'O nonno, a good story, being an air techie myself I am always interested in these stories. Just one thing, are you sure he flew in Shackletons? They entered service in 1951 with the (then) costal command. I believe the free polish RAF squadrons (and 304 bomber (Polish) Sqn. - then part of costal command) were disbanded in 1946. Most likely he would have flown more classic a/c such as the Wellington, Halifax or Lancaster, or even the (ahhhh – De Havilland) Mosquito. Maybe he took UK citizenship and joined the RAF proper after 1946?

Ciao Chris, I remember he was in coastal command; but I wouldn't swear to Shackletons. I have that name in my mind, but it could have been whatever was being used by coastal command during the later stages of the war. He didn't join the RAF after the war; because I can remember his 1st. son being born in 1947; by which time he was in a civilian job. He didn't take British Citizenship until the 1960s; because I can remember in 1960 him being refused entry into France at Calais off the ferry from Folkestone. He had to leave us at the municipal campsite in Calais, and return to Folkestone to get some sort of document from the Police there. I do remember him being constantly badgered by the Polish regime to return to Poland; and him proudly displaying on his living room wall the old Polish red/white flag with the eagle in the middle; together with the citations for his RAF service.
All history now of course.
ciao for now,
'o nonno

Hello Kasia and welcome to this forum.
I am actually in the UK at the moment and not on these threads as often as i usually am when I`m in Italy so didn`t see your thread until now.

I know you`ve had several replies to your post ... some of them from our "funny men". They mean no harm.

They do however have a point. British Expats welcomes everybody but fundamentally it is British.

I personally have been in Italy a long time and I have not met any Polish people where I live .... it is a tiny place though. There are Rumanians and czechs and Bangladesh and Tunisians and Nigerians and all sorts but not any Polish so far. Like you said, you`ll probably have more luck finding people in the bigger cities.

I wish you luck because I know how important it was for me for my kids to learn English. There are no English people in my village either but my kids are still bilingual so it can be done.

All the best.

According to the website of my comune, of the 23,700 odd inhabitants (and some are really odd), there are 19 Poles of which 14 are birds. And we all know Polish birds are fit.

Only 5 Brits though.

Welcome to the forum kasia00, and please ignore all the stuff from people saying "this is for Brits" - I very much hope that the mods embrace a fair amount of wriggle room on this - especially if they have been to Britain/London any time over the last few years/decades/half century.

You are as British as many on here I am sure - we don't want to get into the Italian mindset of "blood citizenship".

thanks also to Ononno for his wonderful interesting post

One day I plan to cycle to Monte Cassino, where you will, as I am sure you know, find a lot of Poles who fought for Italy's freedom and for the allies (and the allies and the Brits shamefully betrayed their sacrifice when it came to the post-war London victory parade).

My long-dead uncle was Polish, though I was too young to really ask him about the war. I think his war may have been a bit complicated anyway.

I'd be interested, as a fellow Brit in what it is that sometimes seems to get to you about the Italians.

I too had a polish uncle but it always gets on my nerves when poles tell us all the favours they did in the war, we only had a war because of the poles, that's how it started read your history, its like when people from the commonwealth say the same, for a start a lot of Indians fought for Japan, as for Jamaicans who always say their dad fought for us, they were fighting for themselves,how long would they last under Hitler, in another ten years people will say, "yes a few English fought its true, it was mostly foreigners who saved us" if you know old soldiers ask them the truth, plus look at the war memorials

I am really confused by the above post.

By "us" do you mean Italy or Britain?

And are you blaming the Poles for WWII? Seems odd to say the least.

Respect to all of all nationalities (and there were many) who fought for Italy's freedom I say.

And to the Poles who fought in the Royal Air Force. When I was younger and went to what was then Communist Poland a student told me of the Poles in the RAF and told me that there was a memorial to them at the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon. I was happy on my return to visit it and send him a souvenir.

The poles were itching for a war as we had promised to save them, do you really think all the poles who marched to Britain, my uncle marched through Israel on his way , were doing it to save England? do you think they went left right left right lets save the English? I actually respect the Italian position most of the Soldiers did not want to fight, they surrendered in droves, I have never agreed with duffer before but this is for British expats, go to Dublin and call someone British and see what they say, bet there are some on here, its something for nothing, my uncle arrived with hundreds and a lot worked for delta metal in Brimsdown , never heard of one going back to fight for Polish soil after the war and the Russians moved in, are there no Polish expat boards? I would wager there are more poles around Europe than English, hundreds down here

kasia00 and suncycle, I'd ignore bricwood's provocations if I were you. Not only is he unashamedly racist, but I've always found him to be totally lacking in basic good manners and I suspect his use of English (punctuation, grammar and spelling) gives you a pretty good indication of his level of education/intelligence.

Thanks for the tip Anderson Council (I'd love to know what that username means by the way) - after my last post I did click on some of his earlier ones, and they were educational. And yes, his use of full stops does appear to be somewhat sparing - I thought rationing finished in the 50s ....

Rather boring, I'm afraid. I'm a total Pink Floyd fan. Pink Anderson and Floyd Council were blues musicians who inspired Roger Waters' choice of band name. My real name is Lady Gaga.

BRICWOOD - please keep Site Rule number 1 in mind before submitting your posts.


Site Rules
1. Personal Attacks
BritishExpats.com is an interactive site, and everyone who participates is "in it together", please treat others the way you wish to be treated. Personal attacks will not be tolerated. Challenge others' points of view and opinions, but do so respectfully and thoughtfully ... without insult or personal attack.


Every other member is reminded of Site Rule number 14.

14. Objectionable Posts
Anyone who finds a posted message objectionable is encouraged to notify a moderator immediately. We have the right to remove objectionable content, within a reasonable time frame if we determine that removal is necessary.

Thanks for the reminder Lorna - will try to stick to the rules - personally I'd veer in favour of the contributors to the forum putting questionable or objectionable views in their place (the healthiest societies operate like this I think) with mods stepping in to stop the really extreme stuff - not meant as a criticism of your moderation - I'm new here and am still getting a sense of it, but you all seem like a nice bunch.

all the best and thanks, P

Discussions are welcome as everyone has an opinion on most things and opinions can be questioned. Insults and offensive posts can be reported and deleted.

And yes ..... this is great forum with genuinely nice and helpful people. Stick around It does get a bit quiet in July and August but picks up again.

Nothing wrong with your way, but most of us tend to ignore silly -insert stronger word- remarks, not wanting to give some people space. And you know the saying, 'silence speaks louder than words'. Any way, a quick pm to Lorna and co., soon stops things in their tracks.