To mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, Johnson and the Polish envoy, Arkady Rzegocki, laid wreaths at a military museum in Uxbridge, west London.
The ceremony at the Battle of Britain Bunker aimed to honor Allied airmen who helped defend Britain against German air force attacks eight decades ago.
Among those commemorated were 145 Polish pilots and thousands of ground personnel who took part in the fighting over Britain in 1940, the Polish embassy in London said.
“I am extremely proud to be here today at the Battle of Britain Bunker in Uxbridge to pay tribute to those individuals who fought hard in the sky and on the ground 80 years ago,” Britain's Johnson told those at the ceremony.
Poland’s Rzegocki said that 145 Polish pilots fought alongside British airmen in those days, “resisting the Nazi German offensive and giving hope to many in Europe.”
He also said that the ceremony ahead of Battle of Britain Day was “an opportunity to reflect on the Polish-British spirit of friendship and cooperation that our war heroes ignited and our generation nurtures until this day.”
The Battle of Britain is the name given to a series of aircraft battles that were waged between July and September 1940 against the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) to save Britain from Nazi invasion.
After months of air raids by the Luftwaffe, Britain’s Royal Air Force and its Allied counterparts turned the tide of the battle on September 15, 1940, now known as Battle of Britain Day.
(gs/pk)
Source: Polish Radio, gov.pl