Red Army 1940

Really??!! Wow the more and more my family discover about my grandads history in the war we literally have to pinch ourselves. He was a very very lucky and determined man to survive!!And something like this is more than plausible. Thanks for your input .

 

natalieannlok
Where are your grandfather from? When I wrote your post, my first mind was that he is from the part of Poland annexed by SU in 1939. Am I right? In this case there is no wonder that he wasn`t loyal neither to SU nor to German.

 

Welcome mate

I hope you enjoy your time with us.

 

To make things short here is a possible scenario.

Your dad was possibly from eastern Poland (the Lemberg Brest-Litowks area) and terefore was an ethnic pole. This area was annexed to Russia after September 1939 after the German-Soviet Non agression treaty and the invasion and sharing of Poland.

Therefore he became a Russian national and was probably conscripted. He must have hated the Russians because they at that time were the ones who occupied his hometown and he possbily surrendered puposedly to the Germans to escape those who fought his friends in eastern Poland. This was just after Operation Barbarossa when The Germans invaded eastern Poland and Russia in July 1941.

He then must have realised that the Gemrans were just as bad with his people (and others ), and worse than the Russians, so having heard of the free Poles he joined the free Poles .

This was both a winning and a losing gamble , as free Poles were not desired in Poland after 1945 ( they were pro west ) and they were besides suspected of being pro-Communists spies in Britain. Some poles stayed in Britain, others moved to the US . So this how your ancestor possibly ended up in the States.

 

Hi

Ive recieved some more documents today ( 1 year later after request)! Its not much but it tells me that my Grandad was a POW in American hands he arrived at PWE 326 ON 15.07.1944.

Can anybody shed any light on this particular camp around this date?

Thanks!!

 

He has also listed his address as Wielka,Poland - very near the border of Belarus.

 

Considering this is just weeks after D-Day the camp was probably in England , this is just a guess but the pwe 326 code could be "Prisoner of war camp in England number 326" . Maybe someone can confirm this. This would explain why he was offered a "new career" with the free Poles based in the Uk

 

Welcome.

This page has details one the British POW camps 1-50 and it looks like they will eventually cover the others but the "hot spot" for 250-500 isn't linked yet.
POW Camps in UK - 1 to 50
There are some links and discussions on this page that might help:
UK POW Camps in WW2 by Gordon Wilkie > Online Archaeology > Online Archaeology - Articles

 

What an amazing story Natalie. Clearly becoming a POW of the Americans saved your Grandfather's life. One more reason to love America!

 

welcome to you as well bfrank53