[spidge]

Myth: The Polish Air Force was wiped out of existence during German invasion, and took no further part in WW II.


No way. While it indeed succumbed to German advantage in 1939, a large proportion of both ground personnel and aircrew were evacuated and interned in Romania and Hungary. With the help of Polish embassies and consulates, which provided false papers and bribe money, most of them were able to make their escape through the Mediterranean to France and England in time to take part in the defence of France and in the Battle of Britain.
The Polish Air Force in Great Britain, though organizationally and operationally within the RAF structure, was an independent air force, and many decisions (like sending Polish pilots away from the European theatre) had to be agreed on with the Polish command. Numerically, it was the fourth largest Allied air force, after the Soviet Union, the U.S. and Great Britain (of course, many times smaller than any of the three). Also, the equipment it used was, as that of the entire Polish Army in the west, leased by Great Britain to the Polish government. After the war, a bill for over 68 million pounds sterling, covering the equipment and operating costs of the Polish Air Force in Great Britain, was paid from the Polish gold reserves deposited in Canada. It's ironic that, cynically abandoned by her Western allies in Yalta after making a contribution of blood to the very survival of the Western democracies, Poland actually had to pay for the privilege. Still, from their standpoint, the Poles were fighting for their own country, hoping to return to a free Poland as her own independent armed forces.