Fought for others, died for Poland

Eighty years ago, Polish troops seized Monte Cassino. In distant lands, they fought ‘for our freedom and yours.’

.The above photograph is one of the most iconic images of the Second World War. Six US Marines are raising the national flag on top of Mount Suribachi. It is 23 February 1945, the fifth day of the battle of Iwo Jima, a strategically located Japanese island in the Pacific Ocean. Two days later, the photograph taken by Joe Rosenthal would make the front page of the New York Times. In the following decades, it would come to symbolise the brave and selfless American soldier.

The Archives of the Institute of National Remembrance contain a photograph that is no less symbolic. It depicts soldiers of the Polish II Corps planting the white and red flag on the ruins of the Monte Cassino monastery. It is 18 May 1944. After four months of fighting, one of the fiercest battles of the Second World War finally came to an end, paving the way for the Allies to advance on Rome. ‘In the history of the Second World War, Monte Cassino has become a testimony to all the efforts of the Polish soldier,’ Pope John Paul II would later say.

Trails of hope

.It was a long journey that took this soldier to the Italian front. It began in September 1939, when Poland fell victim to two powerful neighbours: first, the German Reich and, soon afterwards, the Soviet Union. These totalitarian regimes broke the fierce resistance of the Polish Army and divided the Polish lands among themselves, as outlined in the secret protocol of the pact made in August between Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. A time of terror followed for the conquered populations on both sides of the new German-Soviet border. Wherever the swastika’s power reached, it was accompanied by street roundups, overt and covert executions, and deportations to concentration and extermination camps. Under the sign of the red star, Poles faced mass arrests and forced relocations deep into the USSR. Added to all this was the horrific Katyn Massacre. At least 21,768 Polish citizens, including prisoners of war and those deemed ‘enemies of the Soviet power,’ were killed by NKVD officers in the spring of 1940. This was done without any court proceedings, under orders from the highest authorities of the state and the Communist Party.

The goal of both occupiers was clear: to wipe Poland off the map of Europe once and for all. But the September defeat only strengthened the Polish gene of freedom. The country was still fighting the Wehrmacht and the Red Army when General Władysław Sikorski took office as Prime Minister of the  Polish Government-in-Exile in Paris on 30 September 1939. He immediately started rebuilding the Polish army in exile as Commander-in-Chief while also creating a covert armed group in occupied Poland known as the Union of Armed Struggle, which later became the Home Army. ‘Poland [continues] to participate in the war as an ally of France and Great Britain […]. We are taking this path with the belief that it will ultimately lead to the complete liberation of our homeland,’ Sikorski stated in a proclamation released during his initial weeks in office.

By the spring of 1940, an army of several thousand soldiers had been raised in the west. It comprised not only local Polish emigrants but also a substantial number of soldiers who had fought in the battles of September ‘39 and later escaped to France through Hungary, Romania and other countries. In the difficult year of 1940, when the Wehrmacht’s Blitzkrieg was celebrating great triumphs, Polish soldiers fought against the Germans in the defence of Norway, the French campaign and the victorious Battle of Britain. The latter witnessed the remarkable achievements of the Polish pilots from the 303 Fighter Squadron and other units, who left an indelible mark on the pages of history.

Following the German invasion of the USSR, Poles who had suffered oppression in the Soviet Union were granted an ‘amnesty’. Stalin allowed the formation of a Polish army so that it could fight alongside the Red Army against the Wehrmacht. It comprised people released from prisons, Gulags and places of deportation – malnourished and often in rags but happy to have been given a chance to escape hell. ‘My heart ached as I looked at these wretched souls and wondered if they were capable of forming an army and enduring the war hardships that lay ahead,’ General Władysław Anders later recalled. He, too, had experienced confinement in Soviet prisons. In August 1941, he was released and appointed commander of the Polish Army in the USSR.

It soon became apparent that Polish soldiers in the Soviet Union were not going to be properly armed or even fed. Eventually, in 1942, the Anders Army was evacuated to Iran. Some 78,500 soldiers and 37,000 civilians (including many children) left the USSR territory. The civilians later dispersed around the world, finding refuge in British colonies in Africa, as well as in Mexico, New Zealand and other locations. The soldiers, on the other hand, reached Palestine. There, they were joined by their colleagues from the Polish Independent Carpathian Rifle Brigade, famous for their successful defence of Tobruk against Erwin Rommel’s troops.

Glory days

.At the turn of the year 1943 and 1944, Anders’ soldiers, now the Polish II Corps, were moved to Italy. In the preceding months, the Allies had swiftly taken Sicily and the southern part of the Apennine Peninsula but were later halted by the rugged mountainous terrain. The Germans successfully defended the Gustav Line, holding a key position on the hill of Monte Cassino. By this point, the Allies have made three unsuccessful assault attempts on the site.

Under these circumstances, the British assigned Anders with the mission to capture Monte Cassino. ‘The task we have been given will make the name of the Polish soldier famous throughout the world,’ Anders wrote in an order addressed to his soldiers. The first assault took place on the night of May 11-12, 1944, followed a few days later by the second attack, this time successful. ‘There were desperate hand-to-hand clashes. […] The Poles have achieved almost impossible feats,’ the British Daily Telegraph reported.

After the capture of Monte Cassino, the soldiers of the Polish II Corps liberated Ancona and Bologna, among other locations, receiving an enthusiastic welcome from the local population. At the same time, on the Western Front, General Stanisław Maczek’s 1st Armoured Division was making its glorious march from Normandy through Belgium and the Netherlands to Wilhelmshaven in Germany. Polish pilots participated in bombing missions against the Reich, while Polish sailors were involved in safeguarding convoys in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. They all believed they were fighting ‘for our freedom and yours’. They believed that by helping to free Europe from German tyranny, they were also aiding the return of their independent, democratic homeland.

Overdue honours

.Most of them did not live to see such a homeland. After the Second World War, Poland fell under the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence. The Communist government in Warsaw, brought about by the Red Army’s bayonets, deprived Generals Anders and Maczek of their citizenship while they were in exile. Many of their soldiers faced imprisonment in casemates or even the death penalty upon returning home. War heroes, who would have received the highest honours in any normal country, were spat upon and erased from the pages of history. The Red regime was rightly afraid of their independent spirit and charisma.

Today, in free Poland, we pay belated tribute to them. The Institute of National Remembrance is carrying out a large-scale project Trails of Hope. The Odyssey of Freedom to commemorate the efforts of the Polish Armed Forces in the Second World War and the wanderings of Polish civilians during that horrific time. They deserve the grateful memory of the whole of Europe.

Karol Nawrocki