Some quotes:
From Rudolf Falkowski, a 303 Squadron pilot:
we had a chance to find and see the other side of the civilized British society. And only those who lived in the British colonies were not taken aback by hue and cry: "Polacks go home! We don’t want you here!"
in May, as I recall, some of us heard and red in papers, of the forthcoming Victory Parade. Quite frankly, we accepted it with a proverbial "shrug of shoulders" - THEY will not invite US anyway. Hadn’t we fought for that victory? We wanted to go but the invitation was not forthcoming. And then, a week or so later, a slap in the face - only the pilots who took part in the Battle of Britain were to be invited
Not so far from London, there was RAF Northolt, where during the Battle of Britain Poles used to take off to defend the British skies. It was there, that long after the war, Polish airmen themselves, not the grateful Great Britain, erected the monument for those who never returned. It carries an epitaph:
We gave our souls to God, Our hearts to Poland, Our bodies to the British soil.
That about tells the whole story, why those who remained after the war, and those who are still alive, were never invited to Victory Parade. Time gradually heals all the scars, but memories stay forever.
From Financial Times (2005):
For the Poles and their military standards will be present for the first time in a British victory parade. Even though Poland made one of the largest contributions to the Allied war effort and there were thousands of Polish troops stationed in the UK at the time, the country was excluded from the original London celebration in 1946
Officials said the invitation was issued in April, after months of planning. The ground was laid two years ago when Mr Blair formally expressed regret to Poland for the 1946 parade snub.
From "A Question of Honor":
Yet, despite its accomplishments in the war, none Of 303's Pilots took part in the fly-past. None marched in the parade. For they were all Polish -- and Poles who had fought under British command were deliberately and specifically barred from the celebration by the British government, for fear of offending Joseph Stalin. A week earlier, ten members of Parliament had written a letter of protest against the exclusion. "Ethiopians will be there," the letter declared. "Mexicans will be there. The Fiji Medical Corps, the Labuan Police and the Seychelles Pioneer Corps will [march] -- and rightly, too. But the Poles will not be there. Have we lost not only our sense of perspective, but our sense of gratitude as well?"
From PBS (American public broadcasting):
1946
June 8
In London's Allied victory parade, organized by the Labor Government of Clement Atlee, no Polish soldiers are invited to participate so as not to upset the Communist government in Poland.
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