Came across the enclosed exhibit today, in an army (not air force) museum that’s located in Białystok, a Polish city not far from the Belorussian border.
Before I get to the point, all the explanations next to the exhibits in this museum are written in Russian as well as Polish and English. I asked the museum staff, why in Russian. They replied that many Russians visit the museum (as well as the separate museum in Białystok that’s devoted to the hundreds of thousands of Poles forcibly exiled to Siberia or USSR gulags.)
Good to know that at least some Russians want more than their government’s habitual lies and propaganda.
The little pocket-booklet shown in the enclosed photo was typed-up by a Polish Flight Lieutenant taking part in the Battle of Britain.
It will be no surprise to you that few Polish airforce pilots arriving in Britain in 1940 (mainly via France) knew much, if any, English. To add to their difficulties, they were given little time to learn how to fly a Hurricane (an aircraft that was completely unfamiliar to them) because they were urgently needed to be fighting up in the air, not sitting in a classroom on the ground.
The pocket-book contains the Flight Lieutenant’s personal and unofficial typed notes as to how to get his Hurricane in the air. It’s written mainly in Polish but has a few English words that you’ll recognise. His three paragraph headings are:
> Testing / warming-up the engine
> Taxiing
> Before take-off
I can almost visualise this pilot getting his Hurricane into the air with his pocket book open on (strapped to) his knee, for fast reference.
This exhibit is a gift to the Białystok museum from the Polish Armed Forces museum in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. So the pilot’s little aide-memoir has travelled from the UK to Canada to Poland. Quite a journey.