The RAF came, facing odds of six, eight, ten to one and dove in, shouting
the old hunting cry: tally ho!
They're known as the few. The pilots who defended Britain against the German Luftwaffe
during the Battle of Britain. Images of these brave airmen epitomized
Britain's defiance in the summer of 1940.
These pilots came from across the globe from New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, the
United States and from the occupied nations of eastern
Europe: Czechoslovakia and Poland. They came together to defend the last
staging point for a future liberation of Europe
The largest foreign contingent to fight in the Battle of Britain were the Polish.
Over five devastating weeks, Poland had been crushed by invaders from Germany
and the Soviet Union. Tens of thousands of Polish servicemen
escaped to France to continue the fight when Blitzkrieg swept through Western
Europe, pilots of the Polish air force relished the chance to fight the Germans
again, but despite their battle experience
the French were reluctant to let them fly.
In September, 1939 Poland was rapidly overrun by the German blitzkrieg. It was nothing really
to do with Poland's fighting ability; in fact the
Air Force was very good, they were very well trained and they took only the best
people. The problem was they were using obsolete
aircraft and they didn't really stand much of a
chance against the modern German fighters such as the
the bf-109 and bf-110 and generally the modern warfare style the Germans were
using just overrun the country very quickly
and it wouldn't be the last.
With the fall of France, thousands of
Polish airmen arrived in Britain. Tired of defeat they nicknamed it
'the island of last hope'. The British reaction to to the Poles was
at the time was reticent and cautious I suppose
They'd seen how quickly Poland been overrun and thought perhaps they weren't
really up to the task and the French had also thought this as
well when the men of them had fled to France to
continue the fight um but they'd soon found out how good the Poles actually
were and eventually the British would find it
too they actually had very experienced very skilled pilots
Polish pilots were soon flying with various RAF units
However as well as negative preconceptions the Polish had other
challenges to overcome to fly with fighter command.
They did have problems. Obviously the language barrier was obviously the main
one but it wasn't such just things like this
It was getting used to modern fighters with
retractable undercarriages that went up and down. The ones they'd had were
obsolete fighters. On top of that they had the
metric system they had to get used to reading in miles
an hour rather than kilometers an hour, and also getting used to things such as
you push forward to accelerate a british fighter where you pull back on the stick
to with the Polish aircraft so it's things
that they had to get used to.
But they persevered. Equipped with the
hurricanes and spitfires of the RAF the Polish had the chance to fight the
Germans on equal terms, and despite the challenges they faced
their skill in the air was unquestionable.
When the Polish airmen came to Britain there was a realisation
they might be worth putting them into their own squadrons. In this case 302 and 303
Now they are formed relatively late into
the battle, into August, but from the very start
they're incredibly successful, and in the case of 303 Squadron they are
the most successful allied squadron during the Battle of Britain.
With the Poles, the way they fight,
they get very close to the enemy before they open fire which is a dangerous
thing to do but it does ensure a kill more often than not. They're
driven by something very different from the British in the sense that Britain is
not occupied it may have been attacked but it's not the same as having your
country occupied by an enemy force so they're very very keen as were the
checks to bring the battle to the Germans.
In august, German attacks intensified. On the 24th Sergeant Anthony Giovatsky claimed five
German bombers during three sorties, becoming one of only three pilots to
achieve the status of Ace in a Day. The two Polish squadrons 302 and 303
entered service the same month. 302 squadron excelled in its defense of
London in September, accounting for nine aircraft on the 18th
of September alone. By the end of the battle it's score had
reached 18 plus a further 12 probable kills.
The contribution of 303 squadron has become legend,
one particular group captain decided to test one of the squadrons just to see
what their claims were they came back from one sort of quite shaken
saying oh yes they do in fact get what they say
they get. 303 Squadron has the highest kill count off any squadron during the
battle; their kill ratio is something in the
region of 14 to one. Their ace pilot is a Josef František
who ironically is not Pole he's a Czech but he prefers to fly
with the Poles and he becomes the highest
scoring pilot of the Battle of Britain with 17 confirmed kills
In total during the Battle of Britain, 146 polish pilots served with the RAF
across numerous units and the two polar squadrons they accounted for more than
200 kills but such a feat came at a cost. 29 polish pilots lost their lives during
the Battle of Britain including Josef František who was killed
in an accident that has never been explained in October 1940
Commander-in-chief of fighter command Hugh Dowding, who had questioned the
skill of the Polish pilots at the start of the battle
summarised their contribution in these words: had it not been for the
magnificent work of the Polish squadrons and their unsurpassed gallantry
I hesitate to say the outcome of the battle would have been the same.
The Polish pilots became instant celebrities; the American media saw them
as a sort of glamour boys the Battle of Britain
Yeah they were very well received here, them in the Czechs,
their contribution was well marked and their aggressiveness and taking the
fight to the Luftwaffe was was recognised by all i think
the Polish Air Force continued to serve with the RAF until the end of the war.
the Polish War Memorial at RAF Northalt lists the names of more than 1,900
personnel who lost their lives after the war.
Some airmen chose to remain in Britain and they continued to work for the RAF
mostly as flight instructors others returned to Poland
by then under Soviet occupation. Under the communist regime Polish pilots who
had fought in the west were barred from flying in the Polish
air force and many were imprisoned on trumped-up charges of espionage
The Polish pilots of the Battle of Britain would have to wait until 1953
and the death of Stalin before some of them were able to take to the skies again.
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