I'm reading a book at the moment about the Polish airmen who helped us during the war. It's called 'For your freedom and ours' by Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud. I must admit that I didn't even know 100% where Poland was, I knew it was somewhere between Germany and the USSR but that was about it. What a fantastic read! I never quite realised before the history of the country or even the contriution they made to the battle, here are just a few figures:

Out of the 400 or so airmen defending the Capital at any one time during Sept/Oct 1940, 50 to 100 were Polish and at times they accounted for 48% of the kills.

As for 303 Sqdn, 9 pilots were official Aces. Josef Frantisek (A Czech by birth) was the highest scoring pilot of the battle with 17 kills. Another, Witold Urbanowicz had 15 to his name. On the day that King George visited the squadron they were scrambled and shot down 11 aircraft with no loss.

The overall mortality rate was %70 less than any other RAF squadron, and all this in Hurricanes.

Just thought I'd share that with you :-) what fine and extraordinary men they must have been.

Pat

Yes, they were indeed. I have a 1940's book about 303 where all the names were changed as the war was still going on, but they did not change them much!

I didnt know that, sounds like a very interesting read. I need some new reading material, I'll have to go look for it.

Redband

Pat P,

Seems like a worthy read!

Frantisek also destroyed 11 German aircraft while flying with the French Air Force prior to the collapse and may have claimed a few with the Polish Air Force at the beginning of the war.

General Chennault invited Urbanowicz to fly P40s in China where he later joined the 75th Fighter Squadron USAAF and destroyed two Japanese aircraft.

After the war he went to the USA as a political emigre and died there in 1987.

They were courageous and resourceful men.

About Josef Frantisek you can read also here: http://www.sweb.cz/pisis.eaw.page/czFrantisek.htm or here: http://members.aol.com/DrMondo7/Franisek.html . More about Czech aces here: http://www.frenkenstein.com/ww2/czech/Czechoslovakia.htm .

Yes...
Polish pilots were treated like heros but only till 22.VI.1941. Later they become a problem...
When everybody was happy on 9th May 1945 some Poles were crying - they lost everything in this war, even their country and allies, who sucrifised Polend in Teheran and Jalta. They also must heve felt bad reading captions "POLES GO HOME" on walls of English cities. Some of them, who decided to leave England were given THREE days time to do it - like J.Zumbach.
It's a very sad story - wanna know more - try:
A. Zamoyski "The forgoten few. The Polish Air Force in Second World War" London 1995.

For those in the UK 'For your freedom and ours' is in The Book People sale at £3.50 plus p&p (free on orders over £25.00). It's in the sale section under offer 2, book code is FYR.

http://www.thebookpeople.co.uk/frameset.asp

Great read, and a real eye opener for me on the goings on in Poland and Russia. Plus I now feel shame as an Englishmen at how we treated our best ally in the early part of the war and then in the latter part at how we let the Russians have a free hand in stamping out Poland - the Warsaw uprising is particularily harrowing.

Very interesting but unhappily not in every sense enjoyable.

Our history is quite complicated..... Here in Poland people are glad that "For Your freedom..." was written in western countries. Despite being not exacly correct whet describing 303 SQn in BoB - but it doesn't matter. Good will matters.
Maybe this year more flowers and candels can be found at the monument of fallen Polish airmen in Northolt....

"A Question of Honor" is also another awesome book about the 303 and WW2 Poland in general.

UWO.

At least the RAF acknowledged their debt and campaigned for the Polish personnel to be given fair treatment afer the war.

I find it hard to believe too that the Polish soldiers, sailors and airmen were not allowed to march in the 1946 victory parade through London, because the politicians at the time didn't want to upset the Soviets, words fail..

I really recommend that if anyone hasn't read this book that they should!

Thanks UWO, I shall look for that other book.

"A Question of honour" and "For our freedom..." are in fact the same book - the authors made the mistake and let it being published with two different titles in USA and GB.
here are some more readings in English:
Gretzyngier R., Poles in Defence of Britain. A day-by-day chronology of Polish day and night fighter pilot operations: July 1940 – June 1941, Grub Street, London 2001;
Gretzyngier R., Matusiak W., Polish Aces of World War 2, Osprey Aviation, London 1978;
Ingham M., The Polish Air Force in Lincoln Shire, Beckside Design1988;
Zumbach J., On Wings of War, Deutsch 1975;

Whole list in here - this a Polish historical forum of WWII - you can find some books and articles in English listed in this post:
http://www.drugawojnaswiatowa.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7115

Good stuff Leon, thanks very much
Looks like I'm Off to the book shop today!

I'm part way through Max Hastings' "Armageddon" and there's some intersting stuff in it about the Warsaw Rising and the fate of the Poles. I knew that the Soviets refused to allow supply flights to land in their territory, but I hadn't realised how enthusiastiacally the NKVD mopped up the survivors after they "liberated" them.
He does make the point that short of starting a Third World War there was really very little the Western allies could do. Roosevelt was sick and beleived that Stalin could be trusted. Britain was in decline by then and certainly couldn't do anything.
A sad story indeed.

Here are some interesting links. You can read about polish aces of WW II
Stanisław Skalski (the most effective polish fighter): http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/skalski/skalski.htm
Witold Urbanowicz (one one of the squadron leaders of 303 and pilot of Flying Tigers team):
http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/urbano/urbano.htm
Eugeniusz "Dziubek" Horbaczewski:
http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/horba/horba.htm
Marian Pisarek (one more pilot of 303):
http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/pisarek/pisarek.htm
Zdzislaw Henneberg (pilot of 303):
http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/henne/henne.htm

other Polish related English language books u may want to keep an eye out for:

Destiny Can Wait - a history of the Polish Air Force in Great Britain in WW2

Squadron 303 by Arkady Fiedler

First Kill by Wladek Gnys autiobiography of the Polish fighter pilot who is credited with shooting down the first German aircraft of WW2, and who later flew with 302 sqd RAF in the BOB and thru till DDay.

regards

Steve

Hello again
Here is a link to page about history of 303, from the begining till end (first two weeks of 303 activity during BoB is day by day):
http://www.geocities.com/psp1945/303/303_story.html

I'm just reading that book. One of the best books I ever read. Very sad. It changed my opinnion about Churchill and Roosevelt a little bit. It shows how politics was (and still ist) made.

Well, if what happened to the Poles post WWII was criminal regarding events in the UK, then the US is right up there with our British cousins in regards to who we treated minorities post WWII. Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, etc.. faught and died in WWII under the stars and stripes only to return to a segrated, racist country that hated their guts. Sad but factual.

I spent my vacation last summer in Cracow. Visited Polish Aviation Museum, took some shots.

Supermarine Spitfire Mk.XVI E of 308th Polish Fighter Squadron "City of Krakow":

The 308th flown this type from March 1, 1945. Another perspective - squadron markings are better visible:

Monument to the Polish Pilots Fallen In WWII, located near Museum: