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.
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.
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.
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.
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