War hero living in Mytholmroyd receives surprise promotion
As Mr Gazur, aged 95, was busy watching the VE Day celebrations he had no idea that outside his living room the bunting was being hung in his honour and for the arrival of Colonel Norbert Czerbniak from the Polish Embassy to present Adam with the documents of promotion.
Adam’s grand daughter, Heidi Boothroyd, had spent the previous 12 months putting together the documents which detailed Adam’s heroic contribution to the war effort.
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Hide AdAdam, who was born in Kamienie, Poland left school as war was declared. At the age of 14, with his family whilst trying to escape the Nazi invasion, Adam was captured by the Russians and imprisoned in a Siberian concentration camp.
Adam and his family, escaped by building six rafts, taking three weeks to make their way down the river Czulim to safety. On his escape Adam joined the Polish 2nd corps as a reconnaissance tank driver. He travelled through Iran, Iraq, Palestine and Egypt. From Egypt he was posted to Italy to fight at Monte Casino, one of the hardest campaigns of the war.
Applauded by 100 or so Mytholmroyd residents, Colonel Norbert Czerbniak presented Adam with a medal, a book about the role of the Poles in the Second World War and a certificate granting promotion from Lance Corporal to Second Lieutenant.
There was then a ‘fly past’ by Roger Blighty, a scale model bi plane attached to a mini penny farthing.