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50expertise to take calculated risks but they were not reckless. This is borne out by the fact that during the Battle 302 and 303 Squadrons each lost only eight pilots; a figure nearly 70 % lower than that of most RAF units.62 It was not only in the air that the Poles excelled, for PAF ground personnel were highly skilled and their dedication, efficiency and capacity for hard work made for high rates of serviceability on the two %u2018national%u2019 squadrons. The ground crews%u2019 own finest hour came after the fighting on 15 September, when 303 Squadron%u2019s Flying Officer Wiorkiewicz and his team managed overnight to restore nine apparently un8repairable Hurricanes for the next day%u2019s operations.63 As for motivation, the contribution of the Polish and Czechoslovak airmen must be seen against the backdrop of the Nazi occupation of Europe and its attendant horrors. The exiles received enough information from their homelands to know that those they loved lived under constant threat of arrest, deportation and execution. To protect their families, there was a strict ban on publishing the exiles%u2019 namesand some of the airmen preferred to cover their faces when being photographed The German plan was for Poland to be wiped from the %u2018Some of the airmen preferred to cover their faces when being photographed%u2019. This is Fg Off Kazimierz Daszewski of No 303 (Polish) Squadron in April 1941. (RAF Museum)