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  These were slow and outdated bombers and, by November 1940, the squadron had converted to Vickers Wellington Mk 1c medium bombers.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.