Jan Ferensowicz and Thomas William Addinall were born on opposite sides of the European continent and yet their lives would leave an indelibly similar mark on their children and grandchildren.
 
The men were born only years apart, neither would know the other. Addinall was born in England in 1925 while Ferensowicz was born in 1919 in Zazule, Poland, modern-day Ukraine. Both men would enlist into their country's armies at young ages and would fight with the Allied Forces in the Italian campaign during World War II. After the war, they would immigrate to Canada and settle in Airdrie and Calgary. Airdrie's Christine Dunn, Addinall's daughter, recounts her father's stories. 
 
"When he went down to enlist he told the people he was 17 and a half. They said, 'come back this afternoon when you're 18 and a half," Dunn said.
 
"The reason my father enlisted is that his brother enlisted and had children and he thought that he should be there with his brother."
 
In reality, Addinall was only 16 when he enlisted in 1941. Ferensowicz enlisted that same year into the Polish Army at the age of 22. 
 
d to a Siberian work camp until his enlistment.
 
In 1941, the year Ferensowicz enlisted, the Sikorski–Mayski agreement was signed. The treaty was signed by the Soviet Union and Poland and would grant 'amnesty' to Polish citizens previously imprisoned, giving them a choice to enlist in the Polish Army, under Anders command. Ferensowicz enlisted into Anders Army and was placed in the 1st Krechowieckich Division. Anders Army was later known as the Polish II Corps, part of the British 8th Army.
 
 {gallery}Jan Ferensowicz private archive 3{/gallery}
Jan Ferensowicz would travel through the Middle East, including Egypt as well as the British Mandate of Palestine. (Ferensowicz family archive)
 
The Polish II Corps would make a trek to Iran, Iraq, Syria, and the British Mandate of Palestine before going to Italy. His English counterpart, Addinall, would land in Italy in 1944.
 
{gallery}Jan Ferensowicz private archive photos{/gallery}
 A Polish-Italian Dictionary/Card of commemorative badges given to Jan Ferensowicz during his service in Italy (Ferensowicz family archive)
 
"He was in the Northern boundaries of Italy," Dunn said. "He served with the fourth British infantry. And he was part of the Second [Royal] Northumberland Fusiliers."
 
Dunn provided documents of her father's service in Italy. In one document, Addinall's service is described as, "...Calm and steady efficiency, his constant cheerfulness and complete devotion to duty, set the finest possible example to the men of the platoon..." He also received a medal for his military service in Italy.
 
{gallery}Dunn archive{/gallery}
Records of Thomas Addinall's military service in Italy (Provided by Christine Dunn)
 
Ferensowicz would fight in Operation Diadem in Monte Cassino, Italy, known in Canada as the Battle of the Liri Valley. The significance of this battle was to break through the Nazi German defences, known as the Gustav Line, and to be able to open the road for allies to Rome. The British, French, Americans, along with the Polish II Corps would all participate in the attack. The Polish corps attacked Monte Cassino on May 17th, 1944. The battle of Monte Cassino would come on the heels of the Allied forces' invasion of Normandy, leaving Nazi Germany flanked on two fronts in World War II. 
 
{gallery}Jan Ferensowicz private archive 2{/gallery}
Jan Ferensowicz was awarded the Italy Star for his service in Monte Cassino (Ferensowicz family archive)
 
Addinall would serve in Italy until 1944 and leave home to England in 1949, while the Polish II Corps was demobilized in 1946, with Ferensowicz travelling to England as well.  Addinall would come home and re-enlist while Ferensowicz travelled to England because going home to Poland was not an option.
 
In 1945, during the Yalta conference, the Allies: America, England, and the Soviet Union would discuss what post-war Europe would look like. During the conference, Poland's fate was sealed and it was betrayed by its allies, leaving it to Stalin's plans. Poland became a Soviet satellite state and would not regain independence for four more decades, until 1989.
 
Polish soldiers who fought in Anders Army were considered by the communist regime in Poland to be traitors of state. The consequences of soldiers going home were either imprisonment, torture, death, or exile back to Siberia. Ferensowicz and others who would immigrate to other parts of the world were vehemently opposed to the Soviet regime in Poland, as they had been fighting against totalitarianism only years before. General Anders was stripped of his Polish citizenship and forced to live in exile in England until his death in 1970. 
 
{gallery}Jan Ferensowicz private archive 4{/gallery}
Jan Ferensowicz was a highly decorated soldier. He received among others, the Cross of Valour (Krzyż Walecznych), as well The Siberian Exiles Cross (Krzyż Zesłańców Sybiru) (Ferensowicz family archive)
 
Addinall lived in England until 1964 when he moved with his family to Canada. Ferensowicz left Europe in 1949 and would land in Halifax before making his way by train to Alberta. Both men would continue their lives and build their families in Canada, living only kilometres away from each other, not knowing they had both served in the monumental liberation of Italy years before. 
 
{gallery}Jan Ferensowicz private archive 5{/gallery}
Archive photos of Jan Ferensowicz. (Ferensowicz family archive)
 
Ferensowicz worked in the coal mines in Southern Alberta before moving to Calgary in the 1950s, later working in the Energy Resources Conservation Board as a core handler. He was an active participant in Polish communities around Alberta, and a founding member of the Polish Combatants Branch No. 18, a member of the Polish Canadian Congress and a representative of the Polish Government in Exile. Addinall worked for the Alberta Solicitor General in corrections until his retirement had a hankering for good food and a lust for life.
 
"He actually loved Greek food and Italian food, [all] the Mediterranean type foods," Dunn said. "He was a bit of a ladies' man all his life. He was very kind and very generous."
 
Neither Addinall nor Ferensowicz spoke often about their experiences in World War II to their families. Dunn said that her father's military service took on greater meaning later on in her own life.
 
"'I've got a son and a grandson in the Canadian military right now and I attend all the services," she said. "I wish our older veterans would tell their stories. I think it hurts too much. The people that they've lost; their friends and comrades. I think that's why my dad didn't talk about it because he probably would have cried."
 
Ferensowicz came from a generation where God, Honour and Country (Bóg, Honor, Ojczyzna), the unofficial motto of the Polish army, governed his choices. It wouldn't be until years later, when his only granddaughter, would later follow in her grandfather's footsteps. She would live and work as a journalist in the places he trained as a soldier, namely the Palestinian Occupied West Bank, which was once the British Mandate of Palestine. Ferensowicz's granddaughter would later come to realize that what her grandfather fought for: freedom from oppression and tyranny, would become an integral part of her motivations as a journalist. 
 
"We are blessed to have the freedoms that we have, and those freedoms that we hold so dear, are on the backs of the men and women that went to war," Dunn said.
 
Addinall passed away in June 2018, four years before Ferensowicz. Both men were in their early 90's when they passed away.
 
On the day of Ferensowicz's passing, his granddaughter travelled to Jerusalem to a chapel on a photo assignment. At the entrance of the chapel on the ceiling, there is a mosaic of a Polish eagle, an homage to the soldiers of the Polish II Corps that once were there.
 
{gallery}via dela rossa{/gallery}
The emblem of the Polish eagle in a Jerusalem chapel (Photo by Anna Ferensowicz)
 
On November 11th, Canadians will commemorate men and women like Addinall, bowing their heads and saying 'Lest we forget'. In Poland on that same day, the country's Independence Day, the country bows its head in solemn reflection, saying, "Cześć i chwała Bohaterom" - Praise to the heroes.
 
Editor's note: Jan Ferensowicz was Anna Ferensowicz's grandfather. 
 
 

Send your news tips, story ideas, pictures, and videos to news@discoverairdrie.com