Warsaw Air Lift Operations – Ceremony

Air Bridge Ceremony will take place on Sunday afternoon in Newark Ceremony.

This Sunday, 24th September there will be a ceremony to mark the 79th Anniversary of the Air Bridge supply flights to the Warsaw Uprising in the Newark Polish Military Cemetery.

These missions 500 feet above the burning city were flown by RAF, PAF and SAAF crews from Brindisi Italy (because Stalin refused airspace) with terrible loss of crew life.

The event at Newark has been taking place annually since 1989, which includes the following:

  • The Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire
  • Deputy Town Mayor of Newark, Cllr Diane Ledger
  • Chair of Newark & Sherwood DC, Cllr Celia Brooks
  • Chairman of Nottinghamshire County Council
  • Representing the Consul General of Poland
  • Embassy Representatives and Defence Staff
  • RAF Representatives   
  • Air Bridge Standard (Colour Party)
  • Visiting Standards
  • 1260 ATC Squadron 

Branch Hon Life Vice-President Dennis Atkins will lay a wreath and Paul Watson will be the Standard Bearer for the Branch who will form up at 1.45pm at Thoresby Avenue, NG24 4DJ.

Text on the Memorial in Newark Cemetery: In tribute to 250 airmen of Britain, The Commonwealth and Poland who sacrificed their young lives in desperate attempts to fly from distant RAF bases in Italy with essential supplies for the front line city of Warsaw during the 1944 uprising.