in Poland but as with many of his colleagues didn't retrain in the UK as they all thought they would be going back to a free Poland within a year or two not knowing it was going to be 44 years.

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Without wanting to hyjack the thread or throw petrol on the fire. By the time of Yalta Churchills influence was on the slide and he was unable to influence Stalin. He just had to go with the situation as after nearly 6 years of war Britain was weary and he knew he could not carry any more conflict.Also with the death of Sykorsky the Communists had the influence and speed to form a Government. As an aside We are very gratefull for the efforts of your Polish countrymen in all of the areas of fighting, Notably to name just a few, Monte Casino,Arnham, Battle of Britain, Code breaking and Naval endeavours. I visit a cemetery in Northumberland and allways make a point of looking out the Polish Graves. It was a long time ago and with the benefit of hindsight many things could and should have been done differently but that was the way the cards were played. At least a situation could be exploited that would lead to freedom eventually. I hope I do not upset anyone with my observations.

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