Waclaw Makowski: VM, CV+3bars, CBE,



Waclaw Makowski: VM, CV+3bars, CBE,

Who am I: First of all, I’m a political refugee, victim of the Yalta agreement, an emigrant to Canada and grateful so.

My origin: My family belongs to the part of Poland, which before the WW1 was under tsarist Russia domination. Consequently we were Russian subjects, and as such I was mobilized in 1916 and spent a couple of years in Russian uniform. Frankly speaking, I did my best to avoid the front line for one very good reason: my cousins were in a similar situation, but on the other side of the front line in the Austrian and/or German armies. As you know, since 19th century Poland was divided between Russia, Austria and Germany.

I was in Petrograd (now Leningrad) when Rasputin wa killed, and later I was in the middle of the October 1917 revolution in full swing. To get out of that mess in one piece was quite a masterstroke combined with a lot of luck.

Anyway, in 1918, myself from Russia, and my cousins from Austria and Germany, were at last all on the same side, when we volunteered for the freshly organized Polish Army in order to stop the “flood” from the east. I became a pilot in 1919 and finished the war as an acting Squadron commander with almost all possible decorations. This being over, and in order to continue my, interrupted by war higher education, I applied for a scholarship, and as a final result of this I was graduated from Ecole Superieure Nationale d’Aeronautique in Paris.

I stayed in the Air Force for six years, paying back in this way my scholarship, then I switched over to Civil Aviation. I finished my career in Civil Aviation as the General manager of LOT; and as matter of fact I was also the last prewar President of IATA (international air transport association). The HQ of this org. recognized after the war is now in Montreal.

I did my part of operational flying; went once over Berlin and generally speaking i did my best though scared to death many times. The activities of a bomber pilot were rather anonymous and not very spectacular, especially in comparison with those of a fighter pilot. Anyway, personally i was known in UK more for asking H.M. King George VI whether he had read the “King Regulations” than by the results of my war effort as a bomber pilot.

Again. I was extremely lucky to finish this war in one piece; yet I saw many young promising people killed and mutilated during this five years that I started to hate aviation. Flying, and even the noise of engines became unbearable to me. In my naivety I decided not to work for aviation any more.

I tried many odd jobs: I developed into a kind of business my hobby silversmith. I started to work, but 100% luxury tax introduced by the newly elected Labor government killed this trade founded on traditional craftsmanship in UK. After that i started to grow mushrooms. Why? Nobody knows, but it worked.

Aviation however, proved to be an incurable disease, and here I was again, since 1951 working for the UN tech Assistance (ICAO) all over the world in the underdeveloped countries as a civilian aviation adviser. I worked in Iran, Afghanistan, Nepal, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali, New Guinea. And again I am less known for the results of my work, than as the author of Ten Commandments for technical assistance, a copy of which is still received by almost every new expert before his assignment to an underdeveloped country.

Waclaw Makowski.

In Dec 1939 came to England. After 300 sqn, different functions: station commander, liaison officer at Bomber Command, and station commander of Transport Command.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download