Longest Journey ?

Discussion in 'Veteran Accounts' started by 1944, Sep 1, 2004.

  1. 1944

    1944 Junior Member

    It was possible for me to attend the 60th Anniversary event at Mont Ormel in France.

    This was the Polish Armoured Division's defence of the gate that was to close the Falaise pocket. A very good event with around 5,000 people attending including around 1000 Poles or people of Polish extraction

    I was told a story by a Polish family there of their friend that I found fascinating and was wondering if anyone knows of any other long journeys

    A Polish soldier, fighting in Poland was captured by the Russians in 1939, they shipped him off to Siberia from where he escaped and in winter walked to India, where he got on a ship for England and enlisted in the Polish forces and was sent in June 1944 to France.

    He is still alive, in England, although he is very unwell at present.

    If you look at the map you have a journey from Siberia to India of 2,000 miles plus over some of the worst deserts and mountains in the world.

    That to me is determination way beyond the normal.
     
  2. Ali Hollington

    Ali Hollington Senior Member

    Not sure of the full details but there is a book on a similiar if not the same journey. If I remember correctly its called "The Long Walk" by a Polish sounding name- Slavomir Rawicz? or Ramicz.
    Ali
     
  3. BeppoSapone

    BeppoSapone Senior Member

    Originally posted by Ali Hollington@Sep 1 2004, 09:53 AM
    Not sure of the full details but there is a book on a similiar if not the same journey. If I remember correctly its called "The Long Walk" by a Polish sounding name- Slavomir Rawicz? or Ramicz.
    Ali
    [post=27912]Quoted post[/post]

    It is Slavomir Rawicz. I read it when still at school, and it is about an epic escape made from a Russian prison camp to India. There were a few people involved, one of whom was an American who had gone to work in Russia in the 1930s and later been arrested.

    The above is all I could remember. However, I just lookled it up on AbeBooks and found:

    "The Long Walk' is the astounding true story of a treck to freedom. In the spring of 1941, the author, a 26 year old Polish lieutenant, escaped from a Soviet labor camp in Siberia with 6 fellow prisoners, including one American. Joined by one remarkable girl, Kristina, who gave them hope and courage, this heroic group braved the Himalayas, the desolate Siberian tundra, and the Great Gobi desert, always a hair's breadth from death. They had no map, compass, only an ax head, a knife, and a fierce determination to survive"

    I must re-read it!
     

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