is a meeting place for Poles. Meetings usually take place on religious holidays, national holidays, or meetings with members of our Government or Parliament coming to Oslo. The monument in a very simplified form was financed by Norway. After a few years, the Polish Diaspora added a Cross, an Eagle with a Crown, and new plaques with the names of Poles buried here. October 30, 2022 is the 80th anniversary of the plane crash of the Halifax plane with a Polish crew and three paratroopers who were supposed to land in Poland. We Poles want to together, solemnly recall the date of the 80th anniversary of the tragically ended flight and meet at the monument October 30.10.2022, 16.00. at. XNUMX.
THEY DIED ON THE WAY TO POLAND October 2022.
In 1939, Poland had several neighbors. The one from the west, Hitler wrote the book "Mein Kampf" in which he pointed out that Germany they are the chosen people to rule the world. He expressed the view that representatives of other nations, as long as they were healthy and strong, should work for the Germans. The weaker and the sick should be murdered immediately. neighbor from the east, Stalin, suggesting another book - Marx and Engels, wanted to make the world happy in such a way that everyone would have the same. He probably would have succeeded if this idea had been associated with the enrichment of the population, but Stalin intended to deprive everyone of any goods in order to bring their standard of living to the level of those who had almost nothing. In 1939, both leaders from two sides attacked Poland, which had no chance to defend itself.
Polish section
The Polish government with the Commander-in-Chief and an army unit protecting the Government, through Romania and France, got to England, where in the summer of 1940 a "Polish section" was established, closely cooperating with the Staff of the Commander-in-Chief. The XNUMXth Department of this Staff investigated the transfers to the country and prepared paratroopers-volunteers who expressed their willingness to take risks in the name of the freedom of the homeland. They were young men, and sometimes women, in good physical condition, intelligent, enterprising people with a great sense of independence, and at the same time disciplined and subjected to the rigors of hard training, and also aware of the risks and taking them without exaltation, able to keep secrets, tough, brave, sometimes even brutal. Few could meet such colossal demands. Selected volunteers were subject to comprehensive training: first, a 4-week shooting course, combined with field studies, the rules of minelaying and physical fitness. Then, 5 to 8 weeks of underground combat training, combined with diversion and sabotage.
After these basic courses, the candidates chose two specialties, which they devoted themselves to for the next few months. Educated jumpers swore the same oath as Home Army soldiers in the country and upon landing in Poland they became soldiers of the Home Army. Trained specialists, for whom the homeland was waiting, had to be delivered to Poland as quickly and efficiently as possible. For this purpose, three Polish aircraft were assigned to the RAF, which performed special-purpose flights zbomb crews. In accordance with the rules adopted at that time, these were volunteer crews that had already completed the full standard of combat flights and underwent additional training. It consisted of night flights at low altitudes and mastering special methods of navigation. Poland was not covered by the radar signaling system and therefore the night flight to the country required astronomical navigation and visual observationj".
The squadron had four-motor Halifaxes, their speed did not reach 300 km per hour, so the flight over central Poland and back had to last from 11 to 14 hours. FROM zat dusk on 29 October 1942 from Tempsford Airport wyHalifax started from No. 773 commanded by Lieutenant Mariusz Wodzicki. At that time, it was one of the most experienced Polish crews. The chronicler wrote about them in the squadron's diary. "It was a crew recruited from old and experienced in many flights to Poland and the bombing of Berlin, Hamburg or Bremen, pilots who, after completing operational flights to Germany, arrived do Dyon English na volunteer, aby carry help Poland".
Of the 17 flights made with paratroopers and couriers to Poland in the period from February 1941 to October 1942, this crew performed a7 such flights and she was undoubtedly best prepared for this type of task.
PASSENGERS
The purpose of the flight was to deliver three jumpers to Poland. They underwent underground training in England, specializing in sabotage and diversion. Now they were to supply their skills to the Home Army in Poland. Due to the possible German listening, all radio communication was limited to the absolute minimum, which was, among other things, the reason why we will never know the details of the flight andwthe strange cause of its tragic ending.
Details of the tragedy
On October 30, 1942, betweeny time. Between 2 and 3 am, on the shore of the Iljansbutjørni lake, at the foot of the rock called Iljansbuknuten, the remains of the plane were burning. All passengers died. The heat emanating from the burning wreck for many hours did not allow to get close to it.
In the late afternoon of October 30, groups of local people reached the dying wreckage of the plane. The Germans also appeared, who immediately took all the surviving documents, money, a machine gun and some ammunition. In the collision with the mountain, the entire front of the aircraft was destroyed, while the rear part and the objects inside survived, thanks to the fact that they fell into the lake and the fire did not destroy them.
The Germans forced the Norwegians who arrived at the crash sitew to remove the corpses of the fallen airmenw and jumperw to the Helleren farm. On the next day, Polish prisoners from the camp in Egersund carried the corpses wrapped in tarpaulins to a cart waiting several kilometers below, requisitioned by the Germans. The remains were transported to the town of Hegdal, where they were placed in coffins and buried by Polish prisoners of war. After a few years, they moved them to the cemetery in Egersund.
What was the cause of the disaster?
Eyewitness accounts, who saw and heard many planes at that time, show that the engines were working efficiently and there was no indication that the machine had been shot. No shots were fired by the surrounding anti-aircraft artillery that night, and no dogfights were recorded.
The reason is probably to be found in the navigation. Plane flying to Poland over Denmark wogole should not have been over Norway. It seems likely that a serious navigational error was made and the pilots ended up over land. Without realizing it, and by the time they realized the situation, it was too late to save them. It is also possible that they were deceived by misleading radio signals broadcast by the Germans. GreatwWe will never know the cause of the catastrophe.
At the site of the accident there is a plaque commemorating the catastrophe, which was arranged by the Norwegian historian Bjorn Bratbak.
The Polish crew of Halifax, which crashed in Norway, did not have peace for a long time even after death.
After the catastrophe, the remains of the brave compatriots were buried in Hegdal, after a few years they were transferred to the cemetery in Egersund, and in 1953 they were buried in Oslo. However, the remains of the bomber remain at the crash site to this day.
POLAND GRAVEA IN OSLO
The Norwegian authorities have established a special office dealing with the inventory of graves of foreigners in Norway. After locating Polish graves scattered all over the country, it was decided to move these, not always well-kept graves, to common graves. Single graves from all over southern Norway were moved to Oslo at the end of 1953. It was also here that the crew and passengers of the Halifax, whose flight to Poland tragically ended in Norway, found their final resting place. They rest here together with 24 compatriots who died in German camps or died trying to escape, and those who died here shortly after the war.
The Norwegian state covered the cost of the statue, which was made by the sculptor Gunnar Janson (1901-83). There were no signs on the monument that would identify those to whom it is dedicated. No symbols indicated that Poles or Christians were buried here. This was the result of the decision of the Polish People's Republic embassy, which, instead of the Polish emblem, presented the artist with a design of a bald bird, which was prevented from being placed by those living in Norwegian Poles. On May 8, on the 40th anniversary of the liberation of Norway from Nazi occupation, celebrations dedicated to these joyful days were held throughout the country. At the Vestre Gravlund cemetery in Oslo, a delegation of the Polish-Norwegian Cultural Society "KULTURA" placed a cross made of white and red flowers. Members and supporters of the Society along with New Embassy in the following years, they set up the Cross, the National Emblem and plates with the names and military ranks of our heroes.
In recent years, another group of Poles has erected a flagpole, renewed the inscriptions on the slabs and takes care of our Polish Monument.
On Sunday, October 30, 2022 at 16.00. Poles living in Oslo and the surrounding area can meet at the monument, remembering the 80th anniversary of the tragic accident.
The article by Jacek Juniszewski, published in the Polish journal WICI no. 10-11 published in Norway in 1985.
Information prepared by:
Polish Newspaper Club in Oslo. [email protected]
Zagierski Foundation [email protected]
