Polish Forces

Polish Vickers 6-Ton Tanks.

Column of Polish Vickers 6-Ton Tanks, 1938. These tanks were taking part in the "Zaolzie Operation" - the "agreed" takeover by Poland of that majority ethnic Polish province of Czechoslovakia undertaken in conjunction with the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. Strangely enough, I have a family connection of sorts with this operation. One young ethnic Polish man caught up in this operation was called Ernest Orszulik. As a result of the Zaolzie Operation, he ended up in the Polish Army. After Poland's 1939 defeat, he was one of those who managed to make his way to the West, and spent the rest of the war fighting with the Polish Army in exile out of England. While there, he met my great-aunt Violet, a girl from Mayo, Ireland, doing war work in London. Let's just say he never went back, marriage seeming a better bet than Stalinism. Ernest spent the rest of his working life as a chef in private financial institutions in London. Both Ernest and Violet are now deceased; however, their son John married a young lady from the Czech Republic, and they now have a lovely young daughter. It is, really, a funny old world ... Best regards, JR.