 Many of these personnel escaped to the UK around the time of the fall of France.By mid 1940, some 35,000 Polish airmen, soldiers and sailors had made their way to Britain, making up the largest foreign military force in the country after the French, as well as making it the largest Polish army ever formed abroad; of these some 8,500 were airmen.Many were members of the Polish Air Force which had fought the "Luftwaffe".