Now, almost 70 years on, the resident of Prince's Drive, Leamington, has been awarded one of the country's top accolades for bravery.

The 88-year-old collected his Krzyzem Officerski Orderu Odrodzenia Polski, which translates to Officer's Cross, Order of Resurrected Poland, from the Polish Embassy in London last month.

He was nominated by no higher authority than the country's president Lech Kaczynski.

He said: "I am honoured. It is nice to know somebody remembered.

"At the time we only had rifles and the Germans had tanks. We expected the Russian army to help us but they retreated and left us to battle the Germans alone. Two of every three were killed."

On September 1 1939 Mr Celinski and the Polish Underground Army began his fight against a total of 1.5 million Nazis.

The teenager had been looking forward to finishing his national service and studying at university but instead began his five-year fight against a campaign of terror and genocide.

Mr Celinski has lived in Leamington with his wife Iris for more than 30 years. He said he was remembering fellow soldiers who died during the war, including two of his brothers, as he collected his medal.

He added: "I still remember some of them and it is very painful.

"I lost my 14-year-old brother in the fighting and my other brother lost his life at a German concentration camp. The loss was tremendous."

In August 1944 Mr Cellinski and fellow troops spotted Russian tanks on the far bank of the Vistula River. They fought for 63 days but in the end were forced to surrender and were taken to a prisoner of war camp in Upper Bavaria, Germany.

Describing his eight-month stay, Mr Celinski added: "I was very hungry. We ate pieces of boiled swede with nothing else in a soup which we were given twice a day."

Even these experiences did not dent his courage or will to serve - as soon as he was released from the camp Mr Celinski joined the Polish Corps of the British Army in Italy.

The father-of-one added: "When you are faced with a situation you want to do your best. When there was fighting I fought and when there wasn't I stopped."

After the war Mr Celinski felt unable to return to Poland under the Communist government and moved to England where he settled and started his career in management training.

He is now retired but has written several books on the topic.