ABSTRACT
Following the overrunning of most of Europe by Germany during 1939 and 1940, Polish soldiers sought refuge in the United Kingdom (UK) until such time as they would be in a position to return to the fray. At first, the British people and press were sympathetic to the Poles as ‘our gallant and tragic allies’. However, the first episodes of women in London spitting at Poles in uniform were recorded in 1944. 1 What had changed the situation so dramatically was the entry of the Soviet Union into the war on the side of the Allies, following the German invasion in June 1941. Polish criticism of Soviet behaviour in eastern Poland 1939–41 had either gone unnoticed or unchecked. After 1941, with the Soviet Union on the Allied side, criticism by the Poles was no longer welcome. The Western Allies simply failed to understand Polish misgivings.
