Churchill, Stalin and a death on the Llwyngwril line

By David Harrison

Some weeks ago someone asked what I knew about an unnamed grave in the cemetery in Llwyngwril. I had to reply, “Not a lot!”So my voyage of discovery began as I started investigating how a Polish woman ended up being buried in the cemetery in Llwyngwril. I was told that it was the burial place of a Polish woman who had been staying in Sunbeach Caravan Park in Llwyngwril, which was a former military camp used by the Royal Marines in the Second World War. It was known by the code name Burma Camp. The Royal Marine Training Group (Wales) set up five camps locally to train Royal Marines in the art of beach assaults, and the Amphibious School at Tywyn.

On 23 August1939, Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia stunned the world by announcing that they had concluded a non-aggression pact, committing themselves not to aid each other's enemies or to engage in hostile acts against one another. Just over a week later, Hitler invaded Poland, his armies brushing aside the brave but ill-equipped Polish army, while shortly afterwards the Red Army marched into the eastern part of the country. Thousands of Polish people were deported from this part of Poland, known as Kresy, to Soviet Gulags, forced labour camps. When, two years later, Churchill and Stalin formed an alliance against Hitler, the Kresy Poles were released from the Gulags in Siberia and formed the Anders Army. Anders' Army was the informal yet common name of the Polish Armed Forces in the East in the 1941–42 period, in recognition of its commander Władysław Anders. The army was created in the Soviet Union but, in March 1942, based on an understanding between the British, Polish, and Soviets, it was evacuated from the Soviet Union and made its way through Iran to Palestine. There it passed under British command and provided the bulk of the units and troops of the Polish II Corps (member of the Polish Armed Forces in the West)By 1945, 228,000 troops of the Polish Armed Forces were serving in the West under the high command of the British Army. Many of these men and women were originally from the Kresy region of eastern Poland. The Polish II Corps was instrumental in the Allied defeat of the Germans in North Africa and Italy, and its members hoped to return to Kresy in an independent and democratic Poland at the end of the War.

However, the Yalta Conference in February 1945, which was the second wartime meeting of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt,the three leaders agreed to demand Germany’s unconditional surrender and began plans for a post-war world.Churchill agreed Stalin should keep the Soviet gains that Adolf Hitler had endorsed in the Nazi-Soviet Pact, including Kresy. As a consequence, Churchill had agreed that tens of thousands of veteran Polish troops, under British command, should lose their Kresy homes to the Soviet Union. In reaction, thirty officers and men from the No. 2 Polish Corps committed suicide. Many MPs openly criticised Churchill over the Yalta agreement and voiced strong loyalty to Britain's Polish allies. Churchill explained his actions in a three-day Parliamentary debate starting 27 February 1945, which ended in a vote of confidence. The prime minister said: 'His Majesty's Government will never forget the debt they owe to the Polish troops... I earnestly hope it will be possible for them to have citizenship and freedom of the British Empire, if they so desire. 'Yalta made all Polish personnel on UK soil 'illegal' and a political embarrassment to the post-war British government.

The final insult to all Polish service personnel was their exclusion from the Victory Parade on 8th June 1946. When the Second WorldWar ended, a Communist government was installed in Poland. Initially, the British government led by Clement Attlee wanted to maintain cordial relations with Stalin, and so tried to persuade Poles in the UK to leave. However, because of the Soviet repression of Polish citizens and the creation of the Eastern Bloc, many Polish men and women refused to leave. The Government reconsidered and the result was the Polish Resettlement Act 1947, Britain's first mass immigration law.

The Polish Resettlement Corps was an organisation formed by the British Government as a holding unit for members of the Polish Armed Forces who had been serving with the British Armed Forces and did not wish to return to a Communist Poland after the end of the Second World War. Each of the armed services was responsible for the de-mobilization and transfer of armed combatants into the Resettlement Corps. It was designed to ease their transition from military into civilian life and to keep them under military control until they were fully adjusted to British life. The British Army mainly ran it. The Air Ministry published the conditions of service for the PARC and listed the choices: Settle in Britain Emigrate to Commonwealth or other foreign countries Return to Poland. Meanwhile in Llwyngwril -The Armoured Support Group of the Royal Marines was disbanded after returning from France during 1944, many of its personnel were transferred to the 29th Royal Marine Battalion, which was formed on 3rd October 1944 at Burma Camp in Llwyngwril. However, on 1st March 1945 practically all its personnel were drafted to form the 34th Amphibian Assault. This left the camp empty and meant it was available as a Polish Resettlement camp. 663 Dyon Samol Air Force Squadron RAF was an Air Observation unit of the Royal Air Force, which was officially formed in Italy on 14 August 1944. Volunteer Polish Army officers had been sent by ship to South Africa in June 1944 for initial training as pilots and then for operational training in the very low-level air observationrole.The fifteen successful officers reached Italy on 28 October. All squadron personnel were drawn from Polish artillery units. The squadron's primary role was to observe enemy ground targets and to help direct artillery fire on them.

After further advanced training, the squadron was declared operational on 30 January 1945. The squadron's HQ was at Villa Carpena, with three flights, two of which were detached elsewhere,as needed to support No. 2 Polish Corps artillery units on the progressing 'front line'. After meritorious service with some pilots being killed, the unit left for the UK on 10 October 1946 and was formally disbanded on 29 October 1946.Members of 663 Dyon Samol Air Force Squadron and their families were housed in Burma Camp, Llwyngwril, Penrhos Camp in Pwllheli and at a camp in Harlech. Amongst the group in Llwyngwril was Teodozia Szarkowski. Unfortunately, little is known of Teodozia or what role she fulfilled in the camp. Whether she was visiting her friends in the Harlech or Pwllheli camps, or simply going to or from Llwyngwril or Barmouth ,is not known, but on May 18, 1948, whilst walking along the track, she was struck by a railway engine and killed. In those days camp personnel occasionally walked along the railway tracks on their way to and from the camp and the railway station close to the centre of the village.

Her death certificate states she was 40 years old. Teodozia was buried in the cemetery at Llwyngwril on May 20 1948 marked only by a simple oak cross bearing no inscription. We are seeking to raise money for a permanent head stone for Teodozia.