For Your Freedom and Ours : The Kosciuszko Squadron - Forgotten Heroes of World War II - Hardcover

Olson, Lynne; Cloud, Stanley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0434008680 ISBN 13: 9780434008681

Publisher: William Heinemann, 2003

Synopsis

Trained by the Americans in the 1920s, the Polish fighter pilots fought through the defeat of their own country in 1939 and then alongside the French in the fall of France the following year. Defying the orders of the French government to surrender to the Germans, they made their varied ways to Britain, where, far more experienced than their British counterparts, they became the RAF's most successful aces. In the Battle of Britain, flying as 303 Squadron, they downed 126 German planes, more than three times as many as any other squadron in the world. Described by an American bomber pilot as "the best damn fighter squadron in the world", they became heroes to the British and idols to young women. According to Sir Archibald Sinclair, Britain's wartime air force minister, without them "our shortage of trained pilots would have made it impossible to defeat the German air force and so win the Battle". Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud tell the story of the Polish pilots, focusing on a small group of five of them, from Poland to France to Britain, from defeat to victory in the Battle of Britain, to their betrayal, by Britain and the Allies as the war came to an end.

About this title

About the Author:

Stanley W. Cloud and Lynne Olson are both journalists. They are authors of The Morrow Boys (a widely-praised book about early US radio journalists, understandably not published in the UK).

Review:

"An astonishing achievement! Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud give us a fascinating account of the extremely well documented heroic and daring struggle of a group of Polish military pilots and through it they present us a glimpse of the harrowing history of Poland and Europe during the Second World War." -- Ryszard Kapuscinski "A wonderful story, wonderfully told. Heroism and betrayal make for heady reading, and this book is long overdue." -- Norman Davies * The Sunday Times *

About this edition

• Publisher: William Heinemann
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0434008680
• ISBN 13: 9780434008681
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 512