Poles, Spaniards, Thais

A coalition, willing

‘Please fasten your seatbelts and point your machine guns out of the plane,” requested the stewardess matter-of-factly. She was charged with the safety of our Kuwait-bound Boeing 757, which was taking off from snow-bound Wroclaw. This was the city, once known by its German name of Breslau, that famously stood up to the Red Army almost as long as Berlin did. You can still see a swath of destruction in the middle of town, where an airport was carved out so that the Nazi Gauleiter could flee in time. The night before, I had stayed in a hotel that Hitler once patronized; from a balcony under my window, he saluted adoring crowds.

RS

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Radek Sikorski

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A coalition, willing

‘Please fasten your seatbelts and point your machine guns out of the plane,” requested the stewardess matter-of-factly. She was charged with the safety of our Kuwait-bound Boeing 757, which was taking off from snow-bound Wroclaw. This was the city, once known by its German name of Breslau, that famously stood up to the Red Army almost as long as Berlin did. You can still see a swath of destruction in the middle of town, where an airport was carved out so that the Nazi Gauleiter could flee in time. The night before, I had stayed in a hotel that Hitler once patronized; from a balcony under my window, he saluted adoring crowds.