Foreigners in BoB

great lads.

thanks for the update about the jamacian and palestian.

About Polish squadrons. There were four polish squadrons during BoB.

300 sqn. "Ziemi Mazowieckiej", code letters BH, bomber squadron, innitaliy flying Fairey Battle Mk I and from november 1940 - Wellingtons Mk IC.

301 sqn. "Ziemi Poznańskiej", code letters GR. Like Sqn. 300, it was flying Battles Mk I untill end of 1940, then switched to Wellingtons. It took heaviest loses during the war, to the point when it was disbanded in 1943, and then reformed as 1536 Special Flight.

302 sqn. "Poznański", code letters WX, fighter squadron. It was flying Hurricanes Mk I during BoB. It was partially reformed 3/III polish squadron and 2-nd french fighter squadron.

303 sqn. "Warszawski, im. Tadeusza Kościuszki", code letters RH, fighter squadron. Like 302 flying Hurricanes Mk I during the BoB. It's history goes back to the polish-soviet war in 1920, when the squadron was formed by american pilots in polish service. Officialy it scored 146 shot downs, placing it at 1st place among all fighter squadron fighting in BoB. The post-war checks gave 303 sqn. 44 sure shot downs, placing it at 4th place, after squadrons 603, 609, 48, 49.

In 1941 additional squadrons were formed, but for the BoB time those 4 were most important.

Beside those squadrons several polish pilots were flying in english squadrons. Most important ones are Stanisław Skalski and Witold Urbanowicz. During the whole battle 89 (some sources say 87) polish pilots were serving in the english-RAF squadrons, rest in polish ones.

Also polish pilot, sierzant (sergeant) Antoni Głowacki at 24 august shot down 5 german planes at one day - record that was not beaten untill the end of the war.

Best polish fighters of that time:

- sgt Józef František (Czech) – 17 sure i 1 probable (303 sqn)
- Fg Off Witold Urbanowicz – 15 sure i 1 probable (145, since 21 august - 303 sqn)
- Fg Off Zdzisław Henneberg – 8 sure i 1 probable (303 sqn)
- Plt Off Jan Zumbach – 8 sure i 1 probable (303 sqn)
- WO Antoni Głowacki – 6 sure i 1 probable (501 sqn)

Those are official scores.

BigZ; you are correct overall, with a few important insertions.

bigZ said:

Both France and Britain treated foreign pilots poorly and with suspicion intially.

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A major portion of this suspicion was based on the fact that these pilots came from nations that had already lost to the Germans. The beief of the day was "What did they really have to offer?" Language barriers had a lot to do with it as well. English was nowhere near the almost universal language it is today.

Almost all foreign pilots were put into training squadrons under British commanding officers.

bigZ said:

What also got the backs up of the British was the atempts by senior foreign officers to try and establish airforces independently the RAF from very early on.

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Vic

This is absolutely true. This was driven by the desire to have their own command structure, with their own officers. It is no different than the desire of "colonial" forces in WWI to operate under their own command rather that British command. The Canadians were under British command until Vimy Ridge, their first action under Candian command. In WWII, the Poles in succeeded in establishing a Polish Air Force within the RAF.

bigZ said:

The common perception today of the Polish airforce is the herioc efforts shown in the film the BOB. But it does not tell all. True Polish pilots were the sought after guests for a party during and immediately after the battle. But very early on High ranking Polish officers where seen in general to be anti semectic. Letters sent to newpapers in 45 /46 complain about these 'foreigners' and demand to know when they would be forceably sent back.

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Again, the perception is true. What complicates the understanding is that Poland had a government in exile in London that did not accept the right if Russia to Polish territory or Poland as agreed to between the big three at Teheran. Feeling abandoned by the British, the rift grew. There was tacit government support for anti-foreigner complaints as a result.

Another driver for the feeling in 1945/46 was that Britain was not recovering quickly after the war. Rationing continued for many years, and many goods were simply unavailable except on the black market. The common man felt that support of these "foreigners" was reducing his quality of life.

Here is an interesting book about polish pilots:
Poles in Defence of Britain: A Day-by-day Chronology of Polish Day and Night Fighter Pilot Operations - July 1940 - June 1941 (Paperback)
Amazon.co.uk: Poles in Defence of Britain: A Day-by-day Chronology of Polish Day and Night Fighter Pilot Operations - July 1940 - June 1941: Robert Gretzyngier: Books

There were still a lot of Polish aircrew and groundcrew, in the RAF at least up to 1970 when I left. The ground crew were mainly SNCOs, Chief Techs, Flight Sargeants or WOs and we had at least one ex Polish Flt Lt on our Shackletons who had been flying in the Polish Air Force in 1939 before escaping and joining the French and then the Brits... can't remember his name.

'Airmen in Exile' by Alan Brown is a worthwhile read on the subject.