Members of the Polish air force fought through the defeat of their own country in 1939 and then alongside the French until the fall of France the following year, when they made their varied ways to Britain. There, the Poles were among the Air Force's most successful aces. During the Battle of Britain, the pilots of the all-Polish Kosciuszko Squadron - 303 Squadron to the RAF - downed more German planes than any other squadron. According to Britain's wartime air force minister, without the Poles 'our shortage of trained pilots would have made it impossible to defeat the German air force and so win the Battle'. This gripping book tells the story of the Polish pilots, focusing on a small group of five of them, from defeat in Poland and France to victory in the Battle of Britain, from their idolisation by the public to the harrowing story of their betrayal, and Poland's, by Britain and the USA as the war came to its closing stages. This is an utterly fascinating story, heroic, inspiring and finally tragic, strikingly well-told.

For Your Freedom and Ours : The Kosciuszko Squadron - Forgotten Heroes of World War II

History

Lynne Olson

Military

Random House]

A Question of Honor is the gripping, little-known, and brilliantly told story of the scores of Polish fighter pilots who helped save England during the Battle of Britain and of their stunning betrayal by the United States and England at the end of World War II. Centering on five pilots of the renowned Kosciuszko Squadron, the authors show how the fliers, driven by their passionate desire to liberate their homeland, came to be counted among the most heroic and successful fighter pilots of World War II. Drawing on the Kosciuszko Squadron’s unofficial diary–filled with the fliers’ personal experiences in combat–and on letters, interviews, memoirs, histories, and photographs, the authors bring the men and battles of the squadron vividly to life. We follow the principal characters from their training before the war, through their hair-raising escape from Poland to France and then, after the fall of France, to Britain. We see how, first treated with disdain by the RAF, the Polish pilots played a crucial role during the Battle of Britain, where their daredevil skill in engaging German Messerschmitts in close and deadly combat while protecting the planes in their own groups soon made them legendary. And we learn what happened to them after the war, when their country was abandoned and handed over to the Soviet Union. A Question of Honor also gives us a revelatory history of Poland during World War II and of the many thousands in the Polish armed forces who fought with the Allies. It tells of the country’s unending struggle against both Hitler and Stalin, its long battle for independence, and the tragic collapse of that dream in the “peace” that followed. Powerful, moving, deeply involving, A Question of Honor is an important addition to the literature of World War II.

A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II

Stanley Cloud

Europe

KNOPF

Trained by the Americans in the 1920s, the Polish fighter pilots fought through the defeat of their own country in 1939 and then alongside the French in the fall of France the following year. Defying the orders of the French government to surrender to the Germans, they made their varied ways to Britain, where, far more experienced than their British counterparts, they became the RAF's most successful aces. In the Battle of Britain, flying as 303 Squadron, they downed 126 German planes, more than three times as many as any other squadron in the world. Described by an American bomber pilot as "the best damn fighter squadron in the world", they became heroes to the British and idols to young women. According to Sir Archibald Sinclair, Britain's wartime air force minister, without them "our shortage of trained pilots would have made it impossible to defeat the German air force and so win the Battle". Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud tell the story of the Polish pilots, focusing on a small group of five of them, from Poland to France to Britain, from defeat to victory in the Battle of Britain, to their betrayal, by Britain and the Allies as the war came to an end.

Heinemann

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Scribe

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Scribe Publications

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