- 1
On a portrait of
Our Lady of Czestochowa hanging at the altar in St
James's Catholic Church in Renfrew there is an
inscription which pleads
-
- Przywroc
Nam Wolnosc
- Ojczyzny
-
- Beneath the portrait
there is a small silver plaque dedicated to the memory
of three fallen Polish airmen who died in March 1941,
'Saving Our Church'.
-
- These airmen were part of
309 Polish Squadron which was formed at Renfrew in
November 1940.
-
- On the night of 13 March
1941, German bombers commenced their heavy raids on
Clydebank which resulted in an appalling loss of human
life and caused considerable damage.
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- 2
Renfrew did not
escape that night and bombs and incendiaries fell on
the town.
-
- During the night of the
13th,
L Cpl Pawel
Radke,Aircraftsman Antoni Ptaszkowski and Zygmunt
Sokolowski were at St James's and at great risk to
themselves were extinguishing incendaries. The
incendaries had caused a number of fires in the
church. Two of the airmen were killed by a bomb, the
other died the
following
day in Alexandria
Hospital. They were in their
twenties.
-
- When 309 Squadron
transferred to Dunino in Fife in May 1941, it
presented to the church
the
portrait of Our Lady as a token of their appreciation
to the people of Renfrew.
-
- Parishioners never forgot
their sacrifice and in October 1982, at a special
Mass, a silver plaque in memory of these airmen and
the portrait of the Black Madonna was blessed and
dedicated by Bishop McGill. The plaque was crafted by
a local Polish jeweller - Mr Eugeniusz Waclawski who
also had the portrait restored.
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- 3
Members
of the Polish community in the west of Scotland, both
young and old, along with Polish ex-combatants
participated in a moving ceremonyat Renfrew.
-
- In an
article by Fr. Canning in the Scottish
- Catholic
Observer of 5th November 1982 he noted the words
of Bishop McGill that Renfrew would be ever grateful
to the three Polish airmen who gave their lives so
heroically in trying to save St James' Church in the
terrible blitz of 1941, the scars of which are to be
seen in the pews to this day.
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- 4
Arkleston
Cemetery
- Nearby
Renfrew is Arkleston Cemetery which contains the
graves of the three young Polish airmen of 309
Squadron who were killed during the 'blitz' on
Clydebank.
-
- Their
graves are marked by two CWGC stones standing side by
side at Arkleston cemetery, near the M8 motorway and
close to the main runway of Renfrew airfield before it
was incorporated into the
M8.
-
- A brief
account of the incident which led to their deaths is
given in (1) above.
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