30.06.2023 - 30.06.2024 Books, Events, Literature, News, Resources

A WWII Paratrooper’s Memoir

From the Soviet Gulag to Arnhem: A Polish Paratrooper's Epic Wartime Journey by Nicholas Kinloch

Published on 30th June 2023

The book can be purchased here.

Caught Between Nazis and Soviets, Stanisław Kulik was a man who dodged death.

After the Russian occupation of Poland, Stanisław Kulik, aged 15, was deported to the Soviet gulags and put to work. If you didn’t work, you didn’t eat. While many died, Stanisław managed to survive. Following the Nazis’ invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, he was given an opportunity to join the Polish army being formed somewhere in the Soviet Union, but nobody knew where.

Stanisław Kulik

After months travelling on his own through central Asia, through Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Stanisław finally reached Iraq, where he worked in a camp which processed Polish refugees. Too young to join up, the Army faked his age and eventually he was then taken by ship to Great Britain via India, where he joined up with the Polish Parachute Brigade. After qualifying as a paratrooper in Scotland, he dropped at Arnhem, in Operation Market Garden, where he found himself trapped behind enemy lines. Thanks to the Dutch underground he avoided capture by the Nazis.

This thrilling memoir is an inspiring story of a triumph of resilience and courage against great odds.

The book can be purchased here.

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