wersja polska
| The idea to create the group has grown over several years, when we visited Britain’s air shows and looked with amazement and envy at the reenactors parading among vintage aeroplanes in their WW2 dress. The crucial moment came |
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in March 2009 during the Great Escape anniversary celebrations in Żagań (Sagan).
The camp life reenactment display suffered somewhat from the low number of inmates – even before the escape! And it turned out that most of
the ‘PoWs’ were Czechs. This was due to the universal feeling among Poland’s WW2 reenactment fraternity that setting up a Polish Air Force
group would not make much sense in the absence of significant numbers of WW2-era aeroplanes in this country. As enthusiasts of Polish Air Force history we came to the conclusion that this would not be an unsurmountable obstacle. We started to |
| investigate what could be done. The first effect was to be seen during the 14th International Air Picnic at Góraszkain June 2009, where one of the ‘founding fathers’ appeared dressed up as a Polish ‘erk’ during the opening of an exhibition of 303 Sqn photographs taken by the famous Polish writer and globe-trotter Arkady Fiedler. During the 6th Małopolski Air Picnic in Cracow Robert Gretzyngier accompa- |
| nied by his two children (as befits the ‘founding father’) constituted the smalest reenactment group in Poland. This time the ‘WW2 Polish Air Force airmen (and airwoman)’ were a living addition to the exhibition celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Kościuszko Squadron and its badge. The circle of friends who decided to act in the living history group includes the owner and pilot of the only WW2 RAF warbird in Poland – Jacek Mainka. His de Havilland Tiger Moth, adorned with Royal Air Force roundels as well as the Polish AF red-and-white chequerboard (national marking) plus the ‘gapa’ (PAF pilot’s wings) motif on the cowling has become the |  |
core of the group’s activities. The first major appearance
could be seen at the Polish AF Air Show in Radom on 29 August 2009.
Members of the group have long collected documents, photographs and other memorabilia
related to WW2 Polish Air Force. We would like to appeal to veterans and their families to support us with
 their family archive items: old photographs, pieces of clothing and all those things, large and small, that were essential in everyday life in those times. We also declare that we will be happy to participate in events, both official and educational, commemorating WW2 Polish Air Force in the West. |
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Grupa Historyczna Lotnictwa Polskiego © 2009 Wszelkie prawa zastrzeżone. |