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Originally Posted by Petitpoucet
Another thing like that will close the discussion between us.
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Let's talk about facts. Post-war France and Italy were under so strong communistic influence, there was a concern that communists will win free elections! Actions were undertaken by US secret services to prevent this, but it must be said, that Soviets fully supported communists, especially by financial means. Also, France had doubtful distinction of being the only western country to hold NKVD camps on own territory. In following years communists had a substantial number of votes, and even now it seems the subject of communistic crimes is a touchy subject in France.
In August 1939 French government ceased publication of such journals like L'Humanite in order to stop the spread of communistic propaganda. Both Britain and France suffered from various problems caused by communistic trade unions, the most famous case being no doubt the strike at the Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory, which almost cost the British with the Battle of Britain. I can imagine that especially drafted personnel could have been very prone to communistic propaganda, and actually sabotage the war effort. I have to add that I have read an account about intentional low efficient work by communistic labours in France.
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GC II/10, GCD I/55, GC III/2 .... Why don't you speak about GC II/1, III/1, I/2, II/6, III/6, II/7 ...
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I do not know why, perhaps because those were at hand. There is not too much about those units, but for eg. there were some problems with poor servicing at GC II/6, and that Polish pilots were complaining that Frenchmen drank a lot. There was also some tension about dependency of the Polish section attached. II/7 - the same as GC III/2 - pilots sleeping too long, getting drunk three hours before dusk, carelessness in terms of camouflage and shelters, etc. No personal tensions nor cowardice, but some general inefficiency.
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Poles had bad aircrafts, as most french pilots, because we had no more modern aircrafts for our own pilots, and disliked the style of the campaign... As i already said, how could it be different after the defeat ?
We were not ready for the "Blitzkrieg", as Poland in 1939.
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As I wrote before, there are accounts of Poles getting worst examples of types flown by French pilots. There was for example a story of Corniglione (GC III/2) getting better Hawk of Łaszkiewicz.
Poland was generally not ready for the war, that is true. Poland lost it within about 5 weeks, fighting on all fronts with two (well, three) enemies. Now please compare the number and quality of French and Polish equipment, and add that France had more than half a year to draw conclusions from the Polish and other campaigns. Do you see the point?
You note that we should not generalise, but such negative opinions are most common amongst any Polish veterans, who were in France in 1940. Sorry.
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and you have a bad view of the campaign because most Polish pilots were not in the usual french groups.
Some did not work very well, but it was not a generality.
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Those are general comments, not only of airmen. I recommend you a reading of diaries of Andrzej Bobkowski, who spend the entire war in France, and described in detail the general situation in occupied France. Sorry, no exact title, but it was published in French.
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Gillet's sources :
In France : SHD (Vincennes), MAE (le Bourget), Archives Nationales, Archives Départementales de la moitié Nord de la France
In Germany : Deutsche Dienststelle (Berlin), Militärarchiv Bundesarchiv (Fribourg, Aix-la-Chapelle), Volksbind (Kassel)
In GB : PRO (Kew), RAF Museum (Hendon), IWM (London)
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Well, I was not clear enough. What particular sources were used by Gillet in case of Karubin's victory?
Voytech
I am afraid you are missing the point. Everything started with a comment of Sholto Douglas (not Polish!) about behaviour of French airmen (see link below for a quote), and this was followed with comments about slandering remarks of Polish airmen. Now, Lionel's point is that I am selective with those remarks, choosing units with not very good reputation. Now, I hope that you can confirm to Lionel that, for whatever reason, such negative comments were and are repeated by any veteran who was there. More, may I remind you Jerzy Główczewski's description of an incident with FFI soldier in 1944 in Paris? You perfectly know, that such stories were published in Poland and in exile since dosens of years ago. For those long years there was no French reaction at all, but now those veterans are being called ugly liars.
http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showth...t=13849&page=4