ZYGMUNT NOWAKOWSKI

He was born on 22nd June 1918 in Piaski Piastowskie near Warsaw and joined the training school at Bydgoszcz in 1936. He qualified as a radio mechanic at Krosno in 1939. He was posted directly to the 4th Air Regiment in Torun, where he was attached to 41 Reconnaissance Squadron. He took part in the September Campaign under the control of the Pomeranian Army. On 18th September 1939 he went to Kuty (now Ukraine) and crossed into Romania.
There is no indication of his route but he arrived in France on 13th November 1939 and on 4th March 1940 he was assigned to the maintenance section of a fighter squadron. He left his base on 14th June, just before the capitulation of France, and arrived at Liverpool on 16th July 1940.

He took a course in electrical mechanics and was posted to 305 Squadron on 30th August 1940 at RAF Bramcote near Nuneaton in Warwickshire; this was the day before their initial inception so he was one of the original members of the squadron’s ground crew. He stayed with them almost to the end of the war, moving to 12 School of Technical Training at RAF Melksham in Wiltshire on 20th January 1945. Here he qualified as an electrician and on 19th May 1945 he was posted to 304 Squadron.

Finally he was posted to 58 Maintenance Unit at Newark, Nottinghamshire on 2nd July 1946. Then into the Polish Resettlement Corps on 7th May 1947. He was awarded the Air Medal and finally discharged on 17th March 1949 from RAF Cammeringham in Lincolnshire.

After his discharge he worked in the electrical industry in Nottingham and as an instructor at a rehabilitation centre at Balderton, Nottinghamshire. He finally retired on 21st June 1983.