

Stefan BARYLAK
1st Polish Armoured Division
When Stefan Barylak came to the small Normandy town of Potigny in 1929, he did so as an outsider - the seven-year-old son of impoverished Polish labourers seeking work in the surrounding iron mines.
On a summer's day in 1944, he came back. This time as the liberator of his adopted hometown - known locally as "the French Warsaw" - in the wake of the D-Day landings at the heart of a column of tanks manned by men from the land of his birth.
It was by pure coincidence that the Polish armoured division, 17,000 men who had fled Hitler's invasion of their country in 1939 by escaping to Britain, became the liberators of Potigny as they fought across Normandy from the D-Day beaches beside the Canadian army. But for its inhabitants, no more appropriate force could have ended the German occupation. By the end of the 1930s, the influx of Polish immigrants to this small town of neat brick-built houses had been so large that Poles made up 60 per cent of the population.
Stefan Barylak said: "I was 17 when the war broke out. A friend and I decided immediately that we wanted to join up, to fight to liberate Poland with the Allies. But it did not happen that way. France herself was defeated so we had to flee to England. We built a force and it was a great privilege to come back and help set Potigny free. It was my homeland, where I had built my life. When I reached my home, I found my father. I was 22. It was a precious moment."
While the battles fought by their American, British and Canadian allies are at the forefront of popular memory of D-Day, the role of the Polish force - the fourth largest - has been, at times, overlooked.
Under the command of General Stanislaw Maczek and equipped with 380 American Sherman tanks, the 1st Armoured Division played a vital role in a ferocious battle just to the south of Potigny at the town of Falaise. The Allies had managed to cut off a large number of German regular army and SS divisions but it fell to the Poles to close the pocket, a task which they performed despite being low on ammunition and facing multiple counter-attacks by better-armed opponents. The Poles lost more than 500 men.
The reunification of Stefan Barylak and his father after D-Day was part of a wider embrace between the Polish soldiers and the population of Potigny, who by the outbreak of the war had helped to turn the region into a big producer of iron and steel.
Stefan Barylak, who has dedicated himself to preserving the memory of his comrades by tending daily to the Polish war cemetery in nearby Urville, where 613 of his colleagues are buried, said: "I was injured later in the war. I was hit after we entered Belgium, but I came back. Potigny was my home. We were proud of what we helped to build. We were proud to get rid of the enemy. Of course, we did not reach Poland itself. We had to settle for our French Warsaw."
The émigré community in Potigny, which saw its last mine close in 1988, has now been established for more than four generations and is more French than Polish in outlook. None the less strong links remain; a bakery produces Polish specialties, and the population turned out in force to witness the unveiling of a plaque by Poland's President, Aleksander Kwasniewski. An honour guard of veterans was enthusiastically awarded a spontaneous rendition of "Stolat" or "One more hundred years", a traditional greeting song.
Under the command of General Stanislaw Maczek and equipped with 380 American Sherman tanks, the 1st Armoured Division played a vital role in a ferocious battle just to the south of Potigny at the town of Falaise. The Allies had managed to cut off a large number of German regular army and SS divisions but it fell to the Poles to close the pocket, a task which they performed despite being low on ammunition and facing multiple counter-attacks by better-armed opponents. The Poles lost more than 500 men.
When the 1st Armored Division landed in Normandy, Stefan Barylak was fighting for Poland and for his family home. After all, Potigny village was only 13 km from Falaise and 35 km from Chambois.
Stefan had lived in France since 1929 when as a seven-year-old, he set out into the world with his parents, in search of a better life. When World War II broke out, the young Pole decided to fight for both his homelands, but under the Polish banner. He proudly wore the Polish 1st Armoured Division Badge on his shoulder.
After the liberation of northeastern France, Corporal Barylak was seriously injured in western Belgium. He was considering escaping from the hospital to rejoin his regiment, but due to being sent for treatment in the UK and the threat of being considered a deserter, he abandoned the plan.
He didn't return to the ranks until May 1945. He was part of the occupying forces in Germany from 1945 to 1947. In 1948, he joined the Polish Resettlement Corps in the UK. He returned to France and became the head of the Association of Polish Combatants in Potigny and took care of the Polish War Cemetery in Grainville-Langannerie for the rest of his life.
Copyright: Barylak family