AS we approach that time of year when those who gave their lives in war are remembered, this picture of a group of men at Huddersfield Polish Club, taken in the 1950s, has special significance.
All 15 were paratroopers in the Second World War. They were among 22 Huddersfield Poles who took part in Operation Market Garden in September, 1944, the major attempt to shorten the war by capturing Arnhem, an action that inspired the film A Bridge Too Far.
The Polish contingent in Operation Market Garden, the First Parachute Brigade, was commanded by Major-General Stanislaw Sosabowski, and they, like their British colleagues, suffered enormous casualties as the attempt failed and Allied forces were killed or captured in great numbers.
Huddersfield man Tony Sosna recalls the event.
“Before the operation I was called to help in the revision of maps of the area from freshly-taken aerial survey photographs,” said Tony.
“The features of the ground where the British paratroopers were trapped is still etched on my memory.”
Tony also remembers the Poles’ hero, Maj-Gen Sosabowski.
“The picture I have of him is on a motor bike in front of 1,000 British tanks. He looks as though he’s telling them to follow him.”
Tony, who took the photograph of the former Huddersfield paratroopers, is the only one of the group left alive.
