Airmen of the 300 Bomb Squadron “Land of Mazovia”. From the Sybir Memorial Museum Collection
The man standing in the middle is Eugeniusz Pietrzak, deported from Białystok to Kazakhstan in April 1940, together with his mother, Maria, née Kuprjanowicz, and brother Janusz. The family was sent to the Zangar kolkhoz in the Pavlodar region. In 1942, Eugeniusz joined Anders’ Army, and a year later he was sent to England for training as an airborne radio operator. On 22 January 1945, he was promoted to corporal and assigned to the 300th Bomb Squadron “Land of Mazovia”. In the photograph, he is standing with his squadron mates next to an Avro Lancaster aircraft. What are their personalities?