The Evaders

[Crazy]

This is one of the amazing but true stories of WWII
The Evaders
By Roman Turski

I was born in Poland, where before the last war religious intolerance was not uncommon. In spite of my father’s objection to my participation in anti-Semitic demonstrations in Warsaw, I often heaved stones at windows of stores owned by Jews. I had no qualms about my actions, and later it took months of hardship and persecution-and a Jew- to show me how to abide by the Biblical injunction: “Love thy neighbor as thyself”.
When Hitler annexed Austria and war seemed imminent, I quit my job as instructor of a flying club in Lyons, France, and started for home. My plane developed engine trouble and I had to land at Vienna and stay there overnight to have it repaired.
The following morning, just as I stepped out of my hotel to buy a few souvenirs before checking out, a man who came running past the door bumped into me and sent me reeling. Outraged, I grabbed him and was about to give him a piece of my mind when I saw his face was white with fear. Panting heavily, he tried to wrench himself from my grip and said, “Gestapo—Gestapo!” I know only a little German but understood he was running from the dreaded German secret police.
I rushed him into the lobby and upstairs to my room, pointed to the foot of my bed and motioned him to lie down. I covered his slender, jackknifed body with artfully draped blankets so that the tousled bed looked empty. Then I pulled off my jacket, tie and collar so I could pretend I’d just got up if the Gestapo men came. In a few minutes, they did. They examined my passport, returned it and shouted questions, to which I replied: “Ich verstehe es nicht-I don’t understand it,” a phrase I knew by heart. They left without searching the room.
As soon as they had gone I lifted the blankets. The poor man let out a stream of rapid German. It was not necessary to understand a word to comprehend his gratitude.
I got out my flight chart and, by gesturing and drawing pictures on the margin of the map, explained that I had a plane and could take him out of Austria. He pointed to Warsaw, and his expressive hands asked: “Would you take me there?” I shook my head and made him understand that I had to land for fuel in Cracow. I drew pictures of police and prison bars to illustrate that he would be arrested upon arrival at any airport, and made it clear that we would land in some meadow just over the Polish border and he would get off. He nodded with satisfaction, and his narrow face and dark eyes again conveyed deep thanks.
The customs and immigration men at the airport waved us through when I told them my friend wanted to see me off. My plane was warmed up and ready for flight. We quickly climbed into it and took off. We crossed Czechoslovakia and soon saw the thin ribbon of the Vistula River and the city of Cracow. Landing in a large field by a wood near a country railroad station, I showed my companion where we were on the map, gave him most of my money and wished him luck. He took my hand and looked at me wordlessly, then walked rapidly into the woods.
When I arrived at Cracow airport there was a detachment of police waiting beside the immigration inspector. One of the police said, “We have a warrant to search your plane—you have helped a man escape from Vienna.”
“Go ahead and search it. Incidentally, what was the man wanted for?”
“He was a Jew.”
They searched my plane, and of course had to let me go for lack of evidence.
The war came, and after Poland’s short and bloody struggle against the Germans, in which I served as a fighter pilot in the Polish Air Force, I joined the thousands of my countrymen who wanted to carry on the fight for freedom. We crossed the border into Rumania and were promptly caught and sent to concentration camps. I finally managed to escape and joined the French Air Force. After France collapsed I went to England and fought in the Battle of Britain. The following June I was wounded while on a fighter sweep across the English Channel, when the Luftwaffe hit us over Boulogne. In those early offensive missions we were always outnumbered and outperformed by the Luftwaffe, and our only superiority was morale.
As we started for home I rammed an Me-109 and was hit by a piece of it’s sheared off tail. I was half blinded with blood. My squadron covered my withdrawal across the channel, but I was unconscious when my Spitfire crash-landed in England. (I later learned that my skull had been fractured, and that I was so near death that the head surgeon of the hospital to which I was taken believed it would be almost useless to operate on me.)
When I returned to consciousness, I gradually realized that a narrow face with large brown eyes was looking down at me. “Remember me?” their owner said. “You saved my life in Vienna.” He spoke with a trace of a German accent.
His words ended my confusion. I recalled a sensitive face and managed to say, “How did you find me?” I noticed his white smock. “Do you work here?”
“It’s a long story,” he replied. “After you dropped me off I made my way to Warsaw, where an old friend aided me. Just before the war I escaped and reached safety in Scotland. When one of your Polish squadrons distinguished itself in the Battle of Britain, I thought you might be in it, so I wrote to the Air Ministry and found you were.”
“How did you know my name?”
“It was written on the margin of your map. I remembered it.” His long fingers felt cool on my wrist. “Yesterday I read a story in the newspapers about a Polish hero shooting down five enemy planes in one day and then crash-landing near this hospital. It said your condition was considered hopeless. I immediately asked the Royal Air Force at Edinburgh to fly me here.”
“Why?”
“I thought that at last I could do something to show my gratitude. You see, I am a brain surgeon—I operated on you this morning.”

[:FI:Snoop Baron]

Wow that realy is an amazing and inspiring story!

Thank you for sharing Crazy!

Snoop

[:FI:Heloego]

[Ianus]

Great story,

Fact is stranger than fiction

[:FI:Falcon]

<sniff!>

[L.F]

[:FI:Dex]

one good turn deserves another eh?

No?

[:FI:WillieOFS]

GREAT read!!!

I'm currently reading Leon Uris's novel MILA 18. It is about the attack on Poland by the Germans and the central characters are Jews.

Those gutsy bastards tried to stop the German armor with cavalry charges!!

Brave sons a bitches and nearly all were slaughtered.

[:FI:Macca]

Willie...please....they were brave,but not fools.

Do not believe this book.

In the West there is widespread opinion that we tried to stop German tanks with cavalry charges.I have seen a painting/photo/can't remember made by german propaganda specialists to prove that we were doing such things.
It is not true,polish soldiers were not idiots to charge waving sabres on enemy tanks. There was only one meeting engagement when polish cavalry met grman armor, they had to get through..Uusually when polish cavalry had to do with enemy tanks they used their lovely antitnak cannons and polish antitank carbine - UR.It was later used by the Germans in Normandy against Shermans and other allied armor- still a very powerful carbine it was, side armor was like a piece of butter for it.

Polish cavalry was used against German infantry, usualy horses were only their transport, if there were charges - on enemy infantry.I saw an interview ith one of polish cavalrymen from 1939 - in fact, when they were charging on the enemy, officers with pistols and sabres, soldiers with carbines (very often held by the other end) ,they were hard to stop, infantry had little chance if they were ambushed by cavalry.

However,it was obsolete type of unit, our gov neglected the need of modernisation of the army.Bastards.

BTW-great read.


look here

http://www.polishnews.com/fulltext/hist ... ory4.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


S!

[:FI:Falcon]

the Hussars!

This is the Polish cavalry I like!



When I was a freshman in college, I learned that the winged cavalry sometimes had large metal noise makers at the end of swinging wings so that when the men and horses charged they would make loud clanging noises. Since then, I have never heard that; only that the wings were there to make the knights larger and more imposing.

Macca, have you any more info on that?

...

As far as fools and war ...

everyone who participates in war is a fool

the leaders are criminal fools.

[:FI:Macca]

the leaders are fools, the soldiers that are ordered to go ,kill, be killed - they aren't fools.Politicians are fools, criminas and bastards.

http://www.jest.art.pl/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


On the right - "The most dagerous and most beautiful cavalry of the world"

In fact in their times they were the most powerful unit of european ,and not only, battlefields.

http://www.jest.art.pl/taktyka.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

here is about the tactics

You know, it is quite challenging to translate.In my spare time I'd give it a go, it is very interesting, 4 me as well.

interesting thing -Battle of kirholm - polish riders - losses -100 dead, 200 wounded- Sweden-6-9 thousand.


Look here

http://www.jest.art.pl/ciekawo.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

columns - from left

Date, place, number of polish soldiers ( in brackets - husaria), opponent, number of enemies per one polish soldier

ach,when it comes to the noise-makers.

The wings were responsible for the noise, as far as i remember.There were different kinds of wings,one there were times thy were mounted to the saddle, another time to the rider's back.Sometimes there was only one wing,
often there were no wings used as they were adding to the weight of the rider and armor, they also were causing problems when for example , rider wanted to smash a guy with his sword.It was up to the riders if they wanted to use wings.Thgere were some pros for using wings- they were said to provide protection from asabre attack from behid, from catching on Turkish lasso,they were also making enemy scared even more:)
http://www.jest.art.pl/skrzydla.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


You can compare husaria to modern panzer attack on poorly armed infantry.


now something about polish cabvalry during the sec world war.

1.IX.1939.-18th Pułk Ułanów ( polish cavalry unit, don't know how to translate it) - attacked left flank of gen Guderian's XIX Panzer Korps - since then its soldiers "saw polish cavalry everywhere".

25-IX-1939 Husynne near Hrubieszowo - Polish cavalry (invluding polish police cavalry unit) attacked Red Army's units Circa 400 cavalrymen charged on them, polish policeman had their police helmets , Russians were panicked, many of them tried to run away, which is the worst idea when cavalry is charging in yer direction.Swords can do a lot of harm:)


Coming back to the very past times.

Husaria was said to had been impossible to be defeated. When Karol the 9th wanted to attack polish army near Kirholm at first his soldiers refused - it was a regular army.There was such point ,when they enlisted for (?) the army, that they will not be forced to fight with polish horsemen in open field.It was equal with suicide:)

Pikemen were not good against husaria, unlike against most horsemen.


The guys were armed with sword/sabre http://www.jest.art.pl/szabelka.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

this..,.http://www.jest.art.pl/kopia.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

this...lovely,isn'tit?
http://www.jest.art.pl/nadziak.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Poland was a superpower at the time,but our aristocracy destroyed all that.We were the most democratic sountry for a quite long time....

S!


I think i love our tradition......

[:FI:Macca]

http://www.geocities.com/rik_fox/husaria/museum.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[:FI:Macca]

good movie,based on a wonderful book by Henryk Sienkiewicz

http://www.ogniem-i-mieczem.pl/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[:FI:Macca]

; only that the wings were there to make the knights larger and more imposing.


.

It is also true.What would ya think if ya saw a guy riding in yer direction with such wing/s???


<runs away to search for a nice,big horse>

<and some wings>

[:FI:Macca]

i think i went too far with this text on husars..If yawant some more, let me know,will try to translate more....