It is right and proper that we take time to remember those who lost their lives during the Evacuation of Dunkirk. However the 70th anniversary of that famous day of daring-do is just one date among many yet to come where our patriotic media will bang the drum for the servicemen who fought and died to keep the Jack boot out of Britain. Certainly the 2nd WW was the right war to fight; lest we forget ours was the moral high ground seven decades ago. But amidst the British back-slapping might we also spare a thought for the newest member amidst our nation’s workforce – the Poles? As the Nazis and the Soviets played tug-of-war with their Homeland – a staggering 22% of the Polish population died between 39-45 – those Polish servicemen who escaped performed with spectacular bravery for the allied forces, not least during the Battle of Britain.
Despite the bestiality of the occupying Nazis the Polish government in exile was never cowed – on the ground in their homeland the Poles harried and resisted and sapped Nazi morale. The Home Army (AK) destroyed one in eight of the German transports to the Eastern Front and even managed to smuggle a complete V2 rocket out of Poland for examination in Britain. Overall their contribution to the intelligence war was greater than that of any other nation.
And then there was the Warsaw uprising of August 1944 when the Poles rose up against the Nazis, fearful that if they did not, they would find themselves once again piggy-in-the-middle of a German/Soviet sandwich. The Nazis suppressed the uprising with unprecedented brutality. No help came from the outside and the AK lost 200 000 men. They were a broken fighting force by the autumn of 1944 and waiting in the wings was the Red Army. More than another other nation of the East our brave noble allies did not deserve what came next and to Britain’s great shame we did not even find a place for our Polish allies in the ‘45 victory parade in Whitehall.
The 2WW was the right war to fight. Let’s try and remember it in the right way.

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