Wendy DeGroat's Profile

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Polish Armed Forces in the West refers to the Polish military formations formed to fight along the Western Allies and against Nazi Germany and its allies. The formations, loyal to the Polish government in exile, were first formed in France and its Middle East territories following Polish defeat and occupation by Germany in September 1939. After the fall of France, the formations were recreated in Great Britain.

This remained my home until I was married in 1963

Although the British economy had been shattered and faced huge shortages in raw materials and a manpower deficit, an anti-Polish campaign by the TUC and leading unions turned public attitudes towards the Poles from a country desperately needing experienced combatants and acceptance to one shunning the Poles. The campaign orchestrated by left wing activists brought a swift response from leading politicians and papers like the Times and Daily Telegraph.

These pages have been put together using a number of different techniques ranging from interviews, personal journals and diaries through to published and archive material found in the Public Records Office. Every effort has been made in maintaining accuracy and where possible, authors correctly referenced.

Yet the Polish Community appears to be difficult to quantify, as it

has rarely been the subject of sociological study and has not earned

any social or media special interest. Perhaps, however, a few statistics

may help.

According to the 1991 Census 70,115 residents of England and Wales were

born in Poland (the 1981 total was 88,286).

The largest concentrations are in the industrial north and in the Midlands:

Greater Manchester 4098, West Yorkshire 4170, South Yorkshire 1541, West

Midlands 3404, Derbyshire 1381.

According to the 1991 Census 21,823 residents of Greater London were

born in Poland. They reside mainly in the Western and Northern Boroughs:

Hammersmith 1209, Westminster 1005, Wandsworth 1207, Kensington 1002,

Ealing 3635, Brent 1483, Barnet 1436.

One of the differences between the Polish community of the 1930s and
the one post-1945 was that the post-45 community was by nature a patriotic
community and government (in London) in exile who were willing and
able to fight on behalf of the Allies.

If the Poles posed particular problems for the politicians of the
day then they have also continued to pose problems for historians.
At a national level, British history seems to omit these people, rendering
them invisible, and often it is left to the local historian to write
their history.

The Polish Resettlement Corps (PRC; Polish: Polski Korpus Przysposobienia i Rozmieszczenia) was an organisation formed by the British Government in 1946 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