Polish Day in Southport celebrates courage and devotion in the face of tyranny. Sound familiar?

By Andrew Brown

The story of a peaceful, Eastern European country suddenly being invaded by armed forces led by a dictator without provocation or without warning – and the courage of its people in resisting the brutal advances – is one that everyone is talking about.

Last summer, it was also the focus of a brilliant exhibition that was opened at The Atkinson in Southport in what has proved to become an eerie prediction of what was to come.

That is the importance of history – if we don’t learn from it then history has a nasty way of repeating itself.

The Atkinson opened its exhibition, called Courage and Devotion, on Saturday, 26th June 2021.

This display remembers the lives of the Polish Airmen based at RAF Woodvale near Southport, the iconic Spitfire and some of the stories associated with the area during World War Two.

Highlighted there are the incredible stories of the people who had escaped the German, and then the Russian invasion of their country – Russia was led by Stalin back then rather than Putin – and had travelled across Europe to fight the dictatorships of Russia and Germany first from France, and then from Britain.

Today (Saturday, 12th March 2022), at The Atkinson, a very special Polish Day takes place to recognise and remember their courage and their sacrifice.

There will be Polish food; Polish crafts and entertainment; talks; military vehicles; and the final chance to see the Courage and Devotion exhibition.

The centrepiece of the attraction is a scale replica of Spitfire Vb AB273 specially created by artist Suhail Shaikh – which is one third of the size of a real Spitfire – almost entirely out of paper.

His ‘moment in time’ sculpture shows the exact moment, height and speed of the Spitfire being flown in 1942 by Polish pilot Sergeant Jerzy Stanislaw Zielinsky of the 308 Krakowski Squadron based at RAF Woodvale as it intercepted and shot down a Dornier German bomber off the coast of Southport.

Also on display are the faces and the incredibly moving stories of some of the many young Polish men who served – and died – while at RAF Woodvale.

Their homeland, Poland, had been suddenly and shockingly invaded by the Panzers of Hitler’s Germany on 1st September 1939.

In echoes of today’s conflict in Ukraine, a peaceful country was laid waste and its citizens slaughtered.

Poland appealed for help. Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3rd September having previously stood by while Germany had invaded Austria and Czechoslovakia. The isolationist USA kept out of it.

Today, Ukraine is appealing for help from other nations to impose a ‘no-fly zone’ over its country. In 1939, Poland hoped for Allied support to stop the Nazi bombing, but help never came.

On 17th September Stalin’s Russia invaded Poland from the east, and the country was finished.

Huge numbers of refugees fled to neighbouring countries, which would also soon be over-run.

Many fighting men escaped by long and tortuous routes to find passage to Britain to fight on, some of them at RAF Woodvale.

For so many who have visited the Courage and Devotion exhibition at The Atkinson last summer, wars like this seemed such a long way away. Stories from a different past, belatedly recognising the bravery of the Polish airmen and the important part played by nationalities from all over the world in eventually restoring peace by 1945.

We all hoped, rather like the First World War, that it would prove to be the ‘war to end all wars’. We hoped that peace in Europe would prevail.

Tragically, this exhibition has become a poignant prophecy.

A peaceful, democratic European nation is now under brutal attack from a neighbouring dictatorship. No-one yet knows where or how this will all end.

This time it is Ukraine, rather than Poland, being invaded. But today, cities just an hour away from Poland are currently being bombed. Russian tanks, troops and warplanes are moving ever closer.

The support from people in Poland and elsewhere in Europe towards Ukrainian refugees has been hugely commendable.

Here in Southport, people here are playing their part in supporting those fleeing their homes in such desperate circumstances. We must do all we can.