Recently i’ve read the article about polish commander in London Bladislav Sikorski. He has tragically perished in 4 jule of the 1943( together with 15 other people) , flying to London on the british Liberator.
The official version was refusal of the ruling system of Aircraft.
However there is still exist the strong version - he was simply eliminated.He was too bright political figure that some forces behind his allies could simply change him to the other poles - for instance Mikolaichik, that was more loyal and less “independent” figure in policy.
What is you oppinion?
The story of Gen. Vladislav Sikorsky certanly is a puzzle.
His pilot Edward Prchal (survived the crash) was one of only few pilots with permision to land and take-off at Gibraltar at night, some of the occupants of the downed plane perished without a trace, there were reports of at least two unauthorised persons being in contact with the Liberator before the flight that ended in crash.
That were just some of the circumstances involved in that puzzle. I too incline towards political reasons for this crash to be executed, but the details that can confirm that are sadly beyond our reach.
But, as history showed so namy times, this could have been just another aircraft falling from the sky in the wrong time, with the wrong crew aboard.
didn’t I see something on the History channel a while back on this. I seem to remember some sort of computerized detail of the takeoff and the possibility of flaps being set wrong for takeoff or something?
My magazine is doing a short news item on this anything anyone comes up with beyond the orig news source would be helpful.
Thanks
Guy
An early issue of “After the Battle” magazine had an article about the General’s death.
I just dealt with this issue for the first time, I have to admit I learned about Gen. Sikorski just through this thread. Strange circumstances indeed, I read in a german newspaper (Hamburger Abendblatt from July 8th) the files on this case remain sealed until 2050 and that it is indeed planned to exhume and examine the mortal remains.
In the years of my youth it was very widely thought that the “KGB” (of course, NKVD was meant) had paid two persons to sabotage the aircraft the General travelled in.
In the years since, about every 8th or 9th year the topic emerges again.
Frankly, I would not be at all surprised if Lavrenti Beria had ordered Gen. Sikorski’s death, if only to ease Stalin’s mind over the plans for the taking over of Poland.
Regards, Uyraell.
It’s not surprising that conspiracy theories come up–after the Germans found the Katyn mass grave in East Poland, Sikorsky started calling for a detailed investigation of the incident by the Red Cross–which would’ve been an embarrassment to the Stalin regime. I’m not sure if Stalin or the NKVD had anything to do with the general’s death, but they certainly had at least the motive to do it
Colonel Mustard in the study with a candle stick. (sorry, couldn’t help myself,)
The aircraft climbed normally from the runway, leveled off to gather speed but then suddenly lost height and crashed into the harbor. The 62-year-old general died, along with 15 others. Although Sir Robin doubted that The possibility of Sikorski’s murder by the British is excluded from this paper. The possibility of his murder by persons unknown cannot be so excluded. After a long search i have found this from a site ahistorydirectory.com
The death of General Sikorski is still being widely discussed and researched by polish historians. Recently, on TVN (polish tv) there was a documentary based on the research of Dariusz Baliszewski, polish historian who spend half of his life trying to find out what really happened on 4th of July 1943.
Briefly speaking, there is a theory, that general Sikorski was murdered by his polish opponents with great help of the British. It has to be said that by some group of polish military in the West, he was recognized as an enemy of state.
A lot of questions arised.
What was the secret organization that conducted the assassination?
What was the Operation “Mur” (Wall)?
Who stood behind it?
Who was involved in preparation?
Who tried to kill Sikorski in Canada few months earlier?
What happened to general’s daughter?
If that theory turns out to be true, possibly there will be a great turmoil in Poland.
But untill now, it is only a theory.
RAF aicraft losses to technical failure or aircrew error were very, very, tragically common in WW2. The British landscape is quite literally, littered with crash-sites - there are 40-50 WW2 crash sites within a 15 mile radius of my home and none of them were due to enemy action.
Not to put too fine a point on it - it happened all the time. It was an accident. Get over it.
The internet isn’t all it’s cracked up to be as I can’t find the source of the following quote to support the figure I recall, but the secondary quote will have to do. It shows that about 15% of Bomber Command losses were on non-operational flights.
John Terraine in The Right of the Line gives:
'From first to last, 1939-45, the Royal Air Force lost 70,253 officers, NCOs and airmen killed or missing on operations, the overwhelming majority of them being aircrew. This was the price of its victory, and of it by far the largest share fell to Bomber Command between Sept 1939 and May 1945: 47,268. This great number is the grim total of those lost on operations; it was the unique hazard of the airman’s trade that a further 8,305 Bomber Command aircrew lost their lives in non-operational flying - training or accident.
Very true. And that’s just Bomber Command. Around here they’re mainly Coastal Command and Training Command wrecks (and that doesn’t include the many aircraft that were lost in the sea around here, which was considerable, as we had the world’s largest flying boat base at RAF Pembroke Dock).
I can’t recall figures or sources, but I have a recollection that training flights, usually later in training on things such as night navigation, had a much higher rate of accidents and casualties than other flights and were regarded as high risk
This seems not to make sense as a statistical exercise, unless the bulk of flights or air hours were training flights, which might have been possible.
Or maybe it relates to a comparison with the first few operational flights or something other than the total flights or air hours of the force.
There is plenty of evidences supporting the thesis about the assassination.
Making an assumption that it was an accident because technical failures were common in WW2 and there are crash sites around your house is reckless.
More reckless than making baseless accusations of assassination?!
There is no ‘evidence’. As in all conspiracy theories, there is only assumption, theory, paranoia and a quasi-religious belief system.
Sikorski died in an air crash. Princess Diana died in a car accident. Elvis died of an aneurism.
It is possible for famous people to die ordinary deaths, so take off the tin-foil hat.
I don’t think so.
I saw him in my local 7 Eleven only yesterday.
He was eating an ice cream. A two litre tub of it, with double butter sauce on top and a kilo of bacon on the side.
Good point! My mistake!
Thought we could have a discussion here but I was wrong.
Some people try to find the evidences (even if it takes to check an incredible theory), some simple minds are satisfied with simple explanations.
I can’t blame anybody for that.