TVP WEEKLY: Your father, Captain Władysław Gnyś, was the foirst Polish figher pilot to have scored aerial victory in the fight against the Germans in September 1939. How did he remember those events?

STEFAN GNYŚ: Young boys, we sometimes asked him, with my older brother Hayden: what was it like, during the war, Daddy? We posed this question very rarely as we knew he didn’t like to talk about his military experiences. The war was a nightmare for him, so he would speak about it reluctantly, especially to little kids.

When did you learnt about your father’s heroic deeds?

When I was six years of age, it was my mother Barbara who told my about his participation in the war. But at that time I was too young to understand my father’s experiences. Together with another brother, Ashley, we would try on his RAF coat, hat, flight jacket and shoes which, of course, were oversized for us. But everybody, Mom in particular, said we looked charming. It wasn’t until adolescence that I understood the history of my father and the meaning of the word “hero”. Later on, in my song entitled “Daddy’s uniform” I was trying to render his thought with this sentence: “Heroes are not born, they are forged by fire. I never attempted to be a hero, I just wanted to survive”. That’s the bottom line of my and my brother’s conversations with our father about his heroic deeds. My father knew he was lucky, because he had survived the war.

What were your father’s recollections of WWII outbreak?

On august 31, 1939 he found himself at the Balice airport near Kraków. In the morning of September 1 he was awakened by the rumble of explosions and roar of aeroengines. When he looked through the window he saw a red sky over Kraków. He had no doubt that a war broke out. He immediately put on his flying suit and started running to his aircraft. In my book I have related this day as well as my father’s fights over England and France.

The life of soldiers that after a turbulent period at the front return to civilian life is sometimes difficult. How did your father cope with that? What did his life after WWII look like?

On August 27, 1944, as the commander of No. 317 Squadron on a reconnaissance mission to locate the Germans retreating beyond the Seine, he was shot down, wounded and taken prisoner. After the miraculous escape and return to Great Britain, with a bullet in his liver, he had no chance to continue his career as a fighter pilot. At the age of 34, he found himself in a very unpleasant situation. For the first time since 1931, that is, from the moment he joined the Polish Army, his future was uncertain. He did not know how to support his wife and son. There was nothing he could do except flying. Fortunately, the RAF did not leave him alone, and neither did the other pilots who risked their lives and were injured on duty. For the next three and a half years, among others, he attended the Aviation College, worked as a liaison officer at Fighter Command HQ in Stanmore, enrolled in a two-year course in trade and economics at the London Polytechnic, worked in the General Division of the Polish Training and Deployment Corps as an officer. Eventually, along with his wife Barbara and her family he made this difficult decision to emigrate to Ontario.

SIGN UP TO OUR PAGE In Canada, a completely new life began for the former fighter pilot Captain Władysław Gnyś.

At the end of March 1948, a former Air Force officer, who knew nothing about animal husbandry and farming, started working as a farmer running a 100-hectare farm. But he managed.

The end of the war brought about universal joy, but for Poles it was an incomplete joy – we found ourselves under the heel of another occupier, this time the Soviets. How did your father perceive the situation in Poland at that time?

Dad was aware of the fact that after the war Poland was occupied by communist Russia, which had installed a puppet government on the Vistula in order to exercise power with the help it. He knew that returning to his beloved family, most of which had survived the German aggression, would be dangerous for him. He also knew that the communist secret services were arresting all former freedom fighters like him who could pose a threat to the fragile new communist government. Dad believed the communists could not be trusted, and although he really wished to return to his hometown of Sarnowo to see his relatives, he didn’t.

Did he warn his fellow pilots not to return to Poland?

Yes. However, there were those who did not listen to him, such as the famous pilot Stanisław Skalski, who returned to the country in 1947 and was then arrested, falsely accused of espionage and sentenced to death. Later, his sentence was changed to life imprisonment, of which he served eight years. In the early 1950s, Colonel Józef Jungrav returned to Poland. He was also arrested and convicted on false charges of being a spy and then executed in 1952. There are many such cases.

Your father decided to visit Poland 20 years after the war, in 1965. What were his observations?

Even though the communist régime was still in control, it was then safe enough for him to visit his family. Security service agents followed him, but he was never interrogated or arrested. In 1965, for the first time in more than a quarter of a century, he was able to meet his numerous siblings, six sisters and a brother, and other family members. Unfortunately, his parents were already dead. He came to Poland for the second time in 1976. Our mother went with him. She hadn’t been to Poland before, but had heard a lot about her from our father. Finally, she met her husband’s large family and his birthplace – Sarnów. She was surprised by their warmth and extraordinary kindness.

Did you visit Sarnów together with your father and brother?

We were there with our over 80-year-old father in 1996 and 1998. In conversations with his family, Dad returned to the past – they talked, laughed and cried. They remembered the happy life in Sarnowo around the old mill and carp ponds belonging to his father Jan and uncle Antoni. But most willingly he mentioned his mighty dog Asika and the beautiful horse Kasztanka. Each time he spoke about them, his eyes filled with tears. My brother and I love visiting my dad’s hometown. We are there whenever there is possibility. The last time we were in Sarnowo with our families was in May 2022 at the unveiling of our father’s monument. Each visit to Poland is a great opportunity for us to learn more about our roots.

In April 1989, Wladyslaw Gnys was contacted by Frank Neubert, a former pilot of a German Ju-87 aircraft. It was he who, on September 1, 1939, shot down near Balice the plane of Captain Mieczyslaw Medwecki, the commander of the squadron in which your father flew. Can you tell us about this unusual friendship between a Polish and German pilot?

My father and Frank Neubert met just before the 50th anniversary of WWII outbreak, on August 30, 1989 in our house In Ontario. They forgave one another and remained friendly to the end. My Dad died in 2000, aged 89, Neubert in 2003, at the age of 88. I had corresponded with Frank until he died. I have all his letters to this day. The contact with Franks two adult children is very limited, they are pacifists and go back to their father’s war history with reluctance.

What values were most important for your father?

For all his life he had been an ardent and practicing Catholic. He was an honest and highly moral man for whom honor was extremely important, he had a deep sense of decency. He always repeated: “be caring and protective towards others and the will be likewise to you”. At the same time he didn’t treat kindly to those dishonest and unkind. He never made wild promises. He demised those values to me and my brother Ashley – they had a positive effect on our behavior and way of life.

– Interviewed by Tomasz Plaskota

– Translated by Dominik Szczęsny-Kostanecki

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and jornalists