STANISLAW ANDRZEJ JOZEF BOCZKOWSKI

He was a pilot, born on 14th March 1919 at Chmielnicki (now Ploskirow, Ukraine), the only child of Aleksander and Irena (nee Zurakowska).

 

Following the Russia/Poland war the family moved to Krzemieniec where Stanislaw spent most of his youth.  The idea of flying caught his interest from an early age.  Whilst still in high school he joined a flying club which offered summer camps that taught aviation.  In his second last year he learned flight theory and how to fly gliders; in the final year he was taught how to fly light aircraft.  Stanislaw finished lyceum and began his compulsory military service as an infantry cadet.  Following completion of this training he volunteered to join the Polish Air Force and was enrolled as an air cadet.

In the pre-war uniform of an air cadet

 

Stanislaw is second from the right in this group of cadets

 

At the start of World War II in 1939, when Poland was invaded by both Russia and Germany, he was still an air cadet.  Once it was clear that Poland could no longer hold out, the Polish Air Force drew up plans to fight and resist from outside the country.  Escape plans were developed and these included the cadets.

As a cadet at Deblin in 1939

 

His escape was organised by the Polish Air Command which provided a bus for their journey out of Poland.  He was one of about 40 military passengers.  They travelled to the town of Snyatin, close to the Polish-Romanian border and then crossed into Romania near the town of Czernauti where the Romanians had established a military camp and barracks in which the cadets were interned, after being disarmed.

 

Within a few days a Polish embassy official arrived at the camp and instructed everyone to get out of their Polish uniforms and to head to Bucarest  where they were to pick up their Polish passports and would also be given money for their journey.

 

A group of them then headed to the Port of Tulcea.  After about a week, he obtained a booking on a Romanian paddle steamer heading to Beirut, Lebanon.  Before being allowed to leave he was interviewed by Romanian port authorities.  The story he provided, along with a cash bribe, was that he was a student going to France.

 

Once having reached Beirut, he had to wait again for transport to France.  The Polish government had arranged for a French ship to pick them up and take them to Marseilles.  This was an uneventful journey and from there he went to Lyons via Istres.  There was an exhibition hall and a lovely park near the Lyons airport and the group stayed there for about two months until after Christmas.  Conditions were primitive and there were no proper beds or hot water and the group were glad to leave for RAF Eastchurch in England early in 1940.

 

Primitive conditions at Lyon-Bron.  Stanislaw is at the back left, wearing a hat

 

Conditions were much better in England but the British Government required them to take an Oath of Allegiance to the British Crown.  Stanislaw and a number of others declined to do so as their allegiance was to Poland.  As a result of this refusal they were sent back to France.

 





 PAF personnel in civvies at RAF Eastchurch before being sent back to France. 

Stanislaw is in the back row towards the centre

 

Stanislaw, on the left and a friend back in Lyons

 

With the rapid collapse of France, Germany's impending invasion of Britain and its shortage of experienced personnel, Britain changed its mind about its allegiance requirements and Stanislaw and his company were allowed to return.

 

Back at RAF Eastchurch, Kent

 

Britain sent a ship to Saint Jan de Luz which picked them up and delivered the group to Liverpool.  They then headed to Blackpool where the PAF Headquarters were located and where they were assigned to their various operational bases in England and Scotland.  Stanislaw's first posting was to RAF Benson in Oxfordshire to ferry aircraft.  This posting lasted for about six months.

 

At RAF Benson in 1940.  Stanislaw is in the back row, towards the centre, wearing a wedge cap

 

When he was posted to 304 Squadron, there was a brief period of time where nothing was happening.  To make the best use of such time he was told to report for a training flight with the crew of R1268 (NZ-T).  The purpose was to continue training of the two navigators attached to the flight as well as to allow Stanislaw to become more familiar with that specific aircraft type.

 

Due to severe icing and a shortage of fuel they were forced into making a crash landing near West Edmondsley farm just a few miles out of Durham.  All four on board were injured but there were no fatalities.

 

The airmen were given morphine and first aid by Dr Mukerji, the local GP from Craghead, which was the nearest village.  They were then taken to Chester-Le-Street Hospital and later transferred to York Military Hospital.  The crew were F/O  Marian Kostuch, F/O Jan Stanislaw Waroczewski (the pilot), Sgt Stanislaw Boczkowski (second pilot) and P/O Stanczuk.

 

It was actually on a cross country training mission.  The circumstances were that the pilot had selected an emergency landing site but his wings iced up and his windows iced over at 3,500 feet and he lost site of his chosen landing ground.  It must be remembered that this was one of the worst winters of the 20th Century.  The pilot saw the farmhouse at the last minute and his evasive action, a hard right turn, caused him to hit the trees on slightly higher ground.

 

A fellow researcher interviewed the surviving eye witness in December 2009 and was told that the aircraft approached from the direction of Blackhouse and did a complete 180 degree turn before pancaking and falling into a clearing in the trees.  This account squares with the sketch that he did at the time, which shows that the wings were still attached to the fuselage.  It is also borne out by the orientation of the aeroplane when it crashed and the fact that none of the older trees in the area show signs of an impact.  It also suggests that the Wellington stalled and simply fell out of the sky.  This may have saved the lives of the crew as the downward impact from a low level would be far less severe than a forward impact from a headlong rush through the trees and into the bankside.

 

The Squadron Operational Record Book is blank for the day of the crash but it was recorded in the Operational Record Book of RAF Syerston (Nottinghamshire).

 

On 18th March 1941 he transferred to 300 Squadron and was serving at RAF Hemswell in 1942 as part of the crew of the Assam Bomber BH-T, a Wellington that was bought by subscription of the people of Assam in North East India.  He is also known to have been in the crew of BH-W.  He is

 

 

The Assam bomber crew and ground crew.  Stanislaw is third from the right, standing

 

recorded in 300 Squadron ORB as being posted to 18 OTU at RAF Bramcote as a flying instructor on 27th March 1942, possibly on completion of his tour of duty as he had flown 30 missions.  A few months later he was assigned to Ferry Command to transport new planes from North America to Britain, India and North Africa.  One North American posting was in Montreal.  Thus he got to know that city quite well.  His final posting during the war was to Bushey Park in London which was the Headquarters of Bomber Command.

 

RAF Bramcote Instructors in 1943 - Stanislaw is second from the right

 

Bomber Command staff at Bushey Park - Stanislaw is third from the left in the third row

 

He survived another crash on 11th February 1942 where he piloted a flight on a bombing raid to Bremen which was hit by ground flak which damaged some of his controls.  He was given permission to land on a fighter squadron field but, due to the length of the field, the plane crashed against an embankment.  No one was hurt as a result of the crash and there was only slight damage to the aircraft.

 

While serving in 300 Squadron he met Maria Regina Boczkowska (nee Malinowska) who came from the same city (Krzemieniec) in Poland as himself.  She was a survivor of Stalin's deportations to Siberia and was later released to the Anders Army.  She escaped with her mother, Marcelina, to Palestine and then joined the RAF in England.  Their son, Richard, was born in Lincoln in 1948 and the next year the extended family emigrated to Canada.

 



Marcelina, Richard and Maria Regina in Lincoln

 

With the end of the war, he and Regina were aware of the arrests made by the Soviets and their puppets and executions of officers returning to Poland.  They were aware of the effects of Yalta where Poland was given up by Britain and the United States to the USSR - and the fact that the Russians were establishing the Ukraine as a new country that included the part of Poland from which they both came.  Finally the British encouraged the Poles to return home, work in British coal mines or just get out of the country.  A plan was hatched to leave for Canada - Montreal.

 

After being demobilised from RAF Cammeringham (near Lincoln) the new family (which also included Regina's mother Marcelina Malinowska nee Juszczyk who was serving with the RAF in Scotland), took advantage of Canada's offer to settle immigrants who were willing to set up a farm - even though they knew nothing about farming.  As it happened, Stanislaw's aunt, Waclawa, and her husband Col Mietec Karaszewicz had bought a farm in St. Rose, Quebec.  They called for the extended family to join them to help them farm.  Of course no one intended farming but it was a way of getting into the country and starting a new life.

 

The family left Britain by ship and landed (first for a few hours) in St John's, Newfoundland and finally in Halifax.  Almost immediately they moved to and settled in Montreal where a new Polish community was establishing itself.

 

Maria Regina and son Richard on board the Nova Scotia bound for Canada

 

Given his training and experience as a pilot for most of his adult life, Stan tried to find work in the aviation field including being a bush pilot.  Unfortunately at the age of 29 he was considered too old.  With a wife, infant and mother in law relying on him, he had to resort to menial low paid work (locomotive stoker, refrigerator repair man etc.) to survive financially.  Whist working he also went to school to learn architectural drafting.

 

Gradually conditions improved leading to better pay and a more settled life.  Together with Regina's help (she acquired a dress designer certification and worked in that industry for many years) they had a new home built and eventually managed to own it outright, acquired a car and managed to put their son through University.  Stan was an active member of the Polish RCAF Veterans Association for many years.  He and Regina retired from work and spent many a winter in Florida's warmer climate.

 

Stanislaw in Montreal, 2008

 

After a long and happy life, he died in Montreal, Canada in November 2014 at the age of 95.

 

 

All photographs used come from the Boczkowski family collection and are used by kind permission of Richard Boczkowski.





 

MARIAN STANISLAW PLONCZYNSKI

He was a pilot, born on 2nd February 1900 in Warsaw.  From 1918, he served in the Polish Army but wanted to transfer to the Air Force.  In 1921 he succeeded and went to the flying school at Bydgoszcz where he qualified as a pilot in spite of crashing a Caudron GIII trainer biplane.  In 1922 he was posted to the school at Grudziadz and remained there until 1923 when he joined a fighter squadron attached to 7 Air Regiment in Warsaw, later becoming an instructor  with 1st Aviation Regiment until his demobilisation at the end of 1924

Soon after that he went to work for Aerolloyd and Aerolot the forerunners of Lufthansa and LOT Polish airlines respectively.  He then went on to work for LOT on its formation in 1929.  He was also successfully involved in sport flying.

On the outbreak of war, he flew a Junkers Ju52 airliner to Romania and made his way to France via Jugoslavia and Greece where he joined L’Armee de l’Air as an instructor and worked to create Polish fighting units.  After the fall of France he made his way to England and eventually joined 304 Squadron.  His name does not appear on the list of active pilots in the Squadron ORB and it appears that he was there in a training capacity - perhaps due to his age.  After this he went on to become an instructor and by November 1941 he was serving in Ferry Command delivering aircraft from Canada to Europe, Africa and Asia.  In this capacity he made 38 unarmed flights across the Atlantic.

During the course of his military career he was awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Cross of Merit with Swords, the Greek Gold Cross of the Order of the Phoenix and British campaign medals.

He survived the war and was demobilised in 1947.  He returned to Poland and resumed working for LOT until his retirement in 1964.  He died on 8th March 1974 in Warsaw in a road accident involving a tram.

As a footnote, the Junkers airliner was handed over to Imperial Airways (allegedly sold to them) and went into service under the British registration G-AGAE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ALEKSANDER ZEJDLER

 

 

He was born on 25^th February 1907, one of five children of Stanislaw and Bronislawa Zejdler and between 1916-1922 he attended the Stanislaus Jachowicza school in Plock.  Due to the unfortunate death of his father, he was obliged to leave school in October 1922 and take a job to help his mother maintain the family.  However, he still had to do his military service and he was conscripted into the Air Force, starting on 1st October 1925 in the 1st Aviation Regiment.  He graduated from the NCO School in June 1926 and joined his regiment.  On completion of his National Service, he remained in the Air Force and moved on to a course in bombing and gunnery which he completed at Grudziadz in January 1929.

His first experience in flying came on a French Breguet XIX and, over the next 10 years he built up an impressive number of hours fling in a wide range of aircraft, surviving a crash, just outside of Okecie airport, in which his aircraft was a total write-off.  On May 31, 1936, he married Natalia Krzesiak and they had three children, the last of which was born in May 1939.

During the 17 day war in Poland, he served with 211 Eskadra and was transferred to the air base at Ulez and on the outbreak of war, three days later, he was sent to Kuciny Alexandrov as part of the crew of a PZL P37B bomber.

Roman Bonkowski, the pilot of the PZL P37B “Moose” 72.18 described a flight which took place on 4^th September 1939.  He said that they set off to attack a German armoured column close to the airport at Kuciny Alexandrov near Lodz.  Their plane was attacked by three German fighters and was also hit by anti-aircraft fire from the ground.  In flames, they crash landed in a field near Rychlocice after suffering severe damage from German flak and gunfire from a Messerschmidt Bf109D, most probably from 1 Staffel I/ZG2.  German records do not claim that his plane was shot down, but equally they do not acknowledge the Me109Bf claimed by the pilot on behalf of Zejdler. 

Roman Bonkowski (the pilot) stated that Aleksander Zejdler showed superhuman courage in strafing the German armoured columns from only 50-100 feet and also for bringing down this German fighter.  Injuries incurred during this action (bullet wounds in the knee and lower leg) are likely to be the reason why he was no longer fit to fly and had to take up a ground crew position.  They destroyed secret and vital parts of the already burning aircraft and set off on foot for Skierniewice.

On 17th September he flew to Romania where he was disarmed and theoretically interned and presumably acquired a false identity, money and travel documents from the diplomatic mission in Bucarest.  Eight days later he arrived in Constanta  and a couple of weeks later in Balcic (now in Bulgaria).  He waited there for a few days before boarding a Greek vessel that took him to Beirut via the Levant (Syria), Istanbul and Cyprus.  From Beirut he sailed on the French ship Ville de Strasbourg via Malta, Tunis and Sardinia to Marseilles.  He was billeted at Istres about 40 miles north west of Marseilles.  He was clearly unhappy there and volunteered to come to England, arriving here, via Paris and Cherbourg, in mid-December 1939.

He formally enlisted in the Royal Air Force on 8th February 1940 at RAF Eastchurch in Kent.  Due to his wounds he was no longer fit to fly and joined the ground training staff as a mechanic.  Later he was transferred to the Polish Depot at Blackpool.  In 1943 he was transferred to 304 Squadron at RAF Docking in Norfolk until September 1944 when he transferred to 25 (Polish) Elementary Flying Training School at RAF Hucknall in Nottinghamshire.  He is believed to have also served in 307 Squadron at some point.  He survived the war and returned to Poland in October 1946.

He worked in a clerical capacity but retrained and achieved managerial status in a variety of places, ending up as Head of Supply in a brewery.   He died in Plock on 5^th December 1977 and is buried in the communal cemetery there.

During the course of his military career he was awarded the Polish Air Medal and several British campaign medals.

Photo courtesy of Wojciech Zmyslony

MIKOLAJ SASINOWSKI

He was born on 16th October 1909 at Mieczki near Lomza.  He studied to be a priest and was ordained on 28th March 1936; he studied Canon Law at the University of Warsaw.  In 1939 he had been sent to France to learn the language and, when war broke out, he joined the Polish Army at Coetquidan.

On 9th February 1940 he was commissioned in the rank of Captain and posted to be a Chaplain at the Polish Aviation Centre at Lyon-Bron.  After the capitulation of France he was among those who escaped to North Africa and later he moved on to England.

He was a Chaplain to the Polish Bomber Squadrons (including 304 Squadron) at RAF Lindholme near Doncaster in Yorkshire and later at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire before moving on to RAF Halton Technical School at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.  From September of 1940 he was given the British rank of Squadron Leader.  In addition, his pastoral care covered injured airmen and orphaned and neglected children.

Preparing to take a service - the exhaust of a fighter is just

visible (top right) and the flag is draped over the nose

 

In 1946 he left the Air Force and returned to Poland where he was vicar of Ostroleka before he resumed his religious studies and then achieved a Doctorate in Canon Law from the University of Warsaw in 1949.  He then became the Spiritual and Seminary professor at Lomza until 1967.  At this time he took over as Rector of the Seminary.     On 19th March 1970 he was ordained as a Bishop by

Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski and Bishops Jan Mazur and Aleksander Moscicki during which time he was responsible for the creation of 11 parishes and the construction of 36 churches.  In 1975 he organised the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Diocese of Lomza.

For the purpose of raising the spiritual level of the priesthood, he founded the Diocesan Pastoral institute in Lomza where the priests were educated in the needs and challenges of the modern, post War world.  In Suwalki he created the Institute of Higher Religious Culture and Consultation Point Academy of Catholic Theology.

In Tykocinie he founded the House of Retired Catholic Priests; these ideas realised the concerns of the Second Vatican Council.

He saw the urgent need for the religious upbringing and development of young people and, for this purpose, he created several centres of retreat.  He attached great importance to the systematic catechesis as an inspiration for new priestly and religious vocations and the social and charitable association Unum was created on his initiative.

He was an activist in the apostolate of sobriety and was Vice President of the Episcopal Commission for Sobriety.  He was also chairman of the Polish Episcopate for the Ministry of Women and the National Chaplain of Military Veterans.  During the period of martial law, he gave support to the Solidarity internees and called for their release

In the final months of his life he was exhausted  and finally he died on 6th September 1982 and was buried in the Cathedral at Lomza under the stewardship of the Polish Primate, Archbishop Jozef Glemp.

With many thanks to Fr Jozef Lupinski for his invaluable help with this story

ZBIGNIEW ZIPSER

 

He was the elder son of Aleksander Zipser and his wife Kazimiera (nee Lechowicz) and was born on 7th January 1910 at Podwoloczyska near Tarnopol, Poland (now Ternopil, Ukraine); he had a younger brother Mieczyslaw and a sister.  His father worked as a signalman on the main Lvov - Odessa railway line.

Zbigniew joined the Polish Army, which then controlled the Air Force, on 28th October 1928 and was well established by the time of the September Campaign.  He was attached to 3rd Air Force Regiment and then 161 Eskadra of 6th Air Force Regiment and took part from 1st September 1939 until they were ordered to retreat across the Romanian border on 18th September.  They crossed at Sniatyn and were disarmed and interned at various camps in Romania; at Turda in Transylvania from 20th September 1939 to 11th October 1939, Corugea near Tulcea in the Danube Delta from 12th October 1939 to 20th November 1939 and at Balcic (now in Bulgaria) from 21st November 1939 to 17th December 1939.

At Tulcea, the Polish forces rebelled and disarmed their guards in complaint against the authorities because there was almost no food and no medical supplies in this area which was, at that time, little more than a malarial swamp and they had to sleep in a tented encampment.

However, that was the extent of his internment before he simply slipped out of the camp and, with complicity and finance of the Polish Diplomatic Corps he made his way to join the Polish forces in France.  His probable route was by ship from Balcic, a Black Sea port, via the Bosphorus and into the Mediterranean to Beirut in the Lebanon and then a further sea journey to Marseilles.  From there he re-enlisted in the Polish forces at Carpiagne, near the Lyon-Bron airbase, with effect from 23rd January 1940.  Four days later he was based at the training base at Septfonds which was an appalling place without basic hygiene, running water and warm shelter.  Originally a WW1 transit camp and then being used as a camp for Spanish Civil War refugees, the Polish recruits were housed there initially.

When the French capitulated, in June 1940, he boarded a ship in Marseilles and sailed for England to continue his work with the Polish Air Force, this time under British command.  He was initially sent to the Polish Depot at Blackpool on 2nd July 1940 and then on to its satellite at RAF Kirkham, Lancashire where he did the basics of familiarising himself with British equipment, becoming an official member as of 5th August 1940 with the Trade of fitter and rank of sergeant..

Zbigniew Zipser standing behind a Coastal Command Wellington Bomber

 

His first deployment, on 24th August 1940 was to RAF Bramcote near Nuneaton, Warwickshire just two days after the creation of 304 Squadron.  He trained and moved with them to RAF Syerston in Nottinghamshire on 20th November 1940 after which they moved, on 20th July 1941, to RAF Lindholme near Doncaster, Yorkshire and to RAF Tiree in the Inner Hebrides on 20th May 1942.  His final moves with the Squadron were to RAF Dale in Pembrokeshire on 13th June 1942 and then to RAF Talbenny, also Pembrokeshire, early in November 1942.

Just as the Squadron were moving back to RAF Dale, on 10th December 1942, he was transferred to 6 (Polish) OTU (Operational Training Unit) at Silloth, Cumberland where he stayed until 5th October 1943 before transferring to 3 (Coastal) OTU at RAF Haverford West in Pembrokeshire.  He stayed there until it was disbanded and merged into 6 OTU - back at Silloth - on 4th January 1944.

Following this, he moved to RAF Gatwick in Surrey (now Sussex) on 7th March 1945 where he joined 5029 Polish Airfield Construction Squadron until 11th December 1945 with a short spell of about five weeks with 103 Bomber Squadron in November and early December 1945 whilst it was being wound down to disbandment.  His time with the Reconstruction Squadron was spent redeveloping what was to become the present Gatwick Airport and also repairing war damaged airfields in Germany which were to become RAF bases for the post war Occupying Air Force.

After this he moved to 16 Secondary Polish Training School at RAF Newton, Nottinghamshire from 5th June 1946 until 13th November 1946 when he transferred into the Polish Resettlement Corps until his demobilisation into civilian life on 19th February 1947.

His medal entitlement was the Polish Air Force Medal, the 1939-1945 Star, the Defence Medal and the 1939-1945 War Medal.

He met his future wife Rosalind at a dance in Carlisle whilst he was with 6 OTU at RAF Silloth and he liked the Nottingham area so, when he was finally demobilised they married and moved there to start a new life together.

He started a car repair business in the workshops of Mr Wincup a joiner at Radcliffe Mount, Radcliffe Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham.  After some time he started Trent Bridge Garage opposite the Cricket Ground around 1962/63.  With his brother Mieczyslaw, he developed a Singer Agency.

In about 1965 he wanted to diversify into the house building trade.  With two friends he formed HMZ Building Contractors.  They built three or four houses at Thrumpton, near Radcliffe on Soar, and about ten houses at Ravenshead.  He also had an interest in Avenue Garage on Central Avenue at West Bridgford, where he used to repair and re-spray cars.

Diversifying again, he built two wooden speed boats, called Solway I and Solway II which gave him great satisfaction, especially in use on the East Coast at Chapel St Leonards in Lincolnshire.

Sadly, he died very suddenly on 23rd July 1967 at the age of 57 years and was buried in the cemetery at Wilford Hill in Nottingham.



Zbigniew Zipser's Pre-war military record

Photos © Andrew Zipser

MIECZYSLAW PRONASZKO

 

He was born on 22^nd October 1902 in Warsaw and in 1918, he joined the 2^nd Light Cavalry Regiment.  He fought in the Polish-Bolshevik war.  In July 1924 he was sent to the Officer Cadet School in Warsaw then moved to the 83^rd Infantry Regiment until 1926 when he opted to join the Air Force and went to the flying school in Grudziadz, graduating two years later as an observer with the rank of Pilot Officer and posted to the 1^st Air Wing in Warsaw and later the 6^th Air Wing in Lvov.  By November 1938 he was in command of No 64 Bomber Flight.

He was still there on the outbreak of war and flew mostly anti-personnel missions against the invading German army.  He escaped to Romania and made his way to France and subsequently England.

At first he was posted to 300 Squadron as commander of B Flight.  He moved on to 304 Squadron on 10^th August 1942 and remained an operational pilot.  On Christmas Eve 1942, returning to RAF Dale from an anti-submarine patrol, fog made it impossible for him to land he could not make radio contact with RAF Chivenor to divert there.  After 11 hours 56 minutes flying time, the aircraft, HF898, ran out of fuel and the crew all baled out safely near Cannock in Staffordshire.

On 29^th January 1943 he took command of the squadron and remained there until 18^th November of that year when he moved on to the Polish Air Force Inspectorate.  His next move was to the American 9^th Air Force (December 1944 until April 1945).  He then moved to the Polish Air Force Headquarters.

During his service he was awarded the Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari 5^th Class, the Cross of Valour (four times) and the British Distinguished Flying Cross.

On 2^nd April 1947 he was demobilised and emigrated to Montreal, Canada where he died on 12^th September 1968; he is buried in the Veterans Cemetery at Pointe-Claire.

BERNARD MIECZYSLAW POLONIECKI

 

He was born on 19th May 1906 in Lwow (now Lviv, Ukraine) the son of a book seller and, after his education was completed, he went on to do his National Service in the Horse Artillery section of the Army.

His dream was always to fly but he was short sighted and that was a major barrier in the peace time Air Force.  Not totally put off, he took lessons as a glider pilot but had a serious accident in which he broke his arm badly and totally wrecked the glider.  In hope, he waited until the arm was healed then went to the Air Force base to have a medical for a civil pilot's licence.

He passed and then took lessons at the aero club in Lwow at Sknilow airfield which was shared with the military.  He trained on an elderly French Henriot bi-plane; in his memoirs he recalled that it was lubricated with castor oil which was foul smelling when hot and liberally sprayed the fuselage and front cockpit when the engine was running.

Once qualified as a pilot, he was able to transfer from the Army Reserves to the Air Force Reserves.  This was timely as he qualified and gained his wings in 1938 and the impending war with Germany created a bigger demand for qualified pilots.

As political tensions grew, he was called up from the Reserve and his flying was brought up to military standards in the weeks before Germany invaded.  The aircraft he trained on was a de Havilland bi-plane and they were soon moved to a rough airfield near the Soviet border to keep their aircraft away from the bombing of the main airfields.

Once Russia joined the conflict, they were ordered to fly to Romania.  With neither maps nor compass, he navigated by the sun and a railway line and landed at Czerniowice where he was refuelled and directed to Focsani.  He was disarmed and interned but a small bribe helped him to simply walk out of the camp and he took a train to Bucarest where the Embassy supplied him with a fake Jugoslavian passport, travel documents and money.

He took a train through Jugoslavia and Northern Italy to France where he waited in Paris to be equipped and called to duty.  When France capitulated he hitched a lift on a Polish bomber bound for North Africa but it crash landed in Spain and they were not interned but handed over to the Vichy authorities.

After a spell back in Marseilles, his group tried to get to Portugal but they were caught by a Spanish border patrol but they escaped and returned to Marseilles where they were sheltered in the American Hospital until the underground arranged for them to stow away on a ship bound for Oran in Algeria.  This failed because the Vichy authorities handed them over to the Germans and they were imprisoned.

He escaped and made his way to Casablanca in Morocco where he was again imprisoned.  The local resistance arranged a mass escape and they waited in the dunes to be picked up by a ship from Gibraltar.  Unfortunately they were caught by the local Police and taken to a POW camp at Mascara.  He persuaded a French doctor to give him a certificate saying that he was unfit for military service and was subsequently released.  He then returned to Oran and made contact with Polish agents who arranged for him to be picked up by a fishing boat with a Polish Navy crew.

He spent Christmas 1941 in Gibraltar and was then picked up by a converted liner escorted by two naval vessels and transported to Glasgow..  He was sent straight to the Blackpool Depot where he was interrogated and screened to make sure he was not a fifth columnist and then given a medical and taught rudimentary English.

In May 1942 he was posted to 25 EFTS (Elementary Flying Training School) at RAF Hucknall in Nottinghamshire where he learned the basics of flying British aircraft on de Havilland Tiger Moths.  In July 1942 he moved on to 16 Service Flying Training School at RAF Newton in Nottinghamshire where he repeated the training but on twin engined Airspeed Oxfords.

In December 1942 he was posted to No 6 Advanced Operations School at RAF Staverton near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire.  His duties there were to assist the newly trained navigators from the British Commonwealth Air Training Schools in Canada.  They had learned in vast open spaces with few geographical landmarks.  This naturally left them ill equipped to deal with the cluttered and much more crowded ground space in Europe.  They were well trained but had to learn to speed up in order to keep up with the landscape features.

In February 1944 he was posted to 304 Squadron at RAF Predannack in Cornwall, just in time for their move to RAF Chivenor in Devon in March 1944. He then moved with them to RAF Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides (September 1944), RAF St Eval in Cornwall (March 1945), RAF North Weald in Essex (June 1945) and RAF Chedburgh in Suffolk (November 1945).  For the latter period, the Squadron had transferred to Transport Command where they carried essential supplies to France, Italy and Greece, returning with mail and released Prisoners of War.  On 3rd June 1944 he was promoted to Flight Lieutenant. In October 1944 he was sent on detached duty to RAF Chivenor to help train three new crews.  He was awarded the Cross of Valour and bar.

In total he flew 39 missions and several transport flights during his time with the Squadron and was given a "green ink" endorsement in his flying log for his prompt and effective action in saving his aircraft and crew when the port engine caught fire moments after take off.  This was one of the last flights he made and took place in February 1946 from Bordeaux, France.  He made a perfect single engine landing and, other than fire damage, the aircraft was undamaged and the crew unhurt.

Commendation leading to his "Green Ink" endorsement

Other milestones in his life were his marriage to Barbara J.W. Hammersley in December 1944 at Marylebone, London.  On 25th March 1949 he was granted British Citizenship and this was published in the London Gazette on 20th May of that year.  At the time he was living in South West London and was described as an assistant manager with a travel goods manufacturer.  He died on 21st December 2006 having reached the splendid age of 100.  He was buried at Brompton Cemetery in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

In writing this story, I was very lucky to have had the chance to read his own story, which extends to 61 pages and gives an atmospheric feel of what those days were really like.  "Fly For Your Life" is well written, informative and anecdotal and is highly recommended.  It can be viewed, in English, online at the website of the Krakow Aviation Museum www.muzeumlotnictwa.pl

BOHDAN PIOTR RUSLAW LIPSKI

He was born on 31^st March 1916 at  Rochaczew (which was in Russia at that stage in history), whilst his heavily pregnant mother was visiting friends there; he was the son of Pawel and Stefania Lipski.  He grew up in the Pultusk region of Poland as the elder of two sons, Leszek being the younger.  There are also unconfirmed reports that the family were very wealthy and extremely well respected  land owners in the area, employing hundreds of people.

On 4^th November 1934, when he was 18, he joined the Air Force and between 1^st February 1935 and 27^th June of that year, he undertook a radio-telegraphy course, probably at Radom.  Presumably, as a career progression, he followed that up with a course in radio mechanics at the communications training centre CWL Zegrze near Warsaw – this lasted from 2^nd January 1937 until 10^th November 1937. 

 Radio-mechanics Course at CWL Zegrze, near Warsaw, 1937.  Bohdan Lipski (standing extreme right, second row).  No rank insignia visible

 

This may have been National Service, as there is no clear picture of what happened after this course.  However, he kept a diary of events from the outbreak of war and describes how he crossed the border into Romania on 18^th September 1939; he stayed in that country until 18^th December 1939 when he left for Syria, arriving there on Christmas Eve.

He remained in Syria until 15th January 1940 when he presumably boarded a ship for France where he arrived on 21^st January.  There are no available details of his time there but he left France at the time of the capitulation, on 24^th June 1940 and later arrived in England.

 

He qualified as an L/Ac wireless operator from No 2 Signals School at RAF Yatesbury, Wiltshire on 31^st March 1941 – in spite of the problems with the serviceability of the Proctor aircraft (he also trained on Dominies).  Then, from 29^th April until 6^th June of that year, he attended No 4 Bombing and Gunnery School at RAF West Freugh, near Stranraer, Wigtownshire (now Dumfries and Galloway), in Scotland.  Later, from 7^th-19^th July 1941 he did radio training on Avro Ansons at RAF Bramcote near Nuneaton in Warwickshire.  Almost immediately afterwards, he carried out air gunnery training on Wellington Bombers also at RAF Bramcote, with 18 OTU.

 

Sgt Lipski (centre) at Gunnery School – RAF West Freugh near Stranraer, Scotland

 

Sgt Bohdan Lipski (extreme right) at RAF Lindholme    c Jan/Feb 1942

On 15^th August 1941, he was posted to 304 Squadron at RAF Lindholme in South Yorkshire, where he completed 24 bombing missions, on the last of which his aircraft, Vickers Wellington Mk 1c, W5627 (NZ-B) was shot down by flak, near Chatel-Censoir, France on the return journey after bombing Cologne on the night of 28^th April 1942.  He was a member of the crew of F/O Julian Morawski and was the only member of the crew to be taken prisoner – the others all successfully evaded capture and made it back to England.

 

Sgt Bohdan Lipski    POW No 71

 

His diary reveals that on 1^st May 1942 he was in Frankfurt and on 28^th of that month he was in Stalag Luft III in Sagan, Germany (now Zagan, Poland).  By 6^th   June, he was held at Stalag Luft I near Barth, Western Pomerania, Germany and on 5^th November 1943, he was at Stalag IVb, Muhlberg, 30 miles north of Dresden, Germany.  He was still there on the night of 22^nd/23^rd April 1945, when the camp was liberated by the Russians, just over two weeks before the war in Europe ended.

The Germans wanted to round up the prisoners and march them westwards ahead of the Russian advance but the prisoners refused and the Senior American Officer is said to have persuaded the Germans not to force the issue as it would cause countless unnecessary deaths and injuries.  The German Officers surrendered  to him and promptly disappeared that night.  No doubt fearful of the treatment they could expect from the Red Army.

 

April 1945.  Sgt Bohdan Lipski (top right) and fellow POWs at

Stalag IVb, Muhlberg, Germany - on Liberation by the Russians 

 On 16^th May 1945, he left Halle, Saxony-Anhalt and travelled via Brussells to England, arriving at the Polish Depot at Blackpool, two days later.  From there it was a slow process of waiting for demobilisation.  He remained at the Polish Depot in Blackpool until he was transferred to RAF Cardington in Bedfordshire on 28^th January 1947; this was to be the final move of his military career until he was demobilised on 14^th February 1948.

His first job in civilian life was as a garage hand, employed by a fellow Pole V. Skwierkowski in the town of Warrington, Lancashire (now Cheshire).  By the time he met his wife, Stanislawa Sobieraj, he had moved to London and was working at the Royal Free Hospital.  They were married at the Town Hall at St Pancras on 23^rd July 1949 and subsequently had three children before moving to Swindon in Wiltshire in the early 1960s, after which they had a fourth child.

Once there he worked in several engineering companies before settling down to work for R.A.Lister, who later became part of Hawker Siddeley, near Swindon.  He retired in 1981 and spent his time reading, fishing and enjoying his pipe with his favoured St Bruno tobacco.  He was a quiet, placid man who never took risks – perhaps not surprisingly after a tumultuous start to his life.  He died on 20^th April 1984.

He was awarded the Order of Virtuti Militari, by General  Sikorski, and the Cross of Valour, by General Kopanski, at RAF Lindholme on 25^th April 1942 – only three days before he was shot down.  His son claimed his uncollected British medals – the Air Crew Europe Star and the 1939-1945 War Medal, as well as the Bomber Command Clasp – in July 2013.

 

Sgt Lipski’s Medals: Polish Gallantry Medals: Order of Virtuti Militari and Cross of Valour; British Campaign Medals: 1939-1945 Star, Air Crew Europe Star, 1939 – 1945 War Medal and the Bomber Command Clasp

 

Souvenirs of War: Polish Airman’s Gapa, Cross of Valour, Virtuti Militari and Polish and British Medal Ribbon Bars.  The two central items are the Caterpillar Club Membership Card awarded to any airman whose life was saved by parachuting from a stricken aircraft, awarded by the Irvin Parachute Company and the POW dog tag for POW No 71 at Stalag Luft III at Sagan – home of the Great Escape

 

All photographs used in this compilation are ©Eddie Lipski and are used with his kind permission;

All photographs and documents are from the Lipski family collection