HISTORY

The heroes of aerial warfare at the Arkady Fiedler Museum - Workshop

On the 60th anniversary of the Battle for Great Britain, the Museum-Workshop in Puszczykowo received the Polish ex-service air-men of the Second World War. During this historical meeting we commemorated all our pilots who distinguished themselves in battles over England with incredible courage, determination, exceptional skills and efficiency.

The Battle for Great Britain was the first great victory of the allies and one of the turning points of the war. The air-offensive of Germans, which was to precede invading the island, was defeated. 145 Poles fought on the British side.

With their steadfast attitude, they won a great deal of gratitude on the part of Englishmen, who, seeing stripes "Poland" sewn onto sleeves of the Polish uniforms, invited Poles to their homes; ticket inspectors did not collect any fare from them, barmans stood them drinks. The Division 303 covered itself with the most glory and fame. My father met the fighter-pilots of this Division during the critical days of the Battle for Great Britain, in September 1940. He made friends with them easily, especially with Witold Urbanowicz. Father gave Urbanowicz the successive chapters of his book on the Division for reading, looking forward to his comments. It proved to be a helpful cooperation for the author and foot-soldier (father was an Infantry Lieutenant), who was familiarizing himself with professional air-terms. Sometimes one would hear a funny conversation between the two of them:
- "Why have you written that fighter-pilots are flying in circles over the airport? Colloquially, you say that they are making circles."
- "Oh, because you are eagles!" - was the reply.

The book, which soon started to go round the world fulfilled its task well. Especially in occupied Poland, where the copies dropped by planes and underground editions lifted people's spirits. Under the influence of the book "Division 303", in the division of the Home Army * in the woods under Radomsk, a partisan "Gard" composed the Hymn of the Division 303 to the Czechura's words. The notes and words of the song reached us soon, probably via the courier route to London, where the Polish pilots enthusiastically accepted the gift from their comrades in arms. We were told about it by a witness of those events, a soldier of the Home Army, Zbigniew Zieliński. During the meeting at the Museum - Workshop, ex-service pilots recalled memorable moments of the past. At this point, they made many interesting remarks, for instance about the reasons for the exceptional battle efficiency of the Polish fighter-pilots. They were taught to fly on the time-worn P-11 machines, without any assistance systems, as a result of which their intuition and command of the air-craft became extraordinary. In the September campaign they could equal Germans only by carrying out brilliant manoeuvres. By the way, German fighter-pilots could afford to be daring in Poland where they gained distinct advantage. They kept shooting at everything that moved on the ground. Over England, however, they hid their claws, and turned humble. Often, on seeing Poles attack Germans made themselves scarce right away.

When I listened to the stories told by our guests, the members of the Polish Air-Men Society, with the chairman, lieutenant pilot Ignacy Olazewski, who used to be the commander of the Division 302, one particular fact struck me: their incredible modesty. They talked about their achievements without the slightest trace of pathos, as if the feats were something most ordinary, connected with every-day living. They simply fulfilled their soldier's duty in those hot times.

Great people, we owe them so much.

Marek Fiedler

* The Home Army - the Polish underground army of the Resistance Movement during the Nazi occupation in World War II with its Commander-in-chief in England.