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Introducing
The Institute
of Polish
Military History
A message from our President, General Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank
'I am delighted to be associated with the work of the Polish Heritage Society and very honoured to serve as its President. The Society's work highlights the enormous contribution which generations of Poles have made to their adopted country. Preserving and celebrating that heritage will only further strengthen the ties between Poland and the United Kingdom.
I worked closely with the Society on the project to build a memorial to the Polish Forces at the National Memorial Arboretum and saw at first hand the energy and dedication of those involved.
I encourage you to explore this website and learn about the many other projects the Society has sponsored. Do please contact us if you would like to be involved in any way'.
General The Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank GCB LVO OBE
A Debt of Dishonour is a unique documentary film dedicated Major General Sosabowski and all ranks who served in the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade Group and to their Comrades-in-Arms of the 1st British Airborne Division that fought in the ill-fated “Operation Market Garden” at Arnhem and Driel during September 1944.
Sto Lat-Albert Hall
The Polish Heritage Society
Now I understand the buzz of flying in a Spitfire!
As Battle of Britain Day approaches, Martin Deeson and his father-in-law Phillip Methuen relive the wartime aerial exploits of Phillip’s Spitfire hero father
Martin Deeson and his father-in-law Phillip Methuen prepare to reach for the skies Photo: Christopher Pledger
'It’s Battle of Britain weather!” said the mechanic as we stood gazing up into the azure skies peppered with cotton wool clouds above the Goodwood aerodrome. Somewhere far above us, my father-in-law Phillip’s lifelong dream was coming true – he was flying where his father before him fought, and died – in the cockpit of a Supermarine Spitfire, the most iconic plane in the world.
The Spitfire had been up there for 20 minutes, but peer as I might I could catch no glimpse of the plane that had first seen service in 1944 and been modified to be a two-seater training aircraft shortly after the war. At 71 years old, the Spit, as the aircraft is called, was a mere three years younger than its passenger.
The pursuit of his Polish heritage has been a long and sometimes painful one for Phillip Methuen. His father, Pilot Officer Mirosław Ferić, died over RAF Northolt on February 14 1942, when my father-in-law was a baby. He was known universally as Ox (all the Polish pilots fighting in the Battle of Britain adopted nicknames, for fear of reprisals against their families still living under Nazi occupation). Ferić had fought for the Polish Air Force in the defence of Warsaw in 1939, and once Poland had fallen, the young pilots had fought their way through Europe, even having to steal planes in France, before ending up at RAF Northolt in 1940, speaking no English.
Read full article: Daily Telegraph: Now I understand the buzz of flying in a Spitfire
© 2015 Daily Telegraph
303 Squadron flies again!
© 2015 Daily Telegraph