Deportee aged 15 years old, evacuated with Polish 2nd Corps and served at Monte Cassino
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Facts
Polish Army HQ in Buzuluk, Orenburg District of the Ural Mountains on 5 September, 1941. Recruitment centres in Tatischevo, Totskoye, Kuibyshev and Koltubanka. General Władysław Anders appointed …
Polish Army HQ in Buzuluk, Orenburg District of the Ural Mountains on 5 September, 1941. Recruitment centres in Tatischevo, Totskoye, Kuibyshev and Koltubanka.
General Władysław Anders appointed Commander in Chief of the Polish Army in the USSR 4th August 1941.
From January 1942 Anders’ Army was transported by trains to Uzbekistan.
Other Poles, both military and civilians, made their way to Uzbekistan. HQ was in Jangi-Jul with recruitment centres in Kermine, Samarkand, Bishkek, Alma Ata.
By March 1942 the Polish Army consisted of over 80,000 military and 35,000 civilians. They were surviving on just 30,000 rations.
Military and civilians were evacuated by train from Uzbekistan to Krasnovodsk, Kazakhstan thence shipped down the Caspian Sea to Pahlevi, Persia.
Only two sea evacuations were permitted – 24 March-2 April, 1942 and 10 August-1 September 1942. A small contingent was evacuated overland through Iraq to Palestine.
Approximately 116,000 (78,572 combatants and 38,162) escaped the Soviet Union through these evacuations.