POLISH resistance fighter Bernard Cywinski will return to his native Warsaw later this month to remember his fallen comrades.

The Marsh man was only 16 when he joined the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.

Bernard, now 81, was wounded in the fighting – but he was one of the lucky ones.

He said: “My brother Tadeusz was in the uprising as well. They never found his body. He’s probably somewhere in the ruins.”

Bernard, who has lived in Huddersfield since 1946, will return to Poland at the end of this month to commemorate the uprising – when the poorly-armed Polish Home Army battled the mighty German Wehrmacht for 63 days.

There will be four days of ceremonies to honour the dwindling band of men who fought the Nazis house-to-house.

But Bernard said: “It brings back nasty memories. I feel apprehensive about being interviewed. I don’t like to be on show, but what can you do? You can’t refuse an invitation.”

Bernard stumbled upon the uprising when it began in August 1, 1944.

He said: “My father was a supplier to shoemakers. He provided the tops of shoes made to measure.

“At the time the Russian Army was only 50 miles from Warsaw and my father thought we would need some money so he sent me out to collect some debts.”

Bernard was two miles from his family home when he heard shooting.

He said: “I noticed a chap in a Polish officer’s uniform so I ran towards the house he was in.

“Before I reached the house there was a chap in front of me who was shot in the eye, the bullet nearly pulled his head off.”

Bernard found himself in a house with armed men. He said: “They were wearing armbands with the Polish colours of red and white.

“I realised I couldn’t make it back home, so I volunteered to join them as I thought I might as well be of some use.”

Bernard and his new comrades spent the next weeks fighting against an increasingly tight encirclement.

He said: “They used me for all sorts of jobs. If they wanted to send a message from headquarters to another part of the unit, they would send me.

“I would go on sentry duty at night. There would always be two of us – one with a proper rifle and the other with a double-barreled shotgun. The Germans were only a street away.”

Bernard was injured in house-to-house fighting.

He said: “The Germans were next door and they blew up the wall. Rubble hit my forehead. The blood was running down my head and on to my clothes.”

Bernard was ordered to go down to the river where three boats were waiting to evacuate the wounded.

He said: “I got into the boat and then a large, well-built woman jumped into the water and leaned on the side of the boat to try to get in.

“I fell into the river and was soaked through. I was so wet that I could hardly move so I decided not to get back in the boat.

“The boat I was supposed to be in was machine-gunned on its way across. Only 13 of the 40 people in the boat made it over alive.”

Bernard was left to face a remorseless enemy. He said: “The Germans were shelling us with heavy artillery, their planes were flying over the houses and dropping bombs where they wanted.

“It was a nightmare. If you can imagine walking one kilometre in darkness, with buildings on fire and shooting all the time.

“You feel like a hunted animal.”

Thinking he was a civilian, the Germans allowed Bernard to leave Warsaw on September 22, shortly before the uprising ended.

He said: “We were taken to the Gestapo headquarters and anyone suspected of being involved in the uprising was taken outside and shot.

“I wasn’t a target because I was a small 16-year-old.”

Bernard was sent to a labour camp near Dresden. He said: “We were made to set up engineering machinery. The Russian Army was getting into Germany so they decided to move us.

“We were in a train in a station but there were no soldiers there, only our bosses. I just opened the door and escaped.”

Bernard fled to a nearby farm. He said: “It was a Sunday so I couldn’t get food anywhere, I just went to the farm so I could sleep on the straw. The farmer phoned the police and they took us to prison.”

After the war Bernard travelled to Italy to rejoin the Polish Army.

He said: “We thought we would be going back to Poland, but they wouldn’t accept anyone from the West at that stage. We went to England in 1946.”

Bernard stayed in a camp in Driffield before finding work in Lindley.

He said: “There were only two trade unions that would accept foreign labour – textiles and mining. I didn’t want to be buried alive, so I decided on textiles.”

Bernard found work at a mill in Lindley in 1946. He lived in a camp on Crosland Road in Oakes with 50 other Polish soldiers.

Bernard was eventually demobilised and married Lindley woman Joan Wilson on May 12, 1948.

The couple, who live in Arncliffe Court, have two children, Robert, 57, and Sheila, 51, and three grandchildren.

Bernard qualified as a public health inspector in 1960 and went on to work for Kirklees Council as a senior environmental health officer until he retired in 1989.

He returned to Poland for the first time since the war in 1970. Bernard said: “It was the first time I saw my mother for 26 years. No-one knows what happened to my father.”

The experience of occupation and the uprising is still fresh in Bernard’s mind, with chilling detail.

He said: “I can remember, even before the uprising, I saw 27 men hanged. There were 13 on one balcony and 14 on the other, all of them young men studying to be priests.