Each dot on the above map of the Soviet Russia represents a penal concentration camp (gulag), or a special "psychiatric" prison.

Full list of all location names and details can be found in a book (in Polish) "The fate of Poles in the USSR in years 1939-1986" : "Losy Polaków w ZSRR w latach 1939-1986", by Julian Siedlecki, Gryf Publications, London 1987.

Near the end of the second year of war in Europe, the Soviet Union was unexpectedly attacked by Hitler on 22 June 1941, breaking the 1939 Soviet-Nazi pact of friendship and cooperation. The Soviets found themselves, willy-nilly, on the same side as Britain, Poland, and the Allies.

They issued the so called "amnesty" for Polish citizens imprisoned or deported to the Soviet Union.   A strange amnesty indeed, where there had been no crime!  Many prisoners and deportees were released from prison camps, under the terms of this "amnesty", to allow recruitment of a Polish Army.

Thus 1942 saw the creation of the Polish Army in the Soviet Union from some survivors of over one and a half million Poles who were deported after Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 to forced labour camps in all parts of the Soviet Union. The army was set up in the Asian south of Russia, headed by general Anders, former prisoner, who spent two years in notorious Lubyanka prison in Moscow.

General Anders, former Soviet prisoner,
inspecting the Polish recruitment camp in Buzuluk - 1941 >>>

But it was soon clear that the Russians were not able to feed or equip the Polish army properly. So after much pressure on Moscow, general Anders managed to get Stalin's agreement to evacuate Polish troops to Persia (Iran), Iraq and Palestine (Israel) where they would be equipped and fed by the British.

This agreement was mainly due to Churchill's support who stressed to Stalin that troops were needed to protect oil fields in the Middle East. Germans and Italians were not that far away in North Africa, and sending British troops to Iraq will delay opening of war front in the West which Russians were demanding.

Some Polish children, widows and families who happened to be in the neighborhood area of the Polish Army formation, were taken under the protection of this army and were also evacuated. They were placed in transit camps in Palestine, British East Africa and India. Many of them later found home in Australia.
See  Australian Immigration - Chapter 9.

After the so called "amnesty" my brother Zygmunt, surviving 2 years of imprisonment, slave work, cold and starvation in Vorkuta gulag camp, finally reached Polish Army garrison in Buzuluk, Orenburg district, south of Russia, and joined the gen. Anders Army. Due to nearing German war front line, the garrison was moved past Urals to Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic in the Asian south of the USSR.

Zygmunt was very happy to wear the uniform of a Polish soldier but his body was so weakened by the labour and prolonged starvation that he soon died on 4 June 1942, aged 21, in Guzar (Ghuzor), Kashkadariyskaya province, Uzbekistan. The information about his death I received through the wartime Polish Red Cross in London in 1944. More details were confirmed in year 2000 by Karta id. 51374 and 120197.

My brother Zbigniew (Zbyszek), now aged 16, in September 1942, tried to reach from the Northern Kazakhstan the Anders Army in the South. He got as far as Akmolinsk (now called Tselinograd), where, starving, he worked in a nearby kolhoz to get some food and survive. A severe winter arrived and Zyszek had no choice but to return to our mother who were left alone also in snow covered Matveyevka. Soon after there was the breakup of the Soviet - Polish diplomatic relations. In the spring 1943, having Soviet citizenship forced on him again, Zbigniew was called up to the Red Army instead. With hardly any military training he was sent from Siberia to the war front in eastern Europe as "cannon fodder". He was wounded in Budapest in Hungary. This information I found out some time after the war in London, through the Red Cross, after contacting my mother who returned to Poland.

After the "amnesty", on reaching the age of 18, on a frosty Siberian 1st of February 1942, wearing rags and torn shoes, I went 50 km away to the Soviet Politburo in the district township Aryk-Balyk, to see the military. There I presented myself as a candidate to the Polish Army. After various simple medical, and other Soviet style checks (e.g. whether I could read) I was accepted. From Aryk-Balyk, with other Polish young men from the area I was sent to the provincial capital, where there was a proper military commission. We traveled by horse driven sledges on snow for two days, to the railway line in Kokchetov, singing Polish patriotic and military songs on the way. As a shortcut we went over a frozen lake at Imantov (?). From Kokchetov by crowded train we reached Akmolinsk (now called Tselinograd).

In Akmolinsk there was a Polish military commission with Soviet representatives. A Soviet major tried to suggest to me, without success, to join the Soviet army instead. After the recruitment procedure I was included in a group of 100 men and sent somewhere south to the Polish Army. After 26 days of struggle to get on various crowded cattle truck trains, and hunger, waiting for days to catch and push into trains, demanding priority by yelling "we are the conscripts for war", at Petropavlovsk, Omsk, Novo-Sibirsk, Semipalatinsk, Alma-Ata, we finally reached a small place called Lugovoy in the south, in Kyrgyzstan, Kirgiz Soviet Republic (see map below).

There, on 26 February 1942, I joined the Polish Army in Lugovoy (28th Infantry Regiment, 10th Division).

In spite of the still freezing temperatures at night in the South (mud and slush in daytime), we slept on the ground in Soviet made summer tents without any heating, 18-20 soldiers to a tent (see photo below). We lived on meager rations which we also shared with starving Polish civilians hanging around the camp. But instead of rags and lice I now wore new, warm British battledress and real leather boots - heavenly comfort !

2 April 1942 : GOODBYE  STALIN !
On the 2 of April 1942, my Army regiment and myself were packed like sardines on a dilapidated Russian cargo ship "Profintern" in port Krasnovodsk on the Caspian Sea. Then we left the Soviet Union. The next day, on 3 April 1942, we arrived in port Pahlevi (Resht) in Persia.

Unfortunately, the evacuation of General's Anders Army did not last long.

In April 1943 the Germans, who advanced on the Soviet territory found mass graves in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk and had produced evidence linking the Soviet Union to the murder of thousands of Polish officers found buried in these mass graves.

When the Poles arranged for an independent, international Red Cross investigation into the massacre, which confirmed that the officers had been killed by the Soviets, Stalin was furious and had broken off diplomatic relations with the Polish government in exile in London.

The "amnesty" was withdrawn, the Soviet citizenship was again imposed on all Poles in Russia. The evacuation of the Anders Army had ceased.

The first most exciting sight to me in port Pahlevi was the Persian flag, with a Lion and Sun on it. It was not the hated and feared Hammer and Sickle symbol any more !! It convinced me that I was definitely not in the USSR.

I could not believe myself that I was outside of the Soviet Union and its communist tyranny.

I was so happy that I was now back in the normal, human world again, where people were free.

In Pahlevi we camped on the sand along the edges of oil polluted Caspian Sea.

Four days later, on the 6 April, we celebrated on the beach our first Easter since leaving Poland.

After release from the northern Vorkuta Gulag (Karta id. 50750) where he left his cousin Mietek behind, still awaiting his turn to be freed, Edward made his long way down to south of Russia in search of the Polish Army. While the Germans were advancing deep into the USSR territory nearing Moscow and Stalingrad, the army in the process of formation kept changing its locations to the Asian region.

To survive and get some food, he worked in kolhozes in the area of the river Amu Darya, in Kirghiz steppes between the Caspian and Aral Seas. Eventually he joined gen. Anders Army and was allocated to the Centre for Armoured Units at Karabalty, Kirgiz Soviet Republic. Afterwards, Edward was evacuated to Persia by the first transports in March 1942.

From there his unit traveled to Palestine and stayed in camps in Hedera and El - Khassa. Pretty soon, Edward was allocated to supplement the Polish Forces in Great Britain and was sent there by the sea transport, sailing around the African continent.

Mietek joined general Anders army in Kermine, Uzbek Soviet Republic. He was assigned to the 7th Infantry Division's anti-aircraft artillery and was put in the NCO training battery. All men in Kermine were weakened by prolonged starvation and with low immunity about forty of them were dying every day.

Mietek was evacuated via Caspian Sea during later transports of the Polish Army. He sailed in August 1942 on a ship called Gruzavik (loader) from port Krasnovodsk to port Palhlevi in Persia (Iran).

Then he traveled to Khanakin in Iraq, where he was posted on defence of a refinery. His unit was reorganized and became the 8th heavy anti-aircraft regiment. They received new guns and began intensive training. Mietek was appointed as a driving instructor for a time.

Soon Mietek was posted to a place called Habbaniya near Baghdad on defence of an airport.

Mietek in Iraq next to his tent, wearing an overcoat - winter 1942

Following that, Mietek was posted to Kirkuk in northern Iraq, and later to Palestine where he was stationed at Hill 69, near Rehovot.

The next move of the whole Polish 2nd Corps was to North Africa. Finally Mietek and all the troops were assembled at Cassasin in Egypt, awaiting embarkation to go to the war front in Italy.

This shrine was built by the lake HABBANIYA in Iraq by gen. Anders Polish Army, en-route from the USSR to the war fronts in Europe.

The inscription on the altar is in Polish :
ZWRÓC NAS PANIE NA OJCZYZNY LONO, and means O, LORD, RETURN US TO THE BOSOM OF OUR HOMELAND

From Pahlevi in Persia I traveled through Kazvin, Hamadan and Kermanshah in high Persian mountains in hired trucks driven by Iranian reckless civilian drivers (speeding, racing each other, casing accidents), up to the Persian-Iraqi border. Then we were driven by sensible British or East Indian military to Baghdad in Iraq, rested in Habbaniya near a lake, and continued our journey through Ramadi, Rutba and Transjordanian desert to Palestine, finally stopping in a large camp Hedera (Gedera).

Later I was moved to a camp in El-Khassa where I was issued with death identity discs to be worn around the neck at all times.


Our units in Palestine were formed into a new Carpathian Division incorporating the former Polish Carpathian Brigade ("the rats of Tobruk") who had just been moved to Palestine after successful defense of Tobruk in Libya, Northern Africa, alongside the Australians.

1942. El-Khassa camp, Palestine. I am 18½ years old.

In the camp I met a man from Pinsk, named Filipiak, who told me that he saw my brother Edward (66.121) here in the army!.. It was unbelievable as I thought he was living in the German zone of occupied Poland. Now I realized that he must have been captured trying to escape the Soviet occupation, and was imprisoned by the Soviets. The exciting news was that he also got out of the Soviet Russia like myself, and was here in the army! I couldn't wait to see him.

Soon, there was a big disappointment. I discovered from my Army Command the bad news, that just a week before, Edward was sent to England. It was the last of such transports. The rest of us will go to North Africa. The war was in full swing and who knows if we ever meet each other.

I desperately wished to be with my brother Edward ! ... Soon, an opportunity arose when I discovered that 100 volunteers were wanted to be parachuted into occupied Poland to join underground resistance. Their main duties will be as Morse Code radio operators of the secret radio stations passing the intelligence to London. They will be trained in England.

Without hesitation I quickly joined this group of volunteers so I could go to England. After I joined, to my new disappointment, we were told that before we can be trained in England for underground activities, we must become well acquainted with Morse Code and the ABC's of short wave radio transmitters and receivers here in Palestine.

So we were formed into an independent, special unit of 100 men, stationed in Palestine in a small camp at El-Mughar, near Rehovot. The unit was under the command of lieutenant Piotr Tarnowski, an electrical engineer from Tobruk campaign, and we begun our training. The unit was subordinated directly to the Office of the Chief of the Polish Armed Forces in London.

In the meantime the remaining Polish forces in the USSR under gen. Anders were being evacuated from Russia to northern Iraq, forming the 2nd Corps (and my cousin Mietek with them). The Polish army already in Palestine had to join them in Iraq. Road transport was limited, so all the troops, and my small unit with them, traveled there by sea convoy around the Arabian Peninsula. I sailed on a ship "Banfora" from port Suez, alongside Polish ship "Kosciuszko" and others, arriving in the Persian Gulf and Baghdad. Then by miniature goods train we traveled to Khanaquin in North Iraq.

Only one moth later, in Khanaquin, where we camped, it was the H.Q. of gen. Anders Army, an order came from London, that only the best 60 soldiers out of 100 volunteers from my special unit be chosen and sent to England for further training. The selection tests were made and I, well motivated, was one of the best.

So we traveled back to Palestine, this time by land in trucks, through the Transjordanian desert again, and then by rail to Egypt, passing El-Kantara and Ismailia. Our departing port was Suez, at the end of Suez Canal, where we awaited for ocean transport in small tents on Egyptian sands.

In Suez we boarded the 40,000 ton Dutch liner "New Amsterdam" on the 22 of November 1942.

Eight days later, on 1 December 1942, anchoring at port Diego Suarez in Madagascar, our ship picked up South African troops returning home after very recent British action there to take over the island of Madagascar from the Vichy-French. The soldiers were bringing home from Madagascar "souvenirs" such as monkeys, huge snakes, parrots.

On the 7 December 1942 we arrived in Durban, Natal, South Africa. There was an unforgettable scene of a lady dressed all in white, standing on the quay and loudly singing to the arriving troops. Then we were moved outside the city, to an Army Transit camp in Clairwood, where we spent our 1942 Christmas.

PHOTO:
Sitting on the rickshaw : Piotr Romanowski (left), Franek Rymaszewski, myself ( middle) and a Greek sailor (Vasilico Navtico) from the army transit camp in Clairwood. The sailor talked to us after noticing our Polish eagle badges. On the right : a native, elderly rickshaw owner, who preferred to pose in his Zulu tribe costume next to his rickshaw instead of driving. Piotr Romanowski, my friend, was killed next year (7.7.1943) when our Special Unit had parachute jumps training at Ringway military airfield near Manchester in England. Piotr was born in 1918 in Dzierkowszczyzna near Glebokie, north of Wilno.

With other Allied troops our Polish Unit was then assigned to guard over a transport of 2000 Italian POW's, who must have arrived there by train or trucks from the war-front in North Africa. They were to be taken either to England or to Canada. We all boarded the liner "Orion" on 22 January 1943.

From Durban, after sailing for three days we passed the Cape of Good Hope and docked in Capetown, Cape Province, where our small group of 60 Polish soldiers was requested to disembark and make room for more urgent cases. So in Capetown we were taken again to another transit camp. It served for troops being moved to the Middle East or Far East, or back home to Great Britain. Its name was "Imperial Forces Transit Camp 'Pollsmoor', near Retreat.

In mid-February we heard a rumour that the ship from which we were told to disembark, was torpedoed by German U-boats and sunk, together with the Italian POWs.

My unit finally sailed for Scotland on the "Queen Mary", the second largest liner in the world at that time, used as a troopship. Unfortunately they left me me behind. I was at that time in the Imperial Military Hospital in Retreat with fever and pleurisy (pleuritis) in my lungs. I was now paying for the untreated pneumonia in the inhuman Soviet Union. (See hospital photo alongside in a convalescing ward >> ).

Eventually I recovered and when a new sea convoy was formed, I boarded a comparatively small 17,000 ton ship "Aorangi". On the way, the convoy had to anchor in the mouth of the river Congo in Belgian Congo, to hide from the following us German U-boats.

1943
Imperial Forces Transit Camp "Pollsmoor", Retreat (near Capetown), Cape Province, South Africa :
A camp that served during the World War Two, as a staging area for British and Allied troops which were being moved by troopships from England to Middle East or Far East or to other parts of the British Empire, the colonies in Africa and Asia, or back home to Great Britain. The troops were transported around the African continent because the Mediterranean Sea and North Africa were the theatre of War.

14 June 1943
Monday. Beautiful sunny day. I have just said goodbye to Gordon Lanning who is leaving Capetown tonight with the Royal Armoured Corps unit, for Durban en route to the Middle East, or to India, or maybe somewhere further. The troops are not given many details. DON'T TALK ABOUT SHIPS OR SHIPPING! are the notices posted everywhere. I made acquaintance with Gordon while we were both in the military hospital in Retreat and he became my best pal. He was born in China where his father used to work. I am indebted to him for my current modest knowledge of English because he was enthusiastically teaching me all the time. I hardly spoke any English when I went to the hospital and at first I had to use my school French to communicate with my doctor. Gordon gave me his parents address and asked me to write to them when I get to England : 9, Cavendish Crescent, BATH, Somerset, England.

(Photo on the right
Gordon Lanning in 1943)

4 August 1943
Wednesday. The rain has been falling all night and is still falling intermittently to-day. It is still "winter" in South Africa. Soon after breakfast almost all troops marched out from the camp to the suburban railway station Retreat, to be taken by train to Capetown where a sea transport to England was now ready. Their kitbags and other baggage were collected yesterday.

For the past seven days or so, a mysterious vertical column of smoke was appearing in the mountainous rocks near the Table Mountain. Some people were saying that it was the work of German agents notifying their U-boats in the Ocean that a sea convoy of troops was being readied in the port. This morning the camp is almost empty, and very quiet. It is drizzling. There is a feeling of some sadness. There are only five of us left, former patients in the convalescents barrack - three Polish servicemen and two Englishmen. Were we forgotten?

Not really. At noon came a messenger from the camp Reception Office and told us to pack our things quickly, return camp blankets to the store and report in the Office. The transportation captain was awaiting there. He told the three of us that we would join a group of about 250 Polish soldiers, already on board, traveling from the Middle East (formerly members of general Anders army from the USSR) to supplement the Polish Forces in the UK. So we were loaded on a lorry and taken in a hurry all the way to Capetown port.

While traveling, the thoughts were coming to my mind ... Well ...... so it looks like I am definitely leaving South Africa this time .... A very beautiful country, peaceful and wealthy, where I had many happy moments and a perfect and comfortable rest, and good food, including during my time in a modern hospital, a reward after all that suffering and starvation in the Soviet Union .... My poor mother and younger brother ... they are still there freezing and starving in Siberia.... And what happened to my father?....

The rain is still drizzling... We arrived at the sea port. There were two passenger ships, now troopships, docked in the port. A big one, called Dominion Monarch, and much smaller Aorangi from the Canadian -Australasian Line, only 17,000 ton. Unfortunately, I had to board the smaller one and join the Polish transport group there, under the command of cpt. Wiktor Rodziewicz.

After settling with the group, I went to ferret the whole ship, its decks and nooks. I met only three English soldiers known to me from the camp, all the others are on this big Dominion Monarch. When I was on the very top open deck I hid from the sudden shower, in a nook next to a well glazed cabin. Some important looking man in the cabin, perhaps he was a Merchant Navy officer, so I imagined, saw me and invited me into the cabin. He was quite polite and pleased to find out that I was a Polish soldier. He offered me a cup of tea. I wasn't there for very long, because the ship started to move and after I drunk the tea I had to go back. While our troopships were awaiting for the warships from the Naval base Simonstown on the Cape Peninsula, we sailed around the Cape of Good Hope couple of times between the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. I had the opportunity to see the beautiful bays, the Table Mountain and the locality Muizenberg on the opposite side of the Cape. Soon we were joined by our escort of two battleships and five destroyers and the convoy was on its way. Aorangi immediately started to rock unpleasantly (they had no stabilizers at those times). Suffering from the motion sickness all my young life, I became seasick at once. I could not eat any dinner to-night and I was vomiting.

5 August 1943
Thursday. The whole day Aorangi was badly rolling. The ocean was rough and agitated. I did not eat all day again. Weakened from vomiting, I had no strength or inclination to undress and hang up my hammock. I slept on the floor on my folded hammock, fully dressed in my clothes and with my boots on. Our common hall where we are accommodated was warm and stuffy.

6 August 1943
Friday. The sea has calmed down. I emerged on the deck, pale and weak. Bumped into and talked a little with pte. Plumb, a cockney, former taxi driver from London whom I met in hospital. He entertained everybody with his talk and jokes. In the middle of our convalescing ward we had a record player on the table. And very few records. One of them was "All the Christian Soldiers ..." It was played over and over again and everybody was very bored with it, almost fed up. One day, in the middle of a dark night, about 2am, the whole sleeping ward was rudely awaken with a loud playing of "All the Christian Soldiers..." - it was Plumb who quietly got up and in the darkness put the record on and quickly jumped back into bed.

7 August 1943
Saturday. Our daily routine is as follows. The reveille is at 6am. Breakfast at 7am, consisting of white bread, butter, tea, porridge, canned beef, bacon or fish. Dinner is at 12 noon - soup, potatoes, vegetables, meat, and a dessert. Supper is at 5pm - bread, cheese, jam or marmalade, ham or other smoked meat and pickle, tea and orange fruit. At 8pm tea and biscuits. At 10pm the tattoo.

Fresh water for drinking and washing up is available from the storage tanks for one hour after breakfast and supper only. That's, of course, for the whole ship. For showers and laundering, water is available all day but it is salty water from the ocean. In the morning we do the cleaning up, we take off the hooks our hammocks in which we sleep in a large hall, and we fold them to make the hall a living room. There are also in our hall tables at which we eat our meals. The food is brought from the kitchen. Afterwards there is inspection of our quarters, while at 10am we all go to the Emergency Stations on B deck, with our life belts. During this parade the gun crews are practice-firing from the cannons and heavy machine guns.

8 August 1943
Sunday. The sea is becoming calmer and calmer.... To-day, I am on duty at our table, together with pte. Dec. We have to bring the food from the kitchen in vessels 3 times during the day for the whole table of 16 people. Afterwards we have to wash up the plates and cups which were given to us on the ship for the voyage. Most of the time is taken by division and sharing of the food, and there is terrible mess and disorder.

In my platoon, which sits together at the table, there are 16 following soldiers : pte. Cybulski, pte. Dec, pte. Labuc, pte. Malinowski, pte. Michalski, pte. Niemiec, pte. Oliwko, pte. Ozimek, pte. Palonka, pte. Partyka, L/cpl. Pell, pte. Pietraszkiewicz, L/cpl. Przygoda, cpl. Rozpendowski, pte. Rymaszewski (myself), cpl. Swierszcz.

9 August 1943
Monday. I am spending most of my time on deck where there is fresh air, as we live on the lowest deck F2 in the bow of the ship. The outside temperature is becoming hotter and hotter. I took off my woolen battledress and now wear a tropical shirt and khaki trousers. There is nothing to do. I went to the canteen to-day and bought some razor blades and a chocolate. I had to wait for it in a queue as there were a lot of English buyers. They are stocking up with blades, cigarettes, chocolate, etc. for the future, because they say everything is very expensive in England, or even not available.

10 August 1943
Tuesday. We got our pay to-day. One English Pound each. Many boys immediately start playing cards for money. Others, including myself, spend their time learning English from "teach-yourself" books.

Suddenly something suspicious begins. The ships curiously start and keep changing their formation and keep traveling in zigzag fashion. The sailors continuously monitor the ocean from the crow's nests. From time to time the ships nervously signal each other and fire from the canons into the sea. We note that these are not normal practice times.

11 August 1943
Wednesday. At 10 am we saw land shores on the starboard (right side). What could it be? ... The next port of call supposed to be Freetown in West Africa, while we are at the moment at the very most 5 degrees before the equator. Probably it will be some small islands in the Atlantic.

At noon we stopped at some kind of a bay, which was previously checked out by the warships. We anchored. All day to-day there is fresh water in the taps. But instead, the salty water was forbidden to be used for bathing and showering. We were told it was dirty and there is an epidemic of fever here. To-night I did all my washing and had a good solid shower, because there was always a queue before. Later at night I played chess with pte. Cybulski. I felt very well because the ship was stationary.

12 August 1943
Thursday. The whole convoy is still anchored in the same place. Now we are finding out that we are anchored in the mouth of the river Congo, in Belgian Congo, where we called at to mislead the German U-boats that followed us, and to avoid the peril of being torpedoed.
I spend the evening studying English a bit, and writing my notes.

14 August 1943
Saturday. At 6.20 am we left the river and Belgian Congo.

8 days later:
22 August 1943.
We arrived at 7.30 am in Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa. An unusual sight was watching young native boys swimming in the harbour like fish and offering to dive and fish out coins thrown down to them by the ship passengers. (See drawing on the right).
The ships in our convoy were replenishing from the shore facilities the fresh water which was running very low, also food and other supplies. Nobody was allowed to go ashore.

2 days later:
24 August 1943. After dinner (i.e. English lunch) we departed from Freetown.

7 days later:
31 August 1943.
Next port of call was French Morocco and we docked in port Casablanca. It looked exotic with white buildings an minarets.

Next day:
1 September 1943.
We left Casablanca and sailed avoiding the English Channel, where there was danger of German Air strikes in addition to U-boats. So we sailed on the other, Western side of Britain, over the Irish Sea right up to Scotland.

7days later:
8 September 1943.
In the morning, when I came up on deck, I saw the shore on the right hand side.... At last the land !.... Now we can be sure that we are not going to be torpedoed!..... L/cpl. Pell pulled my leg by calling "Look, Frank, your brother is standing on the shore!" He knew that I was looking forward very much to meet my brother Edward in the Polish Army here, whom I haven't seen for 4 years. We parted at the outbreak of war in Poland.

Soon, on the other side, a shore also emerged. It was hilly. ... The weather was bad. Cloudy, foggy and drizzle. We were sailing among all sorts of gulfs, coves, inlets, bends and small islands. On the shores one can see the lighthouses and estates. Brick or stone houses, usually two-story, characteristically built in a style reminiscent of little medieval castles. In the coves are docked all sorts of ships, little boats, vessels and crafts. Comparing to them our Aorangi now seems quite big, not as small as I thought before, especially when down there below, small fishing boats are passing. Then we stopped in some cove. I noticed nearby in the port there were many naval ships and a large aircraft carrier among them.

The sun has suddenly appeared in the sky illuminating beautiful arable fields and stubble fields, spread out over the hills, with sheaves of crops. Of course!.... It's already autumn here. When I was leaving Africa, there was spring over there, just starting.

We are told that we are now at port Greenock, near Glasgow in Scotland. Little steamboats took us from the ship to shore where there was an empty train already awaiting for us. A very pleasant impression made on us welcome from the Salvation Army on the platform and other Scottish ladies - all volunteers, with smiles and greetings, they immediately started to serve us cups of hot tea and cakes.

From port Greenock the train took us to Glasgow. We were watching the view from windows. Pleasant surroundings, so much greenery! Although we passed also a lot of factories, coal mines, etc. Huge captive barrage balloons, protecting important objects (and the port) from German planes, were gently swaying high in the sky. (photo)

Many passengers left in Glasgow at Queens Street station. Our Polish army group continued by train to Kirkcaldy on the east coast of Scotland where there was a Polish Forces Reception Centre. From there I was moved by Polish army truck to Auchtertool, to some army unit located in an old brewery. Soon after arrival, I was given a copious dinner - a real Polish dinner.