High-ranking members of the South African Air Force (SAAF), diplomats, military veterans and leaders of the Polish community last weekend commemorated the 80th anniversary of the historic Polish uprising against Nazi German occupation and the attempts of the Western Allies – among them South Africa –to help the insurgents. The Memorial was held at the Johannesburg Katyn Memorial in Melrose.
The uprising, which lasted 62 days from 1 August to 2 October 1944 was part of a planned nationwide uprising by the Polish Home Army, or Armia Krajowa (AK) codenamed Operation Tempest, aimed at expelling the Germans after five years of brutal occupation. The Home Army had been organised underground by the Polish Government-in-Exile in London.
The Nazis immediately decided to crush the uprising, and the Polish authorities called on the Western Allies for help (Poland differed from Britain and the US on how they viewed the Soviet Union, after its invasion of Poland in 1939 and the Katyn Massacre in 1940).
British war leader Winston Churchill ordered the Royal Air Force’s 205 Heavy Bomber Group, a long range, night bomber unit, to assist the Poles. The Group, commanded by Major General Jimmy Durrant, a South African, comprised: 1586 (Polish Special Duties) Flight; the RAF’s 224 Wing and the SAAF’s 2 Wing, including 31 and 34 Squadrons flying Consolidated Liberator B Mk VIII (B-24J) long range heavy bombers. Durrant strongly protested the very risky mission but was ordered to carry on by Churchill – the Soviets did not allow Allied aircraft to land on territory occupied by them and as a result, SAAF pilots had to fly the round trip from Foggia in Italy to Warsaw and all the way back, some 2 815 kilometres, most of it over enemy territory.
Of the 41 aircraft sent by the SAAF, 11 were lost, the highest loss rate on operations for the SAAF. Overall, 205 Bomber Group lost one aircraft for every ton of aid delivered to Poland.
The Polish Ambassador, Adam Burakowski, pointed out that Poland found itself facing two totalitarian regimes, the German Nazis and the Soviet Communists. He expressed gratitude to South Africa for the airmen’s sacrifice in 1944, as did Dr Pawel Ukielski, Deputy Director of the Rising Museum in Warsaw.
The moving ceremony also featured a religious service, with Pastor Robin Petersen, a son-in-law of one of the Warsaw airmen, speaking, as did Father Radoslaw Szymoniak, who spoke of the futility of war and prayed for peace in current wars.
Following the Last Post, Two Minute’s Silence and Reveille and a flypast by four aircraft of the SAAF Museum, wreaths were laid for Poland and the Rising Museum. Major General Lancelot Mathabula represented the Chief of the SAAF. He was accompanied by military attaches from the US and France, as well as military veterans organisations representing the RAF, SAAF and Polish military and family groups.
Ukielski later opened a new permanent exhibition at the Ditsong Museum of Military History dedicated to the AK and the Warsaw rising.
