THE WHITE EAGLE

[Music] This is the story of a nation in exile, of Poland, in Britain. But it's more than just the story of some foreigners driven by cruelty and oppression to take refuge abroad. It's the story of people who are now our guests, yours and mine. It's the story of people whose hosts we are proud to be. For the Poles in Britain are not only our friends and our guests. They have become by land and sea and especially in the air our very gallant comrades in arms. We are looking at Warsaw and it's August 1939. Almost like looking back at another world. [Music] A small boy used to feed the pigeons in the old city square. [Music] The pigeons flew away as the bombs fell. That small boy, his name is Andrew, saw the flight of the pigeons and the falling of the bombs in Warsaw. He's a Polish boy, and after some months of the German terror in occupied Poland, he found his way with incredible adventure across the sea of freedom. Now again, he watches the pigeons in another square, Trafalga Square. This young man is doing his bit to help his fatherland by distributing the Polish Daily Paper among his fellow countrymen [Music] again. He looks at the sky, an English sky again. He hears the hum, sees the tracks against the blue of the German airplanes, this time over England, Poland in Britain. Count Rachinsky, the Polish ambassador to the court of St. James keeps in his safe the treaty of alliance between Great Britain and Poland. This treaty is more than so much ink and paper. It is a test of friendship. Poland and Britain, its prime minister and commander and chief, General Shikski. Its work to fight for the present, to plan for the future. In the good pre-war times, governments fell without the help of bombs. Today, when bombs are dropping and houses collapsing, the Allied government show an extraordinary stability. They change the seat, but not the cabinet. It's not so easy to recognize the room in the morning where the Polish government had a session during the previous evening. [Music] But planning for the future must wait upon fighting for the present. Among the Poles also much has been bowed by many to the few. [Music] Reorganized on British soil, the Polish Air Force is fighting wing to-wing with their comrades of the Royal Air Force. We should not forget that in the Battle of Britain, no fewer than 300 German planes went down under the guns of Polish airmen. [Music] that a nation does not live by courage alone. Though without courage it cannot live at all. While planes fly and the guns rattle in the clouds, Poland and Britain restores what it can of normal life for its people. The Polish airmen proudly keep constant guard over the lives and activities of their countrymen. [Music] [Music] The Polish Red Cross sends parcels to the army in Scotland, to the wounded soldiers in Polish hospitals in this country, and to the Polish war prisoners in Germany, and there are many thousands of them over there. A Polish medical center has been created. In these times, it's rather important to keep one's blood pressure as normal as possible. Here are Polish doctors bringing help to refugees. In their school, the boys are doing their best to absorb all sorts of learned things, though their minds are probably on the latest aircraft models. [Music] The Polish half, a center of cultural and social life for our guests. presented by the British Council. Here, the president of the Polish Republic, Musuratkovich, entertains King Harkan of Norway to a proverbial English cup of tea. They don't forget that Poles and Norwegians fought side by side at Narvik. They don't forget that in Poland you may not play nor listen to Polish music. The Germans have forbidden it. that here in London, while the planes fly overhead and the bombs fall in the street, Polish music is played. And on the English stage, we see a performance of the Krakco peasant wedding. It's to keep these things alive that the pilots train and the mechanics work unweily at their huracans and spitfires. [Music] [Music] Even an ace pilot hopes for another kind of ace, just like the rest of us. [Music] Scramble. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Dog fight overhead, but work has to go on. A Polish artist is finishing his sketch in a foreign land. [Music] Another fight. No one remembers whether this is the third or fourth today. There are so many of them. It was only afterwards they realized it was the Battle of Britain they were fighting. [Music] Dogfight or not, here are Poles planning an exhibition. They want us to learn and understand all about Poland. And after the day's work, the long night begins. Like the rest of us, Andrew wanders home through the darkening streets, looking at the silhouette of London's towers against the dusk. The Germans have destroyed Polish books wholesale where they could find them. But they have not destroyed the library of Poland in Britain. Still they keep on trying. Each night the bombers of the Luftbuffer take off from the dusky airfields of France towards the great lake of darkness that is London. [Music] [Music] But life goes on where the bombs fall. This film that you see was in the cutting room during many arrays. [Music] [Music] 1 2 3 4 5 Andrew improves his English counting the bombs fall. Nothing can disturb the young Polish soldiers, sailors, and airmen. Singing the Kraoviac and the Mazerka, they enjoy a shelter party the Polish priest gives for them in the crypt of the Polish church. [Music] Through the night, though fires rage and the hoses spurt defiance of the sky, the paper that Andrew will distribute the next day must be printed. [Music] [Music] And if he is to work, a boy must sleep. And does sleep, the wall in battle Germany does its best to prevent him. Don't worry, Andrew. You're getting used to it as we all are. [Music] But the raid must finish sooner or later. You cannot bomb the sun and its light is not yet rationed. London's face has changed and so is the face of the film studio where only last night we were working. But that hasn't prevented us from showing you this little story. A good omen for the polls. [Music] Andrew takes his papers to his pitch. Perhaps he remembers the agony of Warsaw as he looks at battered buildings and shattered streets. There, however, death reigned from the sky during daylight, while here it meets us at night. In September 1939, London looked upon Warsaw in its agony, with pity. Today, Warsaw looks upon London with hope and prayer. Both towns are united by common faith. Silently they promise each other help in future reconstruction. [Music] New books are published in England. [Music] The most numerous readers of the Polish books is the army in Scotland. Many of the soldiers are veterans of the Polish campaign of Norway, of France, and today they keep guard in Scotland. [Music] Here is a boy who lost a leg at Narvik receiving two official kisses from the commander-in-chief, followed by a third, which is quite spontaneous. [Music] The poles are happy in Scotland, learning the real, teaching the Merserka, and enjoying some of the finest hospitality in the world. [Music] reorganized and re-equipped with the output of British factories. This is an army worth inspecting. The king and queen thought so when they visited the Polish camps in Scotland, inspected troops, guns, and the positions they manned. and with their own particular charm prove to our guests that British loyalty to the crown is much more than a tradition. It's based on real affection. [Music] Like our own army at home, the Polish army must still wait for its great opportunity. But as Polish flyers joined in the Battle of Britain, so Polish sailors are helping to fight the Battle of the Atlantic, both with the Polish Navy and the Merkantile Marine. They are fine seammen, these men, from the fogs and shallows of the Baltic shores. These Polish sailors love England. They are learning a lot from the first sea nation of the world. They know that after the war they will bring many valuable experiences to their own harbors and ports. Those ports which held out so bravely against German attack from land, sea, and air. [Music] That's a very comforting sight. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Mr. Rach and the USA ambassador, Mr. Drexel Bidd visit a Polish submarine. Most of us remember the immortal tale of the submarine Orzel which escaped to England after incredible adventurings. [Music] And over the ships fly the airplanes, keeping a ceaseless vigil. But like ourselves, the Poles a little weary of taking it. They mean to give it to and in the biggest way and in the biggest bombers and with the biggest bombs. [Music] But unlike the Germans, we mean to attack not only with bombs. The Germans offer Europe a new order, the order of death. Britain and Poland offer new life. And it is for this life that Poland and Britain now plans diligently even while the battles are being fought. A medical school has been opened in Edinburgh. There will be plenty for Polish doctors to do in Poland one day. [Music] There are always rats to be exterminated. All sorts of rats. There will be plenty to do for the scientist. [Music] So Poland in Britain works unsteadfastly for a future Poland in Poland, not only realistically with determination and hope, but with the conviction of deep spiritual faith. [Music] It is in this faith that prayers are said in the Polish church in London. prayers for the future and prayers for countrymen and women suffering the unimaginable horrors of present-day existence in Poland. Kneeling in that church, there are many who see again the Polish countryside, the open plains, the quiet country roads, and the wide, slow rivers. This is London calling. London calling. London calling. London calling. Poland in Poland. Put on the earphones to listen to the voice of Poland in Britain. To know that you are not alone. To take heart and comfort from Polish voices overseas. The day will come when the noise of the engines will bring you good news of liberation. The Allied armies are growing in strength and every day more machines are climbing up the sky. Almost every night, Polish bombers leave British airfields and penetrate into the heart of the Reich. It's a wonderful feeling to load up the bombs before dropping them on the aggressor. It's a wonderful feeling to chalk on the bombs the words or oo, an I for an I. At last, Polish airmen can answer and hit back after many months of the most bitter feeling of helplessness. [Music] But it's not only revenge and hatred which fill the hearts of the pilots. They dream of returning to their country and taking her under the safe custody of their wings. They believe in a better world of tomorrow, in a united Europe which will arise from the smoldering ruins. Democracy must be made a living faith. from the mistakes of pre-war Europe. We must learn that selfishness is the most short-sighted policy and that either we unite against the common enemy or perish. [Music] [Music] [Music] I say again, you are not alone. You are not defeated. Poland fights on. And as long as Poland is fighting, she cannot die. [Music] An old world has died in a winter of ruins and desolation. But a new spring will come with the promise of a new world. Our guests will leave us and Andrew will once more watch the pigeons and see the blossoms on the trees in Warsaw. We shall not forget them in that new world. We hope they will not forget us. [Music]