Born: June 6th, 1925, near Bielsko, Poland
Military Rank: 2nd Lieutenant
Military Medals: Polish – Monte Cassino Cross
Fates before joining Anders Army: After the outbreak of the war, in September 1939, he and his family evacuated to the east, near the town of Mańków in Wołyń, where he started working as a farmer.
On April 13, 1940, he and his family were arrested and transported to Włodzimierz Wołyński, from where, together with other Polish families, they were deported to the Altai Krai. During the long journey lasting almost a month, he almost starved to death. After being brought to his destination, he was imprisoned in a camp and sent to work in a sawmill.
After the “amnesty”, he together with his family and friends tried to leave the place of exile and go to the emerging Polish Army, but the Soviet authorities did not want to consent to the departure, explaining that they had no hands to work and the need to implement the plan. Gazur and his friends secretly built a raft and escaped from the camp under cover of night. During several months of wandering around the USSR, he undertook various jobs, trying to survive and join the Polish army.
Military history: Despite the threat of arrest for arbitrarily leaving the place of exile, he reached the camp in Barnaul. From Barnaul, via Tashkent and Guzar, he made his way to Kermine in Uzbekistan, passing a quarantine along the way.
After evacuation to Persia, he joined a tank brigade and underwent armored training in the Middle East. Directed to the Italian front, he took part with his tank in the Battle of Monte Cassino and then in the capture of Bologna, where he was met by the end of the war.
Post-War: He remained in Italy as part of the contingent of the Allied occupation forces until 1948, taking part, among others, in skirmishes with communist guerrillas.
In 1948 he found himself in Great Britain, where he settled near Halifax and took up a paid job. He lives there to this day. A long-time active member of the Association of Polish Combatants (Stowarzyszenie Polskich Kombatantów – SPK) in Bradford.
Author: Krzysztof Hoffmann, Warsaw, Poland
