General Chat

was created.

"Poles provided crucial help to the Allies throughout the war, fighting on land, sea and air. Notable was the service of the Polish Air Force, not only in the Allied victory in the Battle of Britain but also the subsequent air war. Polish ground troops were present in the North Africa Campaign (siege of Tobruk); the Italian campaign (including the capture of the monastery hill at the Battle of Monte Cassino); and in battles following the invasion of France (the battle of the Falaise pocket; an airborne brigade parachute drop during Operation Market Garden and one division in the Western Allied invasion of Germany).

Polish forces in the east, fighting alongside the Red army and under Soviet command, took part in the Soviet offensives across Belarus and Ukraine into Poland, across the Vistula and towards the Oder and then into Berlin. Some Polish contributions were less visible, and some even overlooked, most notably the prewar and wartime deciphering of German Enigma machine codes by cryptologists Marian Rejewski and his colleagues. The Polish intelligence network also proved to be of much value to the Allied intelligence.

Unlike in France, the Nazis did not set up a collaborationist government. Instead Poland was governed directly by a purely German administration known as the Generalgouvernement. This administration was in turn opposed by the Polish Underground State, which not only fielded one of the three largest partisan forces in existence,[b] but was a rare example of an underground government, a phenomenon not witnessed in many other occupied countries.

The Polish forces as a whole are considered to have been the 4th largest Allied army in Europe, after the Soviet Union, United States and Britain.[a] "


"Sadly, the PAF's No.300 Squadron suffered the highest number of deaths of any Bomber Command unit. Throughout the war, Polish ground crews were known for their dedication and efficiency and aircraft serviceability rates on Polish squadrons were impressively high."

Lest we forget.....

The Polish War Cemetery is at Newark Nottinghamshire.

My son, when he was in the Air Training Corps, had the honour of twice carrying the ATC colours at the annual ceremony at the cemetery to remember the Polish war dead.

I remember and think of these men everytime I hear of the abuse Polish people are getting - and wonder why the debt we owe some of their kin is not more often voiced

My aunt married a member of the Free Polish Airforce - he was ground crew and with about 20 others walked from Poland eventually to reach England. He married, had two children born here and bought a home. When war was over he eventually was transfered into our airforce and served in Malta and his last few years were in Lincolnshire. I can remember he served well past the retirement date.

However in spite of all this service etc. he had a battle for a number of years before he was able to become a citizen of the UK. There must have been many of his countrymen who also found themselves in the same situation after WW2.

we have many second and third generation Poles here in Cardiff - but then Cardiff has always been a very cosmopolitan city due to the Docks