Zajączkowski Tadeusz- From the Gate of Dawn to the Eighth Army [5th Border Infantry Division].

Rome 1945/ Published by the Culture and Press Branch of the 2nd Corps/ first edition, the only one/ publisher's binding, booklet/ 14x20cm/s.122/ good condition, taping of the front cover to the spine with bookbinders tape. Text clean.

From the preface: This collection of reportages and short stories was written during the Italian campaign of 1944/45, when, by chance, I gained more opportunity than any other soldier to take up writing.

Most of the reports were written in the heat of the moment, after- or during- the actions I was able to observe directly; the rest were added later with the idea of creating some continuity of the picture of the passages of this soldier, who traveled such a long and not easy road before he reached the Italian soil from the Gates of Dawn of the Eastern Borderlands to the 8th Army battles.

The thing begins with a narrative from under the Soviet occupation in Vilna ( on the Vilnia and Vilenka rivers), leads through Russia ( In the Gathering, The cadets of Shakhtzjabs), through Iraq ( On the rivers of Babylon), Palestine ( The Bridge on the Jordan, Petach- Tikva, Polish Banners in Jerusalem, We Conquer Judea, George Halib of Caesarea), Syria ( In the Mountains of Lebanon), Egypt (The Columns Are Riding, Pharaoh and Bakhsh) to Italy and the Polish battles there.

We are talking here about the Borderland Infantry Division, its Vilnius and Lwów brigades, about soldiers who, the vast majority of whom came from the Eastern Borderlands, adopted as their symbol and division insignia the "Bison" - the lord of the backwoods of the Polish forests on the Bug, Niemen and Wilia Rivers.

I am fully aware of the shortcomings of this collection. These are rather sketches, notes, requiring further elaboration. But I also know that the present times demand that we work differently. Therefore, I am putting them into print as they are.