Original subtitles

July 4th, 1943,

Gibraltar. A passenger -carrying B -24 Liberator warms up on the airstrip.

The pilot guns the engines and it rolls forward.

It is airborne well before the end of the short runway.

The plane climbs to about 150 feet.

Then the pilot puts it into a shallow dive to gain speed.

But instead of pulling out, the aircraft continues its dive.

and plunges into the sea.

Only the pilot survives.

Among the 16 dead is a key figure in the alliance to liberate Nazi -occupied

Europe. Was his death a terrible mishap, or was it just too convenient?

An assassination disguised as an accident.

July 16th, 1943, Newark, England.

When a leading figure dies in an apparent accident at an extraordinarily

convenient time for one of his supposed allies, which is also a traditional

enemy, the suspicion of assassination is strong.

And rarely has it been stronger than in the case of General Sikorski, leader of

the wartime Free Polish Forces.

The official inquiries were unable to come up with a convincing explanation as

to how the accident actually happened.

And the trail of suspicion pointing to a killing grows, if anything, stronger as

more facts emerge.

The path which led to this mystery has its origins deep in the history of

Eastern Europe.

When Wladyslaw Sikorski is born in Galicia in May 1881, Poland is just a

a language, and a hope that the country which has been divided between the

empires of Germany, Russia and Austria -Hungary for more than a century might

one day be reunited.

Sikorski grows up under Austro -Hungarian rule.

In 1906, he joins the Imperial Army for a year's officer training.

He goes into the reserve, but then joins a secret society campaigning for Polish

independence.

Nevertheless, during World War I, Sikorski fights with distinction in the

Legion against Russia.

In 1919, after the Versailles Peace Conference establishes a new Polish

he becomes a senior officer in the new army.

And when the new Soviet regime in Russia tries to destroy the new Poland,

Sikorsky plays a leading role in the Battle of Warsaw, where the invading

Bolshevik forces are routed.

After this, Sikorsky's rise is rapid.

In 1921, he becomes commander -in -chief of the Polish Armed Forces, then prime

minister in 1922 -23.

and minister for the armed forces in 1925.

But he falls out of favor when his erstwhile colleague and ally, Joseph

Pilsudski, leads a coup and establishes a semi -dictatorial fanatia regime.

In 1928, Sikorsky is dismissed by Pilsudski from the army. He becomes a

commentator, working mainly in Paris.

September 3, 1939, Poland.

When Nazi Germany invades its homeland,

Sikorski volunteers, but is refused a military command.

After Poland's swift defeat, Sikorski becomes Prime Minister of the Polish

government in exile and Commander -in -Chief of the Free Polish Forces.

Thousands of Polish troops escape capture and head for France.

There, Sikorsky has become a focus for resistance not just to the Nazis, but to

the old enemy, Russia, which has occupied the eastern part of the

Two Polish infantry divisions and a cavalry brigade fight alongside the

and French during the German invasion.

On June 18, 1940, after the collapse of France, Sikorsky moves to Britain.

and starts to build up the free Polish forces again.

June 22, 1941, Britain.

Following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Sikorsky faces a major

political upheaval, persuading his men that the Soviets must now be treated as

allies.

Urged on by Winston Churchill, he opens negotiations to restore diplomatic

relations.

And in October 1941, Sikorsky flies to Moscow via North Africa and persuades

Stalin to release the substantial number of Polish troops being held in the

Soviet Union.

But a question remains over where several thousand officers have

A 75 ,000 -strong Polish corps is formed under General Vladislav Anders, and

this then moves to fight with the British in the Middle East.

April 13, 1943.

Soviet -occupied Poland.

Now comes a bombshell.

The Germans announce that the bodies of 4 ,000 Polish officers murdered by the

Soviets have been found in Katyn Wood.

Stalin responds by claiming that the murders were carried out by the Nazis.

But the Germans soon start to reveal damning evidence.

that the men had almost certainly been murdered while the Soviets were

establishing their rule in eastern Poland, and certainly well before the

overran the area.

Many of the bodies carry letters or other documents, none of which date to

than 1940.

Most of the bodies have been shot in the back of the neck, the standard NKVD

method of execution.

As a result, Sikorsky refuses to accept the Soviet claim and demands a Red Cross

investigation.

Stalin immediately breaks off relations with the Polish government in London,

sets up his own Polish government in exile, and establishes a Polish army

the Soviet forces.

The horrors of the Katyn massacre cause outrage among Sikorsky's troops.

and there is criticism of him for being too friendly to the Soviets.

In May 1943, he's encouraged by Winston Churchill to rally morale and secure his

position by visiting the Polish forces commanded by General Anders in the

East.

As his party travels out via Gibraltar, there is a strange incident.

Polish HQ in London received a message that Sikorski's plane had crashed at

Gibraltar and all the passengers had been killed.

It is swiftly proved to be false, but it is an ill omen and one which people

remember after the tragic events a few weeks later.

What is evident today... is that Sikorsky has been a marked man for some

There had been at least two previous attempts to sabotage flights on which

Sikorsky had been travelling.

Over a year earlier, in March 1942, an incendiary bomb was discovered on the

aircraft in which he was travelling to the United States to brief President

Roosevelt.

It was defused.

And later claimed to have been brought on board accidentally in the luggage of

Polish wing commander going to Washington as the new Air Attaché.

Then in November 1942, Sikorsky is taking off from Montreal in a Hudson on

another visit to Roosevelt in Washington.

Just after takeoff, The engines cut out. The pilot manages to crash land and

there are no casualties.

Three incidents involving aircraft in little more than a year is beginning to

look like more than coincidence.

July 4th, 1943, midday, Gibraltar.

General Sikorsky inspects a guard of honour.

He's on the return leg of a six -week tour of the Middle East, inspecting the

Free Polish Corps.

He flew in the previous evening, in the same converted B -24 Liberator bomber AL

-523, which had taken him out to Egypt.

The chief pilot is Flight Lieutenant Edward Pachow, a Czech serving with RAF

Transport Command.

He had flown Sikorsky on the outward journey, and Sikorsky had personally

for him to be assigned for the return.

Bachar was rated by the RAF as an excellent and highly experienced pilot.

On their arrival in Gibraltar, the Polish party finds there is a

Ivan Majski.

The Soviet ambassador to Britain has announced that he will also be arriving

that evening.

There is a danger they will all have to stay in government house at the same

time.

The British governor, General Noel Mason Macfarlane, avoids any diplomatic

embarrassment by arranging for Majski to arrive the following morning.

He then gives him breakfast in a different wing of Government House to

Sikorsky is staying.

An opportunely timed warning of impending bad weather is then received,

Maisky is hurried back to the airport and sent on his way.

All seems well, but for a number of hours the Soviet plane and Sikorsky's

Liberator are parked side by side under guard.

Macfarlane then has lunch with Sikorsky and gives him a guided tour of

Gibraltar. They then have a two -hour reception before a dinner which is

remembered as convivium.

July 4th, 1943, Gibraltar airfield.

Take -off is scheduled for 11pm.

There will be six crew and 11 passengers.

Sikorsky, his daughter Zofia Lesniowska, and four other Polish officers.

Two British officers, including Colonel Victor Cazalet, the official liaison

officer with Polish forces.

And two mysterious passengers, a Mr. W .H. Locke and a Mr. Pinder.

They boarded at the last moment in Cairo, and their backgrounds have never

clarified.

Plus a last -minute change, a Polish courier, Gralewski.

who has just reached Gibraltar from occupied Poland with secret documents.

He takes the place of another Polish officer.

At 11 .05, the plane taxis out to the western end of the runway built out into

Gibraltar Bay.

The rock is on its right.

At precisely 11 .10, Pachow gets the green light.

He runs up his engines and begins his take -off.

Watched by Mason McFarlane and other British and Polish officers, it

down the runway and takes off over the Mediterranean.

When it reaches what most witnesses reckon is about 150 feet, it goes into a

shallow dive from which it never recovers.

First on the scene within a few minutes is an RAF rescue launch which picks up

the pilot, Edward Pachar, who is the only survivor.

Only four other bodies are found, including that of Sikorsky.

He had been killed as the aircraft hit the water.

The body of his daughter is never located.

The aircraft sinks in about 25 feet of water, with its wheels partly retracted.

It's searched by local divers on July 5th, and then by the Royal Navy Port

Protection Team run by Lieutenant William Bailey.

His assistant is Lieutenant Buster Crabbe, who is to become notorious 15

later when he disappears while examining Soviet warships visiting Portsmouth.

They recover a black briefcase which is given to the governor.

Strangely, it cannot be found when the inquiries are conducted.

Later, a mail bag which had been on the plane is discovered by the side of the

runway. This becomes a crucial piece of evidence when the pilot is able to give

his testimony.

Sikorsky's body is taken back to Britain by destroyer and buried in Newark.

where the free Polish forces have their headquarters.

He is succeeded by his deputy, Mikhail Mikholachk.

Two inquiries are held, one by the RAF, the second by the Pole.

One of the first questions, knowing that liberators are slow to get into the air

when heavily loaded, is whether it has been so overloaded with passengers and

their baggage, that it had simply been unable to take off from the short

But the RAF ground crew records show that the aircraft's weight had been

the required limit.

Eyewitnesses also confirm that it had lifted off well before the end of the

runway.

When he is well enough to be interviewed by the investigator, Pachal tells them

that he had taken off normally.

It was accepted practice with a heavily loaded liberator to put the aircraft

into a slight dive immediately after takeoff to gain speed before trying to

climb to cruising altitude.

Pachal had done this, as he had many times before.

But when he pulls the stick back to start his climb, the controls refuse to

respond and appear to be jammed.

Pachal only has time to shout, crash landing, before the plane hits the sea.

Both inquiries conclude that there is no suggestion of sabotage or pilot error.

The likely cause is, as described by the pilot, some sort of mechanical failure

or obstruction which blocked the controls.

One possible explanation is suggested by the mail bag found on the runway.

The mail was stowed in a forward compartment.

Could a hatch have been left open, possibly from the nose wheel well, which

would have caused bags to blow aft and jam the control lines to the elevators?

The mail bag found on the runway could have been one blown out of an aft door.

The RAF investigation tries to replicate this using another liberator.

It finds it impossible to do so.

How the mailbag got onto the runway is never satisfactorily explained.

RAF investigators also recover the controls, which appear to be in good

order.

The locking mechanism is designed to immobilize the elevators when the

is parked on the runway.

show no signs of having been left on.

Thus, the most obvious explanations for an accident are eliminated.

The possibility of deliberate sabotage begins to look increasingly likely.

Who would be the most likely candidate?

July 1943, Gibraltar.

The obvious suspects to have killed General Sikorsky, at least for many

at the time, were the Germans.

Sikorsky was an avowed and implacable foe of the Nazis.

The German secret service, the Abwehr, had plenty of agents in Gibraltar or

over the border in neutral Spain.

But because of this threat, security on the Liberator while on the ground at

Gibraltar was tight.

It was kept in a secure area with sentries surrounding it, and one guard

actually on board the whole time.

Also, Sikorsky at that time was worth more to the Germans alive than dead.

After the discovery of the Katyn Wood Massacre, his hostile relations with the

Soviets were throwing the whole Allied alliance into turmoil.

It was unlikely that the Germans would have wanted to kill the man who was

proving such a propaganda gift at this time.

The mirror image of this argument is why it was suggested many years later that

Churchill might have wanted Sikorsky dead because he was becoming a threat to

Allied unity.

Without the Soviet Union remaining as an ally, the war could not be won.

This theory was first put forward in the 1960s in a controversial German play,

Soldiers, by Ralph Hochhuth.

His suggestion in the play that the plane's pilot might deliberately have

crashed it was successfully contested in a libel action by Pachal in 1972.

Leaving aside the implausibility of Churchill stooping to murder, there is a

more Machiavellian objection to this idea.

There was no guarantee that getting rid of Sikorsky would have made the Poles

any less difficult or hostile to the Soviet government.

Sikorsky at least was realistic about the need to work with the Soviets.

He had gone to the Middle East to placate his followers, not to inflame

There was always the chance that his successor would be more, rather than

anti -Soviet.

But this argument can and has been used to point the finger at another

possibility, extremists among Sikorsky's own colleagues.

When he became prime minister of the government in exile, the president was

Vladislav Rachkevich, a colleague of Pilsudski and a former political

There were many among the Polish exiles who opposed Sikorski's policy of trying

to deal diplomatically with the Soviet Union.

This feeling was particularly strong amongst Anders' Polish Corps in the

East and became even more virulent after the exposure of the Katyn Wood

Massacre.

Colonel Howells, British liaison officer to Anders, reported secretly to

Churchill in March 1943 that the majority of the Polish army in the

believed the government in exile to be yes -men.

The situation had got to the stage where Churchill had mentioned to Stalin that

Sikorsky was in danger of being overthrown.

The two mysterious passengers who joined the plane in Cairo have never been

explained.

It has been suggested that either they, or the Polish agent Gralewski, might

have been fanatical nationalists who were prepared to sacrifice themselves in

order to kill Sikorski.

It is unlikely that any Pole would have been ready to go to such lengths to get

rid of Sikorski.

But Churchill's remark must have been music to the Soviet dictator's ears.

For Sikorsky was definitely an embarrassment to the Soviet Union, and

ear of Churchill, who was becoming increasingly suspicious of Soviet

Also, he had much greater prestige than any likely successor.

Getting rid of him would remove both an immediate problem and probably lead to a

weaker Polish government in exile, as turned out.

Sikorsky's plane could have been tampered with while it was on the ground

Maiskis. Although a close guard was being kept on it, Soviet technicians did

have free access to the area.

Also, the officer in charge of the Iberian section of British intelligence

the time was Kim Philby.

He was to be unmarked exactly 20 years later as a long -term KGB agent.

Philby would have had no difficulty in coordinating an attempt to tamper with

the Liberator.

It has been suggested that during the diving operations on the wreck, evidence

of Soviet sabotage to the controls could have been removed.

Significantly, Buster Crabb was second in command of the diving unit, and he

was to be involved in clandestine activities.

Perhaps his involvement in espionage began earlier than anyone realized.

At the end of the war, Stalin was able to sideline the London Polish government

and impose a brutal communist dictatorship, which was to last more

decades.

Had Sikorsky lived, he might have led a more effective resistance to this.

In 1993, exactly 50 years after his death, the body of General Sikorski is

returned to Poland, following the end of communist rule.

Officially, his death remains a tragic accident, but few of his countrymen

believe that.

It was all too convenient for Josef Stalin.