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Last night I was watching a twice-weekly TV programme of a journey round the complete coast of UK. Last night's was about the east coast of Scotland and there was a description of the invention during World War II of the mine detector (this coast was a prime landing site for the Nazis). The inventor was named as a Polish soldier, Lieutenant Jozef Kozacki. I had been completely unaware of this, as I am sure are millions of my countrymen. The following comes from the BBC web site which describes each programme.

""Mine detector
During World War II the Fife Coast was the only place to be defended solely by foreign forces. Because of the pressures of the war there were no British troops available to defend this part of the country. It was Winston Churchill who came up with the solution - he drew up an agreement with the Polish government in exile to use their troops to defend our coastline against German invasion. Anti-tank blocks can still be seen strung out along these beaches but the threatened invasion never happened.

However, the Polish troops made a more lasting contribution to warfare in general. Lieutenant Josef Stanislaw Kosacki came up with the invention would go on to save countless lives all over the world � the mine detector. Mark Horton talks to Lech Muszynski, who was a member of these Polish forces, about the difference this invention made.

If you would like to find out more about Polish troops in the UK during World War II, you can visit The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, 20 Prince's Gate, London SW7 1PT (tel 0207 589 9249). The museum is open to the public between 2-4pm on weekdays and on the first Saturday of each month between 10am and 4pm. ""

Leslie <img src="/images/graemlins/music.gif" alt="" />

Thank you for the info LesieRae. I never knew who invented the mine detecor but now you have cleared up the mystry. From the photos of those detectors it could be concluded that they were very large and heavy, minature and solid-state circuits were things of the future at this time. BTW, I did visit the Polish Airmens Memorial at RAF Northholt when I was living in West Ruislep. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Leslie,

I did not even know that Poles invented the mine detectors. They are responsible for solving enigma code and being the first to tell the world about the Holocaust, but I did not know about this contribution.

Thanks for sharing!

Thankjs Leslie, that was interesting. Here in Poland we have been widely reminded in the local press bout the real role the Poles played in inventing the mine detector, shortly after the infamous "Polish-joke" in public by Ted Turner, relating to the "Polish Mine-detector" as he sees it.

A_dam. Ted Turner may have a Southern accent but he does not represent the Southern States where many towns, cities and counties are named after Polish heros that helped us in our revolution. Pulaski is a very common name for these places. Also it should be remembered that Williamsburg (Capitol of Virginia colony) was built by Polish craftsmen and the first glass making factory (Jamestown,VA) was started by Polish artisans. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Yes, you are right, Bob <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
And it seems that even one thousand Tedturners telling bad jokes on TV everyday (with a southern accent) cannot spoil the magic and incomprehendable, implicit, almost mistic, positive feelings the Poles seem to have for the Americans <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

And to be more serious: we do have things to remember and to be grateful for that the US and the US citizens did for Poland, too!