Nearly a year ago, Polish pathologists confirmed from the exhumed body of Polish wartime premier General Wladyslaw Sikorski, that an accident claimed his life rather than a theory he was dead before his plane crashed into the sea off Gibraltar.

But that has not stopped fresh theories surfacing of how Poland's popular wartime leader met his end on July 4, 1943. In George Matlock's London Bridge show on Anglo-Polish Radio ORLA fm, Gibraltar historian Tito Vallejo said Sikorski was killed on the instructions of the Soviet-era KGB and offered an elaborate defence of his own research.

"When I began my research into the death of Sikorski, I realised there was in fact very little information about it," said Vallejo.

During World War II, it was possible to obtain certain foodstuffs and drink in Gibraltar not available elsewhere.

"That became one of the so-called explanations of what happened to the plane - that they had put so many bottes of whisky and gin in the plane, it was possible for one of the bottles to roll under the joystick of the pilot, jamming it and causing the crash. That was not what happened but initially that was the theory because they could not pin the blame on mechnical failure despite the plane being taken back to Britain to be thoroughly examined," Vallejo told Radio ORLA listeners.

Later theories were that the crash was caused by pilot error.

"But part of the mystery was: this Polish pilot was not fond of wearing his life-jacket. He used to have it hanging around the back of his seat. So how come that day he was found he was found floating unconscious with his life-jacket fully-inflated? He was the only survivor of the crash."

Soviet spy Kim Philby had been in Gibraltar and fingers point to the role of the Soviet KGB, Vallejo said.

"There were other people from the British government who were told not to board the flight by British security services, although some British did die in the plane. The plane was supposed to have been guarded, how well we don't know. But it does look like something sinister did take place."

But one witness was never called, he said.

"A Scottish wireless operator working for the Special Operations Executive was stationed half way up the Rock of Gibraltar. He said he saw the take-off and crash and later saw people walking on the wings of the plane before it sank in the sea. But he said he was never asked to testify. He left his testimony -- and we got it," said Vallejo.

"They could have been RAF rescue teams. We simply don't know. But we know that the expert British diver Buster Crabbe was in Gibraltar and ordered to go into the plane to obtain secret papers."

But the fresh look at Sikorski, while engaging discussion, did not convince everyone.

"Although many people wanted Sikorski dead, especially the Soviets, and he had other enemies within Britain which was preparing for post-war relations with Russia, the only theory I can believe is the official version that he died in an accident. An accident that suited a lot of people. But I remain open to new theories," said Wiktor Moszczynski, Labour Friends of Poland secretary, a group allied with the governing Labour Party in Britain, on the London Bridge show.

"I have heard some amazing and silly theories such as that it was not his body that was recovered. Or that someone killed him in the Gibraltar Governor's office and his body was put on the plane. Such conspiracy theorists have been too carried away to study the facts," said Moszczynski.

Michael Oborski, the Polish honorary consul to Kidderminster, England who gave an interview to Radio ORLA in November 2006 before he died after a long illness, said that British soldiers guarded the wrong plane in the hanger in Gibraltar, allowing Soviet agents to infiltrate and sabotage the plane's controls the night before the tragic flight.

"I have not heard that theory and I don't think the KGB would have had the muscle to achieve that goal at that time in Gibraltar," said Moszczynski. "But the Soviets would have had the most to gain from his death I agree."

One of the more sensational theories about Sikorski's death came from the controversial British historian David Irving, writing what was apparently the first-ever allegation that the general was killed rather than a victim of an accident. Irving claimed in his 1967 book "Accident — The Death of General Sikorski" that wartime British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered Sikorski to be assassinated.

Whatever the truth behind the mystery of Sikorski's death, the general continues to be one of Gibraltar's biggest tourist attractions, with all the tour operators pointing to the plane's propeller on the Rock. Vallejo said many Poles and others come to Gibraltar to visit the Sikorski links. But he said that there were other Polish links with the 300-year-old British territory. In the war, three Polish saboteurs were based in his grandmother's guesthouse. They attacked French and Italian coastal installations and saved Allied Forces' spies from the Germans.

"They used to have several boats, including the Tirana - the most-painted boat in the sea because they had to keep changing its colours twice a day to disguise the British boat as a Spanish vessel when on operations of sabotage. Two of the saboteurs met a tragic end. They rowed because one of them had an affair with the other's wife and in the end they held a duel in Hyde Park in London. They killed one another," he said.

But today Gibraltar has no major Polish presence. "We have had Filipino construction workers but most of them today are from neighbouring Spain. We don't have Polish workers. Not because they are not good. But the main reason is accommodation. Gibraltar is not big. Where would we house them? So this is a natural market for the Spanish," Vallejo said.