1943 : REUNION DURING THE WAR OF TWO SURVIVING BROTHERS — NOW POLISH SOLDIERS IN SCOTLAND

After 4 years separation since Christmas 1939 in Pinsk, Poland, my brother 25 year old Edward Rymaszewski (on the left), reuniting with myself, 20 year old Franek Rymaszewski (on the right).

We both survived communist oppression in the USSR and traveled across the seas engulfed in war, to reach Britain. We met in Edinburgh, Scotland in October 1943.

Edward arrived in England in 1942, aged 24 years, with one of the early sea transports of Polish troops from the Middle East, originally evacuated from the Soviet Union with the gen. Anders Army.

He was transferred to the Polish 1st Armoured Division in Scotland commanded by General Maczek. The Division wore a badge depicting the wings of the Polish medieval knights - hussars who had the wings attached to their armour. They also wore one black shoulder strap (on left side - see photo). Edward served in the light anti-aircraft company as a scout - motorcyclist.

After training in Scotland, the Division was moved to Aldershot camp in England and then was sent to the western front in France shortly after D-day.

Edward then took part in the drive through Normandy in France, culminating in the battles of Falaise and Chambois where Polish troops cut off the retreat of 60,000 Germans, thus helping the liberation of Paris.

The Poles, an Allied army, were at first allocated by the British High Command to fight as part of the Canadian Corps. So the victories were not attributed as Polish victories. But once, Canadian sappers erected on Mount Ormel a sign that read, as a mark of respect, "A Polish Battlefield".

Later, the Poles went on to liberate Abeville, St. Omer, Ypres and Ghent in France. The Division then drove through Belgium into Holland where they liberated Breda (27-29 Oct 1944). The Dutch to this day express their gratitude to the Polish Army at the liberation celebrations. Edward then went into west Germany where the Polish Division occupied and accepted the German surrender of the port of Wilhelmshaven.

When the war ended Edward stayed in Germany for some time. The Polish Division was then attached to the so called British Army of Rhine (BAOR). Britons were going home to be demobilized. But the Poles had nowhere to go.

Following my survival of the slavery and famine in the Soviet Union, and active war service in Palestine, Egypt and Iraq, I arrived in the UK by a troopship in 1943, at the age of nearly 20 years.

As a volunteer parachute jumper to occupied Poland and already trained in the Middle East as a radiotelegraph operator, I was posted on arrival to the Special Unit of "Cichociemni" (Polish for "Silent and Dark) in London, which was at the Disposal of the Commander in Chief (C in C) of the Polish Army in the West. It was a secret unit of the Polish Army in Exile created to maintain contact with occupied Poland during World War Two. This unit was liaising with the British Intelligence Department MI-6.

From there I was sent for further training to the "Special Unit's Training Centre" in Polmont, near Falkirk, Scotland. I attended further courses in radiotelegraphy, international communication codes, use of small arms and explosives, conspiracy methods and diversion, as well as simple parachute jump for non-combatants.

Passing the tests and qualifying as a Radiotelegraph Operator First Class, I was soon requested for duties by the Special Unit of the Polish Commander in Chief, Staff Headquarters in London.

...... at that time in Earlsferry born there, lived a very young Scott Reekie who was a cadet member of Royal Air Force Training Corps, being trained as a Navigator and Radio operator. Late in life, when he retired in USA, Scott created a great website of personal remembrances of his early years in the village of Earlsferry. Among its many topics, one page is entitled "Polish Soldiers". It gives accurate description of the presence of a large detachment of Polish army paratroopers being trained there during the 1939-1945 war. The website is called :

If you've been to Scotland during the war years like myself, have a look at a very interesting Scott's website.

The Special Unit had to be on full 24-hour 7 day alert, keeping continuous radio contact in Morse code with the Polish Underground.   Radio-communication was with agents dropped from England into Poland. It was intensifying and peaked by the end of 1944 during the Warsaw Uprising.

There were eight radio transmitters in the Unit, which were increased to twelve before Warsaw Uprising. Day and night we kept listening to the radio frequencies of the underground radiostations in occupied Poland, ready at any moment to receive and transmit messages whenever agents, risking detection and their lives every time they transmitted a message to London, had the opportunity to call us.

My work roster was 24 hours on stand-by (to assist in case of busy traffic), 24 hours on actual duty (involving 15-20 hours of Morse correspondence), and 24 hours of rest. Although we had superior equipment (3 KW transmitters), the work was difficult, because our underground agents had small conspiratorial transmitters (see photo below) whose power was only 50 Watts, and often used manual supply of electricity. Sometimes they were hardly audible and difficult to select from a multitude of noises and wartime signals at the given frequency (from planes, tanks, ships, army units, various armies command HQ, etc.etc.). Frequently the weakest signal was the right one, hence our ears had to learn to select these.

In spite of this, a "live" personal contact with my occupied homeland during the war, was exciting and it gave me a lot of satisfaction.

Morse code alphabet, international abbreviations and Q-code   that we used in our work.

From time to time according to the needs of the Polish Homeland Army, "cichociemni" radio-telegraph operators from my unit were selected to be dropped in Poland.

The transmitters, cable connected with us, were situated in nearby Chipperfield, North London.

The Polish Homeland Army was the largest underground resistance army during World War Two. 400,000 strong at its peak it is credited with supplying the Allies with constant intelligence information about the eastern front, providing information about the V-1 rocket in Peenemunde, the sending over to Britain of the V-2 rocket, the sabotage and destruction of German supply trains and communication centres. It carried out the war's largest uprising (the Warsaw Rising) which lasted 63 days.

The secret agents in Poland captured parts of the German V1 flying bombs and sent to London for examination, provided information on German military movements (e.g. giving advanced warning of the German plan to invade Russia), and gave the RAF full information about factory at Peenemunde, where the Germans were producing V2 rockets.

And the greatest contribution to the final victory over the Nazis was the presentation to the British Government of "Enigma" decoders which helped the Allies read German coded messages and so helped to win the war! "Enigma" decoding machine

The conspiratorial transmitters and receivers that we used in Poland (photo on the right), were produced by our Polish Army Radio Workshop in Stanmore, London. It was called "Pipsztok (peepshtock)", weighed 4.5 kilos, and its measurements were only 280mm x 210mm x 95mm.
We were all trained to use these"pipshtoks".

During Warsaw Uprising in August and September 1944, in which all population of Warsaw took arms against the Germans, the Russians nearby ceased to advance and awaited five months until Warsaw was burnt and destroyed and Polish underground army defeated.

Photo of burning Warsaw after German bombing - 1944

Russians did not give any help. They also refused to allow Allied planes which were dropping supplies in Warsaw to land on airfields in Poland "liberated" by Russians. There were some Australians among the Allied plane crews. They all had to risk flying back non-stop over enemy territory to England or to recently liberated Italy on limited fuel.

When the Soviet army crossed into Poland, the Russians started to disarm members of the Polish Homeland Army and deport them to labour camps in Siberia because they represented Polish "capitalist government" in London. The leaders were shot.

This Soviet behaviour was not a great surprise to all of us from the general Anders Army who had gone through the Soviet mill and knew what communism was about.

My colleagues from my Special Unit of "cichociemni" who were dropped to work with the underground as wireless operators were all arrested by Soviets and disappeared. The only few survivors who returned to London after the war were those taken as POWs during Warsaw Uprising by the Germans who respected Geneva Convention in contrast to the Soviets.

As a result, dropping of young men like myself from England into Poland was stopped because Soviet intentions towards Poland became very clear.

So I remained at the Polish Army H.Q. in London, keeping radio communication with the underground till the end of war.

When Soviet installed communist government took over in Poland, we still kept radio contact with some surviving underground agents for a certain period of time. However it was done secretly because contact with them was now disapproved by the British.

* * * *
The fate of the Homeland Army men and women and their families was to be hounded and deported, often killed, by the Soviet "liberators".

Mietek is my first cousin, the son of my uncle and auntie from Malkowicze, Poland.

In 1943 Mietek, aged 22 years, was with the general Anders Polish 2nd Corps in Egypt when he was transported by ship to Italy where he took part in the Italian campaign. The Corps fought at Monte Cassino and hoisted the Polish flag on the ruins of the abbey which it captured.

After the battle of Monte Cassino the infantry units lost a lot of men and there was an appeal for volunteers for transfer to the infantry. Mietek volunteered and joined the 3rd Carpathian brigade.

He was then wounded on 21 June 1944 in the battle on the river Kenti. After some time in hospital near Taranto, he was transferred to Britain, to the Polish hospital No.1 in Taymouth castle, near Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland. Later on, he spent a short time in a convalescents depot in Peebles, before returning to Italy.

The Polish 2nd Corps took then Ancona and ended the war by liberating Bologna. Mietek, with his battalion, was then posted to guard German POW's including 10,000 SS men, at Rimini on the coast of the Adriatic sea.

Eventually Mietek was brought to England to be demobilized.

1945 - END OF WAR


• As an outcome of the wartime conferences between Soviet Russia, United States and England at Teheran and Yalta, and then at Potsdam, Poland had been consigned to the "Soviet sphere of influence" and had lost vast tracts of land in the East to the Soviet Union.
  
• The Soviet secret police, the NKVD (later KGB), was detaining and deporting many Poles. In a typically communist style of operating by "deceit, crime and lie", the sixteen (16) leaders of the Polish Underground Army (representing Polish Government in Exile in London) were invited to Moscow for "discussions", then they were arrested, and most sentenced to death accused as "fascists, spies, etc."
  
• The Provisional Government in Poland was dominated by Soviet trained element that had been imported from Moscow by the Red Army.

• By the end of war on 5 July 1945 the British Government decided to switch its recognition of the Polish Government in Exile in London to the Soviet installed communist government in Warsaw.

• Although Britain and Western powers were halfheartedly demanding democracy in Poland before the faked communist elections in 1946, the Polish troops in the West (many of whom knew communism from their own experience) were in despair knowing that it was already too late and they would not be going home.
  

1956 : Anti-communist riots in Poznan, Poland

Newspaper cutting "Dream of home" (London Daily Express - I think), dated 1956, at the time of first bloody rioting of Poles in Poznan against communist oppression. That was 17 years after the beginning of war and my leaving Poland. Our dream of going home could not be realized for another 43 years, until 1990 when Solidarity movement caused the Soviet Union to crumble — too late for majority of us.

And it is still impossible for me now, and those of us whose native lands and our homes and properties have not been returned to us by Russia.

After the war and demobilization from the army, Edward and I could only obtain low paid manual jobs in London, as majority of the former Polish soldiers did. We became second class citizens. We were now regarded as Aliens and had to carry an Alien's book in which we were obliged to register with Home Office all changes of our addresses. We lived in City's poor district, on the top, sixth floor of a block of very small size flats called "Cavendish Dwellings" at Dallington St, off Goswell Road in Clerkenwell, City (E.C.1). There was no lift. The access was by external metal staircase and narrow walkways which also served as fire-escape. The flat had no bathroom, just WC, gas cooker and a shallow, flat sink for washing dishes and yourself. There was no electricity. Lighting was by gas lights! We had to give the agent 50 pounds "key money" to rent the flat. This payment represented 10 weeks of my wages or the total of my demobilization money for long wartime army service. But the rent was low (controlled by law) and there were public baths in the area.

Later Edward was employed by "Sphinx Co." the artificial jewelry manufacturers in Hammersmith and his wife Marta worked as a seamstress. After 10 years, Edward eventually "bought" , a large terrace house in Ealing, West London, on a 100 percent mortgage, paying off the mortgage by renting the rooms to other Poles, himself occupying just two rooms and a kitchenette.

Year 1982 :
Supporting Solidarity Movement in Poland which has been banned and persecuted by the Soviet controlled government, headed by general Jaruzelski.

Edward Rymaszewski and his wife in front of their home at 27 Hale Gardens, Ealing Common, London.

Edward was, for most of his life, active in the Polish Ex-combatants Association - SPK (Stowarzyszenie Polskich Kombatantów). He was their president for the London Area. The photo shows Edward (on the left), he is 69 years old, and his wartime general, gen. Stanislaw Maczek (on the right), Commander of the Polish 1st Armoured Division in England, who lived 102 years! He is 95 years old when the photo was taken in 1987 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Edward died in London on 29 October 1996 in an accidental fall, aged 78. According to Edward's wishes, his ashes were taken by his wife Marta to Poland, now free, and buried in the military cemetery "Powazki" in Warsaw.

Marta BIELSKA - wife (66.121 w). Marta was born on 30 January 1923 in Warsaw, where she lived.

In August 1944, near the end of war, she found herself in the middle of Warsaw Uprising initiated by the Underground army, with which my Special Unit at the Polish Army Staff H.Q. in London was keeping conspiratorial radio-telegraph contact. Young Marta, like all the civilian population of Warsaw, got involved in the uprising. Unfortunately, two months later, after collapse of the uprising and surrender, Marta finished up in the POW camp in Oberlangen in west Germany.

Soon afterwards Germany was defeated and the war ended on the 8th May 1945. By lucky coincidence her camp was liberated by the 1st Armoured Division of the Polish Army in the West in which Edward served. That's how Marta met Edward .

Marta joined the Women's Auxiliary Service of the Polish Army (PSK) and was moved to England where she was discharged. She married Edward and they lived in "Cavendish Dwellings" in London.

THEY HAD NO CHILDREN

The photo shows Marta after the war when she arrived in England from Germany.

She is in London's Trafalgar Square among the pigeons.

Marta worked with a dress manufacturing company as a seamstress.

In later years she was helping Edward in the activities of the London Branch of the 1st Armoured Division Ex-combatants Association.

After the war in 1946, surviving 6 years of slavery and hunger in Siberia, mother was repatriated to the Communist Poland. She was taken to "regained territories" in the west, which became Polish after the war.

I found mother's whereabouts through the Red Cross and managed to hire a young Polish boy in West Germany who was bilingual in Polish and German languages and recently escaped from Poland. He agreed to act as a guide to help my mother with the escape through the Soviet occupied East Germany.

He went back to Poland in 1947 and found my mother. During the long walk my mother pretended to be deaf mute German and the boy, speaking fluent German, acted as her son. They safely reached West Germany under Allied control and mother was placed in a Displaced Persons camp at Haren.

Later when Edward and I found employment and could guarantee her maintenance (there was no Social Security help for foreigners), I arranged with British authorities for mother to join us in London.

Aleksandra died in 1977 and was buried in London at Ealing cemetery.

She occupied herself by helping Edward and Marta with housekeeping, attending Polish Catholic Church in Ealing and reading Polish books, usually historical classics.

After discharge from the Polish Army I worked as a shop porter, with J.Sainsbury & Co.Ltd., a food chain store in London, in their Finchley store, and I lived round the corner with "Mum Little", a Canadian widow renting rooms at 14 Princes Avenue, Finchley.

After a year, I got promoted as a butcher's assistant in their Head Office shop at Blackfriars and moved to live with Edward, Marta and Mother, sharing a very small flat at "Cavendish Dwellings" in the old City of London.

Then I won a modest scholarship to study in an area of "national importance" and moved out to live in a Polish students hostel. Due to war devastation, studies for the profession of Building were available. Not the Medicine which I preferred very much.

However I did my best with what I've got and after 3 years of full-time study at the Regent Polytechnic in London, I obtained the Higher National Diploma in Building with Distinction, qualifying me as a Building Professional.

I lived in Earls Court Square, the district nicknamed "kangaroo valley" because of a large number of visiting Australians renting rooms there. 

SEARCHING FOR A COUNTRY  I  COULD FEEL AT HOME

AUSTRALIA

In 1955 I emigrated to Australia and enjoyed four years of life and work in sunny, welcome Australia. However, due to loneliness, and abundance of single male migrants and shortage of "Sheilas", I remained single and returned to England in 1959.

LONDON

Back in London I studied full time again, totally at my own expense, using savings from Australia. I did Structural Engineering and qualified as a Chartered Structural Engineer in 1962.

CANADA

The same year (1962) I went to Montreal, Canada, where I worked as a Reinforced Concrete Designer with Du Pont of Canada Ltd., an American Chemical company very busy building their own factories for the latest technology of plastics production.

Lena Duthie-Smith, whom I met in London during my studies, joined me in Canada. Although we lived at 1121, St.Catherine Street, West Montreal, Quebec, we got married in Toronto, Ontario, because in French part of Canada civil marrriage was not available nor recognized. Lena, first time out of her home country, and expecting our first child, was not happy with certain aspects of life in Canada which she saw as the American style "aggressiveness and competitiveness", so in 1963 we returned to England.

LONDON

In London I obtained a position as a Structural Designer and Section leader with a large design and contracting building company George Wimpey & Co. Ltd. Within three years we had three children. Thinking about children's future I decided to return to Australia.

BACK TO AUSTRALIA

So on the 3 September 1966 we embarked on a long sea voyage on board the ship "Iberia". This time I was not alone. There were five of us, including 2 years 11 months old Lucian, 1 year 6 months old Celina and 2 and a half months old Julian.

Lena liked the new country as her first impressions of Australian shores reminded her of her native Scotland.

More in Chapter 9 : Australia - the past

Lena in London - 1962 (PREVIOUS) (MORE)

Lena in Montreal, Canada - 1963
(expecting our first child - Lucian)

Ewa was born on 1 December 1949 in Lódz, Poland.

Ewa is my niece, the daughter of my brother Zbigniew (66.124) who was trapped in the Soviet Union and in the Communist Poland.

Ewa (photo on right) studied English in London, staying with her uncle Edward (66.121) in Ealing, and did not return to the Polish People's Republic. Later she studied French in Paris.

Ewa now lives in London and works for a firm of Chartered Accountants as a Bookkeeper.

E-mail: estanbridge@btopenworld.com
Or : bstanbridge@cwcom.net

Ewa's husband, Brian Stanbridge (66.1241h), born in September 1950 in England, is self employed and works from home as an Accountant.

CHILDREN : 2 DAUGHTERS

Vanessa Brightwell was born on 6 May 1972 in London.
Daughter of Ewa and her first husband.

Vanessa obtained professional nursing qualifications and works as a Registered Midwife.

She also studied for a degree in Art, specializing in illustration and graphics animation. In 2002 Vanessa obtained a Bachelor of Art in Illustration degree with excellent results. However, she still works as a medical sister.

In 2003 she bought her own house in Walthamstow, a suburb in east London, but is now planning to move to a better suburb.

E-mail: brightwell_vanessa@hotmail.com

Sarah Stanbridge was born on 19 July 1973 in London.

Sarah graduated as a Master of Maths & Statistics (medical) in 1998, but was following a completely different field of interest.

She prepared models for Film and TV companies. In year 2000 Sarah worked in Amsterdam, Holland on a model of whale for a film about Greenpeace organization. In 2001/2002 Sarah worked in Sydney, Australia for Fox Studios as a special effects model maker.

Sarah now bought herself a terrace house in Kent.

E-mail: harasssarah@hotmail.com

Born on 1 February 1921.

After his return to England from the war front in Italy, Mietek was posted to the newly created Polish Resettlement Corps (PRC) Records Office in Witley camp, to work as a clerk in the Relegation to Reserve department.

After the termination of PRC and final discharge from the army, Mietek was looking for employment. Since he had an exceptional practical knowledge of the forests and forest's ecology in Poland, he had no difficulty in obtaining employment with the Forestry Commission in Ashford, Kent.

However, Mietek's advancement at work was handicapped by his patriotism — he was reluctant to apply for British naturalization which was required for promotion. He fought and was wounded in the war for the freedom of Poland, like his father and grandfather before him, and could not face giving up his Polish citizenship.

In 1956 he went to Montreal for a few months to have a look at Canada.

On his return he went back to work for the Forestry Commission, but in a different department.

In 1988 Mietek visited his aging mother in Poland. The visits from the West were now tolerated. He saw Poland in the process of decay and was very disappointed to see what had happened to the nation under communist rule.

Now Mietek lives in retirement near Ipswich in Suffolk, south England. His hobby is bee keeping.
His phone number is: + (0)1473 622134.

MIETEK and his family in 1961, visiting his cousin Edward in London, who experienced the hardships of the Soviet gulags with him.

67.112    - Mietek (centre)
67.112w - Stephanie
67.1121  - Rosemarie, 7 years old,
and 15 years old Robin (on the left)

67.112 w - Stephanie BURNETT   (wife)
Stephanie, an Englishwoman, born on 8 October 1917, was a widow with one five year old son Robin (born in 1946) when she married Mietek Rymaszewski on 10 March 1951. They had a daughter Rosemarie born in 1954.
Stephanie died on 4 November 2007, aged 90.

Robin Burnett, Mietek's stepson, completed the Higher National Diploma in Public Relations and has his own PR business.

Robin got married and had two daughters: Halinne (Halinka) and Nicole. Here is a photo of Robin and his daughters: >>>

Halinne (right photo) finished University with a Law degree and now is working in London in a fairly responsible position.

Nicole, the younger daughter, works for her father Robin in his Public Relations business.

Rosemarie was born on 3 September 1954.

She completed a University Degree in Education. After comprehensive teaching experience, Rosemarie was an Education Advisor for the county of Suffolk and had a position of Literacy Consultant for most of her career. Now she moved into administration and management of Special Schools.

Rosemarie, graduated as father wished for her. He, himself did not have the same chance, thanks to Communism and war.

Young Rosemarie studying hard. All distractions, like her posters of pop singers "The Beatles" were resolutely thrown out by her father.

Rosemarie married a man of Italian background, named Serritiello. They had a son Christian (Krystynek) and a daughter Eleanore (Eli). Eventually they divorced.

Christian Serritiello attended university in London. Then he studied for six months at a Florida university, USA, on a students exchange scheme, and also at a Buenos Aires university in Argentina studying Spanish. In year 2004 Christian went back to university to study drama and acting. In 2006 he became an actor and now lives in Vancouver, Canada.

Eli attended College in Ipswich, then went to university in London to study nursing. In 2004 she married an Irishman Brian Jordan. Now she has a little daughter called Mia and another baby.

With John, Rosemarie had a son Harry James who is now 10 years old (year 2004). Harry James goes to Primary school, is bright, studies well, is good at maths, and also is musical. In fact the whole family is musical. They play piano, guitar and a flute.
They live in Ipswich, south England.

In 2005 Rosemarie visited Kraków in Poland and liked it very much.

Photo : ROSEMARIE'S FAMILY - Year 2001 >>>
Standing: Christian and Eli (Eleanore) Serritiello
Sitting from left: John Smithson, Rosemarie and Harry James.

E-mail: john@smithrosi.freeserve.co.uk