By Christopher Miskimon
When the Nazis and Soviets partitioned Poland in 1939, the Polish government in exile was set up first in France, then in the United Kingdom in 1940 as France fell. The Polish Prime Minister, General Wladyslaw Sikorski, established a relationship with Winston Churchill, only to see the relationship suffer once the Soviet Union joined the Allied cause in 1941. The Polish leader could get no help in dealing with the Soviet occupation or Soviet atrocities. This harmed his relationships with other Poles. In mid-1943 Sikorski went to Iran to visit Polish troops stationed there. His RAF Liberator aircraft stopped at Gibraltar on July 4, 1943, for a layover. When his plane took off, it crashed sixteen seconds into the flight, going into the sea. Afterward, theories about plots and accusations of blame began.
This new book is a thorough investigation into the death of General Sikorski. It is a complicated story, with many actors and factions involved, but the author effectively clarifies the various factors into a coherent and readable narrative. The book provides a fascinating look at one of the war’s lesser-known political incidents.
The Death of General Sikorski: The Polish Leader’s Last Flight in 1943, and the Tangled Web of Poland, the Allies, and the Soviets (Peter Zablocki, Frontline Books, South Yorkshire UK, 2024, 275 pp., photographs, notes, bibliography, index, $42.95, HC)
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