Almost too funny for words. Oh the irony-- a hyper-nationalist political party ignorant of the history of the country it claims to represent.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/4935429/BNP-uses-Polish-Spitfire-in-anti-immigration-poster.html
The party's 2009 European Elections poster shows a nostalgic picture of a Second World War fighter plane under the slogan "Battle for Britain".
But RAF history experts have identified the iconic Romeo Foxtrot Delta Plane as belonging not to Britons but to a group of Polish pilots instead.
The plane was actually flown by the celebrated 303 Squadron of the RAF – made up of Polish airmen rescued from France shortly before Nazi occupation.
BNP party chiefs defended their use of the image and insisted they knew all about the background.
However, John Hemming, MP for Yardley, Birmingham, blasted the far right party for using the image to front a campaign which includes stemming immigration from Poland.
He said: "The BNP often get confused and this happens because they haven't done their research. This is just another example of them getting it wrong.
"They have a policy to send Polish people back to Poland – yet they are fronting their latest campaign using this plane.
"It is absurd to make claims about Englishness and Britishness fronted by this image.
"It's obvious they just picked an image at random and they are really clutching at straws if they say this was deliberate."
Simon Darby, spokesperson for the British National Party, said that the plane was a symbol of the Battle of Britain and represented the economic struggle the country is facing at the moment.
He said: "It's not like the BNP are against Polish people as a nation. We are against Polish people coming over here and undercutting British workers.
"I mean how would the Polish people feel if their government started letting in millions of Vietnamese and letting them work for three bowls of rice a day.
"That's exactly what it's like over here at the moment - our government has let far too many people in."
During the Battle of Britain the Poles shot down 203 Luftwaffe aircraft – around 12 per cent of total German losses.
A spokesperson at the Royal Air Force museum said: "The Spitfire in the poster can be identified as belonging to 303 Squadron of the Polish Air Force by the code letters 'RF' painted in front of the RAF roundel.
"303 Squadron operated Spitfires from Northolt, Kirton-in-Lindsey, Coltishall and other RAF stations in the UK between 1941 and 1945 after flying Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain."
The 303 Squadron was the most effective Polish squadron during the Second World War.
Its pilots were the only representatives of the Polish Army invited to the London Victory Parade in 1946.
But they refused the invitation because no other Polish units were invited.
