Polish Division

Heroes Remember

Polish Division

Transcript

You probably heard about the Polish Division. The soldiers that were, managed to get out of Poland after the, the Germans. I think that was the big, the first time the war started really destroying the main cities in Poland. But this was a fellow that like come to England, join the British Army. But they formed their own group once they had enough people. And they were always ahead of, of the main moving force. You know, there was a target to be taken. The first thing you know, they’d take off with all their vehicles, the tanks and what not, their Bren carrier. And they’d go and destroy the Germans, they’d kill them all. More or less. There, there was still, you know, about what happened with the Germans at home. Parents, some of them you know, people, there was such an awful lot of casualties. It was terrible. And you couldn’t blame them to do this. I didn’t approve it, but there it was. So, they had to be careful because a lot of time their own aircraft knock out a tank or something and, and some of them were killed. But they wouldn’t listen. That’s what it was.

Description

Mr. Champoux describes the Polish Division - soldiers who managed to get out of Poland and who fought fiercely against the Germans because their families were at still home in Poland.

Robert Arthur Champoux

Mr. Champoux was born in Hull, Québec on March 21st, 1921. He lived there until the age of 8 when his father, a First World War Veteran, moved the family to Ottawa. Mr. Champoux had three brothers and four sisters; he was the third oldest child. When the war broke out he was attending Ottawa Technical High School. He left school, after his first year, to join the Army after failing to join the Navy and the Air Force (who were not yet recruiting). He left for Europe July 17th, 1940 and ended up stopping in Iceland where he remained for the next 10 months. Mr. Champoux’s wartime service saw him fighting on D-Day and in the Falaise Gap. He also fought in Calais and later on in Holland where he was wounded. Mr. Champoux got a job with the Mint upon returning to Canada. He joined the army again in 1948 retiring in 1965.

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