PAWEL NAFTALI HIRSZ KUFLIK

He was a navigator, born 4^th January 1923; he was Jewish and born in Cologne, Germany to a Polish family of German descent.  He trained at Eastbourne then the Air Observer School at RAF Jurby (Isle of Man) where he qualified as a navigator.  Then he went to Squires Gate at Blackpool for flying training.  After that he was posted to 6 OTU at RAF Silloth where the crews were assembled and he was finally posted to 304 Squadron in September 1943. 

Whilst returning from a U-Boat patrol over the Bay of Biscay on HF208 on 21^st December 1943, the aircraft is thought to have been struck by lightning and went down in flames near Mount Brandon, Irish Republic.    He was not killed in the crash, but by exploding ammunition from the doomed aircraft. Pawel Kuflik was a Jewish volunteer, whose family had moved to the Netherlands to escape the Nazis.  He was laid to rest in the Jewish Cemetery at Carnmoney, Belfast.