does anybody know of any of an British war memorials I the Trojmiasto area
Instead of war memorial how about visiting a simple grave for the fallen, who had been executed on the spot by Gestapo or SS. I don’t know how accurate this information is but there seem to be such grave near you, in the forest near the village of Gostomko. There lie the remains of British airmen who according to the locals eluded German capture and were hiding in a bale of hay for the night in the village of Ogonki. Unfortunately Germans were searching local villages at least once a month for the Gryf partisans or perhaps they were in the area because of the downed airmen, and this night they were searching the village of Ogonki. They were discovered by SS who surrounded the place. They were then taken to the nearby woods where their grave is at, they were interrogated and executed. Next day in the morning the locals uncovered the fresh grave in the woods to check if it’s someone they know from surrounding villages. The grave contained 3 bodies that were badly beaten and only had their underwear on but it was no one local. The news that they were British airmen they have learned from the Gryf partisans. After the war the locals erected a wooden cross and placed a grave stone making it a proper grave. According to the locals the bodies were never exhumed after the war.
After the war there were commissions that investigated those cases and exhumed the bodies of the fallen airmen. So the bodies might have been moved to another location, bodies of the British airmen in that area were moved to the war cemetery in Malbork and Yanks were taken back home to the U.S. Did they investigate every such case? I doubt it. In cases such as this I tend to believe locals much more then the local officials. Perhaps another interesting place to visit on such a day would be a prisoner of war camp for Allied airmen Stalag Luft IV in the vicinity of Tychowo but it’s a bit too far from Trojmiasto.
