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Post by leslie on Dec 27, 2005 10:22:48 GMT -7
I have just finished reading 'First Light' by Geoffrey Wellum, published by Penguin Books, 2003. This is an autobiography but it reads like a novel. It is the story of a young man who left school at 17.5y before WWII, was accepted for pilot training, eventually flew in the B of B and beyond. His accounts of his sorties are so lifelike and his stories about the people he meets are so vivid and interesting, that it doesn't matter whether or not you are interested in flying - this is a book to read. I just couldn't put it down. As the cover of the book says 'Reading it, you feel you are in the Spitfire with him, at 20,000 feet, chased by a German Heinkel with your ammunition gone'. Probably the finest, most open and emotional of the finest of WWII memoirs. Leslie
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piwo
Citizen of the World
Co Słychać?
Posts: 1,189
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Post by piwo on Dec 27, 2005 10:31:16 GMT -7
Leslie, have you read "A Question of Honor. The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II by Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud? If not, it is an account of the Battle of Britain following a group of Polish pilots flying for the RAF, and were estimated for accounting for over 20% or more of German losses in that battle.
I shall look for the book you reference: I'm always looking for a factual war book written with some style!
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Post by leslie on Dec 27, 2005 11:38:44 GMT -7
Piwo Thanks for the reference - it sounds one of my types of books - I've gone completely off fiction and at the moment am a history buff. SzczĚśliwy Nowy Rok Leslie
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nancy
European
Posts: 2,144
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Post by nancy on Dec 27, 2005 16:24:47 GMT -7
Last year I read a memoir called "Polish Spirit" by Wladyslaw Wojcik. He was captured by the soviets shortly after the invasion of Poland and was shipped to Siberia for 2 years. He eventually found his way to England and the Polish Airforce. He has told his story simply but very well and I would recommend it for an evening's thought-provoking reading. Take a look at this website, Graham, the author's son-in-law, offers a free sample chapter and more info: www.grahamsanders.com/polishspirit1.htm
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Post by bescheid on Dec 27, 2005 18:01:10 GMT -7
Leslie
Some years back, as a young man, I had read many stories written by some German pilots of your pilots. They related some very heroic episodes, this indeed of the British boys. You guys had (have) some very brave and forward guys on your Island!
Also of the Spitfire aircraft! They wrote of the short comings of the carburetter system versus the fuel injected systems of the 109 versus dive, loop and climb performance.
It would seem, that your Island creates some very formable warriors!
Charles
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piwo
Citizen of the World
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Post by piwo on Dec 27, 2005 18:26:38 GMT -7
Piwo Thanks for the reference - it sounds one of my types of books - I've gone completely off fiction and at the moment am a history buff. SzczĚśliwy Nowy Rok Leslie Your quite welcome. We both have a new book project !! At least 9,000 of which were Polish flyers, and 200,000 were Polish soldiers!
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Post by bescheid on Dec 27, 2005 18:45:39 GMT -7
Piwo
Hmm, yes, there were some excellent Polish pilots with the English squadrons..
Were not some of those Squadrons made up entirely of Polish Pilots? I thought I remember some thing about that, but, not for sure at the moment.
Another thought also, were there not also some Polish miltary units with the Britishers when the invasion was began?
Charles
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piwo
Citizen of the World
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Post by piwo on Dec 27, 2005 21:50:12 GMT -7
Piwo Hmm, yes, there were some excellent Polish pilots with the English squadrons.. Were not some of those Squadrons made up entirely of Polish Pilots? I thought I remember some thing about that, but, not for sure at the moment. Another thought also, were there not also some Polish military units with the Britishers when the invasion was began? Charles Yes, there were entire squadrons that were only Polish pilots. At the outset of WWll, the Poles resisted the Germans for a time. But when Russia piled on and attacked from the east two weeks later, they were doomed. The highest ranking military officer, Sikorsky, ordered all Polish troops out of the country: admonishing them to take all the equipment they could out of the country, and fight from any location and under any flag to save Poland. Since Britain was the only participant in the war at the time (they entered the war because of a treaty they had with Poland), the bulk of fighters ended up in Britain. Over 9,000 pilots, and at the end of the war, over 200,000 Poles were wearing British uniforms. Poland was the 4th largest ally in terms of native born sons fighting for the allies in WWll. If you saw the post I made in the "Who do you fight first: Germans or Russians" thread, one of the pictures I posted was of a plaque honoring the 1,000's from the area taken to Siberia by Stalin. In the pivotal battle in in Italy, it was survivors of those camps, liberated by Anders, who defeated the Germans at Monte Casino. Freed from the Russian gulags, trained for 1 year, it was the Polish forces wearing British uniforms that defeated the German forces there. It's not that difficult for me to see the conflict here. Germans were the overt aggressor, yet it was the Russians who truly betrayed Poland, and executed thousands of Allied officers in the Katyn Forest two years after the start of the war. The book I referenced refers to the pilots: and yes, they were really good...
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Yanc
Full Pole
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Post by Yanc on Dec 28, 2005 1:34:55 GMT -7
Charles
Here is a short list of polish squadrons formed in UK:
300 Dywizjon Bombowy ("Ziemi Mazowieckiej") 301 Dywizjon Bombowy ("Ziemi Pomorskiej") 302 Dywizjon Myœliwski ("Poznañski") 303 Dywizjon Myœliwski ("Warszawski im. Tadeusza Koœciuszki") 304 Dywizjon Bombowy ("Ziemi Œl¹skiej im. Ks. Józefa Poniatowskiego") 305 Dywizjon Bombowy ("Ziemi Wielkopolskiej im. Marsza³ka Józefa Pi³sudskiego") 306 Dywizjon Myœliwski ("Toruñski") 307 Dywizjon Myœliwski Nocny ("Lwowskich Puchaczy") 308 Dywizjon Myœliwski ("Krakowski") 309 Dywizjon Wspó³pracy ("Ziemi Czerwieñskiej") 315 Dywizjon Myœliwski ("Dêbliñski") 316 Dywizjon Myœliwski ("Warszawski") 317 Dywizjon Myœliwski ("Wileñski") 318 Dywizjon Myœliwsko-Rozpoznawczy ("Gdañski") 663 Dywizjon Samolotów Artylerii Polski Zespó³ Myœliwski (Polish Fighting Team) - also known as Skalski's Circus
Legend: Bombowy - Bomber Squadron Mysliwski - Fighter Squadron 663 DSA - 663 Forward Artillery Spotter Squadron
Many pilots was also assigned to other british squadrons, and to different auxiliary formations.
According to latest data polish fighters destroyed 769 enemy planes, probably destroyed 177 and damaged 252.
The 303 Sq. alone destroyed 297 enemy planes in total.
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Post by hollister on Dec 28, 2005 5:56:13 GMT -7
Leslie, have you read " A Question of Honor. The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II by Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud? If not, it is an account of the Battle of Britain following a group of Polish pilots flying for the RAF, and were estimated for accounting for over 20% or more of German losses in that battle. I shall look for the book you reference: I'm always looking for a factual war book written with some style! Leslie, This book was published in the UK as "For Your Freedom and Ours." A better tittle for the book in my opinion.
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Post by hollister on Dec 28, 2005 6:08:50 GMT -7
Some more suggestions - in no particular order .....
"The Brief Sun" by Robert Ambrose (novel based in history) "An Army in Exile" by W. Anders (the history of the book mentioned above) "Monte Cassino" by Matthew Parker "Death in the Forest: The Story of the Katyn Forest Massacre" by JK Zawodny "The Black Devil's March - A Doomed Odyssey: The 1st Armored Polish Division 1939-45) by Evan McGilvray (about Gen. Stanislaw Micek's Division) "Monument of Struggle & Glory - Passerby, Tell Poland: Narvik, Tobruk, Monte Cassino - Falaise: by Krzystof Filipow & Zbigniew Wawer
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Post by leslie on Dec 28, 2005 7:50:39 GMT -7
Chris Many thanks for the suggestions - I am ordering 'For Your Freedom or Ours' and 'Death in the Forest'. What is the subject of 'The Brief Sun'? When you say that 'An Army in Exile' which book are you referring it to as a "history of the book mentioned above"?. I really shouldn't get any more as at the moement I have more books than I can read in a long time!!! But I love books. Leslie
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Post by hollister on Dec 28, 2005 8:11:16 GMT -7
Leslie, The Brief Sun is a semi fictionalized account of Gen Anders march from Russia to Africa. The Anders book gives the history of the march and the Brief Sun gives the story.
From the book description "Book Description Andrzej was only sixteen when he was deported from his home in eastern Poland and sent to a Siberian labor camp during World War II. The Soviets planned to work him to death, but all that changed when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union. Stalin was stunned and reluctantly agreed to the formation of a Polish army in exile. Andrzej had only one chance for survival: travel thousands of miles through the Siberian wastelands to find this new army, known as Anders' Army. Suppressed during the Cold War by both the West and the Soviet Union, The Brief Sun is the true story of men who left labor camps half-starved, and trained with rags on their feet and wooden guns on their shoulders to win back their homeland. They developed into what future British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan referred to as one of the greatest fighting units in World War II, winning battle after battle against Germany’s finest soldiers and opening up the road to Rome for the Allies. An undefeated army in exile, they were betrayed when within reach of their homeland.
Harold Macmillan compared the story of Anders and his men to the march of the Greeks under Xenophon. "Alas, though the Greeks at last saw the sea, which meant for them the final stage in the journey," wrote Macmillan, "this Polish force, starting from the prison camps of Eastern Europe, traversed Asia, Africa, and Western Europe, only to find, at the end of so much heroism, disillusion, and despair."
From struggles to survive in Siberian labor camps to triumphs on the battlefields of Italy, The Brief Sun is an extraordinary story of courage, heroism, and in the end: betrayal."
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nancy
European
Posts: 2,144
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Post by nancy on Dec 28, 2005 8:17:59 GMT -7
I enjoyed "The Thousand Hour Day" by W.S. Kuniczak - a novel that covers the last 2 weeks before WW2 and the first 6 weeks after Hitler invaded. I have not read the others in his series - has anyone read them?
Also : has anyone read any of these books? They all sound good.
When God Looked the Other Way : An Odyssey of War, Exile, and Redemption by Wesley Adamczyk
An Army in Exile: The Story of the Second Polish Corps (Allied Forces Series) by Wladyslaw Anders
Without Vodka : Adventures in Wartime Russia by Aleksander Topolski
A Secret Life: The Polish Officer, His Covert Mission, and the Price He Paid to Save His Country by Benjamin Weiser
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Post by hollister on Dec 28, 2005 8:30:13 GMT -7
Nancy, I have read When God Looked the Other Way - it will tear your heart out! The narrator is a young boy attempting g to make sense out of the MANY moves his family was forced to make and the loss of several family members along the way
An Army in Exile (mentioned above) A super read - It is a military history and one that is best read after you have a bit of Polish history behind you. I guess because of my connection (grin) here - It helped me to begin to understand the honor of these Polish soldiers I have been so fortunate to know. It also makes you feel very sad that "we" (the US) turned our back on them. Soon after the Poles landed here in Tampa one of them mentioned to Wayne that because of WWII - if they said they would stand with us he could be assured that they will stand. I very sobering thought.
A Secret Life - I started it and then life intervened and I haven't picked it up again (thanks for the kick start) Wayne met Kuklinski right before he died here in Tampa.
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