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1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 Crash
On 4 July 1943, a Liberator II aircraft crashed off Gibraltar shortly after takeoff, killing all but one of the seventeen people on board. Among the victims were several senior Polish military leaders, including General Władysław Sikorski, the commander-in-chief of the Polish Army and prime minister of the Polish government-in-exile. The plane's pilot was the only survivor. The crash was ruled to have been an accident, but the conclusion sparked controversy on Sikorski's death, with several alternative theories put forward. The crash marked a turning point for Polish influence on their Anglo-American allies in World War II. Background The relationship between the Soviet Union and Poland was tenuous at best during World War II for a variety of reasons, and became more so, after the 1940 Katyn massacre of over 20,000 Polish servicemen by the Soviets came to light. However, pragmatic General Władysław Sikorski was still open to some form of normalisation of Polish-Soviet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Consolidated B-24 Liberator
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models designated as various LB-30s, in the Land Bomber design category. At its inception, the B-24 was a modern design featuring a highly efficient shoulder-mounted, high aspect ratio Davis wing. The wing gave the Liberator a high cruise speed, long Range (aeronautics), range and the ability to carry a heavy Aerial bomb, bomb load. In comparison with its contemporaries, the B-24 was relatively difficult to fly and had poor low-speed performance; it also had a lower Ceiling (aeronautics), ceiling and was less robust than the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. While Aircrew#Military, aircrews tended to prefer the B-17, General Staff favored the B-24 and procured it in huge numbers for a wide variety of roles. At approximately 18,500 units – including 8,68 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eduard Prchal
Eduard Maximilian Prchal (1 January 1911 – 4 December 1984) was a Czechoslovakian pilot and sole survivor of a 1943 plane crash that killed the Polish Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski. Biography Eduard Prchal was born into a family of cabinet makers. After completing his secondary education he worked for a brief period as a car sales representative. In October 1930, he was required to do military service; with help of his uncle, a colonel, he applied successfully to the Czechoslovak Air Force. His basic flying training ended in October 1931, and he was posted to an observation squadron based at Hradec Králové. Prchal was soon recognised as being a skilled pilot. In 1932 he graduated from flying training as an operational military pilot, and in 1934 he completed night flying training. Prchal served in the army until May 1937, then joined the Bata shoe company as a commercial pilot. On 22 June 1939, soon after the German occupation of Czech lands, Prchal illegally ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Order Of The British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two of which make the recipient either a Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom#Modern honours, knight if male or a dame (title), dame if female. There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with the order, but are not members of it. The order was established on 4 June 1917 by King George V, who created the order to recognise 'such persons, male or female, as may have rendered or shall hereafter render important services to Our Empire'. Equal recognition was to be given for services rendered in the UK and overseas. Today, the majority of recipients are UK citizens, though a number of Commonwealth realms outside the UK continue to make appointments to the order. Honorary awards may be made to cit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Whiteley (politician)
Brigadier John Percival Whiteley OBE (7 January 1898 – 4 July 1943) was a British Army officer and a Conservative Party politician. Born in January 1898 in South Africa, Whiteley was commissioned into the Royal Artillery during the First World War, ending the war as a lieutenant. In 1926 he transferred to the Life Guards, retiring in 1928 and joining the 99th (Buckinghamshire and Berkshire Yeomanry) Field Brigade, Royal Artillery ( Territorial Army) as a captain. He was promoted major in 1932. He stood unsuccessfully at the 1929 general election in Birmingham Aston, and entered the House of Commons eight years later when he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Buckingham at a by-election in 1937, after the sitting MP George Bowyer was elevated to the peerage as Baron Denham.Craig, page 296 When World War II broke out, Whiteley resumed military service. He was active at Dunkirk, and died in 1943, aged 45, when he was killed in a plane crash in Gibraltar, along w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrzej Marecki
Andrzej Marecki (2 September 1898 – 4 July 1943) was a Polish military officer. He was a colonel in the Polish Army, lecturer in tactics and member of the Polish General Staff during World War II. He died in the controversial 1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash. Biography Andrzej Marecki was born on 2 September 1898. He participated in the Polish–Soviet War of 1918–1921. In the years 1924–1926 he studied in the Wyższa Szkoła Wojenna (Polish Military Academy). After graduating, from 1928 he was a lecturer in tactics at his ''alma mater''. In the years 1934–1936 he served with the . From February 1936 he was a military attaché at the Polish diplomatic mission in Stockholm. In February 1939 he was attached to the Polish General Staff. Following Polish defeat after the German and Soviet invasion of Poland, he made his way through Romania to France, where he joined the recreated Polish Army in France. He taught a Polish course at the École Supérieure de Guerre, and later beca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zofia Leśniowska
Zofia Wanda Leśniowska (''née'' Sikorska; 2 March 1912 – 4 July 1943) was the daughter of Lieutenant-General Władysław Sikorski. She was a first lieutenant (''porucznik'') in the Polish Armed Forces. She died together with her father in the Władysław Sikorski's death controversy, controversial 1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash. Biography Zofia Leśniowska, born on 2 March 1912, was the daughter of Lt. Gen. Władysław Sikorski and , whom Sikorski married in 1909. On 30 September 1936 she married engineer Lt. Stanisław Leśniowski (1904 - 11 December 1987). She was active in the Polish Red Cross, and known for her passion for horse riding. After World War II broke out, on 7 September 1939 Lt. Gen. Sikorski ordered her to organize a resistance movement. Her apartment on Górczewski's Street in Warsaw was used for a conspiracy movement. In January 1940 she was called as an emissary to France, and travelled as an underground courier, smuggling various documents. She was her father' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polish General Staff
Polish General Staff, formally known as the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces ( Polish: ''Sztab Generalny Wojska Polskiego'') is the highest professional body within the Polish Armed Forces. Organizationally, it is an integral part of the Ministry of National Defence and the Chief of the General Staff is the highest ranking military officer at the Ministry. It was created in 1918, and was renamed the Main Staff (''Sztab Główny'') in 1928 before being reverted back to General Staff (''Sztab Generalny'') in 1945 by the Soviet backed Communist Government. Currently General Wiesław Kukuła holds the position of Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces (''Szef Sztabu Generalnego Wojska Polskiego''). History and structure On 25 October 1918, a decision was made to establish the directorate of the chief of staff of the Polish Army. On 22 December 1928 the General Staff was renamed to the Main Staff (''Sztab Główny''). In September 1939, during the Invasion of Pol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tadeusz Klimecki
Tadeusz Klimecki (November 23, 1895July 4, 1943) – Brigadier General of the Polish Army, Chief of Polish General Staff. Early life and service in the Imperial and Royal Army Tadeusz Klimecki was born in Tarnów, Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father was a local lawyer, Joseph Klimecki, and his mother was Ludwika Regiec. In 1913 he graduated from the gymnasium in Jasło and enrolled at the Faculty of Law of the Jagiellonian University. In 1914 he joined the Eastern Legion, and at its dissolution he was drafted into the Austrian army. After graduating from the school of infantry officers he was sent to the Italian front as a platoon leader. In 1915 he was appointed a standard-bearer, in 1916 – a second lieutenant. By the end of World War I he had been wounded three times and served as a company commander. Service in the Polish Army From November 1918 served in the Polish Army. Between November 1918 and October 1925 he was a company and battalion commander in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Armia Krajowa
The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the aftermath of the German and Soviet invasions in September 1939. Over the next two years, the Home Army absorbed most of the other Polish partisans and underground forces. Its allegiance was to the Polish government-in-exile in London, and it constituted the armed wing of what came to be known as the Polish Underground State. Estimates of the Home Army's 1944 strength range between 200,000 and 600,000. The latter number made the Home Army not only Poland's largest underground resistance movement but, along with Soviet and Yugoslav partisans, one of Europe's largest World War II underground movements. The Home Army sabotaged German transports bound for the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union, destroying German supplies and tying down subs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jan Gralewski (courier)
Jan Gralewski (3 March 1912 – 4 July 1943) was a Polish philosopher, essayist and soldier. Member of Polish resistance (Home Army) during World War II, he died in the controversial 1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash. Life Gralewski was born on 3 March 1912 in Warsaw. He graduated from the University of Warsaw's philosophy department where he studied under Władysław Tatarkiewicz. He researched topics related to philosophy and literary theory, publishing several articles and essays on those topics even before graduating the university. Before World War II he published some essays in ''Arkady'' and ''Życie Sztuki''. He continued writing and publishing during the war, while at the same time joining Polish resistance ( ZWZ, Home Army) where he became a courier travelling between the occupied Poland and the Polish government in exile in the West. He was also involved in the underground education initiatives. In 1942 he married poet and scholar Alicja Iwańska, then also a resistance me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chippenham (UK Parliament Constituency)
Chippenham is a Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 2024 United Kingdom general election, 2024 by Sarah Gibson (politician), Sarah Gibson, a Liberal Democrats (UK), Liberal Democrat. The 2024 constituency includes the Wiltshire towns of Calne, Chippenham, Corsham and Royal Wootton Bassett. In May 2023, the incumbent Chippenham MP, Michelle Donelan, announced she would be standing for the new Melksham and Devizes (UK Parliament constituency), Melksham and Devizes constituency. In July 2023, the local Conservative Association announced that their candidate for the new Chippenham constituency would be a local unitary councillor, Nic Puntis. History A parliamentary borough of Chippenham was enfranchised in 1295. It sent two burgess (title), burgesses to Parliament until 1868 and one thereafter until the borough constituency was a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative and Unionist Party, commonly the Conservative Party and colloquially known as the Tories, is one of the two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party. The party sits on the Centre-right politics, centre-right to Right-wing politics, right-wing of the Left–right political spectrum, left-right political spectrum. Following its defeat by Labour at the 2024 United Kingdom general election, 2024 general election it is currently the second-largest party by the number of votes cast and number of seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons; as such it has the formal parliamentary role of His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition. It encompasses various ideological factions including One-nation conservatism, one-nation conservatives, Thatcherism, Thatcherites and Traditionalist conservatism, traditionalist conservatives. There have been 20 Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
