It took 63 years, since the Battle of Britain in 1940, to remind the readers of English-speaking countries (such as the United States, Canada and Australia) that scores of brave and daredevil Polish fighter pilots helped save England during the most critical period of her struggle for survival against the Nazi invaders. It also took over 60 years to openly tell the truth of the "stunning betrayal" of many thousands of these young and self-sacrificing men by the United States and England at the end of World War II, and for decades after that.

A couple of American journalists and authors, Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud, known for their best-selling book The Murrow Boys, wrote a book, which scored an amazing success in the English-speaking countries. A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II is not just one of those, sometimes dull, history books. It's a vivid, brilliantly told story of the lives of five former fighter pilots of the famous "303 Squadron" (Kosciuszko Squadron) of the Royal Air Force (RAF), who had escaped from Hitler-invaded Poland and through France reached Britain to become her heroic defenders. Their names are: Miroslaw Feric, Witold Lokuciewski, Zdzislaw Krasnodebski, Jan Zumbach and Witold Urbanowicz. The book is based on many interviews, memoirs, histories and photographs and also on a collective, unofficial diary of the squadron members - "filled with the fliers' personal experiences in combat." Yet, the personal history of its heroes is not the only subject of the book, which also gives a "revelatory history of Poland during World War II". Not many people in the West know that the Polish squadrons constituted 20% of the total RAF's manpower, and that hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers fought with the Allies, both on the Western fronts as well as in occupied Poland and on the Eastern fronts, with the Russians (their foes but also their allies against Nazi Germany). Poles had to struggle for their own survival both against the Nazis and the Soviets, against Hitler and Stalin, and their long and bitter fight for full independence of their homeland lasted until 1989. Only the final collapse of the Soviet-imposed communist system allowed the Polish Republic to become a free, sovereign state - then a member of NATO (1999) and a member of the European Union (on May 1, 2004).

But during World War II (1939 - 1945) and after the victory of the Allies over Hitler's Germany (1945), Polish citizens were victims of Nazi aggression (September 1, 1939), of the Soviet "stabbing in the back" invasion (September 17, 1939), of the Holocaust against the Jews and the ethnic extermination policy of the Third German Reich against the Polish population. They were also victimized by the policy of massive persecution, murder (the Katyn Massacre), uprooting and exiling to forced labor camps pursued by Stalinist Soviet Union, of the lost uprisings in the Warsaw Ghetto (1943) and the Warsaw Rebellion (1944) as well as of the expulsion of the Polish population by the Soviets from the eastern territories of the pre-war Poland and - finally - of the civil war in a "liberated" Poland, waged by the Soviets and the Polish communists against the patriotic and democratic opposition (1945 - 1948).

At this point we come back to the history of the Polish fliers in England. They were lucky enough to escape from Nazi-occupied Poland and make their way to England, where they could fight the Germans using very effective methods, learned in the Polish Air Force. As Laurie Edwards writes in a review for CultureDosenet: "the Kosciuszko Squadron made it to England and offered their services. One and all, they served with distinction... and were blown off when the War was over. Poland was swallowed up by the Soviet Union and remained a Soviet satellite until the Solidarity movement began making noise in the 80s". The history of the 303 Squadron of the RAF - the Kosciuszko Squadron - goes back to the Polish-Bolschevik Russia war of 1919-1920, when an American pilot, Merian Cooper, organized a Polish-American squadron in Poland, named after Tadeusz Kosciuszko - the Polish-American hero. Merian Cooper, a Southener, was a grandson of an American officer who supported Pulaski, when he was dying on a ship near Savannah. (By the way, a Polish son of Merian Cooper - Maciej Slomczynski - was later a popular writer in post-war Poland and the best translator of James Joyce's books). So, the Polish-American military tradition became embodied in the performance of the young fighter-pilots of "303", who defended the English skies in the Battle of Britain in 1940 and flew many dangerous missions against Hitler's Germany later on. Some of these pilots lost their lives, and many more were injured or disabled.

For their utmost sacrifice for Britain, they should have been treated like true British heroes and taken care of after the war ended. But they had to face "abandonment and tragedy". The book's title refers to "Winston Churchill's vow that Poland's allies would honor their commitment to restoring the country's independence; it was a vow that evaporated at war's end", as a review of the book in Newsweek International sums up. The Polish fliers and thousands of other Polish soldiers in Britain were even denied participation in the Victory Parade in London, in 1946. Shame on Britain! Olson and Cloud wrote a book about the true history, hiding nothing that had been "a grim tale of political treachery and backstabbing" (The Times of London), done to Poland by her best allies: Great Britain and the United States of America. And Sir John Keegan wrote in a review: "The Polish airmen who escaped their savaged country in 1939 made a major contribution to the Royal Air Force's victory in the Battle of Britain in 1940, the 303 Squadron, which they formed, was the most successful of all RAF units in shooting down German aircraft attempting to bomb Britain into surrender. Their subsequent treatment by the British government, including its refusal to let the survivors march in the Victory Parade of 1946 in craven deference to Stalin, was one of the most shameful episodes of the Cold War."

A reader from Woodstock, Vermont, USA, presents the behavior of the then American and British governments: "The authors tell the shameful story of how President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill sold out the brave Polish fighters to appease Stalin and the Soviet Union." Well, it had happened and the consequences of the secret Anglo-American deals with the Soviet dictator, made in Tehran and in Yalta, were felt by Poland and by other "captive nations" of Europe until the final fall of Soviet communism in 1991.

To my eyes, the greatest value of this book is that it was written not by Polish authors (like Arkady Fiedler or Adam Zamoyski, who also wrote about the Polish fliers and the 303 Squadron) but by popular American journalists who gave to "A Question of Honor" a specific stamp of impartiality. Two American readers of the book, both of them ethnic Poles, summarized the importance of the message, transmitted by Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud:

Mark Kolakowski, Fair Haven, NJ, USA, writes: "Standard histories of World War II generally minimize, distort or simply ignore Poland's role in defeating Hitler. This book performs an invaluable service to the truth." And Peter Pienkowski from Ann Arbor, MI, echoes: "This book will shock and astound anyone who reads it, and will force you to reflect upon the mishaps of history that are still clouded in ignorance and misinformation."

True, "A Question of Honor" remains a question of honor, in 2004 - 64 years after the Battle of Britain. We, Polish people, expect that our present alliance with Britain, the United States and other nations of Europe will last, and that never again will the Victory Parade (if any) be repeated without the Poles. So help us God. And - by the way - the Polish version of the book is to appear only in fall 2004. Why so late? The Poles must still learn how to publish books of importance to them. Well, better late than never.

About the book:  http://www.questionofhonor.com/index1.htm

Reviews:  http://www.culturedose.net/review.php?rid=10005254

Catalogue:  http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/catalog/results2.pperl?authorid=45218

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375411976/102-0253464- 7563364