PHOTOGRAPHS AND PERSONAL INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY
HIS FAMILY HAVE BEEN REMOVED IN RESPONSE TO A COMPLAINT BY HIS DAUGHTER. THEY MAY BE REPLACED IN DUE COURSE
He was born in Warsaw on 15th January 1915. In the mid 1930's he joined the army and was
given training as an electrician. In these
early days the Air Force was a branch of the Army and he was allocated to an
air base near Warsaw.
Immediately prior to the outbreak of war he was attached to the ground
crew of 3rd and 4th Air Regiments maintaining the 10 PZL P7s and the 43 updated
versions - PZL P11s under constant pressure to keep them flying for as long as
possible and all the while being under attack from the Luftwaffe bombers.
After six days they had lost 38 aircraft in combat and were ordered to
Lublin as the situation was becoming hopeless.
They had faced technically far superior German fighters with pilots
battle hardened from the Spanish Civil War and they had performed superbly,
being credited with 42 kills.
Escaping the internment camp was easy, after contacting the local Polish
"agent", Henryk was given false identity papers, travel documents and
money. A small well placed bribe would
ensure the guard looked the other way as he left the camp and he then simply
made his way to Constanta, a port on the Black Sea which he reached in January
1940. Travelling on from there on
whatever vessels were available, usually oilers, colliers and cargo vessels, he
spent the next three months travelling via Piraeus (the port for Athens),
Greece to Naples in Italy, Valletta in Malta and then on to Marseilles in
France where he rejoined the Polish Forces.
Initially he was posted to Toulouse military base (now Toulouse Airport)
but very soon afterwards he was sent to Blida in Algeria which was the training
centre for Polish bomber crews and needed skilled men to maintain these
aircraft. He was only there for a short
time before the French capitulation and then he was evacuated by train to
Casablanca in Morocco to move onwards to Gibraltar. This was necessary because both Algeria and
Morocco were Vichy controlled, fascist
and very pro-German. This was a total
devaluation of the Free French fighting forces and the genuine Maquis resistance
movement; this was truly a stain on the honour of France.
There is some doubt about the vessel used to transport the Polish
military from Morocco but the most likely seems to be on board the ORP Wilja
which was laid up at Port Lyautey (now Kenitra) about 84 miles along the coast
from Casablanca. Henryk was one of a
great many Poles trying to get out of Morocco under great pressure from the
Vichy authorities and with as much haste as possible because of the imminent
arrival of German forces. Allied vessels
were not welcome there so the Poles went about a very quick restoration of the
Orp Wilja and skilled men such as Henryk were badly needed for this purpose.
In very short order, the Poles got the vessel's engines working and
1,870 of them boarded her before they put to sea and managed to get her to
Gibraltar to await a convoy to Britain.
They were lucky to be allowed to join the first available convoy; the
British gave them fuel and provisions for the journey and they left Gibraltar
on 6th July 1940 as part of Convoy HG37.
Admiralty records show that this convoy was escorted by various British
warships along the way but was escorted right to Liverpool by HMS
Enchantress. However the 34 year old
Wilja was not able to keep up and was left behind because of the convoy's need
for speed to dodge German bombers and U-boats.
She was advised to make for Vigo in Spain where she would be interned.
There was a general agreement among the Poles on board that, in spite of
her failing engines and troublesome boilers, they would still try to get to
Britain. Somehow they managed to keep
her going at a pitifully slow speed and when they had reached the South coast
of Ireland and were about to enter St George's Channel, they were approached by
an RAF Short Sunderland flying boat.
Having exchanged identity codes the pilot advised them to heave to and
stay where they were until he could get a surface craft to guide them out of
the minefield through which they were sailing!
Eventually they were extricated from the minefield and the rest of the
journey passed uneventfully and they docked in Liverpool on 18th July
1940. Their initial destination was the
Blackpool Polish Depot from where Henryk was sent to the No 7 School of
Technical Training at RAF Innsworth near Gloucester. However, this was a very short lived posting
and he was sent from there to RAF Bramcote near Nuneaton in Warwickshire where
men were desperately needed for the formation of the Polish 304 Bomber Squadron
on 23rd August 1940. He would have had
his first taste of the war in the West on 26th September 1940 when the station
was attacked by a Junkers Ju88 intruder which strafed the area and caused minor
damage to one of the Fairey Battles - not really serious but a warning that
ground crew were not immune to danger.
He was immediately put to work as the Squadron was allocated 16 Fairey
Battle light bombers and these had to be brought to readiness. They were obsolete aircraft and everybody in
the squadron must have been happy when they converted to Vickers Wellington
bombers from 1st November 1940.
On 1st December 1940, the Squadron moved to its first operational base
at RAF Syerston near Newark, Nottinghamshire.
On 20th July 1941 they moved on to RAF Lindholme near Doncaster in
Yorkshire and now the pressure began to mount as the squadron became more
heavily involved in the fighting.
On 14th May 1942, the squadron moved again to RAF Tiree in the Inner
Hebrides and began their tour of Atlantic anti-submarine patrols; this required
long, low level flights over featureless ocean and meant that the ground crew
had to make real efforts to ensure the aircraft were well maintained as there
was no flat ground for emergency landings.
On 13th June 1942 they moved again to RAF Dale in Pembrokeshire, Wales
where the same rules applied.
He remained with 304 Squadron until he was transferred to the 2nd
Tactical Air Force as part of the support team backing up the invasion of
Europe.
He
died in Derby on 12th July 1995, aged 80.
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