Posted on 09/04/2006 10:38:13 AM PDT by lizol
Britain covered up WW2 "plot" to kill Polish PM
By Peter Griffiths
Mon Sep 4, 2:00 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - A distinguished Polish pilot who said he found a bomb intended to blow up the plane of Poland's wartime leader admitted to lying but the episode was hushed up by Britain's government, secret files released on Monday showed.
The apparent plot to assassinate General Wladyslaw Sikorski, who led the Polish government in exile until his death in 1943, sparked a big inquiry with suspicions it was a German or Russian conspiracy but it turned out the pilot took the bomb aboard.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill was dragged into the investigation as security chiefs scrambled to uncover the truth about what happened on the plane over the Atlantic, a year before Sikorski's death in a mysterious plane crash.
The pilot said he found a smouldering bomb on board the plane taking Sikorski from Scotland to Canada on March 21, 1942.
Polish Wing Commander Bohdan Kleczynski said he found the device burning under his mattress as he rested on the B-24 Liberator plane. He said the device broke into two pieces as he rushed to the back of the plane to throw it down the toilet.
"The detached part was so hot I threw it straight into the lavatory pan," Kleczynski told investigators, according to documents made public at Britain's National Archives.
Despite his seniority and reputation as one of Poland's finest fighter pilots, investigators quickly doubted his story.
"THE STORY IS FISHY"
Intelligence agent Lord Rothschild, who led the inquiry, said: "The story is fishy ... I am somewhat doubtful if this is a real attempt to liquidate the general."
Investigators questioned everyone on the plane and examined the small incendiary device. They found no evidence the bomb had partially exploded.
Other passengers said they too had smelt burning, but this had been traced to a minor electrical fault on the plane.
With the evidence stacking up against him, Kleczynski bowed to mounting pressure and finally admitted he had lied.
The bomb was his. The pilot always carried it with him in case he was shot down and needed to blow up his plane.
He had inadvertently taken the device onto the Polish leader's plane and panicked when he smelt burning during the flight, wrongly assuming the bomb was about to explode.
When told of the true nature of the "plot", Churchill wrote to Sikorski asking that the story be kept secret.
"He has been sufficiently punished by the mental anguish that he has passed through," Churchill wrote. "Having told one lie ... he was compelled to go on lying."
Sikorski died in a plane crash in Gibraltar a year later.
Debate still rages in Poland decades over what brought his plane down on July 4, 1943.
An inquiry failed to establish the cause of the accident, but ruled out sabotage, but a second British investigation in 1969 said there might have been foul play.
There's only one reason for this article; and that's to push the idea that all white Christian males are the scum of the earth.
This kind of thing should be covered up during the time of war. Abu Grabe should've been covered up and all the accusations against our soldiers should've also been even if it meant providing no comment. It is not appropriate during the time of war to allow what could be or most probably is enemy propaganda to grow legs and hurt the effort on the ground which accomplishes nothing but gets more of our soldiers killed and makes our job harder. War is hell and pretending it is always going to be executed with upmost care is a silly belief promoted in our me-first wussie society which can't deal with nonsense words like "Maccaca" let alone the perspective of a war zone.
I agree with you.
Unfortunately modern technology makes it virtually impossible to do as a practicle mater.
Abu Gabe happened because of cheap digital photography permitted the guards to cheaply copy and share the photographs and movies they made of their tormenting their prisoners.
With the ability of photos and homemade movies to be emailed across the world instantaneously keeping something like Abu Grabe a secret is next to impossible unless you are fortunately able to catch it immediately.
The only reason Abu Grabe came to light was that the guards were sharing their photos for fun.
Say what?
Unless the Brits were pandering to Stalin (and there hadn't even been a Yalta Conference as of 1943), I still don't see what Churchill's motivation would be to kill Sikorski, although I know that this is widely believed in Poland. Of course, the British Government and secret intelligence services were chock full of commies who might have attempted a hit.
Churchill backed Stalin's version of Katyn, even though he knew it was a lie, and began backing away from the Polish government in exile when they continued to make noise about it.
British killed him or they let someone else do that.
Interesting fact. Makes the headline a bit strange though.
What on earth are you talking about?
Fine thanks for those Polish RAF pilots who saved Britain's bacon during the Battle of Britain.
Was it common for WW II pilots to carry bombs with them in order to blow up their own aircraft? I had not heard that before.
Me neither
Congratulations! You found the elusive jet turbo switch that goes along with your hypersensitive button.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.