Ruislip councillor and Hillingdon Mayor Philip Corthorne was joined by the Mayors of London Borough of Ealing and of Hammersmith & Fulham as well as the Mayor of Newark on Saturday at the Polish Air Force Memorial service.
They each laid a wreath at the foot of the memorial, along with The Chief of the Decence Staff, The Chief of the Air Staff, the Inspector General of the Polish Air Force, representatives from France, the US, Czech Republic and others.
This was the 64th ceremony paying homage to fallen Polish airmen at the Polish Air Force Memorial in Ruislip, and was organised by The Polish Air Force Memorial Committee, the organisation that gave the guest speaker at our public meeting last year.
This year’s commemoration was particularly moving thanks to the presence of 100-year-old Marian Słomka, an RAF engineer.
From the programme
LOVE DEMANDS SACRIFICE – SACRIFICE DEMANDS REMEMBRANCE
The Polish Air Force Memorial is sacred ground – not because of soil or stone, but because of the memory it preserves, and the sacrifice we honour here.
We are here to commemorate heroes. Not mythical ones carved from legend, but real men and woman of flesh and blood, with hearts beating for a nation that, not for the first time in its history, had been torn apart during World War II.
We are here today to commemorate the Polish airmen and women, and all the sons and daughters of Poland and other nations who fought valiantly in the Battle of Britain and beyond. During and after the war, their names were once whispered over radio waves, or mentioned in Émigré books but are now immortalized in history. It is our duty to remember them for their sacrifice and memory, which will last only for as long as we remember them.
Pilot Officers Jan Zumbach and Miroslaw Feric
Why the Mayor of Newark?
During the war, several Polish bomber squadrons were based at nearby airfields such as RAF Newton and RAF Syerston. Due to this large Polish presence in the area, Newark became the final resting place for many Polish airmen and women who died during the war.
As a result, Newark Cemetery contains the largest Polish Air Force war cemetery in the United Kingdom, with over 390 graves. It is a site of immense historical importance and remembrance for the Anglo-Polish community. A large memorial cross, dedicated to fallen Polish airmen, was erected there in 1941 and was unveiled by the President of the Polish Republic-in-exile.
Given this deep and significant link, the Mayor of Newark is regularly invited to major Polish remembrance ceremonies across the UK as a representative of the town that serves as the guardian of this important piece of Polish and British history.
Guests to lay a wreath
National, Civic & Official Wreaths
- Ms Manju Malhi BEM DL
Representative Deputy Lieutenant for the London Borough of Hillingdon - HE Piotr Wilczek
Ambassador of the Republic of Poland accompanied by the Polish Defence Attaché Col. Rafał Nowak & Col. Mariusz Piotrowski - Cllr Philip Corthorne
The Worshipful Mayor of the London Borough of Hillingdon - Cllr Anthony Kelly
The Worshipful Mayor of the London Borough of Ealing - Cllr Senta Golder
The Worshipful Mayor of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham - Cllr Barbara Corrigan
The Worshipful Mayor of Newark - Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton
The Chief of the Defence Staff - Air Marshal Harvy Smyth
The Chief of the Air Staff - Maj. General Pilot dr. Ireneusz Nowak
Inspector General of the Polish Air Force - Brig. General Pilot dr. Krzysztof Cur
Rector Commandant Polish Air Force University Dęblin - Brig. General Vratislav Beran
Defence Attaché of the Czech Republic - Col. Michael Reown
Air Attaché United States of America - Col. Emmanuel Fimond
Air & Space Attaché of France - Group Captain Lee Wales
Station Commander, RAF Northolt - Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton
Patron Polish Air Force Memorial Committee - Hon Group Captain Cllr Richard Lewis
Royal Auxiliary Air Force - Mrs. Deborah Burns
Battle of Britain Fighter Association - Air Cdre Paul Thomas
Friends of the Battle of Britain Bunker - Tatiana Kaczmarska & Jarek Lasecki
Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego – Polish Scouting Association - Alicja Konirska
Federation of Poles in Great Britain
Squadron Wreaths
Laid by veterans or descendants of each Polish Squadron
Bomber Squadrons
- 300 Land of Mazovia – Michael Wier – son of F/Lt Tadeusz Wierzbowski
- 301 Land of Pomerania – Francesca Bell – daughter of Sgt Tadeusz Gałaj
- 304 Land of Silesia – Irena Maryniak – daughter of F/Lt Andrzej Jezierski
- 305 Land of Grtr Poland – Kathy Talbot – daughter of W/O Adam Barsb
- Special Duties Flight 1586 – Julian Polnik – grandson of F/Lt Jan Polnik
Fighter Squadrons
- 302 City of Poznań – Julian Kowalski – son of Wg Cdr Julian Kowalski
- 303 Kościuszko – Nina Bannerman & Sam Cordwell-Roberts – daughter & great grandson of W/O Henryk Bieniek
- 306 City of Toruń – Joe Pietrzak – grandson of Sgt Ldr Henryk Pietrzak
- 307 Lwów ‘Eagle Owls’ – Barbara Woroncow – daughter of F/O Aleksander Woroncow
- 308 City of Kraków – Joe Palej – grandson of F/O Bolesław Palej
- 309 Land of Czerwień – Michael Urban – son of F/Lt Mieczysław Urban
- 315 City of Dęblin – Monika Bayert – great niece Cpl. Stanisław Ołdziejewicz
- 316 City of Warszawa – Stefan Gąsiewicz – son of Gp Capt Aleksander Gąsiewicz
- 317 City of Wilno – Richard Kornicki – son of Sqn Ldr Franciszek Kornicki
- 318 City of Gdańsk – Alexandra Davies – granddaughter F/O Zdzisław Sierosławski
- Polish Fighting Team ‘Skalski’s Circus’ – Janina Dunnill-Malinowska – niece F/O Bronisław Malinowski
- Polish WAAFs – Joanna Kaliniecka-Williamson –daughter of S/O Alicja Kaliniecka
- Polish Apprentices RAF Halton – Marian Słonika – Aircraftman 1st Class
British Army Units
- 663 Sqd AAC – Cpt Matt. Weatherley, Lt Ryan Whitehead
Details from the event programme
In September of 1939, Poland was invaded by two brutal enemies, Germany and the Soviet Union. But while our cities burned, our spirit refused to be extinguished. Our soldiers, airmen, and sailors did not surrender. They crossed seas and borders, determined to continue the fight for liberty.
This year marks the 85th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Polish Air Force Academy Dęblin (The School of Eagles). 145 Polish pilots fought in the skies over Britain in 1940, alongside the Royal Air Force and others, helping to defend a country not their own, in a war that had robbed them of their homeland. Among the RAF’s foreign pilots, the Polish were the largest non-British group.
Many joined the famous No. 303 “Kościuszko” Squadron, which was based here at Northolt. Becoming operational only half way through the battle, it became the highest-scoring unit in the RAF during the Battle of Britain, destroying more enemy aircraft than any other squadron. They earned not only admiration but awe. Receiving not just Polish decorations.
But they were not alone. Other Polish squadrons, like No. 302 “Poznański” Squadron, flew with equal determination and skill. Together, Polish pilots brought not just numbers, but skill, experience and unmatched intensity and motivation.
They had seen Poland fall to Germany and their ally the Soviet Union. They had watched civilians bombed, friends and family executed, cities turned to ash. Now, they flew not only to stop the Luftwaffe, but for justice, for Poland.
As Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, the British commander noted:
“Had it not been for the magnificent work of the Polish squadrons and their unsurpassed gallantry, I hesitate to say that the outcome of the Battle of Britain would have been the same.”
Let those words never be forgotten.
As the war progressed, so the Polish Air Force’s reputation grew. As its reputation grew, so did its size and gradually more Polish Squadrons became operational. Poland eventually becoming the 4th largest air force in the world.
They flew with foreign wings, but Polish hearts.
And their reward? So often death in the sky, burial in foreign soil.
And after the war, not victory but exile that would last for 50 years. Yet they never complained, because they understood the true meaning of sacrifice. They understood what the Roman poet Horace meant when he wrote:
“Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.”
“It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”
Sweet, not because death is glorious, but because the cause was sacred.
Poland, for them, was not just a place. It was memory, it was language, family, faith, and culture. It was the lullabies their mothers sang, the scent of rye fields, the bells of Sunday mass, the sound of Chopin in a distant room. To defend that was worth everything.
Let us remember that approximately 2,000 Polish airmen and women would die during the Second World War.
They would fall in battle over Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the Atlantic. They would be murdered in German concentration camps and other places and in the Gulags of the Soviet empire, places like Auschwitz, Katyń etc should never be forgotten. Some would perish in training accidents, others would simply vanish, lost to time, and to war. When the war ended, the tragedy continued. There was no victorious homecoming. VE Day only brought victory to the more fortunate nations of Europe. The majority of East/Central Europe was given to the USSR and remained enslaved by the Soviets for the next 50 years.
Poland was “liberated”, only to be handed to another occupying regime. Some veterans returned to their motherland, only to face harassment, difficulties in getting work, furthering their studies, having to hide the heroic deeds for which they had previously been honoured. Many were imprisoned, tortured and even executed. Soviet repression of Poland continued for many years after the War.
The majority of the Polish Armed Forces in the West stayed as political exiles, carrying on the struggle for the independence of Poland, but now without arms. The friendship between the Polish Armed Forces and their British counterparts, especially the Royal Air Force, was not eroded by politics and endured throughout that period and carries on today. Poland had to wait until 1989 for its VE Day, when the Soviet occupation of Poland finally ended and until May 2004 for Poland to regain her rightful place in the heart of Europe, when she became part of the European Union. Throughout their 50 years of exile the Polish ‘Emigracja’ in the West and their Polish brothers and sisters in Poland, carried on the struggle for Polish Sovereignty and Independence. De facto, the whole nation always remained faithful to the motto of the Polish Air Force – “LOVE DEMANDS SACRIFICE”.
That sacrifice demands remembrance. It is now up to us to ensure that they receive it.
So many of our veterans lived the rest of their lives in exile, watching as history started to forget them – until now.
Let us never allow that to happen again.
Let us never forget that the freedom we enjoy – to speak, to vote, to love, to dream – was not free. It was paid for in flame and in faith.
Their sacrifice demands more than silence. It demands that we remember, that we honour, and that we live in a way worthy of their offering.
And so, I say again, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori – Yes, it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. However, it is even more noble to live for that country, to serve it with honour, to defend it with unity, and to remember those who gave everything.
To the Polish pilots of the Battle of Britain and countless other battles, to those who never saw Poland again, to those who soared into the skies like eagles, into legend from the cockpits of Hurricanes, Spitfires, Lancasters, we salute you, we thank you and perhaps most importantly, we promise never to forget you.
Comments are closed.