Minister Sikorski otworzył wystawę w Muzeum RAF-u

Minister Spraw Zagranicznych Radosław Sikorski 14 września br. otworzył wystawę “Bracia broni: lotnicy polscy i czechosłowaccy w Bitwie o Anglię” (“Brothers in Arms: Airmen of Poland and Czechoslovakia in the Battle of Britain and Beyond”) w Muzeum Królewskich Powietrznych Sił Zbrojnych w Londynie.

-To była pierwsza zwycięska bitwa, która zatrzymała marsz hitleryzmu w Europie. 1/5 pilotów biorących w niej udział to obcokrajowcy, głównie Polacy, Czesi i Słowacy. Musimy też pamiętać, że po II wojnie światowej ci bohaterowie nie mogli wrócić do siebie i nie zostali odpowiednio docenieni” – powiedział Minister Sikorski w trakcie otwarcia wystawy.

Minister Radosław Sikorski był także gościem uroczystego bankietu w Muzeum RAF-u (“The Battle for Britain Banquet”) z udziałem głównodowodzącego RAF-u, Marszałka lotnictwa sir Stephena Daltona. Podczas bankietu zbierano fundusze na rzecz Muzeum Królewskich Powietrznych Sił Zbrojnych w Londynie. Goście mieli okazję obejrzeć również dwa filmy poświęcone udziałowi polskich lotników w Bitwie o Anglię. Multimedialna wystawa poświęcona jest wkładowi lotników polskich i czechosłowackich w Bitwę o Anglię. Podczas Bitwy o Anglię jedną piątą wszystkich pilotów Royal Air Force stanowili cudzoziemcy, z których najlepsi pochodzili z Polski i Czechosłowacji.

“Bracia broni: lotnicy polscy i czechosłowaccy w Bitwie o Anglię” jest projektem stworzonym przez muzeum w Londynie we współpracy z Polskim Instytutem Pamięci Narodowej oraz czeskim Instytutem Badania Reżimów Totalitarnych. W ramach wystawy zwiedzający będą mogli zobaczyć pamiątki osobiste, dokumenty, rysunki, archiwalne materiały zdjęciowe i filmowe, prace plastyczne dotyczące i poświęcone pilotom polskim i czechosłowackim, a także tablice poglądowe, opracowane przez polski Instytut Pamięci Narodowej. Specjalnym eksponatem będą pozostałości pierwszego zestrzelonego przez Dywizjon 303 samolotu niemieckiego.

Tekst przemówienia:

Sir John, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It’s a singular honour and pleasure to be here among the witnesses and artefacts of Britain’s finest hour. As you know better than anybody, the world was then poised on a knife’s edge. The fate of Britain, of the already enslaved nations, and as Winston Churchill put it, the cause of liberty, hung in the balance. The world depended on Britain, Britain depended on the RAF, the RAF depended on a few hundred aircraft and airmen. A fifth of them were foreign, Poles most numerous among them.

We know what happened, we also remember what had happened before what happened afterwards.

There are nagging might-have-beens: What if France had taken up our idea of an early preventive war on Germany? What if Poland had helped Czechoslovakia in ’38? What if my predecessor, foreign minister col. Józef Beck, had engaged in negotiation on the status of Gdańsk in ’39 and gained six months for war preparations? What if we had been told of the secret protocols of the Soviet-Nazi pact? What if France and Britain had not merely declared war, but had actually gone to war in 1939 on the denuded western front?

We shall never know. But what we do know is that the second world war actually started in the air. Even before the first shots were fired over Gdańsk, German planes crossed our border on their way to carpet bomb the small town of Wieluń. Just to see if a town could be obliterated in a couple of hours.

It could. 2000 people died.

World War II was different for us than for you. We recently commemorated 10th anniversary of 9/11 on which 3000 people died. We were losing 3000 people, on average, every day for the next 5 ½ years.

And it wasn’t the end. It’s nice to think that World War II was the struggle of good over evil. We remember it differently. The democracies defeated one genocidal tyrant, with the help of another. And we in the East of Europe were the killing fields. Killing fields of genocides, and of 80 % of German war losses.

And then we were liberated. Liberated in such a way that most of the soldiers who fought in allied armies could not go home. To use the title of a recent movie, there was still “a long walk” before them.

Political consequences of the war only ended for us in 1989, or even in 2004, when we finally joined the EU.

Of the few to whom so many of us owe so much, only a handful remain.

Let me recognize in particular

• col. Franciszek Kornicki, former commander of squadrons 308 & 317, chevalier of Virtuti Militari
• Jerzy Cynk, soldier of the Home Army, prisoner of Auschwitz
• col. Andrzej Jeziorski, of the 304 bomber squad
• wing commander, Bob Foster, of the 605 squadron, 7 kills
• wing commander, Thomas Neil, of the 249 squadron, 14 kills
• sq. leader Geoffrey Wellum of the 92nd & 65 squadron, at least 3 kills.

Today, Europe is whole and free. Poland and Britain are allies again. Our lads fight arm-in-arm in Afghanistan and elsewhere to entrench democracy in the wider world.

Poland is not just free and democratic, but increasingly prosperous and currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

Not a bad outcome. Which we couldn’t savour today if 71 years ago you had not dealt the Nazis their first defeat.

On behalf of Poland and all the former captive nations: thank you. What you did will echo in eternity. I’m very glad it is commemorated here, and that my compatriots will now have their due credit.

Let us all raise our glasses: To the Royal Air Force!