PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Gaining An R.A.F Pilots Brevet In WW II
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Old 7th Apr 2019, 22:38
  #12628 (permalink)  
Chugalug2
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: West Sussex
Age: 82
Posts: 4,764
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Honza17, any idea how your Dad got to France? I know that many Poles fled south to Romania and then by ship to Gib and thence France, but that was just after the Czechs. Did they make the same journey? I can't imagine it was via Germany!


As Brian 48nav says, any fleshing out of the detail would be much appreciated. No doubt much can be gleaned from his Log Book (types flown in Czechoslovakia, etc) but any details that he shared with you would add much to his story.


We always celebrate the Poles, Czechs, etc in the RAF in WWII, but as you highlight many of them fought in France before then continuing the fight from the UK. So more detail about that period if you can, where he was, what he flew, and where in France he embarked for the UK. A Pole on my Squadron had to cross the Pyrenees, was imprisoned by the Spanish, escaped and made it to Gibraltar. These were desperate times and only moral courage of the highest order could enable those such as your Dad to eventually find safe haven and fight on to avenge their homeland.

That he had to flee from there again is a measure of the tragedy that befell the countries of Eastern Europe. Yet he clearly had a fulfilling and eventful life. You must be very proud of him, and so will all here I'm sure when we know all that you do.

His was a very special generation, brought together by a combined determination to sweep the poisonous plague that was Nazism from the World, and came from its four corners to the RAF to do so. This thread is in their honour, and your Dad's story rightly joins those of the illustrious others.
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