With the Wind in My Face: The Story of a Polish Fighter Pilot in the R. A. F

"Polish air ace tells his story of valor in the face of death!"

Understatement is the key to the impact of this book. With stark simplicity the author recalls his childhood memories in Siberia. His grandfather and great-grandfather before him had been exiled to Siberia for taking active parts in uprisings during the Austrian and Prussian occupations of Poland.

The story touches on the migration eastward of the White Russians. It was a march of death. Of the 1,250,000 who started out not one reached the goal, Manchuria. Attacked by typhoid fever and starvation they were further beset by the bitter cold and froze by the thousand.

Madam Falkowski and her sons had taken another route and by a miracle survived.

The rest is living history; escape from occupied Poland to Britain, orientation into the Royal Air Force, the beginning of the Battle of Britain and the formation of the Polish squadrons.[...]

"I have been thinking of writing the book for twenty years," Colonel Fialkowski said, "and a crash in the Rockies and rescue in 1962, led to action. How long con your luck hold out? I realize then that at ony time it might be too late".