Kazimierz Michulka

Polish 2nd Corps

Kazimierz was born to Franciszek and Katarzyna (nee Maziakin) in April 1920 in the small village of Chlopy about 100 km southwest of Lwow.

The Germans invaded Poland from the west on 1 September 1939, and the Russians invaded from the east on 17 September 1939. They divided Poland between them. In the Russian-controlled area, the plan to ethnically-cleanse the area soon took effect with the first of four mass deportations to Siberia that were carried out in 1940 and 1941.

He was deported with his family to a forced labour camp near Tomsk in Siberia.

In June 1941, Germany turned on its ally, Russia. Stalin then quickly changed tactics and allied himself with the west so that the allies could help him defeat the Germans. This led to the signing of the Sikorski-Majewski agreement that called for the freeing of Poles imprisoned in POW camps and labour camps in the USSR, and the formation of a Polish Army in the southern USSR.

He spent nearly two years there, until this ‘amnesty’ was declared and Polish prisoners were set free to join the Polish army that was forming in the southern USSR.

Kazimierz left the camp with two friends and made the perilous journey south. He then evacuated to Persia with the army and enlisted in the Heavy Artillery Regiment of the Polish 2nd Corps. He trained in the Middle East (Persia, Iraq, Palestine, and Egypt) before sailing to Italy to fight in the Italian Campaign. He participated in the Battles of Monte Cassino, Ancona, and Bologna.

After the war, Kazimierz was sent to the UK with the Polish 2nd Corps and was stationed in a camp called Burrow Head in southern Scotland before being demobbed around 1947.

Kazimierz settled in Scotland after the war and married Margaret a Scottish lass and had 5 children. He died at the age of 73 in June 1993.