It's very rare that I create a new thread, almost unheard of, but I saw this and... went "Arrrrgh!", frankly. Not just one "hero", if you want to use that word. There were hundreds of them. The article itself says he served in a Polish squadron! Yes, exactly!!

Josef Frantisek may or may not have been a hero. He died long ago, but there were hundreds of them. Czechs, Poles, and others who fled from the Nazis to fight against them for... Not for us, necessarily. Remember that. They fought for their own reasons. They fought WITH us because we were still fighting. Many of them stayed afterwards because they grew to love us & we grew to love them. At least, then. Now, I'm not so sure. Now, you'd think that no-one ever knew that They; Poles, Czechs, the Free French Forces, etc; fought for us as well as themselves.

It's not that I wish to diminish Josef Frantisek in any way. But this is sloppy journalism made worse by the fact that it seems to be based solely on the release of a film that undoubtedly includes a great deal of story-telling fantasy with little connection to reality.

I know it's two months early, but remember them. All of them. Not just the named ones. There were hundreds & thousands of them. Not the Anzacs & the Canucks et al who had ties to the "Mother Country". All the others; whether, for you, they had names or faces. Remember them too. They fought; not for us, that is also fatuous; because they had to, same as ours did. Nevertheless!

Remember them. They fought.