Corporal Franciszek Wesolowski's Service

Corporal Franciszek Wesolowski was born and raised in Grudziadz, Poland, a garrison town. He had a very normal upbringing in the city - his father was an Officer in the Polish Cavalry for much of his life, but had retired before the Second World War.

When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, he was forced to work labor for the Germans, and was abused badly. He was punished with forms of torture such as standing in a cold barrel in the basement of the house he was forced to live in, for hours on end, no matter how cold it was. This affected him for years on end, and he only spoke about it once or twice in his life.

When he was of age, in 1942, he was forced into the German Wehrmacht, and served in a Grenadier Battalion. After around a year of service, in 1943, he was taken a prisoner of war in Italy, where he voluntarily enlisted in the Polish Army under British Command, under the pseudonym "Franciszek Straszkiewicz", to protect his family back home.

From the 29th of March 1944, he was posted to the 1 Independent Grenadier Company (Samodzielna Kompania Grenadierów), 1st Independent Parachute Brigade, 1 Polish Corps, where he was trained to kill with only a knife. One story he told the family was that, sometime during his service, he had to kayak from a submarine in order to sneak onto land.