REMEMBERING AN RAF(POLISH) AIRCREW
ARSA, the French Association Rhodanienne pour le Souvenir Aerien, very active in the Rhône Valley area, HAS dedicating a memorial in the village of Chonas l’Amballan (Isère)
It’s 20 miles (32 Kms) south of Lyon RN 7.
The ceremony is to honour the memory of four 301 Squadron airmen who lost their lives on the evening of July 27,1945. Their twin–engined Vickers Warwick Clll HG 226 crashed into the mountains when returning to North Weald from Athens, Greece. Possible cause: heavy local storm.
Pilot: F/Lt Alojzy Ratajczak (Member Guinea Pig Club)
F/Eng : Sgt Eugeniusz Kocon
Nav : F/Sgt Antoni Jan Mikolajczak (A De Havilland Mosquito MkVI combat veteran)
W/Oper : W/O Franciszek Bak
The graves of these young men are side-by-side in the British Military Cemetery near Marseille.
Brian J. & Paul
Drôme – France.
By: roadracer - 23rd May 2010 at 21:44
Brian & Paul, congrats on a fantastic job by you and the people from your village. It is good to see that these men are not forgotten.
Laurence, great work and an interesting site ! hope the Council do what they should do and get that memorial in place pronto !
By: laurencegoff - 23rd May 2010 at 15:03
Newark-On-Trent is also important internationally
Newark-On-Trent is also important internationally as it contains a War Graves Cemetery, which includes graves of many Polish airmen, and was the historical burial place of General Sikorski (the wartime leader of Poland) whose body has now been returned to Poland, but whose memorial remains. There is also a Memorial to the Fallen of Newark commemorating, by name, those local military personnel who lost their lives in conflict since 1914. A further monument to war time confilict is the Air Bridge Monument which remembers the aircrew who died, during world war two, supporting the popular uprising in Warsaw in 1944.
This memorial website
http://newarkcemeteryuk.wordpress.com/
is dedicated to the thousands of men and women from the 2nd World War.
During the 2nd World War there were a number of RAF stations within a few miles of Newark many of which operated squadrons of the Polish Air Force. A special plot was set aside in Newark Cemetery for RAF burials and this is now the war graves for people to see across the UK and the World. Former Airmen choosing to be buried since staying in England after the 2nd World War. Newark Cemetery also contains graves from the 1st world war scattered around the Cemetery . Many airmen married lived around Newark and since died and are also buried in Newark Cemetery Nottinghamshire, England. Newark-On-Trent also contains graves from the 1st world War scattered around the Newark Cemetery.
Laurence Goff
Friends of Newark Cemetery
By: Icare9 - 13th April 2010 at 18:00
You and the village are to be congratulated in ensuring that their sacrifice is remembered.
May the sun shine that day for you.
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April 13, 2010 at 12:16 pm