Battle of Britain

[hankrausch]

I was doing a job in London last week and had a day free so (of course) stopped by an airstrip there to check out the local GA scene. There was a small museum on the field and I ended up buying a book on the Battle of Britain--kind of a coffee table book, used, from the 70s. When I opened it up I found about 20 clippings from newspapers pasted to the covers--mostly obituaries of pilots, with the date of death which was all in the 70s. I think the owner was a Polish pilot who served in that battle as there was a clipping that had to do with the Polish premier visiting Britain and putting a wreath on the Polish pilots memorial.

I am intrigued about who the owner was, and was he a battle of Britain veteran--does anyone know of any web sites that have the dates of death of BoB pilots who survived and died in the late 70s? I think with that data I could kind of triangulate based on the obits and come up with who the owner might have been.

 

[Jimmy cooper]

Read " a question of honor" , a book written recently about the polish pilots who flew for the British during WW2 and how Britian turned their backs on them after the war was over, not even allowing them to be in the victory parade! Plus leaving Poland at the mercy of the Russians. It's a great read. These pilots were head and shoulders above the British during the battle of Britian as they had flown combat before. They were responsible for downing scores of German aircrft. The book names many of the pilots.

 

[hankrausch]

Many thanks!

 

[Jimmy cooper]

The British were afraid they would " offend" the Russians if they honored the polish pilots after the war. A typically stupid political decision made for all the wrong reasons. Just like today.

 

[hankrausch]

I just ordered that book. From what I read already it was quite a travesty of justice, funny how the ones we owe the most to we treat so shabbily.