I was born on December 24, 1912. My parents had an estate called Pomaski, in the vicinity of Pultusk. My mother came from the manor of Kliszewo. My childhood was profoundly touched by the events of the First World War and by the rebirth of Poland that followed. In 1920, I was eight and the oldest child in the family. I was very proud of my father, who had volunteered for the Polish army and was serving in the 203rd Lancers Regiment.

 

After high school, I signed up for the Central Agricultural University in Warsaw. Shortly afterwards, I was called up for obligatory military service and sent off to the Officer Cadet College in Grudziądz. I served for two years, from 1933 to 1935, before returning to the Central Agricultural University. Later I transferred to the Agricultural College in Cieszyn, where I completed my residency in 1939. In August 1939, I was called up to the 5th Lancers Regiment in Ostrołęka and experienced my first German air raid near Makow. retreat. I was in the last unit that withdrew across the bridge on the Narew River near Wyszków. Right after we crossed it, the bridge was blown up.

 

After the Russians invaded, the majority of the men in my unit decided to disperse and return to their homes. Only twelve of us were determined to push south. I was captured by the Russians and sent to Lwow, then to Stanisławów. Next, we went to Volochisk, where thousands of Polish POWS had been assembled before being exiled to various labour camps. I was sent—with hundreds of others—to a manganese mine in Dnipropetrovs’k, in the Donets Basin.

 

In May 1940, the NKVD conducted detailed verification of our personal files, then loaded us into cargo cars and shipped us by rail via Moscow to Kotlas. From there they sent us by barges to the Komi Republic. In Komi, we were supposed to build roads and railway tracks, which ended in a small place called Knyazhpogost. Iwas later assigned to work in the forest. When ‘amnesty’ was declared, I left the camp with the first transport heading for Tatishchevo, with 500 rubles in my pocket, a token compensation for months of slave labour.

 

I joined the Polish 2nd Corps and was assigned to the 12th Reconnaissance Squadron of the 6th Infantry Division; my commander was Lieutenant Barcicki. In January we were transferred to Otar, near Alma-Ata, where I was assigned to the 2nd squadron of the 1st Krechowiecki Lancers Regiment. On May 25, we were ordered to leave for Krasnowodsk.

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Adam Mossakowski passed away before completing his memoirs. He passed away in Beausejour, Manitoba on August 18, 1991, at the age of 78 years.

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Copyright Mossakowski family

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