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surving 70 years in same uniform ??


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Posted
More total rubbish from the Suffolk Gazette... but makes better reading than the Daily Fail.

 

What are you saying, you mean it might not be true, but a newspaper said it was, next you will be telling me that Father Christmas is going to be late this year. :banghead:

Posted

Article by Doug Trench, Defence Editor - no doubt in association with 'Phil Space' who fills up the website around 1st April each year!

 

For me it was the comment that he was amazed Norwich City won a trophy that showed it was fake , as no one in Norfolk cares either - so its unlikely a Luftwaffe airman would!

Posted

While this story is, of course, a load of codswallop, it reminds me of a more poignant and totally genuine occasion when old men appeared in their old uniforms.

 

After the war, the West recognised the communist government of Poland established in Lublin and the Polish soldiers who had fought for their government in exile in London became stateless. Many of you will remember that life in post-war Poland soon became totally dominated by Stalin's Soviet Union and life for ex-Servicemen who fought in the west - alongside the RN, the British Army and the RAF - was made increasingly untenable. Many were imprisoned, some executed and many more were unable to return to their homeland and established new lives for themselves in Britain, Canada and elsewhere. Only Polish soldiers who had fought in the 1st Polish Army under command of the Red Army were recognised.

 

Following the return of democracy to Poland in 1989 - 1991, those Polish military formations which had fought in the west were rehabilitated in their homeland and, for the first time since the war their members were able to erect monuments in Warsaw and elsewhere at which they could lay wreaths and remember their old comrades and the part they played in bringing democracy to Europe while having been unable to free their own country for all that time.

 

It was my privilege to get involved in one or two of these and it resulted in my standing on parade in my khaki service dress usually laying a poppy wreath. Beside me would be many Polish veterans - and the remarkable thing is that many of them too would be wearing Service Dress identical to mine and also made in London. Not made in the 1980s, however, but when they had been serving in the UK in the early 1940s. On disbandment in 1945/6 the uniforms had been packed carefully away and now, finally, over 50 years later, they were seeing the light once more. Quite remarkable and most memorable to see these uniforms, both SD and battledress, with their original insignia and being worn by their original owners. Their numbers will be fewer now, but I am willing to bet that, those who can still parade in their WWII uniforms on appropriate occasions. Absolutely fantastic - THAT is living history!

 

10 68

Posted

I met one of those ex free Polish veterans on my first international trip in 1994. We had an interpreter on a course called 'Stan' with an impeccable UK accent.

 

He had fought in Poland and then with the free Polish Forces in the UK. As you said after the war he had a new life in the UK after the war, family etc. But he went back to Poland when his mother was dying. Once in they would not let him exit back to the UK. As you could imagine he had bitter memories of the Soviet era.

Posted
More total rubbish from the Suffolk Gazette... but makes better reading than the Daily Fail.

 

Hey!! We had one in the Jersey Evening Post a few years back! :nono:

Posted
What are you saying, you mean it might not be true, but a newspaper said it was, next you will be telling me that Father Christmas is going to be late this year. :banghead:

 

 

I once discovered a Japanese Sniper hiding in my salad bowl, in our Local Chinese Take Away you know :cheesy:

 

Honest guv, it's a true as I'm riding this bike as I type!.......:cool2:

 

Anyway, can they read up in Norwich?.....;) I heard they come out at night & stare at the Moon! :-D

 

Just pulling your legs, you 'Na-rich-ers'.....LOL

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