JULIAN MICHALSKI

He was a navigator and was born on 12^th July 1908; he was known to have been a member of 304 Squadron on 16^th December 1942 but transferred to 138 Squadron at RAF Tempsford.  On 17^th September 1943 his Halifax bomber BB309 was shot down at Slagille, Denmark on its way back from Poland.  The mission was part of Operation Neon 3 which involved successfully dropping weapons and two agents into occupied Polish territory.  They were detected by the German Radar Station “Seehund” and a Junkers Ju88 night fighter was scrambled and shot the Halifax down.  It crashed into a house, killing three adults and two children but six other children miraculously survived.

Four of the crew (including Sgt Michalski) were killed instantly, one died later of his  injuries (severe burns) and another suffered a broken arm and leg but escaped from the hospital, with the help of the local Resistance, to neutral Sweden three weeks later.   There was an immediate burial of the dead in shallow graves in the church yard without a service much to the chagrin of the local priest.  He arranged for them to have a proper burial with a Christian service rendered in English.  The expenses, including coffins and flowers, were covered by A.P Moller, a Danish shipping magnate.  Sergeant Michalski was awarded the Order of Virtuti Militari.

The German fighter, flown by Lieutenant Richard Burdyna from IV/NJG3, also crashed.  One report claims that it was hit by return fire from the Wellington, but the general consensus is that the aircraft was circling the wreckage and flew into power cables, killing the pilot and his two crewmen.  The Polish dead are buried in Slagille Kirkegaard Cemetery, Denmark and the German crew were interred in Vestre Cemetery, Copenhagen, Denmark.

The seventh member of the crew, Sergeant  Roman Puchala, suffered only minor head injuries and escaped across the fields and was sheltered on a local farm, where he was captured after a few hours. He was initially taken to Dulag Luft, a Luftwaffe transit camp  near Frankfurt am Main, Germany for interrogation and then on to Stalag Luft VI Gross Tychow, near Tychowo, Poland..  Finally, he went to Stalag 357 at Fallingbostel  in Lower Saxony, Germany.