WWII - who really was the first to help Poland?

A disgusting post and communism rewrote your history for you, so you know **** all. And no Pole would dare to opinion lying filth like that in Nottingham streets at closing time if he values his teeth.

The truth is your ignorance is rife and is not welcome - please do not post rubbish here.

Sadly the Yalta agreement sold the Polish people into communist slavery,

The free Polish forces were not allowed to partake in the victory celebrations for fear of upsetting Stalin.

My father was demobbed from the British army and urged to return to Poland for "Free elections".

Some polish officers knowing their fate shot themselves, some of those who returned to Poland either spent a long time in Siberia being "Re-educated" or were never seen from again.

The disappeared are now being dug up from hidden graves and are being given proper burials.

After a number of years Britain passed a blanket law giving citizenship to the polish ex soldiers and refugees.

Britain was unable to stand up to Stalin alone. I am grateful to her for the life of freedom and opportunity that I was given to grow up in england.

Sadly many of my fathers generation were left with the pain of war and the loss of their homeland, my father never truly recovered I guess you would call it post traumatic stress nowadays.

Truth and facts can be very sad indeed.

Thank you dolnoslask for a touching post. I am English with no blood ties to Poland, but have long been fascinated by Poland and European history. I am 58, grew up in England and now early retired in France. My father was just too young for service in WW2, sadly his older brothers were not. I can remember him saying often how many English people acknowledge and regret the bravery and suffering of Poland for 50 years from 1939 to 1989.

To the Poles who say Britain did nothing, I say you are wrong. A quick look at the map shows that there was little that could be done in 1939, but what did happen was that belatedly Britain and France realised that there was only one way to stop Nazi Germany and went to war, despite neither being prepared fully for it and suffering as a result. If only Churchills warnings had been listened to, and we had had a couple more years to prepare then things might have been different.

By 1945 Britain was no longer a truly world leading power, she was broke, battered and tired. The was no appetite and no support from the US to liberate what we call eastern Europe from the USSR, and Britain did not have the means to do it even if it wanted to. I remember weeping (at the age of 32) when the wall came down in 1989, and again in 2004 when many former eastern bloc states joined the EU. At the age of 58 I have not been conscripted, I have not witnessed a major war in Europe and for that I am truly grateful.

To Poland now I would say embrace your democracy and defend it against any from the right or left who do not respect it, cherish your membership of the EU, play your full part, your history has shown you have much to contribute to Europe and the world and most importantly of all, forgive even if you cannot forget. Here, in a small town in France we have May 8th as a bank holiday, this year the mayor of the German twin town was invited to speak, she referred to here country in its dark days always as "Nazi Germany", not Germany. Perhaps it will take another generation or two to truly forgive, the elderly French here do not forgive but France has learned to cooperate with the new Germany.

Not only do I agree warwick but one more thing...there is a board game called rise and fall of the thitd reich and it's very good. If you take british units off britain or north africa or anywhere you leave that short and lose hugely strategically. Also, if ypu remove all british units from all theatres they are easily destroyed and poles cease to exist. If you lose africa or malta or the oil the war is stuffed also. German units are too many and high quality at that time. Germany gets a free offensive on poland and the reimforcements are insane. Germany planned the lot, everyone else was tired still from ww1. The only way to stop them im 1939 was for them not to attack. In making the pact with russians they redeployed enough units to east bordet once there to easily fend off russias and counter before reinforcing.

I read a lot of historical rubbish on this forum or elswhere and sorry I am sorry but you can tell waffle from people who have never seen the actual numbers in front of them. That's the 1939 scenery. Time was vital for allies to build up forces to catch up. I give the brits

I give the actual brits for 1939 period a 9 out of 10.

Warwicktiger , Marsupial

I completely agree with your fine comments

Given the political circumstances of the time, Britain did do all she could to try and fight for Poland.

Britain also gave refuge and citizenship to the ex servicemen and refugees in her care.

well yes but only after selling them down the river at Yalta...surely?
We had a Polish air force man living next door to us at home (London suburbs) I am afraid Uncle Jan gave me rather a romantic notion of the Polish man..:)

Please, look at a map, read my post, Stalin had all the chips at that poker game!

oh right yes I read your post, warwick, good one.

Warwicktiger is right here. Stalin held the chips, the Americans (with a President who was half dead and didn't last long after it) were unwilling to help Poland (if anyone 'sold' Poland, it was America) and Britain tried but were blocked by our American 'allies'. Plus the country was in ruins.

Jon357 Quite right

The Americans were quite aware that they till would have a major battle against Japan and wanted Stalin's help.

Before leaving Yalta Churchill said the following to his private secretary .

"Make no mistake, all the Balkans, except Greece, are going to be Bolshevised, and there is nothing I can do to prevent it"

no, Britain is state without honor and heart, with greedy and truly evil elite. Britain is there when comes to assimilation of Poles. But, when comes to be or not to be for Poland, Britain looks on the other side. Or no, not on the other side, rather actually looks to profit on Polish misery. That is Britain.

It is truly most disgusting thing from destine to force Poland to be in alliance with the Britain.

you do have a point of course...:)

Only a tiny percentage of Poles returned from Britain after the war. They knew exactly what to expect and a law was passed in Parliament to allow them to settle in Britain.

I thought it was a bit more than that - around half. Perhaps I'm wrong. We have to remember that for a lot of people, their homes were in the Soviet Union, perhaps if they were or if they weren't, their loved ones were dead or in the UK.

All had the right to stay and receive full British citizenship.

Nonsense. That's reality - ultimately one always looks after one's own interests first... And there is something about Britannia that makes her elegant and desirable even today... just look at the poor immigrants trying to get in by any means... despite the weather ;-) ...12C here today...

From my own experience growing up in Britain as part of the polish Diaspora after the second world war, one .

Most British city's and towns had a polish community and within those city's and towns we had a community center, church or club.

When I was younger (forty odd years ago) I used to travel to many of the clubs for a night of dancing / entertainment. Everyone was welcome be it Polish Brits Jamaican or Indian, Asian in fact anyone who was or felt related to the polish community, or just fancied a pint at a discounted price.

At the end of each night they used to play the polish and united kingdoms national anthems everyone stood up , those visitors who didn't were quickly poked in the ribs and dragged to their feet by ex British/Polish servicemen who valued the close association that Poland and Britain had during the war.

Since my return to Poland I have found that this relationship between the Poles and British had survived the communist days.

We had a pensioner from Britain who had bought a house in the village last week.

He had no water (someone had nicked the water pump before he moved in) or electricity and couldn't speak a word of Polish, we had him sorted within two days.

There is a relationship between Poland and Britain, there will always be a place for the British in Poland if they wish to come and live with us.

I'm an American and I agree with this statement. The only reason the US entered the war was if Germany wasn't defeated the US would be next. We were drug in kicking and screaming. While it's true we were fighting Japan, I believe Germany was a bigger threat. The US agreed to let Poland be given away to entice Stalin into the game because control of Poland was what they wanted or they take their toys and go home. Britain, France and the rest of Germany did not have enough to adequately defeat Germany without the necessary help from the US and Russia. All of Europe would have fallen had not Germany been defeated.

It was impossible to attack mainland USA from Europe.


Bigger threat to whom and to what? Were both world wars really fought for freedom and democracy, or maybe for something sinister like global influence and military/economic power? Did Britain and France declare war on Germany because they loved Poland so much, or because they wanted to prevent the Third Reich from becoming a global competitor again? If it was really about freedom and democracy as it is always claimed, why didn't they declare war on the USSR, too?

ooo, don`t question that. They would come. They must. Some of them. Lucky ones. One day when great flood deal final blow to British islands, in era of global warming. i guess in about 100 years.

Well, actually, maybe only that great flood can cut process of assimilation of the Poles by the Anglos. i mean, if something else don`t cut that process in the meanwhile. Maybe Poles themselves brake free from EU. Or maybe Serbians happen to EU as they happened to Austro Hungaria. Or maybe Russians lose their nerves. Expansion of ISIS, ... who knows.

Thank you Donoslask..

My pals at junior school were of Polish origin. I would go with their families to some of the bashes at the Sherwood Rise Polish club in Nottingham.I loved the symbolism of the Zywiec beer with the dancers on the bottle . Everybody was aristocratic in manner and it was a great atmosphere, and I remember the national anthems too at the end of the evening. As you say, veterans from the British legion would attend and vice versa.

All this talk in Poland today, from people who should know better, would have got short shrift from those ex- serviceman. I grew up with an "uncle" in the family who was from Plock, and knew why the British Polonia hated not only the communist regime, but also the brainwashing that fed ingratitude, that lives even today in Poland, drip fed to grandchildren, to what Britain in particular did for the Poles in going to war against the Krauts..

I'm bored so I'll take the bait.

Poland should be grateful for what exactly ? Declaring war on Germany but not actually taking any action until a year later ? For Britain fighting to defend Poland's freedom and allowing the Poles to be part of the war effort against the Germans but then effectively signing away Polish freedom to Stalin ? Gee......dziekuje bardzo !

The German invasion of Poland just happened to be the line in the sand that Britain and France had drawn. Hitler had to be stopped and Poland was our ultimatum.

The Poles weren't even invited to the VE parade in London in 1945.

Amen!

I don't blame 1945 on brits but on Roosevelt. He was wielding the power by that time not brits. That's if I wanted to blame someone. Basically whos stinking fault is it for communism, let's not forget that. The red army behemoth in 45 was easily a match for the rest. If conflixt arose poland wiuld be again a battle ground. 6 more years anyone? It would most likely end up behind the lines and sealed. I just can't see how it could survive after all that. Instead of that it was the cold war, so much better than hot war. It had to stop! Basically all russian allies were rewarded with cold war or imprisobment in a communist hovel. One thing that does actually irk me is the ve parade thing, sorry no excuse for that. It's important to remember how it is now, plenty of poles have gotten over the necessities of war and love england and uk and would definately fight for it.

Read your British history Spiritus. You said you are British? Don't let your Polish blood colour the truth. Which you know is this:

Due to appeasement, Britain was absolutely unprepared for war.

I can think of another country which was also completely unprepared for war, and British serviceman died by the hundreds of thousands to liberate it and Europe - and don't you ever forget it!

Without USA Poland would be part of Germany. Speaking German today. I have grandfathers and uncles who fought the war and all agree. They were wanted by both nazis and commies. They are greatful that the USA stepped in. Fact.

Russia would probably dispute that.


This much is true.

Worth remembering that the thread is about who was the first to help Poland. The US came into the war rather late and only after they needed help after Japan had attacked their base on Hawaii and declared war against them.

That is true Jon. Sorry about the thread title. I read everything and was responding to certain individuals.
Russians forced their language on Polish people like my parents. But thanks to certain Polish and Americans that problem is now gone.

Regarding who helped Poland upfront. Nobody. Polish people. After invaded, Polish people helped themselves and others.

Yes - this happened (not for the first time in Poland) but the country thankfully survived.


Partly due to communist-era propaganda, people often forget the British role. In the Warsaw Uprising, nobody else even tried to help.


Myths like this (much discussed here) don't help.

Heavily so, given the large amount of losses that the USSR suffered.