Polish WW2 Ace dies

[Gadger 0]

Polish fighter pilot general Stanislaw Skalski died.

He was the best Polish pilot in the 2nd WW - shot down at least 22 German planes in Poland, France, England, North Africa and later over Western Europe.

He shot down the first German plane in the 2nd WW - a recon Henschel 126 on the 1st September 1939. And was the first Allied ace in the 2nd WW ( 5 German planes destroyed over Poland in 1939).

He was one of these pilots who saved the UK in 1940, one of these Polish veterans who fought in the legendary 'Kosciusko' 303 Fighter Squadron, so infamous that Luftwaffe pilots often were running away just when they noticed that they are 'these crazy Poles'.

One of the British High Commanders admited that 'without the Poles (2 squadrons !) I am afraid we would most likely lose this campaign'.

He commanded elite 'Skalski's Circus' made from Polish pilots made bored with lack of Luftwaffe to fight who volunteered to fight over Northern Africa in 1943.

One of these 'best fighter pilots on the damn sky' as one of their American allies expressed.

He was also one of these soldiers who decided to come back to Poland after the war only to spend some years in prison persecuted by the Communist regime.

Also he was lucky to see the independent Poland re-emerging and the real end of the 2nd WW in 1989-91.

One from the best Polish generation in the XXth century...

Of the few 2353 were British with a further 574 came from overseas.

http://www.raf.mod.uk/bob1940/roll.html

And here is a listing of Allied Aces from the Battle

http://math.fce.vutbr.cz/safarik/ACES/aces1/bofb.html

and a picture of the great man himself and some further info.

http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/skalski/skalski.htm

A terrible loss of a Polish & Allied hero.  

edit:- Can a mod please fix the topic title, it appears the board does not agree with Polish characters.

[theavonlady 2]

RIP

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

RIP

RIP

[ralphwiggum 6]

i salute thee, General Skalski.

[Winters 1]

Not many of these WW2 Vets left anymore

[Nemesis6 0]

Rest in peace Mr. Skalski.

By the way, Winters is right. The numbers of old veterans are slowly thinning out..... So soon it'll be up to their next of kind to tell the tale that their grandfather bored his kids with... so on, so on....

[billybob2002 0]

RIP

RIP

RIP

[bn880 5]

RIP

what a legacy

[ozanzac 0]

RIP

Quote[/b] ]By the way, Winters is right. The numbers of old veterans are slowly thinning out..... So soon it'll be up to their next of kind to tell the tale that their grandfather bored his kids with... so on, so on....

Too true...however, WWII veterans are relatively common compared to WWI...there's so few Australian veterans from WWI, that they could be counted on a single hand.