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Dan Snow's History Hit

Jan Stangreciuk: Veteran. Hero. Guinea Pig.

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.713.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2020

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Of all the clubs in the world, perhaps the most extraordinary is the Guinea Pig Club, a group of Second World War veterans that suffered terrible injuries and were then treated by pioneering surgeon Archibald McIndoe. Today there are only a handful left. Dan visits Jan Stangreciuk, one of the few surviving members, to hear his remarkable life story.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello folks, Dan Snow here. I am throwing a party to celebrate 10 years of Dan Snow's history hit.

0:06.1

I'd love for you to be there. Join me for a very special live recording of the podcast in London, in England on the 12th of September to celebrate the 10 years. You can find out more about it and get tickets with the link in the show notes. Look forward to seeing you there.

0:27.3

Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's history hits. We've got another Second World War veteran for you this time. He's one of the last surviving members of the so-called

0:30.3

Guinea Pig Club. A drinking club started for people that were operated on by the unit in

0:36.2

East Grinstead, Surrey, run by the legendary, the pioneer of plastic surgery called Archie McKindow.

0:43.1

He was a genius. He helped to rebuild men's faces, but also their lives. He gave them the courage to face the world anew after they'd suffered, often hideous, hideous burns when planes had crashed, for example.

0:58.9

The gentleman you'll be hearing from now was born in Poland.

1:02.8

His name's Jan Stangrediuch.

1:05.1

He moved to Argentina as a teenager, but he volunteered to serve in Britain's RAF to try and do his bit so that his mother

1:13.5

country would be liberated. It's an extraordinary interview. If you want to watch this interview

1:20.0

and see, frankly, what an extraordinary job the team at East Grinstead did 80 years later,

1:26.4

you can go to history hit.tv. It is the place where all

1:30.2

the previous episodes of the podcast are, the entire podcast archive that's not available anywhere else.

1:34.9

It's available on history hit.tv. And there's hundreds of history documentaries on there.

1:38.8

Now, we've got Jan and we've got Roger Morehouse, great friend of the podcast. He has been on so many times.

1:45.2

He is a brilliant Second World War historian. His most recent book is called First to Fight,

1:50.8

and it charts the story of the Polish campaign of autumn 1939. So Roger Morhouse kind of put me in touch

1:58.8

for Jan, and he's on the documentary talking about the Polish role and that of Airman, like Jan, in the Second World War.

2:06.9

So please go over and check that out.

2:09.0

And then while you're there, stick around, listen to the back episodes of the podcast and obviously watch one of the hundreds of other documentaries there as well.

2:15.5

Every so often, the team in the office kind of fall in love with a film and a subject,

2:20.1

and Jan is definitely that guy.

...

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