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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 1653.PDF
AUGUST 6TH, 1942 FLIGHT 153 POLISH SQUADRONS IN THE R. A. F. ' Slightly to the left, steady' . . . One second, two, three, four. . . . 'Attention . . . bombs.' The machine seemed to sigh with relief when some thousands of pounds of explosives went down. One big and six smaller explo sions lighted up the darkness. For a fraction of a second we saw streets, crashing houses and collapsing factory chimneys, flames leaping high and fires spreading. Our successors will have an easier task. We turn lor home." A Fighter in Defence of London: "At 1.30 a.m. our squadron was flying south of London,, 20,000ft. above the ground, when we received a wireless message giving the -course of an enemy's bomber expedition. Almost at the same moment I sighted about 30 Dornier Do.215s flying at the same level as ourselves, and 2,000ft. above them the same number of Meiocjs. Our squadron attacked the for mation of bombers from the rear at a distance of 300 yards. We opened fire. " Then There Was One ". '' After our second attack two bombers broke away from the main formation and were quickly losing height with "^nifke pouring from their tails. One of them crashed mto the sea, the other vanished in the clouds. We were still flying in the southern direction. Not far from the French coast I saw one Do.215 flying slowly. I thought that this was probably the one which had succeeded in hiding among the clouds. I attacked it twice from 100 yards without success. "At the same moment I_saw over the Do.215 two other planes, and, believing them to be British, I joined them to attack the German bomber simultaneously. But these two planes turned out to be German fighters escorting the crippled Do.215. Without further delay I decided to attack the nearest fighter, and did so from a distance of 40 yards. The Me. 109 caught fire immediately and crashed -into the sea. I aimed the red cross of my sight on the second fighter and sent him down after the first. For the third time I attacked the bomber, but again without success. We were over France, but I resolved to attack for the last time from very near ; f had only a few bullets left. At last the Dornier crashed and caught fire." Spirit of the Ground Crews From a Member of the Ground Personnel: "I am writ ing these few words to tell how we feel about our work and the work of our squadron. We have plenty to do and we like it. We work with great pleasure because our pilots are soundly thrashing the Germans. The results .-are excellent, though the machines often come back with "^' ftiany bullet holes that it is difficult to understanod hc)w the pilots escaped death. Surely God's protection keeps them. Our brave pilot F., for example, came home without flaps and nearly the entire tail missing. The whole machine was pierced with bullets. The next day he had to fly again. So we technicians tried to repair the machine, and worked the whole day and night so that the plane was ready in time. We know and love our work. We are preparing each plane, so that it should not let down the pilot while in action. ... I am closing now, although I could write much more, but this work of ours is waiting, and no second should be wasted." There is now published over here a technical monthly review for the Polish airmen entitled " Mysl Lotnicza," which means " The Thought of the Air Force." The latest number contains a series of very interesting articles : " The Polish Air Force—To-day and To-morrow"; "The Air Force Ideal of the Slavs"; "The Possibilities of Soviet Industry," and several other purely technical articles. A more popular publication is the fortnightly organ of the Polish Air Force, whose name, "Skrzydla," siguihes " Wings," for it contains humorous articles, drawings ancL» even articles, sometimes two or three in a single number, in v English. To England via Marseilles and Narvik In the course of an article entitled " A People in Exile," H. I. Nelson says that these Polish airmen are not anxious to talk about their experiences. Yet nearly every one of them has been through things that—a lew years ago— we in England would never have dreamed of finding out side the pages of fiction. "Let me tell," he writes, "of one Polish airman—still a boy. Serving originally in the Polish Navy, he was severely wounded in the face in the first devastating onslaught. "Picked up on the beach by a Polish nurse, he waj--—-* brought back to health. With a few comrades he made his way slowly across south-east Europe to the coast. Sometimes friendly peasants helped them. Sometimes they went on foot, milking cows in the fields at night to get food; sometimes they stole lifts on freight trains. Eventually they reached Marseilles to join the French Navy. Then Narvik, where they were torpedoed, after which they were rescued by a British destroyer. And so to England and the Polish Air Force. Small wonder that they come here resolute, toughened by hardship, with a quiet determination to take it out some day on the enemy—*"" who has made them suffer. The sacrifice of their own lives is what they least dread. They have been too familiar with sudden death to fear it very much. Referring to the British way of announcing losses: ' x of our aircraft are missing but the pilots of y are safe,' they would prefer to say ' x of our pilots are missing but y of our aircraft are safe.' The machines which destroy the enemy are the important thing; there will always be men ready to take the places of those who are dead." In " the Drink" An anonymous Polish pilot was making his official re port. He was a sergeant-pilot who had been escorting »—-~"" bombing expedition over Lille. During a fight on the way back his engine was hit, it started smoking and knocking, and as he passed over the French coast east of Calais German anti-aircraft opened fire on him with disconcert ing accuracy: "At 3,000ft. I opened the cockpit door, undid the belts and tried to get out of the plane, but the air pressure was too strong. 1 was losing height rapidly, and, seeing no other possibilities, I decided to descend to water level, my altitude being insufficient for baling out. Reaching the water, I first touched the surface with the tail and then with the whole plane. A bad shock was— the result. The plane sank straightaway. Down under the water, I immediately began to disentangle myself trom the plane. No easy thing to do. At last 1 got clear. I began to swim upwards, although my parachute was still fastened to me. I reached the surface and took a lew breaths. Again I was dragged under." He then, under the water, managed to undo his para chute and unscrew the lid of the compressed-air bottle, so that the dinghy, filling gradually with the gas, rose to the surface, and, when he had summoned up a little strength, he climbed into it. During four days he had t»«i-~ remain in the Channel, for none of the planes passing over head spotted him. At last three Spitfires and a Lysander approached. The Lysander dropped a flare close to him and flew off again. The Spitfires, however, continued to circle above him. " After about twenty minutes a lifeboat came up. Thus was I saved. I was lucky." £_-
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