dinomartino1
Well-Known Member
Why did we humiliate the Polish aces after their Battle of Britain heroics? How an ungrateful nation wanted to deport the men our women fell for and Hitler feared.
I just came across this story in the daily mail from 2016
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...nted-deport-men-women-fell-Hitler-feared.html
Just about every book I have read by foreign airmen who flew with the RAF in WW2 from Poles, frenchmen, americans and others all seem to mention the disdain and contempt some RAF officers had for them.
Those from the commonwealth countries and the dominions also seemed to suffer from that to a lesser degree.
I don't recall reading about the general public or the erks having that attitude, though the article does show prejudice after the war towards the poles from sections of the general public.
I used to work at Uxbridge signal cabin on the underground in the 1980s and I used to have a pint after work with a retired Polish underground train driver who had fought with the polish parachute brigade at Arnhem.
After the war his family in Poland where persecuted by the communist govt. because he had fought with the British and the only job he get after the war [he was a qualified engineer] was working on the platforms as a railman [station attendant] on the underground, he worked his way up to a train driver.
He was not bitter though, like most poles of his generation he was more heart broken about what happened to his country than his own problems.
There where 200 000 displaced Polish servicemen in the UK at the end of WW2.
I just came across this story in the daily mail from 2016
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...nted-deport-men-women-fell-Hitler-feared.html
Just about every book I have read by foreign airmen who flew with the RAF in WW2 from Poles, frenchmen, americans and others all seem to mention the disdain and contempt some RAF officers had for them.
Those from the commonwealth countries and the dominions also seemed to suffer from that to a lesser degree.
I don't recall reading about the general public or the erks having that attitude, though the article does show prejudice after the war towards the poles from sections of the general public.
I used to work at Uxbridge signal cabin on the underground in the 1980s and I used to have a pint after work with a retired Polish underground train driver who had fought with the polish parachute brigade at Arnhem.
After the war his family in Poland where persecuted by the communist govt. because he had fought with the British and the only job he get after the war [he was a qualified engineer] was working on the platforms as a railman [station attendant] on the underground, he worked his way up to a train driver.
He was not bitter though, like most poles of his generation he was more heart broken about what happened to his country than his own problems.
There where 200 000 displaced Polish servicemen in the UK at the end of WW2.