Stanislaw Kloczkowski

Translation of parts of an

interview by Prof. Patalas

Stanislaw was born in Krakow on 1 November 1918.. At eighteen, just a few days before the end of the First World War and grew up on a small farm outside of Niepolomice.

Despite his impoverished family circumstances, he was an excellent student and enjoyed creating sports equipment such as skis, skates and soccer balls from scratch. This ingenuity would carry into his adult life, earning him the nickname "Mr. Fix-it."

He signed up for the Youth Work Brigades, a paramilitary youth organization, and reported in Stryj. Most of the boys who arrived there were sixteen or seventeen years old. They were issued brigades uniforms and assigned to one of two companies, each some 200 youths strong. As in the army, the companies were subdivided into platoons and teams. The discipline was

also military style.

His dream was to fly glider planes. He applied to the Glider School in Polichno, in the picturesque, hilly part of the Kielce region, and was admitted to the program. After graduating from the glider school, he returned to the Youth Brigades in Cisna. Soon he received a draft notice for the 6th Air Force Regiment in Kniuchów. In March 1939, he was promoted to private 1st class and assigned the duties of a wireless operator.

As a young man, Stanley served in the Polish Air Cadets prior to the German invasion of Poland. On August 24, 1939, they immediately started loading equipment onto railway cars, and the following day our train convoy moved towards the northeast. Their destination was Biała Podlaska, or, more precisely, the temporary airstrip in nearby Nosowo.

n September 1939, he joined the Polish 65 Light Bomber Division and saw heavy bombing near Lwow. Eventually, they crossed the Romanian border in Wyznica, surrendered their arms, and went on to Râdâuţi. They set up camp at the market square, waiting for the trains. When they arrived three days later, they boarded them, not really knowing where they were being taken. There was talk that the air force was to be the first wave transferred to France, but the details were fuzzy at best. They stopped some ninety kilometers west of Constanţa, in the middle of a field. The train was immediately surrounded by Romanian soldiers, and they received orders to get off. They were being interned in violation of the pact Poland had earlier signed with Romania, allowing Polish soldiers free passage through Romanian territory. Stanislaw and his mates became prisoners of war.

Stanislaw and his unit escaped using false passports through Lebanon to France where 3,000 Polish pilots were sent. He reached England during the Dunkirk evacuation. He was assigned to ground services and sent to Bomber Squadron 300 in Swinderby, in Lincolnshire. He began service there in February 1941, working as a radio operator, responsible mostly for receiving meteorological forecasts for the air force.

In 1943, he was moved to Cammeringham, and in January 1944 was reassigned to special operations Squadron 301, based in Italy, and he stayed there until the end of the war.

Eventually, Squadron 301 was returned to Britain and dissolved. The remaining crews, including Stanislaw, were reassigned to the transport command. He was sent to a radio station near Carlisle. Their task was to retrain bomber crews for the needs of air-transport companies. He taught flight radio operators, who had to master Morse code with the speed of 120 signs per minute and an accuracy of maximum one error per minute. He also taught them the conventions of establishing radio contact and various civilian procedures.

Stanislaw spent the rest of the war working as a radio operator and telegrapher, skills that would serve him later in life. Poland fell under Soviet control at the end of the Second World War so Stanislaw decided to remain in England, working in textiles.

He signed up for a vocational program, organized by the Polish Resettlement Corps, that was training radio mechanics and, upon completion he was a certified electronics technician. In 1952, following the call of friends who had left for Canada, Stanislaw decided to leave England and made his way first to Montreal and then to Winnipeg where he worked at Bristol Aerospace until his retirement in 1984.

He also became very involved with he Polish Combatants Association Branch #13, where he served in several volunteer positions and made many life-long friends. He and Halina enjoyed evenings at SPK Club 13, at events such as Folklorama, New Year's Eve, Smigus-Dyngus, and other celebrations and dances.

In 1966 he married Halina and they raise a daughter, Catherine.

Stanley and his family loved to spend summers exploring the open roads and campgrounds in their beloved camper, often spending a week or more at Big Whiteshell Lake. Although evenings at the lake seemed serene, inside the camper a fierce card battle raged between Stanley, Halina and Catherine as each tried to win the best hand.

Stanislaw passed away on 8 February 2016, at the age of 98 years.