„Many of us”

time and place: Autumn, year 1944, Zadybie Stare (Lublin province, east of Poland)

  It was a time of bloody battles for the Warsaw bridgehead. From Zadybie Stare started fighter planes of the First Regiment of Fighter Aviation.

The airstrip was located near the farm buildings of Ms Władysława and Mr Bolesław. One day, after a bitter battle with the “Messerschmitt” planes, the "Yakovlev Yaks" fighters returned more crippled than usual. One of them, smoking heavily, almost fell down on the airstrip. Soon after, Władysława, who was putting the children to sleep, heard hammering at the door. When she opened it, she saw Russian soldiers on the doorstep with a wounded pilot on a stretcher. Without asking for permission, they went inside. They laid the wounded on a bed in a kitchen and without saying anything they left. Władysława approached the soldier who was put in her care. He was unconscious, wounded and he had extensive burns. Luckily that the military doctor had got the wounds dressed. If he had not been the pilot in a high rank, the Russians would not have wasted bandages.

  The soldier laid unconscious for three days. Władysława, together with her eldest daughter, changed his dressings. However, the health condition of the airman seemed so serious that they did not give him much chance of survival. After five days, the wounded still did not recoup consciousness, so Władysława after a consultation with Bolesław decided to go to the military HD. There was a risk that when an officer of a friendly army died under their roof, Russians would kill the whole family.

  Władysława stood in front of the Russian officer, asking him to take a seriously injured pilot from her home to the hospital where he would have better care. The Russian listened her kindly and then said calmly:

"No worry, if he dies, we will bury him in the yard. There are many of us."

  To a great relief of the whole family, after two days the officer recovered and was taken to hospital.