304 SQUADRON POLISH AIR FORCE IN EXILE

[archivist]

TRUSZKOWSKI Sgt Jerzy Jozef P-792959

He was born on 5th January 1921 in Biala Podlaska, near Lublin, and joined the aviation school in Bydgoszcz in 1937. His course was shortened by the onset of war and he completed it in Krosno in 1939. He was evacuated to Romania and made it to France by an unknown route.

In March 1940 he was posted to the St Jacques aerodrome near Rennes and continued his training as a wireless operator and air gunner at Dinard on the Channel coast in Northern France. After the Fall of France he travelled via Oran in Algeria and Casablanca, Morocco and on to Glasgow, where he arrived on 27th July 1940 and was sent on to the Polish Depot at Blackpool. He did further training and then joined 18OTU for operational training on Wellington bombers.

He was then posted to 304 Squadron, probably at RAF Dale in Pembrokeshire. He completed a tour of duty on anti-submarine warfare with them before moving on to a Heavy Conversion Unit for training on four engine bombers. On 22nd July 1943 he was posted to 1586 Special Duties Flight based at Brindisi in Italy.

He was killed on 12th September 1944 on Liberator EW278 (GR-U) which was shot down by a night fighter near Senta in Jugoslavia whilst on a mission to supply the Armia Krajawa in Warsaw. He is buried in the British Military Cemetery in Belgrade.

During his military career he was awarded the Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari, the Cross of Valour three times and the Air Medal twice.

[archivist]

WEDRYCHOWSKI F/Sgt Wladyslaw P-781026

He was a pilot, born on 19th June 1921 at Biersdorf(?) in Germany and joined the aviation school in Swiecie in 1938. However, the war cut his course short and he was evacuated from Moderowka to Romania from where he crossed the Mediterranean to Malta and on to France. He chose to serve in Britain and arrived at RAF Eastchurch in Kent in February 1940, four months before France capitulated.

He trained as a wireless operator and air gunner and moved on to 18OTU for operational and combat training. He was then posted to 304 Squadron, probably at RAF Lindholme in Yorkshire. He completed a tour of duty with them in August 1942 after which he started pilot training. In September 1943 he was sent to an Observers Advanced Flying Unit and progressively to 216 Ferry Unit in Egypt, then 229 Squadron in India, finally returning to Britain in September 1945.

He stayed on in the RAF after the war and became a trusted pilot flying VIP passengers which included senior government officials and members of the Royal Family. He continued in this capacity and, in 1970, he was selected to fly the body of General Anders and his funeral cortege to the Polish Military Cemetery at Monte Cassino in Italy.

He resigned from the RAF in 1973 and took up a position as the personal pilot of His Majesty the Sultan of Oman, which he held from 1974/78 during which time he was awarded the South Arabia medal.

During his military career he was awarde the Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari on 21st November 1941 by Air Vice Marshal Ujejski. This award was made in absentia; it is not known whether he was on operational duty or missing in action. During March 1942 he was seconded to RAF Boscombe Down for “Experimental flying” – there was no further explanation given but he did return to 304 Squadron. He was also awarded the Cross of Valour on four occasions and the Air Medal.

He retired to England and died in Nottingham on 12th November 1990; he was cremated at Swindon, Wiltshire.

[archivist]

WIECKOWSKI Sgt Stefan P-792063

He was born on 4th November 1919 in Szczytno near Warsaw. In 1937 he joined the aviation school at Bydgoszcz and completed a shortened course at Krosno in 1939 and was evacuated to Romania on the outbreak of war. It is uncertain whether he remained free or was interned and then escaped, but he made his way to France, via Syria, arriving there on 21st January 1940.

When France collapsed he made his way to England and reached the Polish Depot at Blackpool at the end of June 1940. He completed his wireless and gunnery training then moved to 18OTU for operational training. He was posted in to 304 Squadron at RAF Lindholme in Yorkshire on 21st September 1941 and completed a tour of duty with them. He shot down a Messerschmidt Me110 near Schleswig, Germany on 24th April 1942. On completion of his tour he was posted to 6OTU at RAF Thornaby on Tees as an instructor on 13th December 1942.

At the beginning of July 1943 he began pilot training and qualified in September 1944 when he was posted to an air gunnery school and then to the Polish Depot at Blackpool. He was eventually demobilised on 17th May 1947.

He settled in England after the war and took a job in industry until his retirement in 1982. He died in Greenford, Middlesex on 26th July 2005; he was cremated in Ruislip.

During his military career he was awarded the Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari, the Cross of Valour four times and the Air Medal.

[archivist]

ZIENTEK Sgt Jan Jozef P-783190

He was born on 24th June 1918 in Sosnowiec near Katowice. He joined the aviation school in Bydgoszcz in 1935 and qualified as an air mechanic in 1938. He was sent to the 2nd Air Regiment in Krakow where he learned to fly and qualified in time to fight in the opening campaign of the war. He made his way through Romania to France and fought there until the capitulation when he made his way to England via North Africa. After further training he was sent to 18OTU for operational and combat training on Wellingtons but this was interrupted and he later repeated it with 6OTU. On 15th September 1943 he was posted into 304 Squadron and flew an incredible fifty missions with them. After this he transferred to 377 Squadron and subsequently back to the Polish Depot.

During his service he was awarded the Cross of Valour three times and the Air Medal twice.

He was demobilised in 1947 then trained at Salford Technical College and worked as a metallurgist. He died in Manchester on 22nd February 1989; he was cremated at Stockport, Cheshire.

[brianjm]

REMEMBERING RAF(POLISH) AIRCREW

ARSA, the French Association Rhodanienne pour le Souvenir Aerien, active in the Rhône Valley area, will be dedicating a memorial in the village of Chonas l’Amballan (Isère-France) on
Saturday June 5, 2010 – 10.30
It’s 32 Kms south of Lyon RN 7.

The ceremony is to honour the memory of four 301 Squadron airmen who lost their lives on the evening of July 27,1945. Their twin–engined Vickers Warwick Clll HG 226 crashed into the mountains when returning to North Weald from Athens, Greece. Possible cause: heavy local storm.

We are searching for family and friends or aircrews from other Polish squadrons with whom these men are known to have flown, to attend the ceremony.

Pilot: F/Lt Alojzy Ratajczak (Member Guinea Pig Club)
F/Eng:Sgt Eugeniusz Kocon
Nav : F/Sgt Antoni Jan Mikolajczak
W/Oper : W/O Franciszek Bak

The graves of these men are in the British Military Cemetery near Marseille.

So if any one can come up with information please write to us. If you are in the Lyon area on the day, a warm village welcome awaits you.

Brian J. Millar,
Paul Mathevet – ARSA

[mj]

Hi Neville,

Thank you for your wealth of information regarding the 304 squadron. My father was a Polish airman who spoke little of his time during the war whether this was due to the horror or purely that post war nobody asked. We have being trying to piece together his family tree and believe that this was the most important part for us to discover more about him. He appeared to change squadrons throughout the war and spent some time in the 304 according to the operation records we found online. His name was Jan Wilczynski. We wondered if you have ever stumbled across him in your research?
We know that he flew Mosquitos and Spitfires and he also mentioned Wellingtons and was involved in reconnaissance missions. In one of your initial postings you mentioned a bomber crash. This reminded me that he too survived such a crash which we know nothing about. He had plastic surgery on his face after this incident and spent time in the Polish hospital in Tay. Also later in Harewood House Leeds. Which we can find no evidence of at all. Sorry if this is all a bit vague but we are slowly getting bits and pieces of information which we are having to paste together.

Margo

[archivist]

Hi Margo,

I have no information on your father but that is not surprising as I am always coming across new names. A new 304 Squadron member is of enormous interest to me and I will circulate a message among all my contacts asking for information. I cannot promise anything but I will try. If you have anything that will give me a clue, please post it here or send it to me direct to my email address which is in the Members list. One of the men on whom I have the most information came from a message that was even more vague than yours!

Neville

[archivist]

Brianjm,

As with Margo's request, I may be able to help you. If I can, I will contact you again.

Neville

[archivist]

A message to Margo:

Sorry, I cannot contact you directly so here is what I have found so far

On 8th April 1941 Pilot Officer Jan Wilczynski was posted into 304 (Land of Silesia) Squadron at RAF Syerston near Newark, Nottinghamshire. As he came from RAF Bramcote near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, it is likely that he had either just completed his training with 18OTU (Operational Training Unit) or he had been an instructor at RAF Bramcote. In either case he would possibly have been a member of the Armee de l’Air and fought in the French Campaign prior to the Armistice of June 1940.
On 25th May 1941 he was posted to No 4 Bombing and Gunnery School at RAF West Freugh near Stranraer, Wigtownshire, Scotland.
I have not yet traced his entire career but he later transferred to 300 (Masovian) Squadron at RAF Swinderby, Lincolnshire. During his time there he was promoted to Flight Lieutenant and finally transferred out to the Polish Inspectorate General in London on 12th April 1944. This is likely to mean that he had done more than his share of operational (combat) flying and/or he had been seriously injured and was either recovering and performing light duties or he was no longer fit for flying duties.
As a member of 304 Squadron (however briefly) he deserves a place in the tribute I have written. This currently stands at about 100,000 words and 250 photographs and I would like to include him in it, so if you have any information that will help, please email me.
I also have a little information on a small group of people (women and children) with your name who came to England in 1948 as displaced persons. They may or may not be his family.

Neville

[justjohn]

from another Polish forum


Seeking former airmen of 305 Squadron for TV Documentary

posts: 1
Kim HoggThreads: 1
Posts: 1
Joined: May 13, 08
Gender: Female
May 13, 08, 06:24 / #1
I'm a television producer currently working on an exciting television documentary which will tell the WWII airborne story of the B-25 Mitchell Bomber. I'm therefore very keen to find men who served with the Polish Air Force as part of the RAF during the Second World War to talk about their experiences. I can be contacted by email: [e-mail]

[archivist]

I have recently made contact with a number of Polish families who had family members in 304 Squadron so I hope to be able to resume posting in the near future.

Meanwhile, I have been researching another member of the squadron whose records became mixed with another airman of the same rank and surname and it has been quite a task to separate them, but when it's finished it should make an interesting story.

[philhogg]

re: 304 SQUADRON POLISH AIR FORCE IN EXILE

I'm trying to find out any information regarding Tadek Kowalezyk, my mother's husband, who served with the Polish 304 squadron during WW2. Any information would very welcome.

[archivist]

philhogg,

Sorry about the delay in replying. Please contact me on my personal email, which you will find in the members section. I have a little information on 5 different Kowalczyks who served in 304 Squadron. If you can give me a little more information on the man you are seeking, I will add him to my research list and try to find out more for you.

[archivist]

WROBLEWSKI Henryk Hieronim P704156

He was a pilot, born in St Petersburg, Russia, in 1921 to a Polish family, His mother was a housemaid to a Russian general and his father was a member of the Czar's Palace Guard. In 1922 the family returned to Poland and settled in Vilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania).

On the day Russia invaded Poland he joined a small Polish unit as a volunteer and they set off to travel west but they were cut off by the advancing Russian army and so, on 20th September 1939 they entered Latvia where they were interned in a camp at Daugavpils, the second largest city in Latvia. When Russia occupied the Baltic States his status virtually changed to that of a Prisoner of War and he was moved to a camp at Liepaja on the Baltic coast, near a Russian naval base.

Out of boredom he volunteered to work on a farm near Riga but he caught influenza and was sent to a camp at nearby Ulbroka to recuperate. In summer 1940 he went to work on a farm near Krustpils in southern Latvia but on August 1940 he was returned to the camp but Russian troops soon took over and on 1st September 1940 the Poles were taken to the railway station and placed in goods wagons before being shipped to Babinowo in Russia. From there they were taken to a camp at Juchnowo.

On 1st May 1941 they were taken to the railway station and packed into goods wagons; they travelled via Moscow to Murmansk, on the Kola Bay near the Barents Sea, where they embarked on a vessel named Clara Cetkin. They were intercepted by a Finnish submarine and told that Germany had attacked Russia and that Finland and Russia were no longer at war. They disembarked on the Kola Peninsula into a tented camp and were immediately put to work on the construction of an airfield.

After a couple of weeks they were put on a ship named Aldan and taken to Archangelsk and put on a train and eventually arrived at Suzdal, north east of Moscow. The latter part of the journey was an enforced march under armed guard and with little or no food and water. They were housed in a former monastery which provided better conditions than their previous camps.

On 1st August 1941 they were allowed to join Anders’ Polish army which was being formed from Polish deportees to Russia. On 2nd September 1941 they were freed and marched for seven days to Saratow on the River Volga where they actually joined Anders.

The Polish Government in exile in London had asked for volunteers to join the newly forming Polish Air Force in England. He volunteered and on 25th November 1941 set off by rail to Koltubanka, north of the Caspian Sea. They waited there for transport to Kermine, Uzbekistan, leaving on 30th January 1942 and about three weeks later took ship on the Caspian Sea at Krasnowodsk.

They landed at Pamlevi in northern Persia (now Iran) and on 27th March 1942 arrived in Tehran where they stayed until 3rd April 1942. They finally reached Bandar-Shahpur (now Bandar-Khomeini) on the Persian Gulf where they boarded the City of Canterbury, a British troop ship, bound for Bombay (now Mumbai), India, arriving on 23rd April 1942. From there they continued on Avatea, a New Zealand troop ship, arriving in Cape Town, South Africa on 7th May 1942. Six days later they made the final leg of their journey on the Bergen Fjord, a Norwegian troop ship which arrived in Glasgow on7th June 1942.

He went on to train as a pilot and joined 304 Squadron. He survived the war and was last heard of in Norwich in 1998. There is a suggestion that he may have changed his name to Anders.

[archivist]

PIENIAZEK W/O Adam Jan P-780699

He was born on 2nd January 1921 in Zagorze in the Province of Lwow and finished his schooling in 1937. The next year he enrolled in the Pilot Training School in Swiecie but his training was curtailed by the outbreak of war and all the students were evacuated to Romania on 17th September 1939.

He made his way to France by an unknown route but he requested a move to England and arrived here on 19th February 1940. After language training and basic training he was selected to train as a pilot on 1st October 1941 and completed the course at the beginning of May 1942.

He was then sent, on 2nd May 1942, to the No 6 Air Gunnery School and begun his operational training with 6OTU at Silloth in Cumberland (now Cumbria) on 1st January 1944. Three months later, on 7th April 1944, he was posted to 304 Squadron at RAF Chivenor in Devon from where he flew anti-submarine missions until 2nd February 1945 when he was posted to No 3 School of General Reconnaissance, probably at RAF Squires Gate, Blackpool.

On 5th September 1945 he was transferred to RAF Kinloss at Forres on the Moray Firth, Scotland as an instructor. He remained there until his final discharge in January 1949 but he rejoined the RAF in July of that year. He finally retired from the service on 15th February 1962.

During his career he was awarded the Cross of Valour twice and the Air Medal. He was also granted the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service.

In his retirement he took work as a delivery driver for a dairy. He died at the early age of 47 on 19th March 1968 at Fiveroads, Llanelli, Wales