Franciszek Pindor

By his grandson Sean Campbell

Franciszek Pindor was born outside of Krakow in Cieszyn, Poland. He lied about his age to join the Polish Air Force in 1938. Franciszek was born into poverty at a time when a military career in Poland meant a respectable future. However, his mother forbade his lofty ambition of becoming a pilot due to the dangers of flying. Instead, Franciszek trained as a meteorologist before the Germans invaded the following September.

Ordered to cross into the then neutral country with 10,000 other airmen, he became a refugee in Romania. Arriving by way of Morocco, Franciszek once again became a member of the Polish Air Force under French command, operating out of Bron near Lyon, France. They did not stay for long.

Following the Battle of France, Franciszek fled to Great Britain to continue his fight from British soil. The Polish army-in-exile wasted no time to prepare. Posted to Scotland, available soldiers were to build up a new I Polish Armoured Division and erect anti-invasion defences on the eastern coast at Fife. Polish General Stanislaw Maczek arrived in September 1940 to rebuild his motorized brigade. Maczek’s plan was to build up a new armoured regiment to participate in the Allied invasion of the continent. Over the next two years, bolstered by international volunteers and a large release of Polish prisoners from the Soviet Union in 1941, Maczek realized his armoured ambitions with the 1st Polish Armoured Division in 1942. Franciszek transferred to the division, where he received training as a wireless operator in the 2nd Motorized Artillery Regiment.

On 1 August 1944, the same day as the Warsaw Uprising in Poland, the Polish 1st Armoured Division arrived on French shores at Mulberry Harbour ‘B’ in Arromanches. The division went into battle as “The Black Devils,” a reference to the black epaulette on their left shoulder but also their pre-war uniform of black leather tank jackets. The division immediately moved into combat attached to Lieutenant-General Harry Crerar’s First Canadian Army.

The Polish 1st Armoured Division saw its baptism of fire in Normandy. Following closely on the left flank of the Canadians, the Poles advanced from 8-22 August. At the climax of the pursuit, the Poles stood on a strategic mound that General Stanislaw Maczek designated Maczuga (The Mace). There, an unrelenting onslaught of crack German troops bloodied, but did not break the Poles. As sappers from the Royal Canadian Engineers began clearing the hillside battlefield, they erected a tribute to the defenders on a temporary signpost that simply stated that the ground was “A Polish Battlefield.”

After 1,441 casualties, the men of the Polish 1st Armoured Division helped to close the gap that ended the Normandy campaign and started the long drive back to Germany.

One of the final acts of redemption for the Polish troops was on 6 May 1945. General Maczek stood by Canadian Lieutenant-General Simonds to receive the final German surrender at the port city of Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Stationed in the town during this surrender was Franciszek. Many of his final wartime and post-war photographs found Wilhelmshaven as a backdrop.

Despite their struggles in the war, victory in Europe did not bring Franciszek and his fellow soldiers the long-hoped liberation of their homeland. The Soviets annexed the country shortly after the war as the Polish People’s Republic in January of 1947. This occupation left a bitter feeling among the Poles as the western world celebrated the end of war.

Given the choice of moving to Australia or Canada when his military service came to an end in 1947, Franciszek decided to follow one of his wartime friends, Julian Knot, to Canada. He arrived in Quebec to begin a new life in another part of the world. Franciszek married Jacqueline Brault, in 1952 (she always said she would fall in love with one of those “brave Polish soldiers”). They moved to Niagara Falls, Ontario where he worked at the Sir Adam Beck hydroelectric dam beneath the falls. They moved to Kirkland Lake, Ontario in 1954 where they raised three children. Franciszek was a neighbourhood barber in Kirkland Lake from 1954 to 1982, cutting the hair of gold miners, fellow Polish neighbours, and future NHL players like Maple Leaf Terrance “Dick” Duff. Franciszek would not see his homeland and childhood family again until he returned with his own family to Poland in July of 1968.

Franciszek Pindor passed away in 1994 in Montreal.