Polish Heroism Combined With Allied Ingratitude,

Jan Peczkis|Friday, November 26, 2010

This book recounts the role of Polish pilots in the Allied war effort. It discusses how the Poles accounted for a disproportionate share of German planes downed over England during the pivotal Battle of Britain, when the outcome of WWII hung in the balance. It also discusses the personal lives of the pilots, including the homesickness felt every Christmas.



The all-but-forgotten sufferings of the Poles under both German Nazis and Soviet Communists is recounted in some detail. There is discussion of the heartbreak and outrage experienced by the pilots once they learned that the western Allies betrayed Poland to Soviet control after the war, ruling out a return home for most of the pilots. The postwar lives of some of the pilots are also recounted.

The ingratitude of the British leaders was duplicated by much of the civilian population soon after the war. The short memory of the British, who forgot that Poles were fighting for the very survival of Britain a few short years earlier, were now clamoring for the Poles to go home.

Other details surrounding the aerial combat are recounted. There is even mention of a Polish pilot, decades after the war, locating, in Bavaria, the German pilot he had shot down back in September 1939 over Poland.