Golden memorial: the design for the 100ft monument with replica Spitfire
This is the memorial a Polish prince wants to build in Hyde Park to honour his countrymen who were killed in the Battle of Britain.
Prince John Zylinski, who stood to be Mayor of London, is calling on the Government to back his £2 million campaign to install the 100ft-tall bronze Spitfire sculpture. It will be a tribute to the Polish airmen who helped repel wave after wave of German attacks in 1940.
After recent incidents of anti-Polish hate crimes, including graffiti scrawled on a community centre wall in Hammersmith, the prince said that the Government’s financial backing would be a reminder of the solidarity between the countries.
The plans for the monument were launched at the RAF Club in Mayfair last week and have the support of Lord Tebbit and Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski. The prince, who lives in west London, said: “The kill rate of German planes by Polish pilots was four times as big as the kill rate of British pilots.
“This needs to be commemorated and I’m proposing a very large, dramatic, monument in central London for the Polish pilots who saved this country. We Poles spilt our blood and we think that the Government should pay for a memorial. In these times when there have been incidents against Polish people, it’s important that we remember the solidarity of the two nations. In my experience the wave of love for Polish people from Londoners far outweighs any negative feelings.”
If the Government refuses to pay for the memorial, the prince, who won 38,000 votes in the last mayoral election, will ask Londoners for donations. He added: “As Norman Tebbit has said the Battle of Britain would have been lost without the Polish pilots. The Polish boys knew no fear, they were unstoppable, their spirit infected the whole RAF.”
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