[jednastka]

I wrote this article in 2018, and it was published in the Drayton Valley Western Review.

November 11, 1918 is celebrated in the west originally as Armistice Day and later, as Remembrance Day, but in Poland it is the Polish Independence Day. Poland ceased to exist in 1795, when it was finally swallowed by the empires of Prussian Germany, Tsarist Russia and the Hapsburg Austria-Hungary. On November 11, 1918, without waiting for permission, Poles declared an independent Poland, made up from lands recovered from these three fallen empires.

Recently, a small village of almost 400 residents in central Poland celebrated the life of one of its own sons within the greater context of 100 years of Polish Independence.

Kazimierz Benz was born in Nieżywięć in October 1899, then part of Prussian Germany. His professional military career, covering three 20th century wars was recognized by five European nations; Poland, France, Latvia, Germany, and Great Britain.

At the age of 16 he entered the Imperial German Army and fought in the trenches of France. Convalescing after being wounded towards the end of the war, he responded to the 1918 call of Marshal Józef Piłsudski for all Poles to return and defend the creation of an independent Polish state. He joined the famous cavalry regiment, 1 Pułk Szwoleżerów Józefa Piłsudskiego, as a 2nd Lieutenant and fought in the Polish–Soviet War of 1919-1921, including the deciding battle, the defense of Warsaw, in 1920.



In 1924 he joined the fledgling Polish Air Force. By the early 1930s he was responsible for leading the creation of three new air force squadrons, including fighter squadron 124/142 Eskadra Dzikie Kaczki, the Wild Ducks. In 1939 he was assigned to central military command in Modlin Poland.
With the fall of Poland, he escaped to France where he was given the rank of Commandant in the French Air Force, the Armée de l'Air. After the fall of France in 1940 he escaped again, this time to England, where he joined the Royal Air Force. During the Battle of Britain, in October 1940, he was assigned to 307 Squadron as Squadron Leader, a newly formed night-fighter outfit named the “City of Lvov Owls”. After a month, he returned to central command.

Chafing at not getting an active command, he began commando training in May 1942 with the intent to be eventually dropped back into Poland as an Allied agent. A broken ankle prevented his joining the Cichociemni, an elite special-operations paratroop group of the Polish Army in exile, and he again returned to Polish Air Force command in December 1943.

After the war in Europe ended in May 1945, Poles that had fought the entire war in the West discovered that a return to Poland was dangerous. Of the few that did, most were imprisoned and a few were shot. Many of those that stayed in England took advantage of scholarships offered to veterans and completed studies in technical schools or universities.


Anti-Polish sentiment began to rise in England as the population’s privations increased with the return of British troops from all over the world. This culminated with the London Victory Celebrations of 1946 held one year after the end of WWII. The celebrations took place in London on 8 June 1946, and consisted of a military parade through the city. Almost all Allies (some 70 countries including Canada) took part in the parade but Polish Forces were conspicuously absent. The British government of the time, led by Prime Minister Clement Attlee, capitulated to Russian demands that Poles only march in the Moscow parade of 1946, even though more than 200,000 members of the Polish Armed Forces in the West fought under British High Command.

In 1947, Kazimierz Benz joined the Administrative and Special Duties Branch of the Polish Resettlement Corps, an organization formed as a holding unit for members of the Polish Armed Forces who had served with the British Armed Forces and did not wish to or could not return to a Communist Poland after the end of the war. It was designed to ease their transition from military to civilian life and to keep them under military control until they were fully adjusted to civilian life. An important aspect was to provide employment opportunities outside the British Isles where such an influx of refugees could be absorbed more easily.

He was officially de-mobbed in February 1949. In March 1952 Kazimierz, along with his wife, Zofia, emigrated to Canada to join his son and wife. Adjustment to civilian life was difficult but he did find employment with a small Drayton Valley oil & gas firm, and lived in Violet Grove, Alberta. He died peacefully in his sleep on May 5, 1957.

Wing Commander (retired PAF/RAF) Kazimierz Benz is buried in Drayton Valley, Alberta

His only daughter, Private (AK) Jadwiga Benz, disappeared in the fierce fighting towards the end of the Warsaw Uprising in the first days of October 1944.

His only son, my father, 2nd Lieutenant (AK) Tadeusz Benz, died in 1971 and is buried in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta.