AUGUST 24 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

AUGUST 24

1940

Battle of Britain: Polish Sergeant Antoni Glowacki of the 501 Squadron in the RAF, accomplished one of the most remarkable feats in air battle ever seen. On this day, Glowacki claimed five enemy bombers, which  he shot shot down in three sorties over the course of one day. Glowacki was only one of three pilots honored with the "Ace In A Day" status.  In his memoirs, Glowacki wrote, "Suddenly a Defiant with a Messerschmitt 109 on its tail flashed across my path between me and the Junkers. I am now firing at the Messerschmitt and see my bursts sink into its fuselage and wings. He is hit and goes down closely behind the Defiant, which trials black smoke. Both aircraft crash into the sea below."

1944

Message from Delegatura in Poland to British government:   “For the second time we are appealing to you. It is already for 3 weeks that we are carrying on our bloody struggle left to rely upon our own strength only, insufficiently supplied with weapons and ammunition and without air support. At the same time reports from all Polish territories occupied by the Soviets, whether disputed or not, show that the civil administration and home forces coming out into the open, are being interned, arrested or imprisoned by the Soviets in the ill famed concentration camp of Majdanek.20 This applies to the same home forces which have so effectively assisted in fighting the Germans. In this way after 5 years of unrelenting resistance against the Germans, for which we pay with our blood, the Polish nation is coming under the no less cruel slavery of one of the Allies. Can the great peoples of the United States of America and of Great Britain watch passively this new hecatomb of friendly Poland? Is not even the Polish Air Force allowed to come to assistance of succumbing Warsaw? Is Poland to become victim to some division of spheres of interest?

1989

Tadeusz Mazowiecki became the 1st non-communist Prime Minister of Poland:  Tadeusz Mazowiecki won a vote of confidence in the Sejm, making him the first non-communist Polish prime minister in 43 years, (and first non-communist Prime Minister of an Eastern European country in over 40 years). In December 1981 he was arrested by the communist-Polish regime during martial law and imprisoned but released in the same month.  Mazowiecki held a key role in the Polish Round Table Talks, thus becoming one of the most important architects of the agreement by which partially free elections in Poland were held on June 4, 1989. While the Communists and their satellites were guaranteed a majority in the legislature, Solidarity won all of the contested seats in a historic landslide. Mazowiecki  channeled the enormous popularity and credibility of the Solidarity movement into re-shaping the Polish economy, through the Balcerowicz Plan. Named after the Minister of Finance, Leszek Balcerowicz, the plan comprised of a series of extensive political and economic reforms that transformed the Polish economy from a centrally planned shortage economy to a democratic free-market economy.  In his first parliamentary speech, Mazowiecki referred to "gruba linia" (thick line):   " ...We draw a thick line on what has happened in the past. We will answer for only what we have done to help Poland to rescue her from this crisis from now on....."  He explained that it meant his government was not liable for any damages to the national economy done by previous governments.