Silly man, don't you know the contributions of Free Poland to Allied victory in the Second World War has been sent down the memory hole. Britain and France declared war on Germany ostensibly over German aggression on Poland. Nazi Germany's partner in aggression, the Soviet Union snapped up about half of Poland and then the US and the UK came to love Stalin and the USSR after Hitler sucker punched Stalin before he could be ready to execute a surprise attack on the Reich and forced Stalin to be an ally of ‘democracy’ in the good war . The Polish contribution to the cracking of the Enigma coding system is as ignored is the role of the Polish Air Force emigres who somehow made it to the UK and by the end of 1940 constituted (I believe I am right in this number. Those better informed please correct or affirm.) about 1/5 of the RAF Fighter Command squadrons. While there is a book every year or so and there have been several, generally bad or silly, films about the US staffed Eagle Squadrons, there is only one through treatment of the Poles in the Battle of Britain, ‘An Affair of Honor’. It is excellent but only appeared in the last decade. The combat record of the large Polish ground forces in campaigns in the Mediterranean and Western Europe have been relegated to even greater obscurity. Try and find a detailed operational narrative of the services of the Polish exile infantry or airborne forces let alone about the Polish Armored Division. This curtain of oblivion has been deliberately created since after starting the world war in defense of Polish territorial integrity Churchill and FDR were more than happy to sell out first the territorial borders of Poland at Yalta and then basically washed their hands of any responsibility for protecting the freedom and liberties of their brave and loyal allies against Soviet imposed slavery. Indeed both FDR and Churchill made it clear they found the non-communist Polish government to be tiresome pests always demanding they be treated as a loyal ally and not a disposal item to try and appease Stalin with. The blackout on the role of Poland and its forces in the war still continues mostly through successful inertia as the narrative of what happened in 1939-45 has been set pretty much in stone by two generations of establishment politicians and their court historians
I agree about how the Polish have been marginalised. I will say that British TV and radio and media has covered the Poles more and more in the 21st C, there have been programmes on TV about the Poles in the RAF, the Polish ground forces.....not enough, but a start.
My aunt married one of those polish fighter pilots in the UK. Seemed like a nice guy, tho she divorced him later.
Good post.
Na zdrowie!
Thanks for this, I did not know it! When I think of Polish contributions I think of Polish King Jan Sobieski defeating the forces of Islam at Vienna Sept. 11 1683. It ended the advance of Islam for centuries. That is why is why Osama picked that day. Like liberals , Mozlems are relentless and never forget.