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1 " Churchill almost single-handedly changed the mood of a nation. Shaking the British out of their lethargy, he imposed his “imagination and will upon his countrymen, "
― Lynne Olson , A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II
2 " As much as he loved to fly, in the prewar years he regarded his RAF aircraft more as a tool for cracking open English high society than as a weapon for defeating Britain’s enemies. "
3 " After opening his concert with the American national anthem, Rubinstein stood up and told the audience that he did not see the flag of his own country among the dozens displayed in the Opera House. His next selection, he announced, would therefore be the Polish national anthem. As he played the stirring notes of “Poland Has Not Yet Perished as Long as We Live,” the audience burst out in loud, sustained applause. "
4 " an internal government report proposed that “everything should be done to ensure that as few Poles as possible remain in this country. "
5 " Yet here the pilots were in England, fêted and pampered by the upper echelons of society, glamorized in movies and the press, enjoying themselves in spite of any guilt they may have felt. And here were their hosts and hostesses, with their very British insouciance, acting as if there would always be an England. In one context, this attitude was infuriating; in another, it was one of Britain’s greatest strengths. "
6 " Major General Colin Gubbins, who headed the British agency charged with inciting sabotage and subversion in occupied Europe, observed after the war that of all the European countries overrun by the Nazis, “only the Poles, toughened by centuries of oppression, were spiritually uncrushed. "
7 " Another woman working for British intelligence was perhaps the most spectacular Polish spy of all during the war. Known as Christine Granville, she was actually Countess Krystyna Gizycka (née Skarbek), the young and beautiful scion of a Polish aristocratic family. "
8 " Sir Howard Kennard, the British ambassador, was heard to lament that Hitler’s rise had taken all the satisfaction out of diplomacy. “Being an ambassador used to be a gentleman’s job,” he said. “Now it’s a question of fighting with gangsters. . . . You might as well try to make a deal with Al Capone. "
9 " The Attlee government’s decision to cast aside men and women who had fought so long and so courageously under British command prompted an outpouring of sadness and anger from a number of British political and military leaders. In the House of Commons, Winston Churchill said he profoundly regretted the exclusion of the Poles, adding: “They will be in our hearts on that day. . . . "
10 " Unlike Churchill, FDR showed little concern about a pro-Soviet government taking control in Poland after the war. Indeed, in the spring of 1944, he told Averell Harriman, the U.S. ambassador to Moscow, that he “didn’t care whether the countries bordering Russia became communized. "
11 " He finally managed to pull his foot out of his boot, fell free, and opened his parachute a few thousand feet from the ground. He landed in the backyard of a suburban cottage, in the middle of the owner’s prized rose garden. Rushing out of the house, the owner proceeded to give the dazed young Pole a mild lecture about the importance of not trespassing on private property. But the English passion for privacy soon gave way to English cordiality: the man took Pisarek into his house and brewed him a pot of tea. "
12 " Poland lost about 20 percent of its population, compared to 11 percent for the Soviet Union, 7 percent for Germany, and less than 1 percent for both the United States and Britain. "
13 " For the habitually reserved Englishman . . . concealment of his emotions is the first and cardinal rule of gentlemanliness and social grace,” one Kościuszko Squadron pilot observed. "
14 " More people died in Warsaw alone during the war than did Americans in both European and Pacific combat theaters "
15 " The key part played by Poles in obtaining the Germans’ Enigma coding machine and of Polish cryptographers in helping to break the ciphers was not made public until the mid-1970s, and, once revealed, was soon ignored. "
16 " In 1993, an imposing monument was unveiled by Britain’s Queen Mother on the cliffs of Dover in honor of the RAF fighter squadrons that took part in the Battle of Britain. The memorial was adorned with the insignia of sixty-six squadrons—but those of the PoznanÍ and Kościuszko squadrons, the only all-Polish units at the time, were missing, even though the latter was responsible for more German kills than any other squadron in the RAF. "
17 " General Erwin Rommel, commander of the 7th Panzer Division, was guilty of only slight hyperbole later when he said of his sweep through France: “Nowhere was any resistance attempted. . . . Hundreds upon hundreds of French troops, with their officers, surrendered at our arrival "
18 " Relatively few Frenchmen, with the notable exceptions of General Charles de Gaulle and his followers, made any attempt to flee the country and continue resisting from outside. "
19 " Roosevelt had belittled his closest ally, a man who greatly admired him. In the process, the president sent a very different message than he intended. How could the ever suspicious Stalin be expected to trust these men when they showed no loyalty to each other? "
20 " Gentlemen, you have seen for yourselves what criminal folly it was to try to defend this city. . . . I only wish that certain statesmen in other countries who seem to want to turn all of Europe into a second Warsaw could have the opportunity to see, as you have, the real meaning of war. "
