TEOFIL PAJĄCZKOWSKI

 

He was an armourer, born on 20th December 1917 at Kulczyn, Poland to Aleksander and Bronislawa Pajaczkowski and probably served his National Service there around 1936 - 1937.  He was recalled to service on 7th December 1938 and was attached to 112 Eskadra, Ist Air Regiment in the Polish Air Force and fought with them during the September Campaign.  At the start of the War they were located in Warsaw.

Pre-war photograph - probably from  his National Service

When the Russians attacked from the rear his unit made their way to the Romanian border where they were disarmed and interned.  However the Romanians were sympathetic and it was easy to slip away when the Polish Embassy supplied them with false papers, money and travel documents.  His route is unknown but would have been either via Balcic (now Bulgaria) or Constanta and then via the Black Sea and the Mediterranean  to Marseilles.  Or overland via Jugoslavia and Northern Italy to France.

Once in France they were placed in a camp at Septfonds where they suffered poor sanitary conditions and had little to do as the French seemed in no hurry to use their services.  After the capitulation they evacuated to the port of St Jean de Luz, close to the Spanish border, where they waited for a ship to take them to Great Britain'

This was no easy evacuation and they were constantly bombed and strafed by the Luftwaffe.  There were also U-boats of the Kreigsmarine lurking in the Atlantic and some of the escort ships were drawn away from the evacuation, leaving the evacuation ships to sail with little or no protection.

On arrival in Great Britain, he was posted to RAF Kirkham between Blackpool and Preston, Lancashire.  This was part of a complex of training sites clustered around Blackpool and became the main training site for Polish Airmen.  It was known as the Polish Depot.  He would spend a few weeks here learning the basics of the English language, King's Regulations and square bashing.

Arrival and departure - from 304 Squadron's own records

His arrival co-incided with the creation of the new Land of Silesia 304 Bomber Squadron  and he was one of the first men to arrive there on 24th August 1940.  His postings took him to RAF Bramcote near Nuneaton, Warwickshire where he began his work on Fairey Battle light bombers.  These were slow and outdated bombers and, by November 1940, the squadron had converted to Vickers Wellington Mk 1c medium bombers.

Over time he served at RAF Syerston near Newark, Nottinghamshire; RAF Lindholme near Doncaster, Yorkshire; RAF Tiree, Inner Hebrides, Scotland; RAF Dale near Milford Haven, Wales; RAF Talbenny also near Milford Haven, Wales; RAF Docking in Norfolk; RAF Davidstow Moor near Camelford, Cornwall; RAF Chivenor near Barnstaple, Devon; RAF Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland and RAF St Eval near Padstow, Cornwall.

Teofil (in cab) with colleagues

 somewhere in Britain during WW2

Teofil (left) and friend probably just after

the end of the War

As the War was over and the Squadron was being transferred to Transport Command, there was no longer a need for armourers, gunsmiths etc and he became redundant as a ground crew member and so he was posted to No 17 Air Crew Holding Unit at RAF Snaith near Goole in Yorkshire where he remained until he was posted to the Polish Resettlement Corps or until there was a ship available to take him home to Poland which happened immediately after his discharge on 16th January 1947.  However there is some evidence that he may have spent time with 307 Squadron during this idle time.  If this information is accurate he would have also served at RAF Castle Camps near Cambridge and at RAF Coltishal near Norfolk.

Sadly, he died on 3rd March 1963 at the unusually early age of 45 and is buried in Wereszczyn Parish cemetery, Kulczyn, Poland.

WITOLD TADEUSZ GĄSIORSKI

 

Witold Tadeusz Gasiorski was born in the village of Myskowice in Eastern Poland, (now Ukraine) on 25th January 1921.  In his touth he was fascinated by the advancement of aviation and it was inevitable that he would try to pursue it as a career.  He was accepted at the Air Force Cadet School in Warsaw where he began training as a pilot.

Sadly, the outbreak of war shattered his dreams and he and the other cadets were arrested by the Russians, crammed into cattle trucks and deported to Siberia.  He was eventually interned in the gulag at Vorkuta, a coal mining town in the Komi Republic, Russia, situated just north of the Arctic Circle where he was underfed and overworked like all the other prisoners.

Following Operation Barbarossa, when the Germans turned on their former allies, the Russians released him and he is believed to have been passenger number 90 0n the British ship SS Llanstephan Castle from Archangelsk to Glasgow although his name appears to have been slightly miss-spelt (as W. Gasierski) on the passenger list.  He arrived there on 3rd October 1941.

He spent some time in hospital recovering from his malnourished state and was then sent to the Polish Depot at Blackpool where he learned the basics of the English language and British military ways and regulations before being sent for gunnery and wireless operator training.  This is a little odd because he had previously been training as a pilot but may have been due to selection differences in Britain.  Eventually he was posted to No 1 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit at Silloth, Cumberland (now Cumbria) where he trained in British Battle tactics and was bonded into a crew.

304 Squadron hand written record of his arrival

After passing out at RAF Silloth he was posted to 304 Squadron based at RAF Lindholme on 19th January 1942 according to the Squadron's own records when they were based at Lindholme near Doncaster, Yorkshire which seems odd and suggests there may have been a mistake since he did not fly any sorties for them until 21st September 1943 when they were based at RAF Davidstow Moor in Cornwall.

He subsequently moved with them to RAF Predannack, Cornwall, RAF Chivenor, Devon and RAF Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland although he was only at the latter for about two weeks before he became tour expired and was transferred out to be an instructor with No 19 (Polish) Service Flying Training School at RAF Newton, Nottinghamshire.  He had served the Squadron well, having flown 47 Operational sorties with them and being involved with what is believed to have been an attack on a U-boat on the night of 24th/25th July 1944.  The Admiralty was left totally puzzled over the green smoke emitted and did not give any indication on whether they believed the U-boat to have been damaged or sunk in the absence of any wreckage coming to the surface.  The reports and the ir response are shown below:

During his military service he was awarded the Krzyz Walecznych (Cross of Valour) and two bars, the Medal Lotniczy (Air Force medal) and British campaign medals.

Witold's departure from 304 Squadron

At the end of the War, the village where he was born was absorbed into the Ukraine and was subjected to Communist rule so he decided not to return home and stayed in Britain.  He started a new life by his marrying Urszula Burger in 1945, she was a fellow Pole who had also been interned in the gulags  and only came to Britain via a long tortuous route but understood the hardships he had gone through.  Theyhad known each other since childhood.

Together they had three children and he became a bus driver in Rotherham, Yorkshire where they made a home and had a long happy life together until Witold's death in 2003 at the age of 82.

JERZY KUPŚĆ

 

He was born into a Lithuanian family on 16th February 1917 at Ilecka Zaszczyta which is in the border area of Kazakhstan/Russia but his family were from the Kroszty estate near Rakiszki, Lithuania.  The family returned to Wilno, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania) and he was educated there, graduating from the Electrical Department of the Technical School in Wilno.

In January 1940 he became part of the purge of Polish citizens  and was arrested by the NKVD (precursors of the KGB) in Wilno.  This is probably because his father, Adam, was a land owner which went against the Communist ethos and was therefore a threat.  He probably spent a few weeks in a Russian controlled prison or makeshift prison before being deported to a Siberian gulag in the first wave of mass deportations on 9th/10th February 1940.  This consisted of 110 trains each with about 2,000 people crammed into its boxcars.  Their destinations were spread over the vast area covering Archangelsk, Sverdlovsk, Omsk and Irkutsk.  It is not known exactly where he was detained but it is probable that he was part of a family group held in Archangelsk - with his mother (named Kupska) at the head of the family.

After the signing of the Sikorski-Majski agreement, he was released from the gulag but was not on the passenger list of the SS Llanstephan which brought 200 released Poles from Archangelsk to Glasgow in October 1941 so it must be assumed that he was one of the many thousands who signed up to join Anders' Army in the Niddle East and, by a long and tortuous route, made his way to Krasnovodsk.  From there he would have been able to cross the Caspian Sea to Pahlevi in Persia (now Iran) and join Anders' main army.

Whilst he was there, he applied to join the Polish Air Force in exile and was accepted because of his education and technical training - so he would have had priority passage to England.

Once in England he would have been sent to the Polish Depot at Blackpool, a cluster of training establishments centred on RAF Squires Gate and at the absolute limit of the range of Luftwaffe bombers.  Also safe because Hitler is reputed to have wanted the town for his playground!  He would already have completed his National Service around 1935-1937 before hostilities broke out.  On completion of his training he was posted to 304 Squadron as a wireless mechanic and stayed with them until 16th April 1945 before transferring out and completing his service elsewhere.

Extract from hand written Squadron Records showing his departure date

With 304 Squadron he probably began his service at RAF Lindholme near Doncaster, Yorkshire and later moved to RAF Tiree in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland on 10th May 1942 and then to RAF Dale near Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, Wales on 13th June 1942.  Later he moved to RAF Talbenny, also in Pembrokeshire and back to RAF Dale on 1st December 1942.  His next move was to RAF Docking in Norfolk on 2nd April 1943 then RAF Davidstow Moor  near Camelford in Cornwall on 8th June 1943.  From there he went to RAF Predannack, also in Cornwall on 13th December 1943 and then to RAF Chivenor near Barnstaple in Devon on 19th February 1944.  On 21st September 1944 he moved to RAF Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland and finally to RAF St Eval on 6th March 1945.

He may have served with the Polish Resettlement Corps but eventually returned to Poland in 1947.  He worked, among other places, in the Przedsiebiorstwo Electryficacji Rolnictwa - an agricultural eectrification company.  Later still, as an electrical inspector in the building administration in Sopot on the Baltic coast.  He died in Sopot on 12th October 2000 and was buried there.

PRZEMYSLAW HEDINGER

I have received a request, today, for information on the above airman.  I have a small amount of information on this man and I would like to pass it on to you but both of the email addresses you have given me have failed.  Please contact me again with a working email address.

VOTE OF CONFIDENCE

I would like to express my thanks for your support to those of you who read this blog.  Tonight it has received its 250,000th hit and the audience has now spread over 148 different countries and territories and that makes all the hard work worthwhile.

A more detailed analysis of the spread of hits shows the following list of the top 10 countries represented in these viewing figures - in total, more than 80% of hits come from these sources.

United States	65,988
United Kingdom	60,014
Poland	28,999
Germany	15,109
France	10,914
Russia	7,729
Canada	6,703
Ukraine	3,474
Australia	3,100
Ireland	1,869

ANTONI DADACZ

Antoni Dadacz was born on 8th October 1915, son of Walenty and Agnieszka (nee Chmiel) Dadacz at Antonin, near Posnan, Poland,  He grew up as a farm labourer in that area and almost certainly did his National Service there from about 1933.

With war looming, he was recalled to the military on 7th November 1938 as part of the Lodz Army supported by 161 and 162 Fighter Eskadra and 63 and 66 Observation Eskadra to which he would have been attached if he was designated Air Force at that time.  Ironically this force was commanded by General Juliusz Rommel at that time.  His policy was to fight a village by village campaign to delay the Germans long enough for his forces to complete their mobilisation and so he advanced towards the Germans.

The battle was fought viciously over the three days from 6th-8th September 1939 and General Rommel and three Divisions of troops were cut off from the rest of the army.  The remains of the Lodz Army headed to the Romanian border and crossed to safety.  They were then disarmed and interned in camps in neutral Romania.  With help from sympathetic Romanian officials they were supplied with large numbers of blank ID cards with the correct signatures and rubber stamps which could later be filled in with false details and used to leave the country posing as foreign workers.

The camps were not closely guarded and the men just quietly slipped away when they had their new IDs, travel documents and money from the Polish Embassy in Bucarest.  The ultimate destination was France and there were many routes to get there including overland routes via Jugoslavia and Northern Italy and sea routes from Romania, notably the port of Balcic (now in Bulgaria) across the Black Sea, through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles on to the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean to Marseilles.  From there it was on to the Polish area around Septfonds or Lyon Bron for those destined for the Air Force.  In Antoni's case it was Septfonds which is just over 300 miles from Marseilles in the direction of Bordeaux, arriving there on 4th February 1940.  The area around Balcic was swarming with Gestapo agents who were powerless to stop this evacuation but whose presence led to the Germans threatening to invade if these mass escape routes  were not stopped.

The camp at Septfonds was fairly new because it had been built for refugees from the Spanish Civil War but it was uncomfortable and insanitary and was intended only as a transit camp and he should have been transferred to Lyon-Bron within two weeks but there is no evidence to suggest this happened and he seems to have stayed there for about three months.

The French had no appetite for war and the men who made it there were dramatically under used leading to boredom and constant complaints about inadequate food, poor living conditions and an almost total absence of hot water.  It was almost a relief for them when it became obvious that France would capitulate and they could get away to Britain - which they called The Islands of Last Hope - so they could finally fight the Germans. 

Once in Britain, each man was given the King's Gift of ten shillings so that he would have money to spend when he got to his base in Britain.  It will barely buy a bar of chocolate today but it was a substantial amount in 1940.

On 1st May 1940, Antoni arrived at RAF Eastchurch in Kent, meaning that he was one of the earliest arrivals.  However RAF Eastchurch was soon to become a front line airfield for fighters during the Battle of Britain.  Inevitably he would be posted to Blackpool Depot which was a cluster of Army and Air Force training centres at the very extreme range of German Bombers and further protected because Hitler wanted it for his playground after he had conquered Britain!

I believe that Antoni Dadacz was initially posted to 301 Squadron and after his initial training that would have been to RAF Swinderby  in Lincolnshire, moving to RAF Hemswell on 18th July when some of the aircrews were moved to 138 Squadron and the remainder with ground crews were transferred to 300 Squadron.  The supernumaries and others such as cooks and clerks who could not be absorbed would be posted to the Blackpool Depot or an aircrew holding centre such as RAF Snaith at Humberside.  This is backed up by a photograph in the family album which shows a Wellington "bombing up" and the Squadron Code is GR which was allocated to 301 Squadron.

            Bombing up possibly at RAF Swinderby in June 1941

In fact, he was posted to 18 Operational Training Unit and so remained at RAF Bramcote on general duties.  The records show only that he was received at RAF Eastchurch, probably on 1st May 1940 and was transferred to the Blackpool Depot sometime thereafter but effective from the same date and so the move was clearly planned by the time of his arrival.   

On 7th May 1943 he was posted to 304 Squadron at RAF Docking in Norfolk and subsequently moved to RAF Davidstow Moor in Cornwall on 10th June 1943.  But his stay with 304 Squadron was short lived and on 10th September 1943 he was transferred to the School of Training at RAF Halton near Wendover, Buckinghamshire where he trained as a cook.  He had obviously found his forte as his reports quickly rose from satisfactory to superior.  Surprisingly, he did not return to 304 Squadron but was posted on 28th July 1944 to No 25 (Polish) Elementary Flying Training School at RAF Hucknall near Nottingham where he stayed for the rest of the War and until 13th November 1946.

 Antoni's arrival at 304 Squadron - taken from the Squadron's own hand written record

Antoni (left) with one of his colleagues at RAF Halton or 25 EFTS

At this time he ended his Polish Air Force service and briefly joined the Polish Resettlement Corps which meant he was temporarily a member of the Royal Air Force.  The dates quoted are nominal as the moves usually took 7-10 days to complete.  The squadron disbanded altogether only a few weeks later on 10th December 1946.

He joined the Polish Resettlement Corps for a maximum period of two years which gave him security of employment, a place to live and a wage until he was able to find permanent employment.  He stayed with them for six months and was released on 9th June 1947 to undertake training as a coal miner at Birley near Sheffield.During his military career he was awarded the Polish Air Force Medal and three bars and the British Defence Medal, 1939-1945 Star and War Medal.

At this time he became a registered alien and was permitted to stay in Britain but with restrictions on his movements and employment until he became a British citizen.

Antoni's Registered Alien card which was cancelled when he became a naturalised British subject

He bought a house, No 14 Montague Street, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire and as a single man he was looking for a housekeeper when he found a lady named Ethel Millard who was the widow of another miner who had been killed in an accident at the pit, leaving her with a son to support.  They married and together they had two further surviving children and were happy until his early death in March 1980 from coronary disease.  He is buried in Mansfield Cemetery, Derby Road, Mansfield.

He did make contact with surviving family in Poland but unfortunately never met them again as, sadly, he died just before Poland was totally free of the Communist yoke.

What follows is a selection of his wartime photographs which are not fully identified but reflect his life at the time.  Any information on these items would be most welcome.

                                             Antoni on the right

His friend Jozef Fusniak, rear gunner on a Wellington bomber that crashed in Yorkshire - famed for following the footsteps of a fox in the snow, downhill to the nearest farm.  He used a piece of the wreckage as a crutch because he suffered a broke leg in the crash.  Antoni is thought to have been a member of Jozef's ground crew - before he became a cook.

                   A parade in England - judging by the uniforms

Post-war photograph with a colleague - he became a sergeant in 1946

Another post-war photograph with unknown companions

 

JAN WINCENTY MONDSCHEIN

Jan was born on 28th January 1912 in Czestochowa to Wincenty Mondschein, a music publisher, and his wife Helena, née Siwczynska, who lived in Warsaw.  He grew up in the pleasant suburb of Warsaw called Praga-Północ, situated across the River Vistula from the centre of the city, and therefore not destroyed during the 1944 uprising or the German attempt to destroy the city as they retreated.

He was born into a reasonably well to do family and received a good education.  After graduating from high school, he completed his National Service in the army in a mounted reconnaissance unit, and then studied at Warsaw University, from which he graduated in law in 1935, and went to work as a trainee lawyer at the Salt Monopoly.

His future seemed assured in June 1939 after he had completed his Masters degree in Law in June 1939.  War was imminent and he was mobilised as a reserve officer with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. From 1st September he became an active participant in the fighting to defend Poland against the surprise attack from Germany. During this time he performed reconnaissance and other duties with the 32nd Infantry Regiment. Because of a shortage of horses, he commanded a platoon of cyclists to carry out these duties.

Jan (left) on his first day with the Salt Monopoly with his brother Jerzy (right) who was already an Officer

In his case the enemy were coming from East Prussia in the North.  The Poles made a fighting retreat towards Warsaw and made a stand at the fortress at Modlin, north of Warsaw, under the command of General Wiktor Thommée.  The soldiers here fought ferociously from 13th to 29th September and their anti-aircraft battery was credited with shooting down more Luftwaffe aircraft than any other battery throughout the entire September Campaign.

After lasting longer than almost everyone else, this force of 24,000 men finally surrendered to the Germans and Jan was made a prisoner of war.  Two days earlier he had been awarded the Krzyz Walecznych (Cross of Valour) for his part in the Defence of Modlin.

The capitulation agreed by the Modlin commander, General Thommée, with the Germans was on the condition that the Polish troops would leave the fortress with their ceremonial weapons, and, after processing, would be released home.  On 17th October 1939, Jan was released from the POW Camp in Dzialdowie and allowed to return to Warsaw.  This camp, formerly a Polish Army barracks, later became a torture camp where between 10,000 - 13,000 of its 30,000 population were murdered.

From 17th October to 21st November 1939 he lived in Warsaw but immediately went underground whilst he planned his next move.  On this latter date he travelled to Krakow where he stayed for only three days before moving on to Krynicy and two days later he crossed the border into the Slovak Republic (client state of Nazi Germany) and headed for Orlov.

In Orlov he was arrested and taken to Prestov where he was sentenced to a "day arrest" for illegally crossing the border.  Five days later he was released and directed to the Hungarian border where he crossed into Hungary at Koszyce.  He was taken to a camp which he refers to as Danos but I believe was the former Officer's rest camp at Esztergom where he was treated reasonably well by the sympathetic Hungarians.  He stayed there from 2nd December 1939 until 13th March 1940.

On that day he left for Budapest in search of the Polish diplomats there who would provide him with false ID, money and travel documents to get him to the west.  This was a very well organised business both in Hungary and Romania which acquired large volumes of genuine ID blanks complete with all necessary signatures and rubber stamps obtained from sympathetic officials and sometimes with small bribes.

In Jan's case he travelled on passport number 42095/15/1888 dated 7th or 4th February 1940 and issued in the name of Roman Waniewicz.  His journey took him across Hungary, Jugoslavia and Northern Italy by train to France.  Although Mussolini's government were sympathetic to the Germans, these people were allowed to cross Italy but they were not allowed to stop except to buy fuel and food.

He arrived at the French border on the morning of 16th March and enrolled with the Polish forces at the Officer's station in Paris.  He was posted to Clermont-Ferrand which he liked very much but it was not long before he was in action. 

In May 1940 the German panzers entered France.  The Polish units were sent North to help in the defence, but the French army soon disintegrated.  The Poles were not about to surrender and Jan's group commandeered a train and travelled South in it.

He is most likely to have been sent on to the Polish base at Lyon-Bron where he would have stayed until the capitulation of France.  He was evacuated from the port of Biarritz or the area around there, most probably from St Jean de Luz just a few miles away.  It was not an easy evacuation as they were harassed by U-Boats and bombed and strafed by the Luftwaffe and many of the escort vessels were forced to act as submarine hunters and anti-aircraft gun platforms.  This was not an easy evacuation, taking place just a few days after Dunkirk and with heavy loss of life on the beaches and at sea.  Nevertheless almost as many men were rescued from the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts as were rescued from Dunkirk.

As a soldier, he was taken to Glasgow where he joined what remained of the Polish Army.  When the British Army started training paratroops on 21st June 1940, Jan was one of the early volunteers and completed the rigorous and dangerous training at RAF Ringway near Manchester (now Manchester International Airport).  Some of the training techniques had to be abandoned because they caused an unacceptable level of injuries to the trainees.  This school was founded on Churchill's direct instruction and became known as the Central Landing School.  It was intended primarily to create a corps of parachutists but also functioned as an experimental centre and a technical centre for airborne troops.

Jan was becoming very restless waiting to get into active service and it was probably when his brother Jerzy was made a Prisoner of War that impelled him to apply for a transfer from the Army to the Polish Air Force.  This would probably not have been approved  if Jerzy had not been a pre-war officer and well known  to the Polish top brass.

Jan's British Identity Card

He was accepted and passed as suitable for air crew and then underwent the long period of training which finally ended at No 6 (Polish) Operational Training Unit at RAF Thornaby on Tees, North Yorkshire and he was transferred to 304 Squadron on 2nd January 1944 when they were based at RAF Predannack, Cornwall.  He actually arrived at the squadron two days earlier than the official transfer date.

Jan's arrival at 304 Squadron - noted in their hand written record book

During his time with 304 Squadron he flew 44 hostile sorties and served also at RAF Chivenor near Barnstaple in Devon and RAF Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland.

The following selection of photographs were probably taken during his service with 304 Squadron

Group of 304 Squadron personnel standing by a Wellington Bomber probably in early June 1944.  Note the invasion stripes painted on the wing.  Jan is 2nd from the left.

Jan (3rd from right), probably with the crew of Flight Lieutenant Miedzybrodzki, after inspecting the flak damage to the latter's Wellington bomber.

Jan (2nd from left) with unidentified aircrew

Jan (2nd from right) with unidentified aircrew

Jan wearing standard flying jacket

Jan (right) with a senior Officer

Jan (seated 4th from left) with other members of the squadron or, possibly crew from 6 OTU

In March 1945, while the War was coming to a close, he was selected for an advanced Staff Navigator course at RAF Shawbury near Shrewsbury, Shropshire.  The War ended during his time there and on qualifying, he was posted to 301 Squadron which had been moved to Transport Command at RAF Chedburgh, Suffolk.  The duties there included navigating routes for unarmed and converted Handley Page Halifax bombers mainly to Italy and Greece.

Instead of carrying bombs these aircraft carried routine supplies to our forces, including mail, but also cargoes of around one ton in weight of British printed Greek and Italian currency to replace the, now worthless, German occupation currency.  On the return journey they also flew released Prisoners of War home to England.

He was among the many Polish servicemen unwilling to return to Poland under Stalin's puppet Communist regime.  That was a sensible decision when you consider the number of returning troops who were arrested, imprisoned, tortured and even executed.  Those who were not subjected to this harsh treatment were denied decent jobs and men who had been lawyers, doctors and other professional men struggled to finId employment above the level of road sweepers.

So, on his demobilisation, he was enrolled in the Polish Resettlement Corps where he was assured an income at his existing level of pay and a place to live for a period of up to two years.  He was also given help to improve his English and learn a new skill.

The Polish legal system, based in Roman law, was quite different from Anglo-Saxon common law, so his Polish qualification as a lawyer was of no value in England.  In 1947 he was offered and accepted a permanent commission in the RAF, and posted to RAF Cranwell (Technical Training) in an administrative role. 

His postings thereafter were RAF Luqa in Malta, RAF St. Athan, near Barry, Wales, RAF Stanmore, Middlesex, RAF Benson, Oxfordshire, RAF Swinderby, Lincolnshire, RAF Hullavington, Chippenham, Wiltshire at the last of which he was Station Commander. One of his last jobs was overseeing the closure of RAF Yatesbury, Wiltshire.

He retired in 1966 with the acting rank of Wing Commander.

In February 1955 he was invested with the MBE in the New Year's Honours List and the following year he changed his name to Monsell by deed poll.

London Gazette report of his appointment to the Military Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

After retirement he worked as a civil servant in the Ministry of Defence (Navy) in Bath, Somerset until his death in October 1968 at the early age of 56.

While training as a navigator in 1943 he met an English girl named Sylvia Todd, then a VAD nurse at the RAF hospital at RAF Kirkham, where he was recovering from a case of diptheria/tonsillitis. They were married in June 1944  just 11 days after D-Day

All leave was cancelled but his Squadron Commander discreetly granted him an unofficial 48 hour pass to travel from RAF Chivenor to Penn Church in Buckinghamshire near his future bride's home.  This was just long enough for the wedding and to bring his new wife back to RAF Chivenor.  The squadron presented them with a silver bowl as a wedding gift.  They had three children together.

Invitation to the wedding of Sylvia Christine Todd and Flying Officer Jan W Mondschein

Wedding photograph of Jan and Sylvia

Wedding report from the local press

As a footnote: he was the brother of Jerzy Tomasz Mondschein who was also a navigator in 304 Squadron and who was one of the fifty airmen murdered after the real Great Escape.

See also https//304squadron.blogspot.com/2012/05/jerzy-tomasz-mondschein.html                             

ALFRED LESZCZUK

Many people believe that only the pilots and other aircrew have stories worth reading when it comes to World War II but this is not the case as I hope you will find here.

Alfred Leszczuk was born on 7th February 1907 in Lwów, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine) at the age of only 11, in October 1918, he took part in the Polish-Ukrainian War as a defender of Lwów in the volunteer Defence Battalion of Lwów and, as a result of this, he was awarded the Defenders of Lwów Cross.  After which he went back to his schooling and eventually trained as an electro-mechanic.

After his compulsory military service, he remained in the army where he received training as a radio mechanic from 1928 - 1929 with 61 Squadron in what is now the Ukraine.  On 28th March 1929 he was promoted and formally transferred to 61 Squadron of the 6th Air Regiment and put in the trusted position of Chief Electro-mechanic.  He retained this position until 15th September 1930 when he was released from military service and placed on the reserve list.

In 1934 he married Stanisława Dobrzańska in the Church of St Martin in Lwów and they continued to live in that city until he was recalled from the reserves for War service.

Wedding photograph of Alfred Leszczuk and Stanisława Dobrzańska, 8th September in Lwów

He was mobilised on 24th August 1939 and returned to the 6th Air Regiment, serving with 161 Fighter Squadron at Widzew-Ksawerów airfield in Lodz.  When the Russian army invaded from the rear, on 17th September 1939, he was ordered to retreat and head for the Romanian border where they were disarmed and interned.  On 1st October 1939 he was placed in the camp at Craiova where he remained until 18th December 1939 when he was moved to the camp at Targu Jiu.

Because the Romanian people sympathised with the Poles, life was fairly easy in the camps and there was a well organised plan whereby the Polish Embassy in Bucarest acquired large numbers of blank ID cards which were already stamped and signed by Romanian officials who were sympathetic or accepted relatively small bribes.  These genuine "fake" IDs were used to get the men out of the country.  All that needed to be added were photographs and false names.  The French authorities had already agreed to accept a contingent of the Polish armed forces to continue the fight from France.  There were many routes to France, overland via Jugoslavia and Northern Italy and by sea through the port of Balcic (now in Bulgaria) via the Mediterranean to Marseilles port.  It is likely that Alfred took this latter route  as he was photographed in Split, Jugoslavia in 1940.  These routes were not only assigned to the Polish Air Force but priority was given to airmen.

Alfred Leszczuk at Split, Jugoslavia waiting to continue his journey to France

Camp Carpiagne Military Base near Marseilles, France

He arrived at Camp Carpiagne, a military base south of Marseilles, on 2nd April 1940 and four days later he was assigned to the Air Force training centre at Lyon-Bron commanded by Colonel Stefan Pawlikowski, which was the main centre for the Polish Air Force.  Most Poles were very unhappy here as living conditions were poor, the food was inadequate and there was a desperate shortage of hot water for bathing.  Most Poles hated the place and the French attitudes because they were totally laid back and indifferent to the fighting.  The Poles were anxious to fight the Germans and were frustrated at the slow pace and indifference of the French.

It became necessary to evacuate the base as the Germans attacked France and most of the men were moved towards the Atlantic Coast and the small port of St Jean de Luz just North of the Spanish border. There was great hostility towards the Poles and many of the French wanted to hand them over to the Germans. This was just a few days after the evacuation from Dunkirk and few people realise that almost as many men were evacuated from the Mediterranean and Atlantic ports as from Dunkirk. 

But it was a bloody evacuation and many were killed as the evacuation fleet was harassed by U-Boats of the Kriegsmarine and aircraft of the Luftwaffe. So much so that Royal Navy ships sent to escort the evacuees had to be diverted to defend against the U-Boat threat. A lucky strike by Luftwaffe bombers resulted in a direct hit on the SS Lancastria which sunk very quickly with huge loss of life. Official estimates say 2,000 - 3,000 but eye witnesses put the number at 8,000 - 10,000 Soldiers waiting to board ships had to run the gauntlet of strafing and bombing before they could escape. 

On 24th June 1940 Alfred sailed on board the SS Arandora Star which was a British liner converted to a troopship which arrived in Liverpool on about 26th June 1940. On her very next journey she was torpedoed and sunk by the U47 west by North of Ireland. 805 people lost their lives - ironically most of them were Italian internees and German prisoners of war on their way to Canada on 2nd July 1940.

SS Arandora Star waiting at St Jean de Luz to evacuate the British, Polish and French forces

 

Alfred Leszczuk working on a Bolton Paul Defiant

 

Alfred would have been one of those who received the King's gift of 10 shillings (50p in today's money) which had considerable spending power in 1940.  Then, on 27th June 1940, he was sent by train to RAF Kirkham which was between Preston and Blackpool but was part of the Polish Blackpool Depot.  There he would learn English, the King's Regulations and the British way of doing things - as well as the usual square bashing and became part of the new Polish Air Force in exile - Service number 793819.  He was assigned to 307 Squadron "Lwów Eagle Owls" and posted to RAF Kirton in Lindsey in Lincolnshire on 23rd September 1940 which was a night fighter squadron.

Whilst with them he served at RAF Jurby on the Isle of Man from 7th November 1940 until 8th January 1941 when he was posted to RAF Squires Gate at Blackpool, Lancashire.  On 26th March 1941 he was posted to RAF Colerne at Bristol and from 26th April 1941 to RAF Exeter, Devon.

On 31st October 1941 he was transferred to 304 Squadron where he moved from servicing fighters to Bombers.  During his time with the Squadron he spent time learning the new technologies at No 11 School of Technical Training at Hereford and No 12 School of Technical Training at Melksham, Wiltshire. 

He first came to 304 Squadron at RAF Lindholme near Doncaster in Yorkshire and later moved to RAF Tiree in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland on 10th May 1942 and then to RAF Dale near Milfordhaven, Pembrokeshire, Wales on 13th June 1942.  Later he moved to nearby RAF Talbenny in Pembrokeshire on 3rd November 1942 and back to RAF Dale on 1st December 1942.  His next move was to RAF Docking in Norfolk on 2nd April 1943 then RAF Davidstow Moor near Camelford in Cornwall on 8th June 1943.  From there he went to RAF Predannack on 13th December 1943, also in Cornwall until his final move to RAF Chvenor near Barnstaple in Devon on 19th February 1944.  He served in some of the most isolated and beautiful parts of iBritain - unfortunately in some of the worst weather conditions.

The picture below is unusual because he is wearing a standard battledress blouse with the RAF eagle and the stripe of a lance corporal (he was a full corporal at the time) but no Poland shoulder flash.  I suspect he has borrowed this from a British mechanic just for the purpose of an official photograph.

Inspecting the front turret of a Wellington bomber at RAF Dale

Alfred is 4th from right in the front row of this 304 Squadron group

On 31st May 1944 the invasion of mainland Europe was imminent and experienced mechanics were desperately needed to service the aircraft of No 2 Tactical Air Force who were to follow the invasion fleet.  He had experience of servicing fighters and was transferred to 6317 Service Echelon which was responsible for looking after the aircraft of 317 Polish fighter squadron.  At the time the service echelon was still separated from the Squadron and it is unclear where it was actually based.

It becomes clearer from 1st August 1944 when the Service Echelon embarked for France and rejoined the Squadron the following day at the Advanced Landing Ground of Plumetot in Normandy.  This was not a pleasant place where they lived in tents and suffered alternate spells of mud and dust and they were also within range of the German artillery.

After this the moved to Londinieres, Normandy on 5th September 1944, Vendeville near Lille in Northern France on 10th September and Deurne near Antwerp, Belgium on 3rd October until they finally reached Sint Denijs-Westrem on 11th October.  They were still here on 1st January 1945 when they were hit by a sudden and massed attack by the Luftwaffe.  Fortunately 317 and two British squadrons

Devastation following a totally unexpected Luftwaffe attack on 1st January 1945.  Probably taken at Sint Denijs-Westrem, Belgium where he was serving at the time

Alfred sitting on the tail unit of a wrecked Focke-Wulf FW 190 Dora which was destroyed on the ground probably at Varrelbusch or Ahlhorn, Germany

On 13th January 1945 they moved on to Grimbergen, Belgium and by 9th March 1945 they had moved on to Gilze Rijen in the Netherlands.  By 13th April 1945 they had pushed as far as Nordhorn in Lower Saxony, Germany and by 30th April they had reached Varrelbusch where they remained as the War was almost over.  On 10th September they moved to Alhorn where he remained until 28th November 1946 when they embarked for England.  On 1st March 1946 he was promoted to sergeant.

In the latter days of his service on Continental Europe, he witnessed the carnage imposed on the Luftwaffe by the Allied air forces in one last push for victory  Here he is seen sitting on the tail unit of a Docke-Wulf 190 Dora - the long nose version which has clearly been destroyed on the ground - probably at Varrelbusch or Ahlhorn as he followed the fighters forward in the race to Berlin.

Alfred Leszczuk's medals from the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1918-1921 and WWII

He was disembarked on 30th November 1946 and rejoined the Squadron.  On 8th January 1947 he was moved to RAF Portreath in Cornwall but there is no clear reason for this.  He remained there until he was discharged to the Polish Resettlement Corps where he was no longer active Air Force personnel but it gave him a place to live and his normal pay until he was discharged and repatriated to Poland on 9th June 1947.  During his military career he added to his medal won as a boy in the Polish-Ukrainian War with a Polish Medal Lotniczy and four British campaign medals.  They were the 1939-1945 Star, the France and Germany Star, the Defence Medal and the War Medal.

 

During the course of the War his wife Stanisława remained in Lwów with their two young children - a three year old son and a 1 year old daughter.  After the War ended she was forcibly removed from their home city which was to become part of the Ukraine.  She had no idea where she was being sent.  The train journey lasted about two weeks and the final destination was Klodzko near the Czech border.

 

She managed to find Alfred through the Polish Red Cross.  He wanted to bring the family to England or to emigrate with them to South Africa but they decided that he should return to Poland, which he did in 1947.

His application showing his willingness to settle in South Africa

The ruling communist regime did not treat returning soldiers well.  They were distrusted because they were considered to be potential Western spies, they were spied on and punished by being kept out of the best jobs.  Communist repression replaced Nazi repression and, in Alfred's case, it was difficult to find a job. He wanted to work at the airport in Wrocław but that was not possible and in the end, he managed to get a job on the railways. 

Alfred with his wife, mother in law and two children taken in Poland after the War

Alfred's wife for many years ran a tailoring workshop on the ground floor of the tenement house where the family lived after the War.  This was not an ordinary establishment, because Stanisława ran cutting and sewing courses for women and students of the then Professional Schools Team.  She was much appreciated by the girls whom she taught.

After the war, when his health was failing, he was able to continue his passion for chess. He organized numerous tournaments and was actively involved in houses of culture. He died in 1966 and was buried according to his wishes in military uniform. For many years his grave remained undistinguished.   It was in no way possible to guess that a soldier of the Polish Armed Forces in the West, who devoted himself to the Fatherland, was buried there.

Recently, thanks to three of his grandchildren, a new and elegant monument was erected along with three plaques, because he, his wife and his mother in law are all buried there.   On Alfred's grave there is a photograph of him in uniform, the chessboard emblem of the Polish Air Force and the badges of the three squadrons in which he served - a very fitting and very impressive memorial. The tomb is located in the municipal cemetery at Kłodzko, Poland.