TADEUSZ JOZEF KLEWICZ

He was born on 26 November 1904 in the village of Gętomie (now Morzeszczyn). He attended the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry and became an agricultural engineer.   In July 1925, he joined the 4^th Air Regiment and attended the Reserve Air Officer School at Poznan and another mechanical aviation school in Bydgosszcz.  From there he returned to his unit in Torun.  In October 1927 he transferred to the reserves and served part time.

At the beginning of the war he went, via Hungary, to Jugoslavia with the intention of joining the Polish forces exiled in France.  He was certainly in service at the Polish Depot at Lyon-Bron in March 1940.  On the fall of France, he travelled south and took ship to Oran in Algeria and then moved on to Casablanca in Morocco, finally arriving in Gibraltar where he embarked for Britain.

In England he trained as an air gunner and joined 18OTU in August 1941. and in August 1941, is directed to 18 OTU (unit completion crews). He transferred to 304 Squadron and on the night of 30th November 1941 he was on a mission to Hamburg when Wellington X3164 was shot down over the North Sea; he escaped and was picked up by a British ship after a few hours in the water.

On 10^th January 1942 he took off on DV423 on a mission to Wilhelmshaven – a major naval, shipbuilding and industrial city in Germany.  The aircraft was hit by flak over the target and broke up in mid-air.  The Red Cross notified his base that his body had washed up in the estuary of the River Weser the next day.  He was buried in the Sage War Cemetery at Oldenberg,  Germany.  In Luftwaffe records it was claimed by Oberleutnant Rudolph Schoenert of 5/NJG2 10 kilometres north of Nordeney at 23.15hrs at an altitude of 5,000 metres about 16,500feet.