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(Washington Post) Hero Famous Polish pilot dies. Tried to defend Warsaw, Paris and London against the Nazis. Third time was the charm   (washingtonpost.com) divider line 70
More: Hero, Battle of Britain, Nazis, Warsaw, military medals, Catholic Mass, Poland, airmen, U.S. Embassy  
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4924 clicks; posted to Main » on 01 Dec 2011 at 10:31 AM   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»   |    Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends! shirt it!



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2011-12-01 09:37:41 AM
He was sent on a mission to blow a German tank and came back with muffler burns on his lips.
 
2011-12-01 10:34:14 AM
The guys in the submarine with screen doors did not fare so well.
 
2011-12-01 10:36:00 AM
The Poles were @#%!& by Britain. Oh, the Brits accepted their services, but as soon as the war was over, they deported 'em back to Poland, to the Soviet embrace. :-P
 
2011-12-01 10:36:06 AM
How many French pilots did he shoot down?
 
2011-12-01 10:36:58 AM
Atomic Jonb: How many French pilots did he shoot down?

Wouldn't the French pilots have to take off first?
 
ZAZ [TotalFark]
2011-12-01 10:39:57 AM
He died in Canada. How many Polish soldiers-in-exile went back to Poland between 1945 and 1990, and how many after the fall of Communism?
 
2011-12-01 10:39:57 AM
Harv72b: Atomic Jonb: How many French pilots did he shoot down?

Wouldn't the French pilots have to take off first?


Which is hard to do flying in reverse
 
2011-12-01 10:40:40 AM
FTFA Sawicz was among the 145 Polish pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain, 31 of which died in action.

I didn't realize Polish pilots were objects. I would have given them the old "whom" treatment, since they're people.
 
2011-12-01 10:41:06 AM
I never thought I could shoot down a German plane. But last year, I proved myself wrong.
 
2011-12-01 10:41:44 AM
stevarooni: The Poles were @#%!& by Britain. Oh, the Brits accepted their services, but as soon as the war was over, they deported 'em back to Poland, to the Soviet embrace. :-P

Not this guy:

He was demobilized in January 1947[2] with the rank of major. He chose not to return to Poland, where the new communist government was hostile towards those who had served in the Polish Armed Forces in the West.[1][4] In 1957 he emigrated to Canada, where he worked in the air industry,[2] living in Montreal and Etobicoke.[7]
(new window)

The Wikipedia entry makes it sound like return was voluntary. Most probably wanted to go home.
 
2011-12-01 10:41:46 AM
ZAZ: He died in Canada. How many Polish soldiers-in-exile went back to Poland between 1945 and 1990, and how many after the fall of Communism?

Most of 'em were deported back to Poland, by Britain.
 
2011-12-01 10:43:09 AM
Poland suffered the highest ratio of losses to population of any country in Europe and yet their suffering is largely forgotten.

EARLY PRISONERS AT AUSCHWITZ WERE MOSTLY POLES

In the early years, most prisoners at Auschwitz were gentile Poles, not Jews. As historian Martin Gilbert pointed out, of the first 611 people who died at Auschwitz, 591 were gentile Poles and 20 were Jews.


Link (new window)
 
2011-12-01 10:46:04 AM
mc6809e: Poland suffered the highest ratio of losses to population of any country in Europe and yet their suffering is largely forgotten.

EARLY PRISONERS AT AUSCHWITZ WERE MOSTLY POLES

In the early years, most prisoners at Auschwitz were gentile Poles, not Jews. As historian Martin Gilbert pointed out, of the first 611 people who died at Auschwitz, 591 were gentile Poles and 20 were Jews.


Link (new window)


Why are you trying to minimize the victimization of the Jews?
 
2011-12-01 10:46:29 AM
PhiloeBedoe, culebra, Atomic Jonb, Harv72b, et al.

Really ?!? you think this is worth Polish jokes ? really ?

This may be Fark, but you are still a bunch of idiots. This guy and many like him were fighting his country's enemies while your forefathers were doing what exactly ?
 
2011-12-01 10:47:38 AM
capt.hollister: PhiloeBedoe, culebra, Atomic Jonb, Harv72b, et al.

Really ?!? you think this is worth Polish jokes ? really ?

This may be Fark, but you are still a bunch of idiots. This guy and many like him were fighting his country's enemies while your forefathers were doing what exactly ?


Selling them screen doors and rear view mirrors?
 
2011-12-01 10:54:45 AM
capt.hollister: PhiloeBedoe, culebra, Atomic Jonb, Harv72b, et al.

Really ?!? you think this is worth Polish jokes ? really ?

This may be Fark, but you are still a bunch of idiots. This guy and many like him were fighting his country's enemies while your forefathers were doing what exactly ?


I made a French joke. You can tell the difference by the usage of "French" instead of "Polish".

/Unless you're Polish.
 
2011-12-01 10:57:21 AM
stevarooni: ZAZ: He died in Canada. How many Polish soldiers-in-exile went back to Poland between 1945 and 1990, and how many after the fall of Communism?

Most of 'em were deported back to Poland, by Britain.


Citation please.
 
2011-12-01 10:57:41 AM
AverageAmericanGuy: mc6809e: Poland suffered the highest ratio of losses to population of any country in Europe and yet their suffering is largely forgotten.

EARLY PRISONERS AT AUSCHWITZ WERE MOSTLY POLES

In the early years, most prisoners at Auschwitz were gentile Poles, not Jews. As historian Martin Gilbert pointed out, of the first 611 people who died at Auschwitz, 591 were gentile Poles and 20 were Jews.


Link (new window)

Why are you trying to minimize the victimization of the Jews?


I'm not. I'm trying to emphasize the victimization of gentile Poles. Their suffering is largely forgotten.
 
2011-12-01 10:58:17 AM
capt.hollister: PhiloeBedoe, culebra, Atomic Jonb, Harv72b, et al.

Really ?!? you think this is worth Polish jokes ? really ?

This may be Fark, but you are still a bunch of idiots. This guy and many like him were fighting his country's enemies while your forefathers were doing what exactly ?


You sound Polish.
 
2011-12-01 10:58:27 AM
I like how everybody sugarcoats the history of pre-war poland and pretends that it was not itself a military dictatorship. sure, not nearly as bad as the big neighbors on either side, but they did their own bit of oppression (of Ukrainians, for example). Poles suffering forgotten? You must be joking. Behind the joos they are widely seen very sympathetically, again, given that they were themselves a military dictatorship.

but, as idiotic humans prove over and over and over again from poland to vietnam to the patriot act, they care more about the collective delusion of "national identity" than actual ideals.
 
2011-12-01 10:59:12 AM
stevarooni: ZAZ: He died in Canada. How many Polish soldiers-in-exile went back to Poland between 1945 and 1990, and how many after the fall of Communism?

Most of 'em were deported back to Poland, by Britain.


Eh, you don't know what you're talking about.
 
2011-12-01 10:59:26 AM
You'd turn it off when I was halfway across: stevarooni: ZAZ: He died in Canada. How many Polish soldiers-in-exile went back to Poland between 1945 and 1990, and how many after the fall of Communism?

Most of 'em were deported back to Poland, by Britain.

Citation please.


3.bp.blogspot.com
 
2011-12-01 11:00:02 AM
AverageAmericanGuy: You'd turn it off when I was halfway across: stevarooni: ZAZ: He died in Canada. How many Polish soldiers-in-exile went back to Poland between 1945 and 1990, and how many after the fall of Communism?

Most of 'em were deported back to Poland, by Britain.

Citation please.

[3.bp.blogspot.com image 432x304]


Win.
 
2011-12-01 11:00:46 AM
Harv72b: capt.hollister: PhiloeBedoe, culebra, Atomic Jonb, Harv72b, et al.

Really ?!? you think this is worth Polish jokes ? really ?

This may be Fark, but you are still a bunch of idiots. This guy and many like him were fighting his country's enemies while your forefathers were doing what exactly ?

I made a French joke. You can tell the difference by the usage of "French" instead of "Polish".

/Unless you're Polish.


True.

Also, your French joke was as idiotic and ignorant as the Polish jokes.

/not even close to being Polish or French
 
2011-12-01 11:00:57 AM
mc6809e: Poland suffered the highest ratio of losses to population of any country in Europe and yet their suffering is largely forgotten.

EARLY PRISONERS AT AUSCHWITZ WERE MOSTLY POLES

In the early years, most prisoners at Auschwitz were gentile Poles, not Jews. As historian Martin Gilbert pointed out, of the first 611 people who died at Auschwitz, 591 were gentile Poles and 20 were Jews.


Link (new window)


So there were 30 million Poles, and 6 million died. But there were two kinds of Poles: Jewish Poles (who were effectively wiped out) and Christian Poles who (90% of whom survived). You know, there's something to be said for speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves, because they're all farking dead.

Poles and Danes are remembered in some American history classrooms for being particularly heroic in standing up to the Nazis. And neither 3 million dead is more valuable than the other. But one set is dead and there is nobody left to remember them.
 
2011-12-01 11:01:12 AM
Polish jokes are great and all, but not about WWII, Europe might be speaking German if it weren't for the Poles.

This Polish mathematician, Marian Rejewski, worked out the Enigma's scrambler wiring. A huge step towards the eventual breaking of the Enigma cryptography system.

upload.wikimedia.org
 
2011-12-01 11:02:04 AM
AverageAmericanGuy: capt.hollister: PhiloeBedoe, culebra, Atomic Jonb, Harv72b, et al.

Really ?!? you think this is worth Polish jokes ? really ?

This may be Fark, but you are still a bunch of idiots. This guy and many like him were fighting his country's enemies while your forefathers were doing what exactly ?

Selling them screen doors and rear view mirrors?


Bwahahahahahaha. I need a beer.
 
2011-12-01 11:02:15 AM
AverageAmericanGuy: You'd turn it off when I was halfway across: stevarooni: ZAZ: He died in Canada. How many Polish soldiers-in-exile went back to Poland between 1945 and 1990, and how many after the fall of Communism?

Most of 'em were deported back to Poland, by Britain.

Citation please.

[3.bp.blogspot.com image 432x304]


Shakes tiny fist . . .

www.unc.edu
 
2011-12-01 11:02:19 AM
ZAZ: How many Polish soldiers-in-exile went back to Poland between 1945 and 1990, and how many after the fall of Communism?

I don't know, how many?
 
2011-12-01 11:03:10 AM
capt.hollister: Also, your French joke was as idiotic and ignorant as the Polish jokes.

/not even close to being Polish or French


I beg to differ. While it might have been as idiotic, it was far more ignorant. I demand satisfaction for this insult!

Dueling rubber chickens at 20 paces?

/Why does it matter? Are you implying there's something wrong being Polish or French?
 
2011-12-01 11:03:13 AM
The Russians, on the other hand, weren't so lucky.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Keelhaul
 
2011-12-01 11:03:23 AM
After training on Hurricane fighter aircraft, he was incorporated into RAF Polish squadron 303 and later to squadrons 316 and 315.

i52.tinypic.com

It wasn't even a Spitfire. It was a Hurricane. Them's shiat planes for remtards on free dinners.
 
2011-12-01 11:11:04 AM
itsfullofstars: Polish jokes are great and all, but not about WWII, Europe might be speaking German if it weren't for the Poles.

This Polish mathematician, Marian Rejewski, worked out the Enigma's scrambler wiring. A huge step towards the eventual breaking of the Enigma cryptography system.

[upload.wikimedia.org image 200x274]


Very true.

I've thought that it would have taken Germany about a day to completely nullify his work though: All they had to do was impose wireless silence for a day while the radio operators re-wired the rotors.

Rejewski was able to break into the Enigma system when the Germans were only using 3 rotors, which only gives 3x2x1 = 6 different rotor orders, and the Poles were able to keep up with the incremental improvements the Germans made up until 1938. Had the Germans simply re-wired their machines once a year, a relatively simple job requiring a soldering iron, the Allies most likely would have never been able to break them consistently.
 
2011-12-01 11:14:30 AM
capt.hollister: Harv72b: capt.hollister: PhiloeBedoe, culebra, Atomic Jonb, Harv72b, et al.

Really ?!? you think this is worth Polish jokes ? really ?

This may be Fark, but you are still a bunch of idiots. This guy and many like him were fighting his country's enemies while your forefathers were doing what exactly ?

I made a French joke. You can tell the difference by the usage of "French" instead of "Polish".

/Unless you're Polish.

True.

Also, your French joke was as idiotic and ignorant as the Polish jokes.

/not even close to being Polish or French


If you pull the stick out of your ass you might be able to use it to unwad your panties.
 
2011-12-01 11:15:15 AM
Harv72b: capt.hollister: Also, your French joke was as idiotic and ignorant as the Polish jokes.

/not even close to being Polish or French

I beg to differ. While it might have been as idiotic, it was far more ignorant. I demand satisfaction for this insult!

Dueling rubber chickens at 20 paces?

/Why does it matter? Are you implying there's something wrong being Polish or French?


You're on, but for the duel to take place at 20 paces we'll need either very long arms or rubber chickens with very distended necks.

It matters because it is based on a skewed and mostly wrong interpretation of the actions of the Polish and French air forces if WWII. Both were outgunned by the Germans, but the Armée de l'Air destroyed approx 1300 German aircraft which were not then availabale for the subsequent battle of Britain, in which many French pilots also participated.
 
2011-12-01 11:17:01 AM
AverageAmericanGuy: mc6809e: Poland suffered the highest ratio of losses to population of any country in Europe and yet their suffering is largely forgotten.

EARLY PRISONERS AT AUSCHWITZ WERE MOSTLY POLES

In the early years, most prisoners at Auschwitz were gentile Poles, not Jews. As historian Martin Gilbert pointed out, of the first 611 people who died at Auschwitz, 591 were gentile Poles and 20 were Jews.


Link (new window)

Why are you trying to minimize the victimization of the Jews?


The worst argument I ever had in my entire life was my friend trying to convince me her family suffered more because of Hitler.

She's Jewish but most of her family was settled in the states by WWII. I'm Polish and my family tree has many, many dead ends thanks to the Nazis. My grandma lost most of her family (a cousin or two and some distant family left) and spent the war in a labor camp, which she didn't really talk about until a few years before the dementia really set in. It's not a freaking pissing contest but dammit.

/sigh
//RIP, Polish-pilot-fighter-badass
 
2011-12-01 11:21:49 AM
capt.hollister: Harv72b: capt.hollister: PhiloeBedoe, culebra, Atomic Jonb, Harv72b, et al.

Really ?!? you think this is worth Polish jokes ? really ?

This may be Fark, but you are still a bunch of idiots. This guy and many like him were fighting his country's enemies while your forefathers were doing what exactly ?

I made a French joke. You can tell the difference by the usage of "French" instead of "Polish".

/Unless you're Polish.

True.

Also, your French joke was as idiotic and ignorant as the Polish jokes.

/not even close to being Polish or French


Butthurt knows no nationality. Welcome to Fark.
 
2011-12-01 11:24:48 AM
He learned at a young age that installing chains on the prop was not analogous to installing chains on the jeep.
 
2011-12-01 11:24:52 AM
dittybopper: itsfullofstars: Polish jokes are great and all, but not about WWII, Europe might be speaking German if it weren't for the Poles.

This Polish mathematician, Marian Rejewski, worked out the Enigma's scrambler wiring. A huge step towards the eventual breaking of the Enigma cryptography system.

[upload.wikimedia.org image 200x274]

Very true.

I've thought that it would have taken Germany about a day to completely nullify his work though: All they had to do was impose wireless silence for a day while the radio operators re-wired the rotors.

Rejewski was able to break into the Enigma system when the Germans were only using 3 rotors, which only gives 3x2x1 = 6 different rotor orders, and the Poles were able to keep up with the incremental improvements the Germans made up until 1938. Had the Germans simply re-wired their machines once a year, a relatively simple job requiring a soldering iron, the Allies most likely would have never been able to break them consistently.


Rewiring the rotors is certainly a possibility but would take much longer than a day to complete. Western Europe kept the knowledge of this wiring in the pants for a surprisingly long time before the Nazis enhanced the Enigma to include swappable rotors. Some versions of the story say the Nazis learned that the Poles and Brits had figured out the wiring, some say it was just a normal upgrade to improve the system.

Either way, a couple of Poles did what no one else could up to that point and diserve some props. 6 rotor combinations or 6 billion, props are still in order.
 
2011-12-01 11:28:54 AM
XveryYpettyZ: mc6809e: Poland suffered the highest ratio of losses to population of any country in Europe and yet their suffering is largely forgotten.

EARLY PRISONERS AT AUSCHWITZ WERE MOSTLY POLES

In the early years, most prisoners at Auschwitz were gentile Poles, not Jews. As historian Martin Gilbert pointed out, of the first 611 people who died at Auschwitz, 591 were gentile Poles and 20 were Jews.


Link (new window)

So there were 30 million Poles, and 6 million died. But there were two kinds of Poles: Jewish Poles (who were effectively wiped out) and Christian Poles who (90% of whom survived). You know, there's something to be said for speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves, because they're all farking dead.

Poles and Danes are remembered in some American history classrooms for being particularly heroic in standing up to the Nazis. And neither 3 million dead is more valuable than the other. But one set is dead and there is nobody left to remember them.


While nearly all Polish Jews were killed, Jewish ethnicity survived and so the extermination of 3 million Polish Jews is remembered.

But Polish ethnicity died with WWII which is why the extermination of 3 million gentile Poles is mostly forgotten.
 
2011-12-01 11:35:26 AM
powhound: He learned at a young age that installing chains on the prop was not analogous to installing chains on the jeep.

LoL!

RIP Mr. Polish Pilot!
 
2011-12-01 11:35:30 AM
StreetlightInTheGhetto: AverageAmericanGuy: mc6809e: Poland suffered the highest ratio of losses to population of any country in Europe and yet their suffering is largely forgotten.

EARLY PRISONERS AT AUSCHWITZ WERE MOSTLY POLES

In the early years, most prisoners at Auschwitz were gentile Poles, not Jews. As historian Martin Gilbert pointed out, of the first 611 people who died at Auschwitz, 591 were gentile Poles and 20 were Jews.


Link (new window)

Why are you trying to minimize the victimization of the Jews?

The worst argument I ever had in my entire life was my friend trying to convince me her family suffered more because of Hitler.

She's Jewish but most of her family was settled in the states by WWII. I'm Polish and my family tree has many, many dead ends thanks to the Nazis. My grandma lost most of her family (a cousin or two and some distant family left) and spent the war in a labor camp, which she didn't really talk about until a few years before the dementia really set in. It's not a freaking pissing contest but dammit.

/sigh
//RIP, Polish-pilot-fighter-badass


I have Polish relatives that were literally exported to Siberia by the Soviets to work as slave labor. The Soviet involvement in the destruction of Poland at the beginning of WWII is another thing greatly under-emphasized. My brother was so clueless that he actually believed the Soviets invaded Poland to save Poles from the Nazis.
 
2011-12-01 11:38:25 AM
capt.hollister: It matters because it is based on a skewed and mostly wrong interpretation of the actions of the Polish and French air forces if WWII. Both were outgunned by the Germans, but the Armée de l'Air destroyed approx 1300 German aircraft which were not then availabale for the subsequent battle of Britain, in which many French pilots also participated.

i743.photobucket.com

Next thing you're going to tell me that not all blondes are stupid, or not all Southern gentlemen drive pick-up trucks, live in trailers, and beat their wives with their dogs, or not all Polish citizens are confused when placed in a circular room and told to stand in the corner.
 
2011-12-01 11:43:28 AM
itsfullofstars: Rewiring the rotors is certainly a possibility but would take much longer than a day to complete.

No, it wouldn't. For 5 rotors, you've got a total of 5x26 contacts, or 130 contacts*, which is actually 260 operations because you have to unsolder all the wires, and then resolder them all. If you took 8 hours to do it, you'd have roughly 2 minutes to perform each operation (8 hours * 60 minutes per hour = 480 minutes/260 operations = 1.8 minutes per each solder or unsolder operation. As someone who has soldered a bunch, that's not unreasonable.

Now, given that a unit would often have but one Engima machine, but more than one radio operator (to provide 24 hour continuous coverage), you could actually do the operation in parallel, with Hans working on rotors I, II, and III while Fritz works on rotor IV and V. You've just cut the time roughly in half.

You'd have to distribute the rewiring instructions beforehand, of course, to ensure that everyone gets them in time for the rewiring, but it would have been eminently doable. They just didn't think it was necessary.

*Only 26 contacts, not the 52 total between the two halves of each rotor, because you are only rewiring them, not rebuilding them from scratch. You don't have to unsolder and resolder both sides, just one side.
 
2011-12-01 11:45:48 AM
Just finished this book: My Life as a Pilot Adventurer by Jean Zumbach (Pops).

Very entertaining read of a Polish WWII RAF ace turned smuggler/merc. Highly recommended, especially if you're an aviation buff and can read it for free at your local library. Here's his Wiki entry: (also pops because I love you)
 
2011-12-01 11:49:02 AM
AverageAmericanGuy: mc6809e: Poland suffered the highest ratio of losses to population of any country in Europe and yet their suffering is largely forgotten.

EARLY PRISONERS AT AUSCHWITZ WERE MOSTLY POLES

In the early years, most prisoners at Auschwitz were gentile Poles, not Jews. As historian Martin Gilbert pointed out, of the first 611 people who died at Auschwitz, 591 were gentile Poles and 20 were Jews.


Link (new window)

Why are you trying to minimize the victimization of the Jews?


Actually, in Poland they really hate when people talk about the Holocaust as if it was entirely Jewish, which is really pretty much exactly how it's talked about by most. There were just under 6 million jews killed, but there were 11 million killed in total, and 3 of those remaining 5 million were just polish (as was half of the jewish group). 6 million polish people, counting polish jews, were killed.

If that escaped almost all attention from the narrative, I'd be pissed too.
 
2011-12-01 11:50:39 AM
waxingsupply.com
 
2011-12-01 11:52:14 AM
Sidebar - if you are an aviation buff, it's hard to beat Frank Tinker's first-person account of flying fighters for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War: Some Still Live by F. G. Tinker (pops)

IMHO, one of the best aviation book ever written.
 
2011-12-01 11:52:27 AM
cptjeff: AverageAmericanGuy: mc6809e: Poland suffered the highest ratio of losses to population of any country in Europe and yet their suffering is largely forgotten.

EARLY PRISONERS AT AUSCHWITZ WERE MOSTLY POLES

In the early years, most prisoners at Auschwitz were gentile Poles, not Jews. As historian Martin Gilbert pointed out, of the first 611 people who died at Auschwitz, 591 were gentile Poles and 20 were Jews.


Link (new window)

Why are you trying to minimize the victimization of the Jews?

Actually, in Poland they really hate when people talk about the Holocaust as if it was entirely Jewish, which is really pretty much exactly how it's talked about by most. There were just under 6 million jews killed, but there were 11 million killed in total, and 3 of those remaining 5 million were just polish (as was half of the jewish group). 6 million polish people, counting polish jews, were killed.

If that escaped almost all attention from the narrative, I'd be pissed too.


Don't forget, too, the Poles killed by the Soviets.

They got it from both sides.
 
2011-12-01 11:57:56 AM
Harv72b: capt.hollister: It matters because it is based on a skewed and mostly wrong interpretation of the actions of the Polish and French air forces if WWII. Both were outgunned by the Germans, but the Armée de l'Air destroyed approx 1300 German aircraft which were not then availabale for the subsequent battle of Britain, in which many French pilots also participated.

[i743.photobucket.com image 300x367]

Next thing you're going to tell me that not all blondes are stupid, or not all Southern gentlemen drive pick-up trucks, live in trailers, and beat their wives with their dogs, or not all Polish citizens are confused when placed in a circular room and told to stand in the corner.


Yes, but if a Southern gentleman and his wife get a divorce are they still related ?
 
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