STANISLAW MALCZYK

He was born at Filipowice, Chrzanow , Poland on 21st January 1916 and, being 23 years old on the outbreak of war, he must have done his National Service and been placed on the reserve.  In any event, he was conscripted and posted to 2nd Air Regiment at Krakow.

When the Russians entered the war, on 17th September 1939, he was evacuated to Romania where he was disarmed and interned.  However, the resourceful Polish  government had arranged for all evacuated servicemen to be  provided with funds, travel documents and false identities through their Embassy in Bucarest.  Slipping away from the internment camps was easy at this early stage of the war and he made his way to France.  His route is unknown but it is likely that he came to the Polish base at Lyon-Bron, probably via Marseilles.

On the fall of France it is most likely that he escaped through St Juan de Luz and took a ship to Britain.  On arrival he would be placed in a temporary tented camp before being sent to the Polish Depot at Blackpool.  There he would have gone through the usual induction process of learning English, learning the King's Regulations and familiarisation with British equipment.

It is known that he attended the No 4 Gunnery School at Tranwell Airfield (RAF Morpeth) in Northumberland before being posted to 18 OTU at RAF Bramcote, Nuneaton, Warwickshire on 30th August 1941.  This was where he learned British tactical warfare and became part of an integrated crew before being posted to 304 Squadron at RAF Lindholme on 1st December 1941.

Once with the squadron he would train with them until he was ready to be sent into action.  This happened rather slowly due to the appalling weather conditions and his first three missions (in January 1942) were all cancelled.  He got his first chance on 14th February when he was sent to bomb the docks at Le Havre and there were four further missions to Essen, Cologne (2) and Rostock before the squadron was switched to Coastal Command.

In all he flew 45 missions with 304 Squadron, many of them were long and boring flights over the sea but there were some moments of excitement.  On 24th September 1942 on his 22nd mission with the squadron his aircraft was attacked by two Junkers Ju88 fighters.  He raked one of them with fire and hits were observed but the second aircraft attacked and he put a long burst into it at short range taking out the port engine and making hits on the wing root and below the cockpit.  This aircraft was seen to roll over and crash into the sea.

On 22nd November 1942 his aircraft was attacked by a Focke Wulf Kurier and the pilot skilfully reached cloud cover whilst he and the front gunner kept the enemy aircraft at bay with a few short bursts of machine gun fire but it was not possible to tell whether they had scored any hits.

At 10.02 am on 8th February 1943 Wellington Mk 1c HE103 (V) took off from RAF Dale on an anti-submarine patrol.  The patrol itself was uneventful but strong winds, heavy rain and low cloud took their toll on the fuel supply and the crew was forced to abandon the aircraft.  The plane carried on and crashed into high ground at Parc Llwydiarth in a remote area known as the Dyfnant Forest in near Llanfyllin, Montgomeryshire (now Powys), Wales.

The first indication of the crash was debris found by  Private Watkin Jones of the local Home Guard platoon.  There were also reports of German parachutists from various points, one of whom had landed near the Lake Vyrnwy Dam at Boncyn Celyn.  It was the co-pilot, F/O Dobrowalski, and he had broken his leg and was in severe pain and was speaking in Polish.

Local Constables and Home Guard platoons picked up the rest of the crew The pilot F/O J Wroblewski had injured his arm and the rear gunner, Sgt Stanislaw Malczyk's parachute had been caught up in a tree and he had hung there all night and had to be treated for shock and exposure.  The rest of the crew were uninjured.  He only flew two more missions after this and, tour expired, he was posted to the Polish Depot on 22nd April 1943.

 

Little is known of his service between this time and February 1944 when he was posted to 1586 Special Duties Flight and was posted overseas to RAF Campo Casale in Italy where he became part of the crew of F/Lt Szostak, flying frequent and dangerous missions in support of resistance and partisan groups across Europe notably to Poland.

 

Aircrew from 1586 SD Flight

Stanislaw Malczyk is second from the right

His last flight was in support of the Warsaw Uprising and took place on 15th August 1944 on Liberator KG890 (GR-S) piloted by F/Lt Szostak.  They successfully dropped a cache of arms, ammunition and food at very low level onto Krasinski Square in Warsaw.  On the way home they were attacked by two night fighters and suffered serious damage.  The pilot ordered his crew to jump from the burning aircraft but those who made it out of the plane were killed when their parachutes failed to open due to the low altitude.  They were shot down by Lt Gustav Eduard Francsi of NJG100

 

Lt Gustav Eduard Francsi

 

They crashed near the village of Great Nieszkowice in the Niepolomice Forest in Bochnia, Southern Poland.  The crew were buried in the cemetery at Pogwizdowie with full military honours; their funeral was attended by about 200 locals and the German Army fired a volley over their graves.  After the War, the bodies were removed and reburied in the British Military Cemetery in Krakow.

Stanislaw Malczyk was awarded the Virtuti Militari and the Cross of Valour and two or three bars (accounts vary).

This article has been written and illustrated by material sent to me in response to a request for information on the HE103 Wellington crash.  Any further details would be most welcome, particularly on his service with 1586 SD Flight or the time immediately after leaving 304 Squadron.

Copyright holders of the photographs used are unknown



 

STANISLAW JERZY OLEJNIK

During the September Campaign he served with 1st Air Regiment and, on 19th September 1939, he was evacuated to Hungary and interned in the camp at Eger which became a satellite concentration camp for Jews later in the war. Security was not tight and he escaped and made his way to France, in the company of a group of his colleagues. Later, he escaped from France and arrived at RAF Blackpool, the main Polish Depot where he trained as a meteorologist before being posted to 304 Squadron.


Like most Poles he wanted to fight and he successfully applied to become aircrew as a wireless operator/air gunner. For a while he remained with them on anti-submarine warfare duties and was awarded the Cross of Valour for his skill and courage in fighting off an attack by a German fighter.


In May 1944 he transferred to 1586 Special Duties Flight, based at Campo Casale, Brindisi, Italy and from here, he flew many missions to Albania, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Jugoslavia and Poland. There is a vague report that he was seriously injured in a forced landing in December 1944 and remained in a Polish field hospital in Italy, recuperating from his injuries until May 1945. I have not been able to confirm this – but he was definitely not on board the only aircraft that 301 Squadron (successors to 1586 Flight) lost in that month. However, the description I have seen says it was a forced landing and mentions no fatalities, nor does it claim the aircraft was written off. If this is true, the aircraft – most probably a Halifax – would not be listed as a loss.


On his return to England, he enrolled on a one year meteorology course, which he completed in August 1946. Two months later, he returned to Krakow in Poland and took a job as a weather forecaster for the Polish airline LOT. In 1949 he went to work for PIHM, the state meteorology department, and naturally applied his skills to aviation weather forecasting. He stayed there until 1959 when he left to become manager of the airport at Nowy Targ. From 1969 until 1989 he was employed by LOT as their manager in Krakow for the first four years and then as their manager in Milan, Italy.


He died on 12th January 2005 and was given full military honours at his funeral in the Rakowicki Cemetery in Krakow.


FOOTNOTE:


Fresh information from two colleagues tells me that 301 Squadron still had, and used, serviceable Liberators after the official changeover date. In addition, he and his regular crew were on board the following flights in the apparent time period. Even if he had been injured in the first, he was flying again after about two weeks on the second. This makes me doubt that any serious injury occurred – even if he received hospital treatment.


1944 December 15th - Halifax II BB440


After only 17 minutes in the air, the starboard inner engine suffered a drop in pressure and the mission was abandoned; there were no injuries. The 12 containers were jettisoned in the base dropping zone and the engine was out, and caught fire, on landing but the aircraft landed safely, fifty five minutes after take-off.


1945 February 1st/2nd - Halifax V LL465


This was another unsuccessful mission; the aircraft developed engine trouble and the mission was terminated - 15 containers and 18 packages, a total net weight of 4,971 pounds were jettisoned. The port outer engine caught fire but was extinguished by feathering and the aircraft landed safely with no injuries reported.

STANISLAW ZBIGNIEW FRANCZAK

He was born on 10th January 1920 in Luborzycy near Krakow and in 1939 he graduated from the University in Vilnius (now Lithuania). He was interested in aviation from an early age and was a member of the Aero Club in Vilnius. Between 1937 and 1939 he participated in gliding courses at the Gliding School in Ustjanowej and may have also flown powered aircraft there.

In the course of time, he met up with his brothers Henryk and Jozef and they remained in Vilnius for a couple of months, leading a more or less normal life under the Russians and in spite of a curfew. After investigation they found that Polish airmen were being evacuated from Kaunas in Lithuania so they went there, in December 1939, and easily acquired false papers. All three of them obtained evacuation papers to go to Sweden. The escape plan was to take a train to Latvia and then fly to Sweden.

On the day they were due to go, the commander refused to allow three brothers to travel on the same aircraft and Jozef was forced to wait for the next plane. German threats to shoot down neutral Swedish planes carrying Polish airmen ensured that there was no next plane. The two brothers spent Christmas Eve in Stockholm and were then flown to London and on to France where they joined the Polish Air Force at Lyon-Bron.

After the fall of France, he managed to escape to Britain, with his brother Henryk, where he completed his training and was posted to 304 Squadron.

He later volunteered for 1586 Flight (Special Duties) and was posted to RAF Brindisi in Italy. From there he flew several missions to Poland in support of the Armia Krajowa and was piloting Liberator EW278 (G-RU)  on 10th September 1944 when it was shot down by German fighters over Senta, Jugoslavia. He, and two of his crew, were killed and are buried in the military cemetery in Belgrade. Five of the twenty aircraft on that mission were shot down that night.

During the course of his military career, he was awarded the Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari and the Cross of Valour (twice)
.

Photograph courtesy of Henryk Franczak’s niece, Helena