'Hurricane' - The Poles recognised at last

[discopop]

There are a few factors that combined to the BoB victory, of course Hitlers tactics changed and the design progression of the Spitfire meant it could get to higher altitudes than the Hurricane so it became, the big fighter wings also greatly helped but the inability of the Me109 to carry drop tanks cost the Luftwaffe dearly as they couldn't protect their bombers hence they were open to the carnage that ensued.

The Poles also got stitched up in the Arnhem drops, proper airmen and soldiers and about time their heroics were recognised

 

[blueish swede]

Just got this to show the nationalities

Nation Number
Poland 141[1] or 145[2]
New Zealand 127[2] or 135[3]

Canada 112[2]

Czechoslovakia 84[4] or 88[2]

Belgium 28[2] or 30[4]

Australia 26[4] or 32[2]
South Africa 22[4] or 25[2]

France 13[2] or 14[4]

Ireland 10[2]

United States 9[2] or 11[4]

Southern Rhodesia 3[2] or 4[4]
Jamaica 1[2]

Barbados 1[2]

Newfoundland 1[2]

Northern Rhodesia 1[4]

Missing at least one Dutch bloke off that list

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_van_der_Stok

 

[Fernster]

I served in the British Army and one of the units I served at was 617 Tank Transporter Squadron RCT. This unit was made up of some Polish nationals and were awesome to work with.

 

[Barcon]

I never knew that.

Neither did I until recently tbh. 1949 I think they became a province.

 

[crazyg]

The position of the fuel tank gave the hurricane the hump-backed look as it was beneath the pilot's seat, the spitfire's was just in front of the pilot, therefore more vulnerable. The early dog-fights between me 109s and spits had the spit more agile (tighter turning circle) but that was countered by mes pilots using a few degrees of down-flap. Both the spitfire and me sacrificed function in order to achieve the most streamlined shape, ground-handling problems caused significant deaths for both as forward vision was non-existant and the undercarriage was narrow and prone to tipping. Like Concorde, the Spitfire shape came about by following the aerodynamic principles that were accepted at their moment of evolution, both were superb looking but had inbuilt problems that could not be cured without a complete re-design. Later versions of spitfires had bubble cockpits and the "pure" wing shape was cllpped for more speed, but by then range rather dog-fighting was a bigger factor and the mustang and mosquito were superior for that role. If one thing could be said to have "won the war" (impossible) it was the rolls-royce Merlin V12 28 litre power plant.

Agree. The Mustang was pretty average until they put the Merlin engine in.

 

[flook]

My favourite scene from the Battle of Britain is the one with the Polish trainee pilots disobeying orders and going into combat when they spot a Luftwaffe formation whilst on a training flight...

''Stop that Polish chatter and steer TWO THREE ZERO''

''Repeat please... Repeat please... Repeat please''

Best line "Silence in Polish"

 

[SiMCFC]

Fearless and hard as nails, glad that they may finally publically be shown for how important they were for us during WW2.

 

[happy daze]

If you ever visit Kent or perhaps are taking the ferry from Dover or the chunnel and have time on your hands the Battle of Britain memorial which is on the cliff top at Capel Le Ferne between Folkestone and Dover is a good place to visit.
There is a wall with the name of all the aircrew who served in the BOB not just those who died.
https://www.battleofbritainmemorial.org/

 

[Deleted member 77198]

I am of Polish descent and I’ll tell my Grandad about this.

Good to be getting recognition, just need some more recognition for the Slavs that were exterminated in the Nazi concentration camps (as do Romani gypsies) - 5 million Slavic people were killed in the camps (just under 3 million were Polish).

About 35 million Salvs were killed in WW2 in total.


The Polish were also our allies when we were part of the North Sea Empire with Denmark, Norway and part of Sweden.

 

[stonerblue]

When i was a kid we had a lovely bloke called Joe live next door too us. Really nice gentle man with a wooden leg. He didn't speak much English but he told us he was a pilot in the war and that's how he lost his leg.