The Polish Air Force Memorial Committee (PAFMC) will stage the annual and 63rd Commemoration of Fallen Polish Airmen on Saturday, 31st August 2024, at 12.00, at the Polish Air Force Memorial, South Ruislip. The ceremony will be conducted in English and Polish and everyone is welcome. It will be streamed live on the PAFMC Facebook page at this link https://www.facebook.com/PAFMemorialCommittee.
Professor Piotr Wilczek, the Polish Ambassador and General Michał Sprengler, Defence Attaché for the Republic of Poland and the Chief of the Air Staff of the RAF will be among the dignitaries attending together with a delegation of cadets from the Polish Air Force University Dęblin, Poland led by their Rector Commandant Brigadier General Krzysztof Cur.
Invited guests will include dignitaries, representing national and local government, Polish and Royal Air Forces and various organisations and associations. Guests’ dress code will be uniform, lounge suit or equivalent. Decorations will be worn and descendants will be encouraged to wear inherited medals on the right side of the jacket.
The ceremony will open with the marching in of the replica Polish Air Force Standard by Officer Cadets from the Polish Air Force University, Dęblin and the Silk Ensign of the RAF.
PAFMC Chairman Krzysztof de Berg will follow with an opening address. This will be followed by the Polish Roll-Call of the Fallen, carried out by the Polish Air Force Officer Cadets.
After prayers in Polish the invited dignitaries will lay wreaths on the Memorial to be followed by veterans and descendants of the Polish Squadrons and Units commemorated on the Memorial that flew alongside the RAF from 1940 to 1945. Concluding Prayers will be led by the Chaplin of RAF Northolt, followed by the Last Post and a minute’s silence ending with Reveille.
The ceremony will end with the Polish and UK national anthems and the playing of ‘White Roses’. Personal wreaths will be laid after the ceremony ends. Music will be provided by musicians of the RAF Central Band with the kind permission of the Air Force Board of the Defence Council.
Invited guests will then transfer to RAF Northolt for a reception and lunch in the Officers’ Mess, while being entertained by Polish dancers. PAFMC Commendations will be awarded to people who, with no personal connections with Poland, have made an exceptional contribution to preserving the memory of Polish Airmen.
Weather and serviceability permitting the Hurricane from the Polish Heritage Flight’s Historic Aircraft Collection at Duxford, now in the colours of Polish 302 Sqn, will provide a flypast and land and park close to the Officers’ Mess. The starboard side has been finished as P2954 with the code WX-E, the Hurricane flown by F/Lt Tadeusz Chlopik, while the port side represents P3935 code WX-D, the aircraft of F/Lt and later W/Cdr Julian Kowalski.
The PAFMC has been organising the Annual Ceremony of Homage to Fallen Polish Airmen since 2011 after officially succeeding the Polish Air Force Association Charitable Trust (PAFACT), which dissolved at the end of 2010. The PAFMC is the designated successor of the war-time Polish Air Force and the organisations which represented it after the war.
The Memorial is situated at the junction of the A40 and the West End Road, South Ruislip. The nearest Underground is South Ruislip. Limited parking (at own risk) will be available at McGovern Park GAA 200 yds up the West End Road from the Memorial, or adjacent side streets.
Other Polish Air Force heritage sites in Hillingdon can be found at: https://archive.hillingdon.gov.uk/polishtrail.
Historic background
General Władysław Sikorski, the former Prime Minister of the Polish Government in Exile and Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces, formed the Polish Air Force early in 1940. He made the historic decision to make Lotnictwo Wojskowe (Military Aviation), the then air arm of the Polish Army, a completely independent member of the Polish Armed Forces. Thus on 1 March 1940 Military Aviation became the independent Polskie Siły Powietrzne (PSP) the Polish Air Force (PAF) under the command of General Józef Zając, but ultimately under the operational command of the RAF after it transferred to Britain following the capitulation of France.
Just after the war, in the summer of 1945, to meet the needs of those who stayed in exile in Britain, a group of Polish airmen formed the Polish Air Force Association (PAFA), with the Polish name Stowarzyszenie Lotników Polskich (SLP).
The PAFA subsequently became the Polish Air Force Association Charitable Trust in 1987, which continued until it was dissolved in December 2010. To enable the continuation of its most important functions, such as the annual Commemoration of Fallen Polish Airmen at the Polish Air Force Memorial, prior to dissolution, it formed the PAFMC as its successor body. This was done with the explicit agreement of the Commander in Chief of the Polish Air Force, Lt Gen Lech Majewski, and the Chief of the Air Staff of the Royal Air Force, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton. Sir Stephen continues to this day as PAFMC’s Patron. Trust funds were divided between various recipients in agreement with the Charity Commission; its records were transferred to the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum; and all other art works, property and memorabilia, including the PAFA Standard, became the property of PAFMC.
WHERE: Polish Air Force Memorial, Western Ave, Ruislip HA4 6QX
WHEN: Saturday, 31st August 2024, at 12.00
REGISTRATION: free, everyone is welcome
You can read more about the 2023 celebrations in our article Ceremony of Homage to Fallen Polish Airmen at the Polish Air Force Memorial in London, and learn about the memorial in History of the Polish War Memorial – VIDEO.
