In the March issue of Flying, there is a column about the re-publication of the book 303 Squadron by Arkady Fiedler.
The Flying piece tells the story of the original book and how the author was a Polish travel writer before the war and fought in the early stages of the war.. Once in the UK, the Polish High Command in exile asked him to chonicle the squadron’s activities.
The book was written as a series of debriefings right after the pilots returned from their missions.
To quote Lane Wallace in Flying…
“So we get pilots’ raw reactions and recollections of battle events. Yet Fiedler is still able to step back and observe each pilot and his place in the greater whole, adding perspective beyond what any of the pilots themselves could have offered…”
The book was first published in both English and Polish during the war and Wallace reports that copies were parachuted into Poland and distributed by the underground as a moral builder..
The new edition came about when a non-aviation writer found it at the University of California in LA while researching a character for a novel she was writing..
Terry Tegnazian set up her own publishing company to get the book back in print.
It’s available via Amazon.
Should be an excellent reference book for BoB historans.
I was wondering, is the book widely known to modern historians?
By: VoyTech - 28th February 2011 at 13:29
Notably, Richard King refers to Fiedler’s book in his, actually, there is a whole section at the end of King’s book that discusses Fiedler’s work chapter by chapter.
On the other hand, the new edition of Arkady Fiedler’s “303 Squadron” by Aquila Polonica has a lot of additional material that puts the original text in right perspective and describes the events and pilots portrayed by Fiedler.
By: AirportsEd - 28th February 2011 at 00:03
Agreed – the original 303 book is worth a read. However, if you are after a historically accurate record then Richard King’s 303 Squadron Battle of Britain Diary is the one you really want.
By: antoni - 26th February 2011 at 20:46
Yes it’s well known as are the mistakes it contains. As it was published during the war he could not use real names. There may be more recent editions that have the real names, I’m not sure about that. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy it. It seems to have been reprinted a number of times as a trawl in Amazon will reveal. For a more historically accurate account there is King’s 303 Squadron book published last year. You should be able to pick up a copy for £18-19 now (Amazon again).
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February 26, 2011 at 7:56 pm