SABOTAGE - the death of General Sikorski

Alice Mascarenhas speaks to Chris Wrobleski, one of the co-authors of ‘Sabotage! An In-depth Investigation of the 1943 Liberator crash that Killed Polish General Sikorski’.On the night of 4 July 1943, Liberator AL523 took off from Gibraltar’s North Front airfield and within moments crashed into the sea with only one survivor, the pilot. The commander-in-chief of the Polish army and prime minister of the Polish government in exile, General Władysław Sikorski, was dead. Rumours as to the cause of the crash abounded. Was it pilot error? Was it, as officially classified, an accident, or was it, as the authors conclude in this riveting and meticulous study, an act of sabotage? In this extensive piece of research, Chris Wroblewski and Garth Barnard examine numerous primary sources, including the complete court of inquiry transcripts, produce detailed analysis of aircraft components and systems and unearth many little-known eyewitness accounts to give this investigation a compelling conclusion. Within the book the authors also dispel several conspiracy theories that have emerged since this catastrophe; particularly that this event was a disastrous assassination attempt with blame on the British, Soviets and Nazis.Together with Garth Bernard, a Within the book the authors dispel several conspiracy theories that have emerged since this catastrophe; particularly that this event was a disastrous assassination attempt with blame on the British, Soviets and Nazis.This podcast is produced for the Gibraltar Heritage Trust by Alice Mascarenhas, Trustee, and Claire Montado, CEO.For more information about the Trust and its work go to our website www.gibraltarheritagetrust.org.gi