During WWII, the RAF had to rely on those members of the armed forces of nations who escaped the German invasions of their homeland. One of the largest contingents of pilots and crews came from Poland as there were ample opportunities for these men to escape that may not have been available for those of other nations.

However, the British at the time were not about to allow foreign nations to have a military presence on their soil. However, they did allow for units of different nationalities to be incorporated into the RAF. So it was with the Poles, Dutch, Belgians, French Norwegians and others to help the fight against Hitler. A major hurdle is that, unlike today, English was not a language that was spoken by the citizens of these other nations and so there was a pretty steep learning curve for many pilots.

Though initially being used to man bomber squadrons where there was little radio traffic between planes and ground, it was soon realized that what was needed were fighter pilots. Squadrons were formed on Hurricanes at first and near the end of the Battle of Britain, Polish squadrons eventually got Spitfires. By the summer of 1941, there were seven Polish squadrons, most of them flying Spitfire Vs. Eventually these units moved on to later variants, mostly Spitfire IXs.

These squadrons flew a variety of missions over Europe and one small detachment was sent to the Mediterranean and operated with 145 Squadron. Polish pilots were quite successful and while this book concentrates on those pilots who flew for the Polish squadrons, several were also operating with other units. Literally dozens of pilots were able to reach ace status, some of them being very good at the job.

This book is their story. Starting before the war with a brief look at the PAF during that time and during the German invasion. Then on to those who flew for France and finally the days of mid-1940 when Polish pilots were finally allowed to fly with Fighter Command. We are taken through some of the more interesting engagements such as the RAF's first encounter with the FW-190, which was erroneously written off as an underperforming plane, to the detriment of many RAF pilots. Filled with period photos of pilots and planes as well as the usual pages of full color profiles one expects from this series, this one fits right in with others in the series. Well written and interesting reading, it is a great reference as well and I book I can easily recommend to you.

June 2015

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