JAN WALENTOWICZ - Part 1 - Up to 1945

 

Jan was born in Lida (now Belarus) on 4 August 1920, but claimed to have been born in Bialystok, possibly to protect his family at home.  All of his military documentation reflects this small deception.  It was to prove convenient later, during the Cold War period when he was still a serving member of the Royal Air Force.

He was born to Jan and Apolonia Walentowicz; one of three brothers and was the only one not forced into exile in the depths of Siberia because he was already away in the Air Force.  On the night of 9th/10th February 1940, a Polish Jew who was a Communist sympathiser, lead the Russian troops to the family home, where they arrested his mother and his brothers Jozef and Jerzy.  His father was away working but the Red Army soldiers waited for him and arrested him on his return.

The family were taken away and crammed into railway freight cars with other deportees - with little food, water, heat or hygiene facilities.  This journey persisted for six weeks with frequent stops to change the locomotive or to replace the military guards but with little relief for the deportees - many of whom died in transit.  They were bound for Shypunovo Camp in the Susun District near Novosibirsk. 

Once they reached their destination, they spent their lives working a 14 hour day tapping sap from the trees in the vast forest around the area.  This was accomplished with very little food or heating and with minimal comfort.  It persisted until Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa – an unprovoked attack on his former allies.  At this time Jan’s two brothers and his father made their way to join Anders’ Army in the Middle East.  His mother stayed behind but was allowed to return to Poland in 1946. 

On 1^st November 1937 he joined the Polish Air Force to complete his compulsory National Service; he was trained as a meteorological observer and was posted to 151 Fighter Eskadra Mysliwska at Porubanek Air Force Base near Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania) on 1^st May 1938.

Badge of 151 Eskadra

He should have finished his period of conscription in April 1939, but due to the political tensions between Poland and Germany, the Polish Government would not release him from service.  On 24^th August 1939 the squadron was moved to a secret airfield  at the village of Biel, near Malkinia, close to the East Prussian border.  By 28^th August, they had readied the secret airfield and the squadron’s aircraft arrived the next night; they were successfully parked and concealed under the trees at the fringe of the new airfield. 

On 1^st September 1939 Germany invaded Poland and Russia attacked from the east on 17^th of that month.  On that first fateful morning at about 5am he heard many dull. distant explosions as Germany launched its bombers against Poland.  At around noon, he witnessed about 60 German bombers attacking two railway bridges over the River Bug.  This attack was less than successful but set the small provincial town of Malkinia ablaze.  Over the next four days, their aircraft were in action against German observation balloons and on reconnaissance missions; not all of the aircraft and personnel returned.  His unit had started out with 10 obsolete PZL P7a single seat fighters, some of which were lost during the fighting. 

They were attached to the Independent Operational Group Narew which was part of the Polish Army – their original function was to defend the area around Wilno.  On the night of 6^th September, they were ordered to abandon the airfield and prepared to move on.  Unfortunately, they were mistaken for a German column and attacked by Polish bombers; some of their vehicles were destroyed and there were also human casualties.  Through that night the squadron travelled to Cyzyzew and their aircraft were flown to Ceranow.  The following night they moved on to Wola Suchozerbska but two days later they were ordered to Brzesc-Litewski (Brest-Litovsk).  On 11^th September they moved again to Liliatyn where they stayed until 17^th September and received the news that the Russians had invaded from the east.

Colonel Pawlikowski, their Commanding Officer, ordered the last two remaining aircraft to fly to Czerniowce in Romania.  The following day, orders were received for all personnel to cross into Romania, where they were disarmed and interned, the surviving aircraft being used as trainers by the Romanian Air Force.

Jan and his colleagues were sent to Tulcea, a tented internment camp in the Danube delta near Baghtbadak in the Province of Dobruja where the swamp land was extremely unhealthy and infested with malarial mosquitos.  Conditions were so bad that the International Red Cross asked the Romanian authorities to move them out of the Delta and they were moved into another camp in the foothills of the Transylvanian Alps near Campulung; this was an empty army camp where living conditions were better and it was free from mosquitos.

However, the damage had been done and Jan fell sick with dysentery and malaria whilst at this new camp.  Once he had recovered from the initial debilitating effects of his illness, he and a friend, hatched a plan to escape from Romania and rejoin the Polish forces.  The Polish government did their utmost to help these exiles and they easily acquired new passports, fake identities, civilian clothes, travel instructions and money to help them on their way.

This done, the two men simply walked out of the gates of the camp on 15^th November 1939 and took a train to Balcik (now Bulgaria), a small port on the Black Sea.  There they took lodgings with a friendly Bulgarian family and stayed happily with them until 19^th December when they received instructions to take passage on a rusty old Greek ship that had entered the harbour.  Jan had to bribe an immigration official to look the other way, whilst they boarded this vessel and sailed for Lebanon.

They sailed soon afterwards and, on 22^nd December 1939, arrived in Beirut, where they spent Christmas in a tent in the French Foreign Legion base.  The warm, dry climate was of great benefit and he was quick to recover from his illness.  Early in the New Year of 1940, he sailed from Beirut on a French troopship bound for Marseilles, arriving there on 22^nd January 1940.  From there he took a train to Lyons and a bus to the Polish Air Force holding unit at Lyons-Bron.  With about 800 other Poles, he was given accommodation at the Camp de Judes at Septfonds on 28^th January.

 

 L'Armee de l'Air demobilisation and

re-enlistment certificate

L'Armee de l'Air ID Card

 

This was an appalling place with few concessions to sanitation such as clean water and toilet facilities.  It was a First World War transit camp for French soldiers and had been turned into a camp for Communist refugees from the Spanish Civil War.  It was rife with rats, lice and other parasites and later became a concentration camp for Jews.  However, there was little employment available and, in frustration, he joined the Polish army as a driver and was assigned to an anti-tank platoon in the 10^th Mechanised Cavalry Regiment based at Arpagon on 31^st May 1940.

This was a short-lived enterprise and his platoon was embroiled in the chaos caused by the capitulation of the French Government, in June 1940.  He was captured by the invading German Army and was held prisoner for three days until the night of 17^th June, when he escaped.

Travelling on foot, and only moving at night, he encountered a body of British and Polish troops near the city of Tours; their plan was to head for Spain, crossing the Pyrenees into neutral territory.  During the journey, whilst resting in a Pine forest near Bordeaux, they were told by radio to head for the small fishing port of Le Verdon sur Mer near the mouth of the Gironde Estuary.  When they arrived there, they saw three large ships lying offshore.  These were probably the Clan Ferguson, the Royal Scotsman and the Delius. 

This was all part of Operation Ariel, which ultimately rescued over 190,000 troops.  A rescue mission that is far less recognised than the Dunkirk  evacuation a short time earlier – but just as dramatic.

Using every means possible to get out to the ships and being constantly harassed by the Luftwaffe, the whole group were rescued and the ships sailed for Liverpool on the night of 22^nd/23^rd June 1940 and were escorted most of the way by the destroyer HMS Vanquisher – which did not have sufficient fuel to accompany them to Liverpool.  All this was done in the face of harassment by U-boats, freshly laid mines and Luftwaffe fighters and bombers.

 
He arrived in Liverpool on the night of 25^th June 1940 and disembarked the following morning.  With the rest of his unit, he was put on a train to Glasgow where he was billeted in the City Greyhound Track – sleeping in the open air.  Four days later, he left the army and rejoined the Air Force at a temporary camp at RAF Hawarden in Flintshire, Wales.

On 2^nd July 1940 he was Posted to RAF Kirkham in Lancashire and whilst there, he had brief detachments for training to RAF Staverton in Gloucestershire, RAF Hereford and RAF Blackpool.   Reluctantly, he retrained as an airframe fitter and was posted to 307 (Polish) night fighter Squadron at  RAF Kirton-in-Lindsey, Lincolnshire.  The Squadron moved on to RAF Jurby on the Isle of Man on 7^th November 1940, RAF Squires Gate, Blackpool on 23^rd January 1941, RAF Colerne, Bristol on 26^th March 1941 and RAF Exeter, Devon on 26^th April 1941.  During this time he worked on Boulton Paul Defiants and later, Bristol Beaufighters.

He applied to become a pilot but unfortunately he suffered constant recurrences of his malaria and was unable to carry out the training.  But persistence pays and, in 1942, he was accepted for pilot training.  On 12^th November 1942 he moved to No 25 (P) Elementary Flying Training School at RAF Hucknall in Nottinghamshire.  Here, he learned the basics before moving on to (P) Initial Training Wing at RAF Brighton on course no 117 on 17^th January 1943.  Five months later, on 26^th June 1943, he returned to RAF Hucknall for day and night flying experience.

On 26^th August 1943 he moved to 16 Service Flying Training School at RAF Newton in Nottinghamshire before moving on to No 8 Air Gunnery School at RAF Evanton, Inverness, Scotland on 23^rd February 1944.  He was then posted to No 3 School of General Reconnaissance at RAF Squires Gate, Blackpool on 31^st July 1944.  His final pre-combat training was at 6 (C) Operational Training Unit at Silloth in Cumberland (now Cumbria).
 

 

16 (P) SFTS Course members - RAF Newton, 1943

 

8 Air Gunnery School - RAF Evanton, Scotland - July 1943

 

Jan (right) wearing RAF Wings on a French uniform

 

On 31st January 1945 he was posted to 304 Squadron, Coastal Command at RAF Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides.  His duties there were very long, mostly low altitude, flights far out over the Atlantic Ocean.  The mainstay of this work was anti-submarine warfare interspersed with harassment of enemy shipping and convoy protection.

 

Jan's regular crew during his time in 304 Squadron

On 5^th March 1945 the Squadron moved to RAF St Eval in Cornwall – no change in their duties but the operational area moved to the Bay of Biscay and the approaches to the English Channel.  On 9^th July 1945, the Squadron moved to RAF North Weald in Epping Forest, Essex but Jan did not go with them.  He was one of the party who left Newquay railway station for 17 Air Crew Holding Unit at RAF Snaith near Goole in East Yorkshire.  He spent the next15 months there and at other ACHUs at RAF Full Sutton and RAF Pocklington (both Yorkshire) and RAF Hucknall (Nottinghamshire).  Thus ended his WW2 involvement in hostilities and a transition to peacetime flying, but it was a very long way from the end of his service as an active airman.

 

A Tragic Family History

As a footnote to Jan’s story, I have included the following background material which shows the true extent and devastating effects that war can have on a family – it also shows the sacrifices made by this family and many others in the fight for freedom.

Jan’s father, also Jan Walentowicz, was born in Sieniawka near Niezwiez on 23^rd October 1888 and was a forester by trade.  During the Great War and the Bolshevik War of 1918-1920, he served in the Polish Cavalry.

On release from the Russian Gulags, after Operation Barbarossa in 1941, he took advantage of the amnesty and left Siberia to join Anders’ Army in Persia (now Iran).  In order to join up, he had to lie about his age and alter his birth certificate to “prove” that he was not too old to fight. 

He was killed in the fighting at Massafra near Taranto and is buried in the Casamassima Military Cemetery near Bari in Southern Italy.  Following the end of hostilities, Jan applied for compassionate leave to visit his father’s grave but received a letter dated 8^th July 1946 from the Air Ministry denying his request.

 

Jan’s rejection letter from the Air Ministry

Jan’s uncles, Jozef and Wladyslaw, were conscripted into the Russian Navy and were lost in action without trace – their bodies were never found.

Jan’s mother, Apolonia, remained in the Gulag at Shypunovo, near Novosibirsk, and was allowed to return to Poland in 1946 – but only after writing a letter to Jozef Stalin, thanking him for his hospitality.

Jan’s sister, Maria was living in Warsaw and was not taken to Siberia but her husband, Jerzy Tomaszewski was taken away for interrogation by the Gestapo and executed (murdered) on trumped up charges on 27th November 1939.  He has no known grave.

Maria was active in the Armia Krajowa throughout the war and survived the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 but was taken by the Germans and was sent to the notorious Mauthausen-Gusen camp complex at Wiener Neustadt in Austria.  At that stage of the war, life expectancy there was three months but she survived until the camps were liberated at the end of the war.  She returned to Poland, remarried and tried to rebuild her shattered life but her spirit was broken and she died in 1982.

Jan’s elder brother, Jozef was a soldier in the 4^th Cavalry Regiment in Wilno (now Vilnius) both before and during the Second World War.  He was captured by the Germans in 1939 and sent to a POW camp but he escaped and made it back home into the Russian occupied zone.  He was hiding in his parents cellar, but was betrayed by a Polish Jew wearing a Red Star armband and was taken by the Russians and sent to a Gulag in Shypunovo near Novosibirk. 

After the amnesty following Operation Barbarossa, he was released and made his way to Persia (now Iran) where he joined Anders’ Army.  After the War, he married an English girl and settled in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.  Later they emigrated to the USA where he lived until his death in 1991 in Clifton, New Jersey.  

Jan’s younger brother, Jerzy was away at boarding school when war broke out but returned home to live with his parents.  He too was taken to Siberia and left with his elder brother after the amnesty.  He joined Anders Army and served in a mortar platoon in North Africa and in the Italian campaign leading to Monte Cassino and beyond.

After the War, he married, had three children and spent his life living and working in Nottingham until his death in 1988.

All photographs and documents from the Walentowicz family archives.  Special thanks to Peter and Paul Walentowicz for permission to use them.

HONOURING THE MEN OF 304 SQUADRON

There is a move afoot to honour the memory of the Heroes of 304 Squadron by incorporating their badge into the new crest for 304 Squadron Air Training Corps.  I fully endorse this new honour and hope that you will too.  Please let me know what you think about this idea.  But please include a return email address as all comments on this blog are normally anonymous.  It is so nice to know that someone else wishes to honour the achievements of the Squadron.

JAN WALENTOWICZ

Jan Walentowicz at the controls of his helicopter

 

Jan Walentowicz was a man of considerable achievement within the Polish Air Force and later, the Royal Air Force.  On his death, he was honoured with obituaries in the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian newspapers.  The following item is something a little more personal and poignant.  It is an obituary written by Paul Walentowicz in honour of his father, Jan.  It is reproduced here with Paul’s permission and the copyright remains his. Paul and his brother, Peter, have given me enormous help with my efforts to write a biography of Jan Walentowicz, which will appear here as soon as my research is complete.

 

Flight Lieutenant Jan (John) Walentowicz 1920-2011

 

My father Flight Lieutenant Jan (John) Walentowicz, who has died aged 90, was a pilot during the latter half of the Second World War flying air reconnaissance Wellingtons (304 Polish Bomber Squadron "Land of Silesia-Ks. Józefa Poniatowskiego").  He later became a distinguished and skilful helicopter pilot for the Royal Air Force during the 1950s and 1960s (155 and 22 Squadrons).

 

Jan was born in Lida (then in Poland, now in Belarus), not Bialystok as he claimed, on 4 August 1920.  In 1937 he joined the Polish Air Force to do his national service, trained as a meteorological observer and was posted to 151 Fighter Squadron near Vilnius (then in Poland, now in Lithuania).  His intention was to complete his national service and then resume his education in April 1939.  But because of the threatening political and military situation the Polish government cancelled all releases of national servicemen.

 

On 1 September 1939 Nazi Germany attacked Poland.  His unit lost aircraft and to avoid being captured by Soviet forces, which on 17 September had invaded Poland from the east, the remnants of his unit were ordered to cross the border into Romania.  Once there, Jan and his compatriots were disarmed and sent to a district close to the estuary of the River Danube.

 

"The area was known to be most unhealthy and we were left in the open without food or shelter.  Due to the appalling conditions the International Red Cross asked the Romanians to move the troops away from the swamps.  Consequently we were transported to a camp in the foothills of the Transylvanian Alps", Jan recalled.  In October - about six weeks after the invasion of Poland - Jan fell sick with both malaria and dysentery.

 

He and his comrades were planning to escape from the camp and from Romania.  Once recovered and equipped with a false passport, travel instructions and a disguise, he and a friend simply walked out of the camp on 15 November 1939.  They took a train to the small port of Balcik (then in Romania, now in Bulgaria) and found lodgings with a friendly Bulgarian family for about a month.  Jan wrote that, "On 19 December 1939 a rusty ship arrived and we were told to embark.  I had to bribe a Romanian emigration officer and towards the evening we sailed.  We arrived in Beirut, Lebanon and spent Christmas Day in a tent at the French Foreign Legion base".

 

Jan's health improved greatly in the warm climate and he was fit to leave on a French troopship for Marseilles in early 1940.  He was sent to a Polish Air Force holding unit at Lyons where he kicked his heels in frustration at its inactivity.  He decided to join the Polish Army, which was short of drivers, and was attached to an anti-tank platoon.  Following the invasion of France, Jan and his group were caught up in the chaos caused by collapse of the Allied defences.  "I was caught by the Germans near Paris and spent three days in captivity, escaping on 17 June.  Travelling by night and on foot, I came across a group of British and Polish troops near Tours.  It was thought that to avoid capture they might have to get to Spain.    But while resting in pine woods one day near Bordeaux we were told by radio that a rescue effort was to be attempted.  An astonishing sight greeted us as we emerged from the woods; three large ships were moored some distance from the shore off the small fishing port of Le Verdon-Sur-Mer on the Gironde estuary".  The troops were told to use any available craft to reach the ships, which could not come close inshore.  Despite being harried by German aircraft, everyone got aboard by late afternoon and they sailed away bound for Liverpool.  Four days after arriving in England, Jan was reunited with his comrades and rejoined the Polish Air Force.

 

Jan applied for pilot training but the malaria kept recurring.  It was almost two years before he was fit enough to apply again.  In the meantime he trained as an airframe fitter and was posted to 307 Polish Night Fighter Squadron based at Kirton in Lincolnshire.  In the summer of 1941 Bristol Beaufighters replaced the ageing Boulton-Paul Defiants it had first been supplied with.  In 1942 Jan was accepted for pilot training and passed out in early 1944.  "Completing my conversion on Vickers Wellingtons, I was posted on 31 January 1945 to 304 Polish Reconnaissance Squadron at RAF Benbecula, Outer Hebrides.  From there, we maintained long-range anti-U-Boat patrols across the north Atlantic.  In March 1945 we moved to Cornwall and continued operations in the Bay of Biscay".

 

Between 1945 and early 1947, all the Polish Squadrons were disbanded.  On 1 October 1946 Jan was demobbed from the Polish Air Force in the rank of Warrant Officer and on the same day offered and accepted a place in the No. 9 Polish Resettlement Unit at RAF Melton Mowbray.  Poland had ended the war under Soviet occupation; the part of the country where Jan had grown up had been annexed by and incorporated into the USSR.  Most Poles refused to return and remained in exile; only a small number went back to Poland.  "We could not make any decision.  Some tried to find local jobs.  Some made plans to emigrate (Jan's eldest brother Jozef moved to the USA at this time).  I decided to stay in England and in January 1948, I enlisted in the RAF as aircrew, pilot".

 

Shortly after joining the School of Air Traffic Control as a staff pilot at RAF Watchfield in Wiltshire, Jan applied for a commission.  In July 1950 he passed out at RAF Kirton-in-Lindsey and was promoted to Pilot Officer.  He spent the next 15 months as a training officer but then got back to flying, first with 62 Group Communication Flight at RAF Colerne, Avon then with 63 Group Communication Flight at RAF Hawarden, Flintshire.  Jan found much of this work rather mundane, so in 1954 he volunteered to train as a helicopter pilot.  Following instruction at Westland's factory in Yeovil, he was posted to the re-formed 155 Squadron at Kuala Lumpur.  During his three years in Malaya, he flew 1000 jungle flying hours on Whirlwind HAR4s and safely participated in almost 200 operations.  Len Raven, a member of Jan’s crew on five operations in May and June 1957, wrote after his death that “It was always a pleasure to crew for him as he was a very competent helicopter pilot and a real gentleman…It was a real pleasure to meet him again at one of the helicopter reunions”.

 

On returning to the UK in 1957, Jan joined 'A' flight of 22 Squadron at RAF St Mawgan, Cornwall flying Whirlwinds again but this time in the search and rescue (SAR) role with 24-hour instant readiness.  Shortly afterwards, 'A' flight moved up the coast to RAF Chivenor where Jan became flight commander.  During his time with 'A' flight, Jan completed 528 flying hours consisting of 62 operational hours and 50 incident 'scrambles'.

 

Jan's flying career ended for the time being in August 1960 - shortly after his 40^th birthday - and he completed an Air Traffic Controller Course at RAF Shawbury, Shropshire and was subsequently posted to RAF Linton-On-Ouse to continue his "ground tour".  In January 1964 Jan was posted overseas to RAF Khormaksar, Aden.  This was the time of 'operations' in the Radfan, when the station was the busiest in the RAF with nine squadrons based there.  He moved back to the UK in 1966 for helicopter refresher training.  In April he was posted to 202 Squadron, RAF Leuchars as C Flight Commander.  He was still flying Whirlwinds, but this time the HAR10 version.  In 'C' flight Jan completed 360 flying hours consisting of 68 operational hours and 22 incident 'scrambles'.

 

On Boxing Day in 1966 Jan was ‘scrambled’ to fly a doctor to the Isle of Arran to treat a very sick woman.  She was, incidentally, the daughter of Robert McLellan then a Scottish playwright and poet.  It was eventually decided that she must be flown to the mainland for specialist help.  By then the weather had worsened, a snowstorm was raging and visibility was extremely poor.  Jan knew it was the only chance to save her life and took a calculated risk by flying at 100 ft above the waves to get her to hospital in Glasgow.  A year later he searched for a RAF Lightning pilot who had ejected from his plane into the North Sea over 55 miles away.  The pilot was eventually located in a dinghy almost at the last minute in near darkness, was rescued and taken back to base.  Incidentally the fortunate pilot - Squadron Leader Blackburn - was a neighbour of Jan's at the time!  Jan was by then - at 47 - the oldest pilot in the RAF.   In May 1968 Jan commenced his last 'ground tour' at RAF Acklington in Northumberland but 18 months later it was all over.  "On 1 October 1969, I said enough is enough and I retired after unbroken service of 32 years".

 

Together with his family Jan moved to Billericay in Essex where with his wife Wyn, they bought and successfully ran the Billericay Bookshop for 20 years.  He continued with his antiquarian book business - which he had pursued as a profitable pastime for many years - and developed a picture framing service as a lucrative sideline.  Naturally he taught himself how make and fit the frames.

 

Now aged almost 70 Jan and Wyn then had a blissful 20 years of retirement in the village of East Hanningfield outside Chelmsford.  For many years, they used to stay in Florida, USA during the winter months in the charming resort of Dunedin.  In 1998 he was invited together with Wyn by the government to a ceremony in Poland to honour the achievements of the Polish Air Force during the war.  In 2010 they received a congratulatory card from the Queen to celebrate sixty years of marriage.  Jan remained reasonably healthy past his 90th year.  He was active almost until his death in the Royal Air Forces Association’s annual ‘Wings Appeal’.  Jan is survived by his wife Winifred, me and his other children Tony, Jan (a girl!) and Peter and by five grandchildren Amy, Luke, Ava,Tom and young Matthew who is almost thirteen.

 

Paul Walentowicz

28 November 2011 

BACK IN BUSINESS

Following a disastrous flirtation with Windows 8, I have reverted to Windows 7 and I am now able to resume my work on this blog.  I have been unable to access the blog (except to view it) and most of my notes and correspondence with valued contacts around the world have also disappeared into cyberspace.

 

Hopefully, I am now back in business and I will be contacting those people very soon.

STANISLAW MICHAL JURA

He was born on 23^rd September 1918 into a prosperous family of merchants in the small town of Kety in the Silesian foothills.  He began his education there, but was sent as a boarder to the National Gymnasium in Wadowice  after graduating from high school.  One of his fellow pupils there was Karol Wojtyla – better known as Pope John Paul II – and they remained lifelong friends.

In August 1938, he completed a gliding course in Bezmiechowa near Lesko . In October of that year he was conscripted to the Divisional Reserve Officers Training School in Krakow and went on to serve in 12th Infantry Regiment in Wadowice with several school friends, including Karol Wojtyla, He was their Commanding Officer when Germany invaded Poland.

When Russia joined the hostilities, on 17^th September 1939, he was near  Kolomyja and made for the border with Hungary, where the Polish forces were interned but treated kindly.  He was held in camps at Nagysenk and Kicsenk, where he met Arpad Goncz (later President of Hungary) who was a good friend and whose family supported Jura financially during his detention.
 

At the earliest opportunity, he left Hungary by way of Jugoslavia and travelled to Beirut, Lebanon, where he joined the Carpathian Rifle Brigade.  He remained with them when they moved to Palestine, under British command, and fought across North Africa in the desert campaign across Egypt and Libya and took part in the defence of Tobruk.
 

Whilst there he volunteered for the Polish Air Force in exile and was sent to Britain to undergo training.  As a trained glider pilot he would have a better chance of acceptance and having fought with British forces in North Africa, he would have picked up some English.

 

His initial training on aircraft would have been on British machines so he would not have needed familiarization but would have started from scratch on pilot training and learning English properly.  After qualifying as a pilot, he was posted to 304 Squadron and would have spent most of his flying career in Coastal Command on anti-submarine warfare, convoy protection and harassing enemy shipping.  Later, he would have flown with Transport Command ferrying supplies to Italy and Greece and probably transporting released Prisoners of War back to Britain.

 

After the war he transferred to the RAF in 1333 (TS) CU as a pilot towing Airspeed Horsa Gliders and carrying paratroopers.  The aircraft used for this were mainly Douglas Dakotas and Handley Page Halifaxes.

 

In 1948 he was discharged and returned to Poland, where he worked in a sawmill, owned by his family until it was nationalized.  Until 1953 he was unable to find work or housing and was persecuted and kept under surveillance by the secret police due to his military service with the British.  Finally he was able to find work in Kety as an accountant in the Public Roads office until he retired in 1983.

 

During his military career he was awarded the Cross of Valour  and the Cross of Merit as well as Polish and British campaign medals.  On 31^st October 2008 he was given one of Poland’s highest honours, the Krzyzem Oficerskim Orderu Orodzenia Polski (The Order of Polish Officers) by President Lech Kaczynski.

 

He died on 23^rd December 2012, aged 94, in his hometown of Kety and was buried on 29^th December of that year at the municipal cemetery after a service at the Church of St Margaret and St Catherine.  He was given full military honours and a volley was fired over his grave in salute to his war service.

 

With thanks to Ryszard Kolodziejski for supplying me with a considerable amount of additional information

LUDWIK KREMPA

Ludwik Krempa przyszedł na świat 22 stycznia 1916 r. w SaHe was born to Wawrzyniec Krempa, a Post Office worker, and Anna de domo Kita on 22^nd January 1916 in Sanok, Southern Poland, (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire).  His father died shortly after the end of the Great War; the cause being complications to wounds suffered whilst serving in the Austro-Hungarian army.

He was educated in Sanok, Krystynopol and completed his final year in Krakow, at the Stanislaw Staszic State School of Industry, where he gained a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering.

In 1936 he developed his interest in flying by taking a glider pilots course at Biezmiechowa Gorna, which he passed with flying colours and became a Class A  pilot.  The following year he was conscripted into the army and he started at the Cadets School of Communication in Zegrze, near Warsaw; his gliding qualification helped him to get into the SPRL (Szkola Podchorazych Rezerwy Lotnicwa) Reserve Officers School of Aviation at Deblin in January 1938.  He graduated as a pilot in June 1938 and was attached to the 6^th Air Regiment reserves in Lwow, with the rank of Cadet Corporal Pilot.  His flying training was in Sadkowo, where he trained on Bartel BM-5 bi-planes, RWD-8 monoplanes and the advanced PWS-26 bi-plane mainly used for aerobatics and pilot training.

In the same year he started work in Krakow as a draftsman, designing compressors for meat refrigerators.  Whilst working as an engineer he maintained his flying Potez XIVs part time with the training squadron of 2^nd Air Regiment based at Rakowice.  Due to the imminence of war he was posted back to the 6^th Air Regiment, in July 1939, and attached to  66 Reconnaissance Squadron.  He took part in exercises for reservists starting on 21^st July 1939 but, due to full mobilization, he was not released when they were completed and by the end of August he was based at Skniłowa Lublinek aerodrome near Lodz.
 

Ludwik Krempa, on the right, as a cadet in Poland

Prior to the outbreak of hostilities

On 7^th September 1939 he was based at Polkowszczyzna near Naleczowo but due to a serious illness he was taken to hospital in Lublin.  After  a few days he was discharged but he was unable to walk properly and took little part in the September Campaign.  He had been warned by the hospital staff, that the Germans were closing in on the city and he should get out as soon as possible.

He was unable to communicate with his unit but joined up with III / 2 Squadron aircraft pilot liaison and made several flights in an RWD-8.  On 17^th September 1939 he was based at Tarnopol airfield and witnessed the Soviet attack from the rear.  This second invasion trapped him in Stanislawowo but he managed to get on a train to Lwow.  When he realised that he was heading into Russian territory, he jumped train and returned home to Sanok by way of Krakow.

He took work in the mines at Grabownica Starzenska and in the spring of 1940, he joined a group who crossed into Hungary but he was arrested and sent back to Poland.  His second attempt was successful and he travelled by Ungwar and a refugee camp for displaced Poles at Zahony.  He travelled on to Budapest, Belgrade, Greece and the port of Mersin in Turkey where he boarded the Polish ship SS Warsaw, bound for Haifa in Palestine (now Israel).

On 19^th August 1940 he joined the Independent Carpathian Rifle Brigade (Samodzielna Brygada Strzelcow Karpackich).  When it was realised that he was a trained pilot, he was diverted to the newly formed Polish Air Force in exile in England.  He travelled through the Suez Canal, via the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, round the Cape of Good Hope to Gibraltar and on to Britain.  His exact date and port of arrival are uncertain (but probably Liverpool or Glasgow), however, he was in the Polish Depot at Blackpool on 26^th October 1940.

On 20^th November 1940, he was sent to 15 EFTS at RAF Carlisle to learn the basics of British aircraft and procedures.  In August of that year he moved on to 16 SFTS at RAF Newton in Nottinghamshire where, on 1^st February 1942, he was granted the British rank of Pilot Officer and in July 1942 he was posted to 18 OTU at RAF Bramcote in Warwickshire where he learned British methods and tactics and was prepared for actual combat.

On 20^th October 1942 he was posted to 304 Squadron and made his first operational flight eight days later.  At this point, the Squadron was based at RAF Dale in Pembrokeshire, Wales and was part of Coastal Command.  His duties included anti-submarine warfare, harassment of enemy shipping and convoy protection.  He also took part in a bombing attack on the French Channel Port of Bordeaux on 26^th January 1943.

In May 1943 he was sent on a crew commander’s course at RAF Cosford, Shropshire and from July 1943, he was involved in creating his own crew at 6 OTU, RAF Silloth , near Carlisle, Cumberland (now Cumbria) before returning with his crew to 304 Squadron at RAF Davidstow Moor in Cornwall on 10^th September 1943.  He was also promoted to Flying Officer at this time.  The other members of his new crew were F/O Sawicki, Sgt Pawluczyk, Sgt Guminski, Sgt Piotrowski and Sgt Zientek.

He then undertook a further 34 combat missions over the Atlantic Ocean, the Irish Sea and the Bay of Biscay during which time he successfully located and directed naval forces to three enemy ships which posed a threat to Britain.   He and his crew were involved in a considerable amount of skirmishes with enemy vessels and aircraft before completing his tour of duty.

In June 1944 he was posted to 16 SFTS where he trained as a pilot instructor on Airspeed Oxfords until the end of the war when he transferred back to 304 Squadron in its Transport Command role.  On 24^th January 1946 he transferred to 301 Squadron (also in Transport Command) flying Handley Page Halifaxes to Italy and Greece; he remained with them until they disbanded in December 1946 and was himself demobilized in January 1947.

Ludwik Krempa being decorated by General Sosnkowski in Great Britain in 1943

He was unwilling to return to Poland and so he enrolled in the Polish Resettlement Corps at East Wretham, Norfolk and served there for two years until January 1949.  During his military service, he was awarded the Virtuti Militari, the Cross of Valour and bar and the Air Medal as well as British Campaign medals.

He re-trained as a draughtsman and went to work for Sentinel, a company who manufactured steam and diesel vehicles.  His work was specifically on designing engines for buses.  After about five years he went to work for Stone Platt Ltd in Crawley, Sussex, designing submersible pumps and emergency power systems.  He stayed with them until he retired in 1981.  In 1988 he returned to Poland and settled in Krakow.

He became involved with the activities of Air Force veteran organisations and was present at the 60^th Anniversary Memorial Ceremony for Sgt Stefan Bohanes in 2004.    In 2013 a film entitled “Wspomnien Czar” (Charming Memories) by E. Wyroba was dedicated to him.  He still lives in Krakow and he had his 98^th Birthday party at the military Air Base at Balice-Krakow.  Sadly, he died on 3rd January 2017 in Krakow, just short of his 101st birthday.

98th Birthday Photograph

 

With thanks to Ryszard Kolodziejski for a great deal of information and for finding the photographs on Polish websites.  Full credit will be given if the copyright holders contact me.

 

WELLINGTON MK XIV NB767 (QD-L)

The full crew list of Vickers Wellington Mk XIV NB767 (QD-L) which crash landed at RNAS St Merryn on 20th March 1945, can now be identified as P-794515 W/O Henryk Sawosko, P-705623 Sgt Jozef Stendera, P-703997 W/O Stanislaw Gajszyn, P-705717 W/O Ignacy Pawlowski, P-3025 F/O Tadeusz Liczbinski, and P-706658 F/Sgt Franciszek Strauch.

 

The aircraft was a total write-off and most of the crew suffered only minor injuries but Sgt Stendera was almost scalped in this accident.