Polish Fighter Pilot Zdzisław Krasnodębski

Zdzisław Krasnodębski. Photo from 303 Squadron.

Today we honor the birthday of Zdzisław Krasnodębski, the first Polish commander of the legendary 303 Squadron, who was born 120 years ago on July 10, 1904 in Wola Osowińska near Łuków in the Lublin area. In 1920, at age 16, he joined the Polish Army and fought during the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1919–1920. He subsequently graduated from the Polish Air Force Academy at Dęblin, completing his flying training in 1929, and embarked on his career as a fighter pilot.

Krasnodębski tries to sleep between German raids during the Battle of Britain. Photo from 303 Squadron.

Krasnodębski was an obvious choice for commanding 303 Squadron, since he had previously commanded Polish pilots during the defense of both Poland and France in the German invasions. Krasnodębski shaped 303 Squadron into an organized fighting unit, which became the highest-scoring Allied fighter squadron in the Battle of Britain.

Krasnodębski was severely burned when he was shot down on September 6, 1940. Burns were a constant fear of pilots. Photo from 303 Squadron.

He scored one shared combat victory on September 3, 1940 before being shot down a few days later, on September 6, with severe burns. Due to his injuries, he was retired from flight service, and served as an instructor and station commander until the end of World War II.

303 Squadron ace Witold Urbanowicz, who assumed command after Krasnodębski was wounded, later said about Krasnodębski: “He didn’t score many victories in the air, his victory was on the ground — in the training and upbringing of the young officers in his command.”

Polish Prime Minister and Commander in Chief General Władysław Sikorski awards Krasnodebski the Virtuti Militari while he is still in the hospital. Photo from 303 Squadron.

After the war, Krasnodębski moved to Canada, where he lived until his death in 1980. He was awarded the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari, and the Cross of Valour.

 

 

 

 

German-Polish House – Memorial in Berlin to Polish Victims of WWII Germany

Logo of the proposed German-Polish House: “Remember, Encounter, Understand.” Image courtesy Notes from Poland.

The German government has approved the establishment in Berlin of an institution that will commemorate Polish victims of Nazi Germany. It says that the enormous suffering of Poles under German occupation is still not well known among Germans today.

The “German-Polish House,” as the project is known, will “create a memorial site for the victims of Nazi Germany’s occupation of Poland, shed light on the centuries-long history of intertwining between Germany and Poland, and provide a space for education and encounters in the German-Polish context,” wrote the German government.

Almost six million Polish civilians — around half of them Polish Jews — are estimated to have died as a result of the war. That represents 17% of Poland’s pre-war population and was the highest proportional death toll of any country during the Second World War.

The German occupiers also laid waste to many Polish cities — including the capital, Warsaw, which saw around 85% of its buildings destroyed — and plundered or destroyed much of Poland’s cultural heritage.

The focus of the permanent exhibition of the German-Polish House will be the “tremendous brutality of the German occupation of Poland,” reports the Tagesspiegel daily. But it will also draw attention to relations in earlier centuries and the current ties between the two societies.

German Culture Minister Claudia Roth, who was responsible for developing the plans, yesterday said that the German-Polish House, which is to be located “in the heart of the capital,” will “advance remembrance for a common future for Germany and Poland as close partners in a strong, united Europe.”

Read more about this project in Notes from Poland.

Coincidentally, the Wall St. Journal reported last week that Poland and Germany are now teaming up against Russia:

“The former World War II foes — both of whom see Moscow as their biggest security threat — pledged to increase their military coordination from procurement to training, reinforce the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s military presence near Russia, and better coordinate their assistance to Ukraine. 

“ ‘The security of Poland is also the security of Germany,’ German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in Warsaw after the two countries’ first government consultations in six years. ‘We will pool our capacities, and we will coordinate more…We will jointly take responsibility for the protection of NATO’s eastern flank.’ “

 

July 4, 1943 – Sikorski Dies in Plane Crash

July 4, 1943: Polish Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief General Władysław Sikorski dies when his plane crashes off Gibraltar. The B-24 crashed into the sea just 16 seconds after takeoff, killing all aboard except the Czech pilot.

Among the eleven who died were General Sikorski; Sikorski’s daughter Zofia Leśniowska; the Polish Army Chief of General Staff, Major General Tadeusz Klimecki; the Polish Army Chief of Operations, Colonel Andrzej Marecki; and two British members of Parliament, Brigadier John Percival Whiteley OBE and Colonel Victor Cazalet MC.

General Władysław Sikorski, c. 1942. Photo courtesy U.S. Library of Congress.

At the time of his death, Sikorski faced great political challenges. Cautious diplomatic deals with the Soviet Union were shattered when the Katyń Forest Massacre was announced by Germany in April 1943. The Soviet Union tried to blame the massacre on Germany, but Sikorski called for an independent Red Cross investigation on the matter. The Soviets used Sikorski’s request for a neutral investigation as an excuse to sever diplomatic relations with the Poles.

The Polish government-in-exile lost influence with the Western Allies after Sikorski’s death. No other Polish official had Sikorski’s stature or credibility among the Western leaders, with whom he had a close working relationship.

The loss of Sikorski just four days after the Gestapo arrested General Grot-Rowecki, commander of the Armia Krajowa (AK or Home Army), was a huge blow to Poland and its position within the Allies — as Stalin was seeking to maneuver the U.S. and Britain into agreeing that Poland would fall into the Soviet sphere of influence after the war.

Sikorski’s tomb at Wawel Castle, Kraków. Photo: Witold Dzielski.

Sikorski was buried at the Polish War Cemetery in England, but his remains were moved to Poland after the fall of communism, and are now interred at Wawel Castle, Kraków.

A British Court of Inquiry investigated the crash. After interviewing numerous witnesses, the Court concluded:

“(b) The cause of the accident was, in the opinion of the Court, due to the aircraft becoming uncontrollable for reasons which cannot be established. The pilot, having eased the control column forward to build up speed after take-off, found that he was unable to move it back at all, the elevator controls being virtually jammed somewhere in the system. It is impossible, from the evidence available and examination of the wreckage, to offer any concrete reason as to why the elevator system should have become jammed.”

Questions remain even today as to whether Sikorski’s plane was sabotaged — given the complex political situation at the time, various theories of sabotage have blamed the British, the Germans, the Soviets and a rival Polish faction opposed to Sikorski within the government-in-exile.

Sikorski is mentioned in a number of our previous blog posts, which might be of interest, including:
May 20, 1881 – General Władysław Sikorski Born  
June 18, 1940 – Sikorski to Churchill: Will Britain Continue to Fight? 
June 14, 1940 – Germans Enter Paris 
The Polish Cipher Office & the Miracle on the Vistula

 

June 30, 1943 – General Grot-Rowecki Arrested by Gestapo

General Stefan ‘Grot’ Rowecki, c. 1930s. Photo public domain, via Wikipedia.

On June 30, 1943, General Stefan ‘Grot’ Rowecki, head of the Polish Underground Army (Armia Krajowa, AK or Home Army) was arrested by the Gestapo in German-occupied Warsaw. He had been betrayed by three Poles who were members of the AK, but were secretly Gestapo collaborators.

Following arrest, Rowecki was sent to Berlin where he was imprisoned at Oranienburg and questioned by several prominent German officials. It is believed that he was executed in August 1944 in Sachsenhausen at age 48 under orders from Heinrich Himmler.

General Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski, deputy commander of the AK who succeeded Rowecki as commander, describes the loss of Rowecki in his book The Secret Army (pp.140–141):

“The loss of General Rowecki was our heaviest blow to date. We had, it is true, lost someone from our ranks nearly every month for three years. The war had already lasted much longer than the average life of a man engaged in Underground work….This loss was, however, of far greater significance than the others. General Rowecki was one of the founders of the Home Army and had been its Commander for three years. He had gained an enormous authority amongst his subordinates and indeed throughout the Polish nation. His pseudonym, Grot, was well known everywhere. To the public, Grot was a symbol, a mysterious person who, from the Underground, directed the fight of a nation. We, who knew him more intimately and were in immediate contact with him in the work, knew his great value as a leader, a strong personality, and an outstanding brain, directing and linking the complicated Underground machinery.

“He created an organisation and methods of warfare without precedent. He united and centralized scores of military organisations which had arisen spontaneously, directed by the most varied parties and groups. His personal tact and political talents (the latter hitherto unsuspected) in working with persons of various opinion were important here. He was a handsome man of engaging personality, and a good mixer; he found it relatively easy to influence people….This charm and personality were never known to the public, but played a large part in smoothing out difficulties at the top level. His remarkably quick mind at once picked out the essential elements in every problem, and he could take decisions swiftly.”

This proved to be a black week for wartime Poland, as Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief Wladyslaw Sikorski was killed a few days later in a suspicious plane crash off Gibraltar.

The three traitors who betrayed Rowecki were sentenced to death for high treason by the Underground court. One was in fact executed by the Underground during the war. The other two, a married couple, escaped retribution and survived the war; postwar, they became informers for the communist secret police in Poland.

 

 

V-1 Rocket Found in Polish Desert

Members of Pasjonaci Historii Polonia Minor surround the remains of the V-1 rocket they’ve unearthed. Photo courtesy TVP World.

The remains of a World War II German V-1 rocket were found in the Błędow Desert in Poland by members of the Pasjonaci Historii Polonia Minor (History Enthusiasts of Lesser Poland) group.

In researching the history of the desert, one of the group’s members came across old film footage of German V-1 tests. He began searching the area and its periphery for any traces of the weapon.You can read more about this discovery in this TVP World article.

I’m sure that many of you, like me, didn’t know that Poland has a desert! The Błędow Desert is located northeast of Kraków. Occupying a relatively small area of about 12 square miles (32 sq. km), it’s Central Europe’s largest accumulation of loose sand in an area away from any sea. The desert has been used as a military proving ground since the beginning of the 20th century.

Błędow Desert. Photo public domain, via Wikipedia.

After Germany invaded and occupied Poland in 1939, German forces established a weapons testing ground in the Błędow Desert. They also used the desert as a training ground for troops and equipment — it was here that the German Afrika Korps trained before deployment in North Africa.

V-1 being rolled out for launch by German soldiers. Photo courtesy Bundesarchiv, via Wikipedia.

In 1944, intelligence reports from the Polish Underground disclosed that the Germans had been testing five-ton missiles in the Błędow Desert. These, it turned out, were V-1 rockets, also known as a ‘wunderwaffe’ (wonder weapon) to the Germans.

To the British, they were “buzz bombs” or “doodlebugs,” as V-1s began bombarding England on June 13, 1944, exactly one week after the D-Day Allied landings in Normandy. The world’s first operational cruise missile, the V-1’s pulsejet engine, based on rapid, intermittent combustion, produced a very loud buzzing sound.

Approximately 10,000 were fired at England before the end of the war, with about 2,400 reaching London and resulting in more than 20,000 deaths and injuries.

In his book On Wings of War, Polish 303 Squadron fighter ace Jan Zumbach describes how the fighter squadrons went after the V-1s:

“Almost simultaneously [with D-Day] the spluttering growl of the ‘doodlebugs’ — the V1s — started sounding in the skies over London. We had to find an immediate answer to these flying bombs, or pilotless planes, which were raining down on England….

“It was an absorbing game — a kind of aerial shooting gallery — but dangerous, as several of my pilots learned to their cost. To start with, they were approaching too close before opening fire, and getting caught in the blast. After a couple of days we found that the safe range was 200 yards. Later we invented a more entertaining answer, which involved flying cheek to cheek with a V1, then flipping it over with a wing-tip. This sent it off course, and it would veer away with its engine still roaring, to come down harmlessly in the Channel.

“The Germans soon caught on to this trick, and came up with the ingenious device of fitting small explosive charges to the underside of the V1’s wings. Two of my pilots were blown to pieces when they made contact, and we had to revert to the original technique of shooting them down at a distance.” (pp. 85–86)

 

 

 

 

2024 Michelin Guide to the Best Restaurants in Poland

The MICHELIN Guide proudly unveiled its 2024 selections for Poland last week, highlighting the country’s vibrant and evolving dining scene. Poland now boasts a total of 77 restaurants recognized by Michelin, including 6 Michelin-star restaurants!

These include the following outstanding restaurants:

Next time you’re in Poland, stop by and enjoy exquisite cuisine at any of these fine establishments! Click here for the full list of the 77 Michelin-recommended restaurants in Poland.

 

 

 

 

June 22, 1941 – Germany Invades the Soviet Union

17th Panzer Division advances into the Soviet Union, summer 1941. Photo from Fighting Auschwitz.
Generaloberst Adolf Strauss and a Wehrmacht captain study a map during the first week of the invasion. Photo from Fighting Auschwitz.

Code name Operation Barbarossa: on June 22, 1941, millions of German soldiers invade the Soviet Union, as Hitler turns on his erstwhile ally Stalin. The German invasion of the Soviet Union remains the largest invasion in history.

Two years earlier, in August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union had entered into the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact — a mutual non-aggression pact with secret provisions for the division of Central and Eastern Europe between the two countries. Having assured himself that the Soviets would not oppose him, Hitler felt confident in invading Poland, thereby beginning World War II.

Before Operation Barbarossa, even at his most cynical, Stalin believed that Hitler would not risk a war with the Soviet Union until after Britain had been conquered. The Polish Underground reported the massive German military buildup on the Soviet border to Allied leaders in London, and Britain repeatedly alerted the Soviets of the upcoming invasion. Stalin refused to believe the warnings. Consequently, the Germans achieved complete surprise during Operation Barbarossa — but also split their forces between Eastern and Western Europe.

German StuG III of the 192nd Assault Gun Battalion (the ‘Death’s Head Division’) in a rapid advance into the Soviet Union, summer 1941. Photo from Fighting Auschwitz.

As the Germans advanced, Stalin was desperate for Allied aid. His government even mended diplomatic ties with Poland, and approved the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement of 1941. This granted ‘amnesty’ for all Polish deportees and POWs (still alive) in the Soviet Union, with the promise that they would form an army on Soviet soil to fight Germany. Polish General Władysław Anders, newly released by the Soviets from Lubyanka Prison, was chosen to lead the future Polish Second Corps.

 

Wianki 2024 – Celebrate the Summer Solstice

Girls choosing flowers for the wreaths that they will weave, Krakow Wianki 2015. Photo courtesy gazetakrakowska.pl.

This weekend, June 22–23, 2024, celebrate the summer solstice along the banks of the Vistula River with the traditional Polish festival of Wianki, or the Wreath Festival!

In Krakow, the festivities center around music, while traditional wreath weaving remains integral to the celebration. The Music Festival includes both stars and newcomers across diverse genres such as classical, jazz, rock, folk, and pop, along with club sounds and even a silent disco experience. All concerts are free of charge.

Fireworks over the Vistula, Krakow Wianki 2016. Photo courtesy abpoland.com.

Typically, in addition to music, the Wianki Festival will include a picnic, a competition for the most beautiful wreath, and wreath weaving. Krakow’s Wianki celebration, one of the best known, also includes St. John’s Fair, located near the Wawel Castle. There are plenty of handmade crafts, wreaths, and traditional foods, as well as folk dances and music to entertain visitors. The night ends with a glorious fireworks display of the Vistula River.

Wianki originates from a pagan fertility festival honoring the Slavic goddess of love, Kupala. During the night, called Kupalnocka, people participated in wreath-floating and bonfire-jumping ceremonies, which were supposed to ensure fertility. Every flower or herb in a wreath has its special meaning. The legend says if one puts a lit candle inside the wreath and lets it float down the river, one’s dream may come true.

Working on a huge wreath for Wianki in Warsaw, 2024. Photo courtesy tvn24.pl.

Wianki Festivals will be held in Warsaw and elsewhere around Poland — and even in Polish communities in the U.S. and other countries. Search online for a Wianki Festival being held near you!

June 20, 1942 – Daring Escape from Auschwitz

The main gate at Auschwitz Concentration Camp. “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work liberates you”). Photo from The Auschwitz Vounteer.

On June 20, 1942, four Polish prisoners mounted a daring escape out of Auschwitz.

Kazimierz Piechowski, Stanisław Jaster, Józef Lempart and Eugeniusz Bender sneaked into a warehouse for the Auschwitz guards and stole SS uniforms and weapons, and then made off with the Camp Commandant’s personal Steyr 220 sedan. At the locked main gate, Piechowski (the only escapee who knew German) yelled, “Wake up, you buggers! Open up or I’ll open you up!” The guards on duty rushed the car through, thinking the four escapees were angry SS officers.

None of the runaways were ever recaptured. In escaping, Jaster, who was a member of the secret underground resistance organization built among the prisoners by Captain Witold Pilecki, smuggled one of Pilecki’s intelligence reports out to Home Army leaders.

“I venture to suggest that the escape of four inmates from Auschwitz in the finest car there, the Camp Commandant’s, dressed in SS uniforms, against the background of that hell, could make a truly fine subject for a film,” wrote Witold Pilecki in his report, The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery (pp. 204–205).

Pilecki described the aftereffects of the escape in the camp that evening at roll call, when the four prisoners turned up missing:

“Lagerführer Aumeier [Hans Aumeier], hastening on horseback from Buna for evening roll call, met the car en route. He dutifully saluted, somewhat surprised that the driver was taking the car over a disused grade crossing.

“He put it down to vodka and the driver’s weak head.

“They [the escapees] kept their nerve and the escape succeeded.

“The Lagerfuhrer arrived back at Auschwitz in time for roll call, when everyone was already standing with their blocks in dressed ranks.

“Now the fun really began!

“He was informed that four inmates were missing from roll call and, worse still, that they had taken the Commandant’s car.

“This took place in the blockführerstube [SS guardroom].

“Aumeier went almost crazy, tearing out his hair. He was shouting that he had met them.

“Then he threw his cap in despair on the ground and … suddenly burst out laughing.

“There were no reprisals, no shootings and no long punishment parades.

“That policy dated from February of ’42.”

While collective responsibility for the escape was not applied against the rest of the prisoners, the escapees’ families were not so lucky. Piechowski’s and Jaster’s parents were imprisoned at Auschwitz, as was Lempart’s mother, where they perished. The kapo [a trusted prisoner given a supervisory role] in charge of the motor pool, Kurt Pachala, was punished following an investigation. It appears that he was tortured and sent to the standing cell in Block 11, where he died of hunger and thirst.

 

June 18, 1940 – Sikorski to Churchill: Will Britain Continue to Fight?

General Władysław Sikorski, c. 1942. Photo courtesy U.S. Library of Congress.

On June 18, 1940, the day after France surrendered to Germany, Władysław Sikorski, Polish Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief, flew to London. When he met with Churchill the next day, Sikorski had one question: Will Britain continue to fight?

Sir Winston Churchill, 1941. Photo by Yousuf Karsh; public domain via Wikipedia.

Churchill’s answer: “Tell your army in France that we are their comrades in life and in death. We shall conquer together or we shall die together.” (Jan Ciechanowski, Defeat in Victory, p. 15; emphasis added.)

That same day, in addition to Prime Minister Churchill and British Chief of Staff General Hastings Ismay, Sikorski also met with Sir Archibald Sinclair, Secretary of State for Air; Anthony Eden, Secretary of State for War; and Lord Halifax, Foreign Secretary, in order to coordinate the immediate evacuation of Polish forces from France.

General  Sikorski during a visit with British Prime Minister Churchill at 10 Downing Street, after the Polish government-in-exile had evacuated from France to Britain. Seated from the left are: Lord Halifax, General Sikorski, Winston Churchill and August Zaleski. Photo courtesy Stefan Bałuk.

That afternoon, Sikorski gave a broadcast over the BBC, affirming that Poland would continue the fight at Britain’s side, and ordering all Poles in France to head to the French ports where British and Polish ships would be picking them up.

Polish fighter pilot Zdzisław Henneberg. Photo from 303 Squadron.

On the same day that Sikorski flew to London, future 303 Squadron ace Zdzisław Hennenberg led his flight group of three fighters and a transport across the English Channel — the only Polish unit to fly their aircraft from France to Britain.

Polish airmen being evacuated from France to Britain, June 1940. Future 303 Squadron fighter pilot Kazimierz Wünsche plays an accordion on board the ship. Photo from 303 Squadron.

An estimated 20,000 to 35,000 Polish soldiers and airmen fighting in France were evacuated by sea in the weeks that followed. An estimated 6,000 Polish soldiers died during the Battle of France

France signed the surrender documents with Germany on June 22, but Poland continued fighting as one of the Allies until the war’s end. For the most critical year of the war — from June 1940 when France abandoned its Allies and surrendered to Germany, to June 1941 when Germany invaded the Soviet Union — Poland was Britain’s largest Ally. Thereafter Poland fielded the fourth largest Allied military force in the European Theater of the war, after only the U.S., Britain and the Soviet Union.

 

 

 

 

Mascot of the Month: Misia – 303 Squadron Mascot

Misia atop a 303 Squadron fighter plane, proudly displays a squadron milestone — written on what appears to be a fragment of a Junkers 88 bomber: “The 178th German Aircraft Destroyed by 303 Polish (F) Squadron. July 3, 1942, Kirton-in-Lindsey.” Photo courtesy of Wojtek Matusiak and Robert Gretzyngier.

303 Squadron was the highest-scoring Allied fighter squadron in the Battle of Britain, credited with downing 126 enemy planes in its six weeks of operations, from August 30 (the day before the squadron officially became operational, when Lieutenant Ludwik Paszkiewicz broke away from a training exercise to down a Messerschmitt 110) to October 11, 1940 when it was withdrawn from combat and sent to rest at Leconfield.

Even though 303 Squadron was not operational for the first two months of the Battle of Britain, it outscored the average RAF squadron by three to one with one-third the casualties, and downed more than twice the number of the next highest-scoring squadron, a British one. The squadron’s extraordinary exploits are chronicled in the award-winning 303 Squadron: The Legendary Battle of Britain Fighter Squadron, written “live” during the Battle of Britain.

The Polish pilots of 303 Squadron adopted as its mascot an adorable terrier mix dog, which they named Misia. Although we haven’t been able to find any film footage of Misia, the photogenic pooch was captured in a number of shots with squadron pilots. Misia was not the only dog adopted by 303 Squadron pilots, but she seems to be the most photographed. Unfortunately, we don’t know the name of any others.

Misia with 303 Squadron pilot Wacław Giermer. Photo courtesy Wojtek Matusiak and Robert Gretzyngier.
Misia playing with 303 Squadron pilot Kazimierz Wünsche. Photo courtesy Wojtek Matusiak and Robert Gretzyngier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Misia with 303 Squadron pilot Józef Stasik, on his Spitfire. Photo courtesy IWM.
303 Squadron pilots Kustrzyński, Popek (holding Misia), Szlagowski, Ferić, Daszewski and Zumbach. Another squadron pet sits atop the plane. Photo from 303 Squadron.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out the products in our Store featuring the 303 Squadron insignia!

 

 

 

June 14, 1940 – Germans Enter Paris

German troops enter Paris, June 14, 1940 — here with the Arc de Triomphe in the background. Photo courtesy USNARA.

On June 14, 1940, the Germans entered Paris unopposed by Allied forces.

The day before, June 13, Winston Churchill had flown to France to meet with French Premier Paul Reynaud and members of his cabinet, to urge them to continue fighting.  Churchill suggested a strategic retreat across the Mediterranean to French North Africa, saving the French fleet and air force, and as much of the French army as possible.

On June 11, 1940, General Władysław Sikorski, Polish Prime Minister and Commander in Chief of the Polish forces fighting in France, had left to make a firsthand assessment of the military situation. As an experienced military commander himself, he quickly saw that the Allied situation, under overall French command, was serious and likely to worsen. For a few crucial days, while he was traveling and directing the Polish forces fighting on the Maginot Line, he was out of touch with the rapidly deteriorating French political situation.

August Zaleski, Foreign Minister of the Polish government-in-exile. Photo courtesy Bundesarchiv via Wikipedia.
Paul Reynaud, French Premier. Photo public domain via Wikipedia.

On June 15, 1940, Polish Foreign Minister August Zaleski met with French Premier Reynaud. Reynaud told Zaleski that France would likely seek an immediate armistice with Germany, and offered to negotiate an armistice for Poland as well. Zaleski was stunned by the rapid French collapse — it was, after all, only 5 weeks since the Germans had invaded France on May 10th.

As described by Jan Ciechanowski in his book Defeat in Victory (pp. 9–12), Zaleski responded to Reynaud (emphasis added):

“I will immediately report to our President and General Sikorski,” said Zaleski. “I can say now that, whatever the French Government decides to do, the Polish Government and Army will not capitulate. How long have we got to leave France should you decide to sue for an armistice?”

“Three to four days, I should say, at the most,” coldly replied Reynaud.

Hitler tours notable sites in Paris, June 23, 1940 — here with the Eiffel Tower in the background. Photo courtesy USNARA.

On June 16, Reynaud was replaced as Premier by Philippe Pétain. The next day, June 17, Pétain asked the Germans for a ceasefire.