Poles in the Battle of Britain: Squadron 303 and Polish Pilots in 1940

In the summer and autumn of 1940, it was being decided over southern England whether Hitler could think about invading the Isles. At that time, 145 Polish pilots were fighting alongside the Royal Air Force. Many of them had experienced September 1939, fleeing through Romania or Hungary and the lost campaign in France. Squadron 303 reported more kills in about six weeks of fighting than any other fighter squadron in this battle.

In this guide, we tell the story of how Polish pilots ended up in England and why the British initially did not trust them, how Squadrons 303 and 302 fought, who the most famous among them were, and how their fates unfolded. We also discuss the bitter end of the war, how they are remembered today in the UK and Poland, and gather the most interesting facts.

How Poles Ended Up in England

In the summer of 1940, pilots who had defended Warsaw a year earlier and, a few weeks prior, France, were flying over Kent and London. To understand how they found themselves in the cockpits of RAF Hurricanes, one must go back twenty years to the time when the Polish military aviation was just being established. Americans appear in this story from the very beginning, which is particularly interesting for the Polish diaspora in the United States.

The Kościuszko Squadron and American Volunteers

The idea of bringing American volunteer pilots to the Polish Army belonged to General Tadeusz Rozwadowski, head of the Polish Military Mission in Paris. The American side agreed to the formation of the squadron on August 16, 1919, and on August 26, at the Wagram hotel in Paris, American pilots Merian C. Cooper and Major Cedric Fauntleroy signed a contract with Rozwadowski. By October, the volunteers were already in Lviv, where they joined the 7th Air Squadron, and on December 31, 1919, the unit was named the 7th Fighter Squadron named after Tadeusz Kościuszko.

A total of 21 Americans passed through the squadron, 20 pilots and one observer, alongside several Polish pilots. All ground support, 31 mechanics, consisted of Poles. From November 1919, Fauntleroy commanded, with Cooper as his deputy. During the Polish-Bolshevik War, the squadron did not have the opportunity to engage with Soviet aviation but intensely attacked ground troops, especially Budyonny's cavalry, from low altitude. The day of greatest effort for the pilots in defense of Lviv was August 18, 1920, when they carried out 72 combat flights.

Cooper himself was shot down on July 13, 1920, and ended up in Soviet captivity, where he spent nearly nine months. He managed to escape and get to Latvia. Józef Piłsudski awarded him the Virtuti Militari cross. After returning to America, Cooper made a career in cinema: his “King Kong” premiered in 1933.

The most lasting trace of this adventure turned out to be the emblem designed by American pilot Elliot Chess. In 1925, the squadron was transformed into the 121st and later the 111th Fighter Squadron, and its emblem was later adopted by Squadron 303, which we discuss in more detail later in this guide.

Aviation Before the War and the “Eleven”

In the 1930s, the backbone of Polish fighter aviation consisted of high-wing aircraft from the PZL factory, derived from the designs of engineer Zygmunt Puławski. The most important of these, the PZL P.11, entered service in 1935 and was then among the world's best: a metal high-wing aircraft with an open cockpit and fixed landing gear. The problem was that aviation was developing rapidly at that time. By 1939, the P.11 was already significantly inferior to new German aircraft, and the program for its successor, the PZL.50 Jastrząb, was significantly delayed. More modern fighters ordered from abroad, British Hurricanes and French Morane-Saulniers, did not reach Polish units before the outbreak of the war.

September 1939: Fighting a Lost Cause

Contrary to popular belief, based on German propaganda, the Polish aviation was not destroyed on the airfields on the first day of the war. Combat aircraft were dispersed earlier to field airfields, and bombs mainly fell on training machines. Fighters were grouped into 15 squadrons, five of which formed the Pursuit Brigade defending Warsaw. The Brigade had 54 PZL P.7a, P.11a, and P.11c fighters, and on September 1, there were 128 operational P.11s across all combat squadrons.

The first day brought several symbolic moments. Before seven in the morning over Balice near Krakow, Captain Mieczysław Medwecki was killed, shot down just after takeoff by a Junkers Ju 87. He was the first Polish and Allied pilot to fall in World War II. Around seven over Żurada near Olkusz, a pilot from the same 121st squadron, Władysław Gnyś, destroyed two Dornier Do 17 bombers. These were the first German aircraft shot down in this war by an Allied fighter pilot. The Pursuit Brigade reported 14 kills that day but lost 10 destroyed and 24 damaged aircraft. By September 2, it had only twenty aircraft capable of flight, and by September 7, it had lost its combat capability.

The exact number of aircraft shot down by Poles in September has not been definitively established to this day. The Historical Commission of the Polish Air Forces, shortly after the war, based solely on Polish reports, recognized 126 confirmed kills (the so-called Bajana list). Jerzy Cynk counted 97 aircraft shot down by fighters, while the German researcher Marius Emmerling, criticized for bias, counted only about 50. Inflating kill counts was a common phenomenon in all air forces.

Through Romania and Hungary

After the entry of the Red Army on September 17, the Chief Commander of Aviation, General Józef Zając, issued an order to evacuate all operational aircraft to Romania. This was carried out the same day. About 46 P.11 fighters flew abroad, of which 43 went to Romania. The aircraft were taken over by the Romanians, but the personnel moved on. In September and early October 1939, about 80 percent of the mobilized aviation personnel left the country, primarily through Romania and Hungary.

In both countries, Polish soldiers were interned. The Polish authorities, which entrusted General Stanisław Ujejski with the evacuation of the pilots, organized their transfer to France, where the Polish Army was being reconstituted. As noted by the IPN, aviation soldiers made their way to France by various routes, and ultimately about 12,000 of them reached there.

France 1940: Equipment Worse than in September

Under an agreement with France dated January 4, 1940, Polish air units were to be formed, and the Polish Aviation Training Center was established in Lyon-Bron. However, the French command was slow to create large Polish units. Most pilots were assigned to French squadrons in small “keys” of a few aircraft, while others defended cities and factories in so-called chimney keys. At the time of the German attack on May 10, 1940, the Polish Air Forces in France numbered 6971 personnel, including 1599 pilots, but only a small portion served in front-line units.

The only complete Polish squadron was I/145 “Warsaw” at the Mions airfield. The squadron received aircraft only on May 18, which were light Caudron C.714s, derived from racing aircraft, too weak against Messerschmitts. French Minister Guy La Chambre ordered the withdrawal of these machines after a week, but there were no others, so the Poles continued to fly them. In battles between June 8 and 11, the squadron achieved 12 confirmed kills.

The Polish balance of the French campaign varies depending on the source. According to Polish studies, 230 Polish pilots participated in the fighting, shooting down 53 German aircraft, losing 14 pilots in combat. Jerzy Cynk counts 51.9 kills, while Bartłomiej Belcarz counts 53, which accounts for about 8 percent of Allied aerial victories in this campaign.

Escape to the Bay of Biscay

Some Polish pilots were already in the UK before the fall of France. On October 23, 1939, the British declared their readiness to accept 300 flying personnel and 2000 technical personnel for two bomber squadrons; an agreement in this regard was signed on November 19, and from December 1939, Polish pilots were sent to a camp at RAF Eastchurch. There, their training began with learning English.

A true wave came in June 1940. After the defeat of France, the British conducted Operation “Aerial” from June 15 to 25, evacuating Allied troops from the ports of western France. On June 19, in Bayonne, Polish transatlantic liners “Batory” and “Sobieski” took about 9,000 Polish soldiers. The evacuation from Saint-Jean-de-Luz officially ended on June 25, and from both ports, approximately 19,000 people were evacuated, mostly Poles. The pilots sailed together with ground troops.

According to Polish studies, by July 15, 1940, 986 officers and 3217 non-commissioned officers and enlisted aviation personnel evacuated from France to the UK. Together with those who arrived earlier, over 8,000 Polish pilots and aviation personnel reached the Isles during the months of 1940. English-language studies mention about 8,500 pilots among approximately 35,000 Polish soldiers who reached the UK by mid-1940.

Poles in the RAF: Agreements, Uniforms, and Distrust

The British did not welcome the Poles with open arms. The Ministry of Aviation and the RAF believed that the Polish defeat in September was due to poor training and underestimated the value of Polish pilots. The head of Fighter Command, Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding, admitted in his 1941 battle report that he had “some doubts” (in the original “a little doubtful”) about how the experiences from their countries and from France affected Polish and Czech pilots, but he quickly dismissed them. One of the British commanders reportedly stated that he did not want people “who would flail around in the sky before they understood what was being said to them.”

Agreements: From RAF Reserve to Own Air Forces

The first British proposals disappointed the Poles. They were to join the RAF Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR), wear British uniforms, take two oaths, to the Polish government and to King George VI, and each Polish officer was to have a British counterpart. All pilots, regardless of rank and experience, started at the lowest officer rank of pilot officer.

Breakthrough came with subsequent agreements. During the evacuation from Dunkirk on May 28, 1940, General Władysław Sikorski received a handwritten letter from Winston Churchill with a draft agreement, and on June 11, an aviation agreement was signed for the voluntary enlistment of Polish pilots into the RAF and the establishment of Polish units closely associated with the RAF. However, the most important agreement was on August 5, 1940. It recognized the Polish Air Forces as part of the sovereign Polish Armed Forces. From then on, pilots took only the Polish oath, the Polish flag could hang next to the British one, and the Polish personnel were overseen by the PSP Inspectorate, cooperating with the British Ministry of Aviation. However, Polish units still fell under the operational command of the RAF and were stationed at its bases. On August 22, 1940, the British Parliament passed the Allied Forces Act, which provided a legal basis for these arrangements. Full Polish command over their aviation was only brought by the third agreement, on April 6, 1944.

Uniform with an Eagle and the Inscription POLAND

Polish pilots wore a steel-blue RAF uniform, but with Polish buttons and a Polish eagle on their caps. Polish rank insignia were sewn onto the collar, while British ones were on the sleeves. On both sleeves, one and a half centimeters below the shoulder seam, each soldier wore a patch with the inscription POLAND. On the aircraft, alongside the RAF roundel, a smaller red-and-white checkerboard was painted.

English, Procedures, and Retractable Landing Gear

The biggest obstacle turned out to be the language. The Fighter Command air defense system relied on radio communication with ground control stations, and a pilot who did not understand commands was useless or dangerous. Therefore, experienced Polish pilots, as the RAF lost personnel in battles over the Channel, sat in training centers learning English and British procedures.

In Northolt, pilots of Squadron 303 were transported daily by bus for language lessons to Uxbridge, 10 miles away. After a month, they could read newspapers, but pronunciation still posed a problem, so communication was practiced through the radio. Canadian John Kent, one of the British squadron commanders, phonetically recorded Polish names of aircraft parts, for which the Poles nicknamed him “Kentowski.” Pilots accustomed to the P.11 and French fighters with fixed landing gear sometimes landed the Hurricane on its belly because they forgot to lower the wheels.

In Squadrons 302 and 303, Poles received Hawker Hurricanes, while in some British squadrons, they flew Spitfires. Compared to the P.11, with its open cockpit, fixed landing gear, and performance clearly inferior to Messerschmitts, both types represented a leap of an entire era: modern low-wing aircraft with a closed cockpit and retractable landing gear. Polish pilots brought with them something that many young British pilots lacked: hundreds of hours flown before the war and combat experience from Poland and France. They learned in battle that fire should be opened from close range, and tight formations and template attacks practiced in the RAF were described by one of them as “simply suicidal.”

The First Polish Fighter Squadrons

The first, in July 1940 at the Leconfield base in Yorkshire, was Squadron 302 “Poznański,” and on August 2 at Northolt near London, Squadron 303 “Warsaw” named after Tadeusz Kościuszko, both with dual British-Polish command. We discuss their battles, commanders, and emblems in more detail later in this guide.

Poles in British Squadrons and Ground Personnel

Not all Polish pilots fought in Polish units. Before Squadrons 302 and 303 were formed, the British began directing individual Poles directly to their fighter squadrons under British command. Two of the ten such trained pilots, Franciszek Gruszka and Władysław Szulkowski from the Spitfire-flying 65 Squadron, were among the first Poles to participate in the battle in August 1940. Some Poles remained in British units even after the formation of Polish squadrons. Antoni Głowacki was one of two Allied pilots who shot down five German aircraft in one day during the battle on August 24.

How many Poles fought in the Battle of Britain? The most frequently cited number comes from the Battle of Britain London Monument, which counts pilots eligible for the battle badge, meaning those who carried out at least one combat flight in an acknowledged Fighter Command unit between July 10 and October 31, 1940. There were a total of 2937 such pilots, including 2342 British and 145 Poles. Thus, Poles constituted about one in twenty pilots in the battle, but they were the largest group outside the UK, ahead of New Zealanders (127), Canadians (112), and Czechoslovaks (88). Other counts mention 147 Polish pilots, including 89 in Squadrons 302 and 303 and about 50 in British squadrons.

Behind every pilot stood people on the ground. In the initial composition of Squadron 303, there were 135 Polish ground personnel for every 21 pilots, and Polish squadrons had Polish mechanics from the very beginning. The Polish Air Forces were not limited to fighters, either. Bomber squadrons 300 and 301 were formed simultaneously, which from August 14, 1940, attacked German invasion barges in French ports. According to the IPN, the Polish Air Forces in the UK numbered about 17,000 personnel in 15 squadrons during the war and were the third largest Allied air forces on the Western Front.

The Battle of Britain in a Nutshell

After the fall of France, Hitler hoped that Great Britain would seek a settlement. When Churchill's government rejected German peace suggestions, the Germans began preparing for an invasion of the Isles, Operation "Seelöwe" (Sea Lion). However, the condition was air superiority over the English Channel and southern England. The task of destroying the RAF was assigned to Hermann Göring's Luftwaffe.

Dates and Forces

Today, the British officially acknowledge that the battle lasted from July 10 to October 31, 1940. German historians often view it differently, as one campaign lasting from July 1940 to May 1941, including the nighttime bombing of cities, known as the Blitz, which began on September 7, 1940, and lasted until May 11, 1941. According to popular estimates, the British had about 1,963 aircraft, while the Germans and Italians had around 2,550. Losses amounted to 1,744 British aircraft and 1,977 German and Italian aircraft.

The Dowding System and Radar

The British advantage was not just the Hurricanes and Spitfires, but the system that guided them. The Chain Home radar stations on the coast detected German sorties while they were still gathering over France, and observers from the Royal Observer Corps tracked aircraft over land. Reports were sent via telephone lines to the filter room at Fighter Command headquarters in Bentley Priory, where a single picture of the air situation was created on a large map. From there, information was sent to the commands of groups and sectors, which directed squadrons by radio exactly where the enemy was.

The effect was enormous. Before the war, intercepting the enemy in 30-50 percent of flights was considered an excellent result. During the battle, the average was about 90 percent. German fighters, lacking a similar system, often returned to base without ever encountering the enemy. Churchill wrote in his memoirs after the war that the entire advantage of the Hurricanes and Spitfires "would have been fruitless" without this system built before the war. This is why knowledge of English was so important.

Phases of the Battle

The division into phases is arbitrary. The traditional British periodization, adopted by the Ministry of Aviation in 1941, counts the battle from August 8 and divides it into four phases, while some historians add a preliminary phase from July 10.

• July 10 – August 7: preliminary phase, attacks on convoys in the English Channel and ports.
• August 8–18: raids on airfields and radar stations; on August 13, the Germans began Operation "Adlertag" (Eagle Day).
• August 19 – September 5: further mass attacks on fighter airfields. It was during this time that Polish squadrons entered the fight.
• September 6 – October 5: after British raids on Berlin, Hitler ordered an attack on London. The first major daylight raid on the capital occurred on September 7.
• October 6–31: raids with smaller forces and individual fast aircraft, increasing night operations.

September 15: The Day of the Battle of Britain

On September 15, 1940, the Luftwaffe launched the strongest and most concentrated attack on London, hoping to force the RAF into a decisive confrontation. About 1,500 aircraft participated in the fighting that day. At 14:20, the commander of 11 Group, Keith Park, scrambled 303 Squadron with nine Hurricanes over Northolt to an altitude of 20,000 feet. A quarter of an hour later, in the operations room in Uxbridge, Churchill asked Park what reserves he had. He was told that there were none left in 11 Group. A total of 31 fighter squadrons were engaged, including the Polish 302 and 303 Squadrons.

The British Ministry of Aviation reported that 175–185 German aircraft were shot down that day. The actual Luftwaffe losses were roughly two-thirds lower. The IPN reports 61 destroyed machines. Nevertheless, the effect was decisive: the German sorties were shattered, and soon after, Hitler postponed Operation "Sea Lion." The Luftwaffe shifted the focus of operations to nighttime bombings. September 15 is now celebrated in the UK as the Day of the Battle of Britain.

303 Squadron – "Kościuszko" from Northolt

On August 2, 1940, Polish pilots arrived at RAF Northolt, on the western outskirts of London. On that day, the 303 Fighter Squadron "Warsaw" named after Tadeusz Kościuszko was officially formed. British sources add that the unit began to be organized as early as July at the Polish base in Blackpool. The initial composition included 13 officer pilots, 8 non-commissioned officer pilots, and 135 Polish ground crew soldiers. The squadron was assigned to 11 Fighter Group, which defended London and southeastern England, where the fighting was the heaviest.

The new unit did not start from scratch. It inherited the traditions of the Warsaw III/1 Fighter Squadron, and primarily the 111 Kościuszko Squadron, whose emblem the Poles now painted on the fuselages of the Hurricanes. The aircraft bore the code letters RF, and the pilots wore scarlet scarves.

Dual Command

Under the Polish-British military agreement, key positions were filled jointly. The commander was a Briton, Squadron Leader Ronald Kellett, and his Polish counterpart was Major Zdzisław Krasnodębski. The squadrons were commanded by F/Lt John Kent and F/Lt Athol Forbes, while on the Polish side, it was Lt Witold Urbanowicz and Lt Ludwik Paszkiewicz.

Kellett was from County Durham and was a stockbroker; he joined the Auxiliary Air Force as a pilot in 1933. His mother was French, and Kellett believed that his knowledge of French determined his assignment, as many Poles spoke little English but almost all spoke French. When there were problems with paying salaries to Polish pilots, he covered those amounts out of his own pocket until the Poles were added to the RAF payroll. John Kent was born in 1914 in Winnipeg, Canada, and the Poles nicknamed him "Kentski."

The pilots had to master the Hurricane, English, and the procedures of Fighter Command: radio communication, ground control, and reporting. Many had previously only flown aircraft with fixed landing gear, and it happened that someone landed forgetting to lower it. The Poles, mostly veterans of the September 1939 campaign and the French campaign, were eager to fight, while the British wanted to complete their training first. On August 24, six aircraft undertook their first patrol over Northolt, without encountering the enemy.

Training Flight That Ended in a Shootdown

On the afternoon of August 30, 1940, the squadron was practicing interceptions, with British Bristol Blenheim bombers acting as the "enemy." At around 16:35, Ludwik Paszkiewicz, leading the "green" section, noticed explosions from anti-aircraft fire near a large German formation. He reported this to Kellett, but the commander, wanting to stick with the Blenheims, did not respond. Paszkiewicz broke from formation, attacked from about 250 meters, and set a German aircraft's right engine on fire.

The report recorded a Dornier, but in reality, it was a twin-engine fighter Messerschmitt Bf 110 from unit ZG 76. Some accounts add that the victory was shared with a pilot from 56 Squadron RAF. Upon landing, Paszkiewicz received a reprimand for disobedience and at the same time congratulations. Instead of punishing him, Kellett requested that the squadron be granted operational status, and the next day, August 31, 11 Group recognized 303 as a combat unit. The scene later made its way, with some embellishments, into the 1969 film "The Battle of Britain."

Six Weeks in the Fire

By August 31, pilots from Squadron A clashed over Kent with Messerschmitt Bf 109s and returned without losses. According to some accounts, there were four confirmed kills and two probable; IPN materials mention six. On September 6, the squadron was surprised by Bf 109s from III./JG 27. Kellett and Forbes made forced landings, slightly wounded, while Krasnodębski was shot down and severely burned. Urbanowicz shot down a Bf 109 that day, belonging to the commander of III./JG 27, Hauptmann Joachim Schlichting, and on September 7, still as a lieutenant, he took command of the Polish squadron. That day, the Germans attacked the London docks, and the Poles reported twelve Dornier aircraft and two Messerschmitts. The war also showed its dark side: the Hurricane of Lt. Pisarka, who parachuted out, fell into a garden in Loughton and killed a three-person family in a shelter.

The results of the first days were met with skepticism by some British officers. The commander of Northolt, Group Captain Stanley Vincent, flew with the squadron on September 11, and after what he saw, he believed the reports from the Poles. That day, Arsen Cebrzyński and Sgt. Wójtowicz were killed. On September 15, the pivotal day of the battle, the squadron was credited with 16 kills, which according to IPN placed it first in the daily ranking of Fighter Command. On September 26, King George VI visited Northolt and signed the squadron's chronicle. In the afternoon, the Poles clashed with a large German raid over Hampshire and reported 13 victories, although according to Luftwaffe loss reports, they lost a total of nine aircraft in that action. This is a good example of how reports diverged from reality in the chaos of battle.

On September 27, Paszkiewicz, born in 1907 in Wola Gałęzowska and a graduate of the technical university, who had become an ace, and Sgt. Tadeusz Andruszków were killed. Urbanowicz shot down four aircraft that day, and three days later, he repeated that feat. On October 5, Wojciech Januszewicz was killed, and on October 8, the most effective pilot of the squadron, Czech Josef František, died in an accident. On October 11, the exhausted squadron was sent for rest to Leconfield in Yorkshire, and its participation in the battle ended.

How Many They Really Shot Down

At the time of withdrawal from combat, the squadron was credited with 126 kills over approximately six weeks, the most of any fighter squadron in the battle. This number entered into legend, but it is important to understand what it means. These were kills reported by pilots and confirmed in 1940. After the war, when compared with German documents, it turned out that the total victories attributed to all Allied pilots were about one and a half times higher than the actual losses of the Luftwaffe. Inflated reports were the norm in all air forces, as in fast combat, several pilots would shoot at the same aircraft.

Historians therefore recalculated. British researcher John Alcorn confirmed 44 victories for 303 Squadron, placing it fourth, behind the squadrons 603, 609, and 41, which flew more modern Spitfires. However, Alcorn was unable to attribute about 30 shot down aircraft to any unit. Jerzy Cynk and other Polish historians estimate the squadron's score at around 55-60, while Jacek Kutzner counted approximately 59 confirmed kills (in various reports 59.8 or 58.8), which again places 303 in first place. Regardless of the method, it was the best squadron flying Hurricanes and one of the most effective in the battle.

By October 11, the squadron had lost 18 Hurricanes, and five pilots were seriously injured. Seven or eight pilots were killed, as the IPN includes in the battle losses also František, who died in an accident. The ratio of victories to losses was about 2.8 to 1, and the percentage of those killed was lower than the average in other RAF squadrons.

Why They Were So Effective

The first reason was experience. Most Polish pilots had hundreds of hours of flight time before the war and had fought in Poland and France. The second was tactics. The British opened fire from about 350 meters, while the Poles approached to about 100. It was described that the Poles, after a short burst from 150-200 yards, "came almost to point-blank range." One of the Poles called the tight formations and template attacks practiced in the RAF "simply suicidal." Jerzy Cynk also pointed to the freedom of individual action, the sharp eyesight of the pilots, and the excellent technical condition of the aircraft, which was maintained by Polish mechanics.

Non-Poles also flew in the squadron. Kellett, Kent, and especially Czech František, who reported 17 confirmed kills, contributed significantly to the result. Kellett wrote years later that it was "a great credit to the Polish pilots" that the three Englishmen commanding the squadron and sections survived the battle.

Cap, Scythes, and Thirteen Stars

The emblem of 303 Squadron has American roots. It was created for the Kościuszko Squadron from the Polish-Bolshevik War, founded in 1919 by American aviator Merian C. Cooper, later the creator of the film "King Kong." It was designed by another American in Polish service, Elliot Chess. Against the backdrop of the red and white stripes of the United States flag, a Krakow cap is depicted on crossed scythes, reminiscent of the Kościuszko Uprising of 1794, and the thirteen blue stars in the border represent the thirteen original states of the USA. For the Polish community in America, it is a particularly significant symbol: two nations and one hero. The official badge with the added number "303" was approved on July 2, 1943, and was made in silver by the Edinburgh firm Kirkwood and Son.

302 Squadron and Poles in British Squadrons

303 Squadron overshadowed all others in memory, but it was not the only Polish fighter squadron in the battle. Earlier, in July 1940, the 302 Fighter Squadron "Poznański" was formed. The order to establish it was issued on July 10, and the unit was organized a few days later at Leconfield airfield in Yorkshire, in the area of 12 Fighter Group. The squadron referred to the Poznań III/3 Fighter Squadron, and its core consisted of thirteen pilots who fought in France in the Polish squadron GC I/145. A trace of this history is visible in the badge: on a diamond in French colors walks a raven from the emblem of 132 Squadron from Poznań, and in the corners are the numbers 1/145 and 302.

The British commander was Squadron Leader William Satchell, and the Polish commander was Major Mieczysław Mümler. According to IPN materials, the squadron achieved operational readiness on August 15 (Satchell's biography on the Battle of Britain London Monument website states August 19), thus before 303 Squadron. On August 19, pilots from 302 attacked a Junkers Ju 88, and the next day they achieved their first confirmed victory, which the London monument service attributes to Satchell himself.

From Yorkshire to Duxford and Northolt

The squadron spent the first part of the battle in Yorkshire, away from the skies over Kent and London. When the Luftwaffe struck the capital in September, 302 was sent to Duxford, from where it flew in a large wing of 12 Group, known as the Big Wing, from September 14 to 25. On September 15, according to IPN, it was credited with 11 kills, placing it third in the daily ranking of Fighter Command.

In mid-October, 302 replaced 303 Squadron, which was sent for rest in Northolt and fought there in the last phase of the battle. On October 18, it suffered a severe loss without enemy involvement. During a routine patrol over Surrey, the pilots got lost in thick fog, and when they ran out of fuel, four Hurricanes crashed. All four pilots were killed: S. Wapniarek, A. Żukowski, J. Borowski, and P.E.G. Carter. In November, the squadron was moved to Westhampnett.

Alone Among the British

It is most often stated that 145 Polish fighter pilots fought in the battle. About half served not in Polish but in British squadrons. Sources vary in counting this group: the Imperial War Museums report 79 pilots, while other studies mention "over 70" or "over 50." Among them were pilots who reached Great Britain as early as the winter of 1940, such as Urbanowicz, Skalski, or Głowacki.

They had a harder time than their colleagues from 302 and 303. They were "foreigners," just learning the language and regulations, and difficulties with English made it hard to use the radio through which the fighters were directed. "I didn't care about R/T – always off – I just looked at the sky after takeoff, looking for swastikas," recalled Henryk Szczęsny from 74 Squadron. Bolesław Drobiński from 65 Squadron, flying Spitfires, had only made three flights on that aircraft, totaling 45 minutes, before his first combat flight. In the same squadron flew Franciszek Gruszka and Władysław Szulkowski, among the first Polish pilots on Spitfires. Gruszka was killed on August 18.

The first Polish victory in the battle was achieved on July 19, 1940, by Lt. Antoni Ostowicz from 145 Squadron RAF, who, along with his section pilots, shot down a Heinkel He 111 bomber. "We approached to within 300 yards, and when Red 1 opened fire on it, the enemy veered slightly to the right, and I managed to fire a burst at it. The right engine started smoking," he recounted. He shared the victory with his friend, Wilhelm Pankratz, also a Pole in that squadron. On August 11, Ostowicz was killed in a fight with German fighters, most likely over the English Channel, becoming the first Polish fighter pilot to die in the battle.

In 501 Squadron fought Antoni Głowacki and Stanisław Skalski, in 145 and 601 Witold Urbanowicz, before moving to 303. The Krakowian Bolesław Własnowolski flew successively in squadrons 32, 607, and 213, achieving five victories and was killed on November 1, 1940, near Stoughton. Two Polish bomber squadrons, 300 and 301, also operated, attacking barges gathered in ports on the continent for the German invasion since August 14. According to the British official history of the defense of Britain, 29 Polish Fighter Command pilots were killed in the battle, while other studies mention 30 aviators.

The People of the Battle of Britain

Behind the numbers are people. Many were born outside the borders of today's Poland, and almost all traveled a long way through Romania and France. Some perished during the war, others returned to communist Poland and ended up in prison, while still others remained in exile forever.

Witold Urbanowicz – "Kobra" from Olszanka, who settled in New York

He was born on March 30, 1908, in Olszanka near Suwałki, into a farming family. As an instructor at the Dęblin School of Eagles, he earned the nickname "Kobra." In September 1939, he evacuated cadets to Romania, but on his way back to the country, he fell into the hands of the Red Army and escaped that same evening. He reached Great Britain at the end of January 1940. He flew with the British squadrons 601 and 145, and from August 21, he was with 303 Squadron, which he commanded from September 7. With a score of 15 confirmed and one probable kill, he was the only Pole in the top ten most effective Allied pilots of the battle.

In 1941, he was sent to the USA to give lectures for the Polish community, which was to provide volunteers for the military. He served as the deputy air attaché in Washington, and in 1943, as a volunteer, he fought in China with the American 75th Fighter Squadron. After the war, he remained in the United States. In 1947, he returned to Poland and, as he recalled, was detained four times by the security services. According to documents stored in the IPN, the price for his release was a commitment to cooperate with the military intelligence of the Polish People's Republic. His materials were assessed as of little value, and in 1958, his file was destroyed, and he was suspected of collaborating with American intelligence. In New York, he worked for American Airlines, Eastern Airlines, and Republic Aviation, and wrote memoirs, including "Fire Over China." In 1995, President Lech Wałęsa appointed him a brigadier general. He died in August 1996 in New York (sources report either August 17 or 21) and is buried in the American Częstochowa in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. From 2024, the airport in Suwałki will bear his name.

Zdzisław Krasnodębski – the creator of the squadron who settled in Toronto

He was born on July 10, 1904, in Wola Osowińska. As a sixteen-year-old, he volunteered in the Polish-Bolshevik War, and before the war, he commanded the 111th Squadron and then the III/1 Fighter Squadron. On September 3, 1939, he was shot down and parachuted to safety, but made his way to Great Britain via Romania and France. After suffering severe burns on September 6, 1940, he never returned to combat flying. In 1941, he recruited volunteers in Canada. His wife Wanda, a soldier of the Home Army and a participant in the Warsaw Uprising, escaped from Poland only on her third attempt in 1946. After the war, he worked as a taxi driver in South Africa, and from 1951, he lived in Canada, worked in industry in Toronto, and was active in Polish community organizations. He died on August 3, 1980. In 2014, his and his wife's ashes were laid to rest at Powązki.

Mirosław Ferić – the chronicler of the squadron

He was born on June 17, 1915, in Travnik, Bosnia. His father, a Croat, died in World War I, and his mother, a Pole, lived with her sons in Poland from 1919. He graduated from high school in Ostrów Wielkopolski and school in Dęblin. On August 31, 1940, the first day of the squadron's combat, he shot down a Messerschmitt. Since 1939, he kept a diary, which became the chronicle of 303 Squadron in England. Entries were made by General Sikorski and King George VI as well. This diary inspired Arkady Fiedler to write the book "Squadron 303," published in 1942, in which, for the safety of families in the country, pilots appeared under pseudonyms. Ferić died on February 14, 1942, over Northolt when his Spitfire lost an aileron during aerobatics in a training flight.

Zdzisław Henneberg – missing over the Channel

He was born on May 11, 1911, in Warsaw, and before the war, he was an instructor in Dęblin. In France, he achieved a shared victory over a He 111, and in June 1940, he flew to England with three pilots. In 303 Squadron, he commanded a flight, achieving his first kill on August 31, and on October 30, as one of the first five Poles, he received the British Distinguished Flying Cross. In the second half of October, he took over command of the squadron from Urbanowicz. On April 12, 1941, his Spitfire was hit by anti-aircraft artillery over France. Henneberg ditched in the English Channel about 20 kilometers from Dungeness. A colleague saw him in a life jacket, but two days of searching yielded nothing. His body was never found.

Jan Zumbach – "Donald Duck," ace, and mercenary

He was born on April 14, 1915, in Stary Służew, as the grandson of a Swiss emigrant and held Swiss citizenship. He entered the Polish Air Force thanks to a document that did not list him. His colleagues nicknamed him "Donald Duck." In May 1939, he had an accident while landing, and after the outbreak of the war, he was unable to find his unit, so he made his way to France via Romania and Beirut, and from there to England. In the Battle of Britain, he shot down eight aircraft. In 1942, he commanded 303 Squadron. After the war, he settled in Switzerland and led a life of adventure: smuggling, running an air taxi company, and under the pseudonym Johnny "Kamikaze" Brown, commanding the aviation of the secessionist Katanga and Biafra. He died under mysterious circumstances on January 3, 1986, in France and is buried at Powązki. His name is borne by the 303 Museum in Napoleon in Silesia.

Witold Łokuciewski – from Stalag Luft III to the Polish People's Republic

He was born in 1917 in Nowoczerkask, growing up in the Vilnius region. In September 1939, he defended Warsaw, and in France, he shot down a He 111. In 303 Squadron, he achieved his first victory on September 7, 1940, and on September 15, he was wounded in the leg. In March 1942, shot down over France, he ended up in Stalag Luft III in Żagań, where he participated in preparations for the Great Escape. After his release, he was the last commander of 303 Squadron until its disbandment in December 1946. In 1947, he returned to Poland. For political reasons, he was removed from the air force, worked in a law office, and at the "Wapno-Beton" cooperative in Lublin. He was only readmitted to the military aviation during the thaw in 1956, and from 1969 to 1971, he served as a military attaché in London. He died on April 17, 1990, in Warsaw.

Josef František – a Czech who wanted to fly with the Poles

He was born on October 7, 1914, in Otaslavice in Moravia, as the son of a carpenter. A pilot in the Czechoslovak Air Force, after the Germans occupied the country, he crossed the border into Poland on June 13, 1939, contrary to popular belief, not by airplane. Instead of traveling with other Czechs to France, he joined the Polish Air Force. In September 1939, he flew unarmed training aircraft for reconnaissance and dropped grenades on the Germans. In 303 Squadron, he was credited with 17 confirmed and one probable kill within a month, making him the most effective pilot from outside the UK in the entire battle. According to fictionalized accounts by Zumbach, he would detach from formations and wait for returning Germans who were running low on ammunition and fuel, for which he received reprimands. He died on October 8, 1940, in Ewell, Surrey, when he crashed his wing into the ground during a low flight. He is buried in the Polish cemetery in Northwood.

Antoni Głowacki – ace of one day

He was born on February 10, 1910, in Warsaw. Before the war, he managed a laboratory at the Philips factory, and after school in Dęblin, he became an instructor there. He reached Great Britain in January 1940 and, as a sergeant, joined the British 501 Squadron in Gravesend. On August 24, 1940, he shot down five German aircraft in one day. He was the only Pole to achieve this and one of only four pilots in the entire battle, alongside New Zealander Brian Carbury, Englishman Ronald Hamlyn, and Scot Archie McKellar. A week later, he was shot down and severely wounded. After the war, he moved to New Zealand, where at Ohakea Air Base, he taught young pilots to fly Vampire jets, and later worked in the civil aviation office. He died on April 27, 1980, in Wellington.

Stanisław Skalski – from death cell to general's stripes

He was born on November 27, 1915, in Kodyma near Odessa, and grew up in Dubno. In the first week of the war, in the 142nd Squadron from Toruń, he shot down five German aircraft, and on September 1, he landed next to a downed Henschel and treated its wounded pilots, protecting them from the crowd. He reached England on January 27, 1940. In the British 501 Squadron, on August 30, he shot down a He 111, and on September 5, he was shot down himself and jumped from the burning cockpit severely burned. Later, he flew in North Africa in the Polish Fighter Team, known as "Skalski's Circus," although officially it was commanded by Tadeusz Rolski, and then he commanded the British 601 Squadron and Polish fighter wings. With 18 confirmed kills and two shared, he is the most effective Polish pilot of the war. In 1947, he returned to Poland. A year later, he was arrested on false charges of espionage, tortured during the investigation, and in 1950 sentenced to death. He waited a year for the execution of the sentence before it was commuted to life imprisonment. He was released in April 1956, rehabilitated, and returned to the military, and in 1988 he became a brigadier general. He died on November 12, 2004, in Warsaw.

After the Battle of Britain – Polish aviation until the end of the war

In the autumn of 1940, two Polish fighter squadrons, 302 and 303, participated in the battles over England, as well as Poles flying in British units. In the following years, the Polish Air Force grew into a true military aviation with fighters, bombers, night fighters, reconnaissance aviation, and special units. The list of units includes fifteen numbered squadrons: four bomber (300, 301, 304, and 305), seven fighter (302, 303, 306, 308, 315, 316, and 317), one night fighter squadron (307), reconnaissance squadrons (309 and 318), and squadron 663, which directed artillery fire.

Wing from Northolt

In the spring of 1941, between March 15 and April 15, the 1st Polish Fighter Wing was formed at Northolt Airport near London. Initially, it consisted of 303 Squadron, 306 Squadron, and the British 601 "County of London," which was replaced by the Polish 308 Squadron in June 1941. The first commander was British John Kent, and the first Polish commander was Captain Pilot Witold Urbanowicz. The composition of the wing changed frequently as squadrons were rotated between airfields. The war also took its toll among commanders. On April 29, 1942, the wing commander Major Marian Pisarek and the commander of 317 Squadron Captain Piotr Ozyra were killed.

In October 1943, in preparation for the invasion of the continent, the wing received the British designation 131 Fighter Wing. On June 6, 1944, its squadrons 302, 308, and 317 covered the landing in Normandy. In December 1943, command of 131 Wing was taken over by Stanisław Skalski, and from April 1944, he commanded 133 Wing. Squadron 303 completed its last combat flight on April 25, 1945, escorting about 250 Lancasters flying to bomb Hitler's residence in Berchtesgaden.

Bombers and flights over Warsaw

A less known, yet significant part of the Polish effort was in bomber aviation. The 300 Squadron was established on July 1, 1940, in Bramcote as the first Polish bomber unit in Great Britain. It started with light Fairey Battles, flew Wellington bombers from November 1940, and from March 1944, it was the only Polish squadron flying heavy Lancasters. Its crews completed 3,891 combat missions, with the last task being the same bombing raid on Obersalzberg on April 25, 1945.

The 301 Squadron was disbanded on March 31, 1943, and its crews formed the Polish "C" squadron of the British 138 Squadron for special tasks. From this, in November 1943, the 1586 Special Duties Squadron was created, which flew from Campo Casale near Brindisi on Halifaxes and Liberators over occupied Europe. The distance from Brindisi to Warsaw was between 1,250 and 1,500 kilometers. Throughout 1944, during which it also dropped supplies for the Warsaw Uprising, the squadron lost about 100 airmen and 19 aircraft.

The 304 Squadron transitioned to Coastal Command in May 1942 and hunted submarines. In this role, it completed 2,451 flights. On April 2, 1945, one of its Wellingtons sank U-321 with depth charges. The 305 Squadron flew fast Mosquitos in the 2nd Tactical Air Force from December 1943, supporting the invasion of the continent. In the summer of 1944, Polish fighters also participated in the defense against German V-1 missiles. Bohdan Arct, a pilot and later author of aviation books, reported that squadrons 306, 315, and 316 shot down 190 flying bombs.

Balance of numbers

How large the Polish Air Force was by the end of the war depends on whom you count. Some studies report about 19,400 Poles serving in the Polish Air Force and the RAF, the Polish Embassy in London mentions over 18,000 airmen and airwomen, and the personnel list of the PSP, known as the Krzystek List, includes over 17,000 individuals. The flying personnel numbered 6,158.

In this same breakdown, Polish aviators were credited with 769 5/12 enemy aircraft destroyed, 177 probably destroyed, and 252 1/6 damaged. These numbers were recorded during the war, not as a result of post-war verification with German documents. The fractions arise because shared kills were divided among all participants.

The price was high. The Krzystek List records 1,879 killed and deceased from 1940 to 1945, which corresponds to 31 percent of the flying personnel. Other sources count differently, as they cover different periods or also include those who died outside aviation: the London community of Hillingdon reports about 2,408 killed, and 2,118 names are engraved on the monument in Warsaw. The differences do not arise from negligence but from different criteria, which is why it is always worth checking what exactly a given number includes.

Bitter End of the War

For Polish aviators, the war did not end in victory in the same sense as it did for the British. Between February 4 and 11, 1945, at the Yalta Conference, the Big Three decided that Poland's eastern border would run along the Curzon Line, and a Provisional Government of National Unity would be established in the country, based on the government set up by Stalin. The Government of the Republic of Poland in exile stated that these decisions "cannot be recognized by the Polish Government and cannot be binding on the Polish Nation." On July 5, 1945, by recognizing the Provisional Government of National Unity, Great Britain and the United States withdrew recognition from the government in London. Aviators who had fought alongside the RAF for five years suddenly became soldiers of a government whose allies no longer recognized.

Parade Without Poles

On June 8, 1946, a grand Victory Parade took place in the streets of London. Soldiers from almost all allied nations marched, including Czechs, Belgians, Brazilians, Mexicans, and veterans from Fiji. However, the Polish Armed Forces in the West, which fought under British command, were absent from the column.

The course of events can be reconstructed from the records of the House of Commons. On May 21, 1946, MP Teeling asked how many Polish pilots from the Battle of Britain would participate in the parade. In response on behalf of the Foreign Secretary, McNeil stated that the RAF contingent included "a representative group of 25 Polish pilots (including one officer)" who fought in the Battle of Britain. The remaining Polish forces in the UK were not to have a separate representation, as they were not part of the British armed forces. An invitation for Poland was sent to the government in Warsaw: it was to send three senior officers, three aides, a color guard, and a unit of 24 soldiers. On June 3, McNeil confirmed in the House that the Warsaw government had accepted the invitation.

Ultimately, no Poles marched. The aviators refused to participate in solidarity with their comrades from the ground and naval forces, who had been overlooked. According to the books by Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud, as well as Norman Davies, Minister Ernest Bevin sent last-minute invitations to General Stanisław Kopański and the heads of the air force and navy, but they were declined. Warsaw also did not send a delegation. In popular Polish accounts, there is often a simplified version stating that "only Squadron 303" was invited. Parliamentary documents refer to 25 pilots from the Battle of Britain without specifying a single squadron.

This issue resurfaced over the decades. In 2003, Prime Minister Tony Blair apologized to Polish veterans for the stance of the British government in 1946, and two years later, Poles participated for the first time in the London victory parade.

Demobilization and the Polish Resettlement Corps

In the spring of 1946, the British government decided to demobilize the Polish Armed Forces. On March 20, Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin expressed hope in the House of Commons that as many Polish soldiers as possible would return to their homeland. For those who did not wish to return, the British government established the Polish Resettlement Corps. Bevin announced its formation on May 22, 1946, recruitment began in September, and the corps was disbanded in 1949. About 12,000 air force soldiers and 1,000 women from the auxiliary air service could join the corps. Recruits signed a two-year commitment during which they were to prepare for civilian life. On March 27, 1947, the king signed the Polish Resettlement Act, the first mass immigration law in British history, which allowed Poles to remain in the UK.

Not all British people were friendly towards them. Adam Zamoyski, in his book "Eagles Over Europe," cites a Gallup poll from June 1946: only 30 percent of respondents supported the government's decision to allow Polish soldiers who did not want to return to stay in the country, while 56 percent opposed it.

Those Who Returned

According to Krzystek's List, fewer than 3,000 pilots and mechanics returned to the country. Many of them resumed work in aviation, but from 1948 onwards, arrests began.

The most notable victim was Stanisław Skalski, the most effective Polish fighter pilot of the war. He left Edinburgh on June 4, 1947, and after four days arrived in Gdańsk. A year later, on June 4, 1948, he was arrested in Warsaw on charges of espionage for Britain. The investigation lasted nearly two years, during which Skalski was tortured. On April 7, 1950, a military court sentenced him to death. The Supreme Military Court upheld the verdict, but on January 24, 1951, Bolesław Bierut commuted it to life imprisonment. Skalski was released from prison on April 20, 1956, and was rehabilitated.

Others were not so fortunate. Władysław Śliwiński from Squadron 303, the author of the squadron's 200th kill, was sentenced in a show trial and, according to the IPN, executed on February 15, 1951. Lt. Col. Szczepan Ścibior, the wartime commander of the squadron and later commander of Squadron 305, returned to the country in March 1946 and became the commandant of the aviation school in Dęblin. Arrested in 1951, he was sentenced to death and executed on August 7, 1952, in Mokotów prison. In 1956, the court declared him innocent, and in 2019 he was posthumously promoted to brigadier general. Only after the thaw of 1956, when General Jan Frey-Bielecki commanded the Air Forces, were some veterans from the West readmitted to military aviation.

Those Who Stayed and Emigrated Further

The majority of aviators did not return. According to Krzystek's List, about 2,800 emigrated from the UK further, and about 500, mainly from the flying personnel, joined the RAF. They emigrated to Canada, the United States, and the Republic of South Africa, among other places. The rest mostly remained in the UK.

The fates varied greatly. Witold Urbanowicz settled in New York and worked in American airlines and the aviation industry. Franciszek Kornicki joined the RAF in 1951 and served for another 20 years. Aleksander Maisner rose to the rank of air vice marshal in the RAF. Janusz Żurakowski became a test pilot, first with the British company Gloster, and from 1952 with Avro Canada. Many others had to say goodbye to flying and seek work in civilian professions.

Memory

The Book That Flew Over Occupied Poland

The most important carrier of the legend turned out to be a book. Arkady Fiedler, a travel writer who was in Tahiti when the war broke out, reached England after the fall of France and spent time with pilots and mechanics in Northolt. He began writing it in 1940, "live," during the battle. The Polish edition of "Squadron 303" was published in London in 1942, and the English edition was released in August of the same year by Peter Davies Publishing. Because the war was ongoing, Fiedler assigned pseudonyms to the aviators to protect their families in the country from reprisals. Their real names were only revealed in the new English edition in 2010.

In 1943, a clandestine edition was parachuted into occupied Poland, and the underground duplicated it and passed it from hand to hand. Sources differ on how many underground editions were produced. "Squadron 303" became Fiedler's most popular book, selling over one and a half million copies.

Two Films in One Year

In 2018, two feature films about the squadron were released almost simultaneously. The Polish "Squadron 303: A True Story", directed by Denis Delicia and based on themes from Fiedler's book, premiered on August 31, 2018. Witold Urbanowicz was played by Piotr Adamczyk, Jan Zumbach by Maciej Zakościelny, and Fiedler was portrayed by Krzysztof Rurka. The English-language "Hurricane" by David Blair, also shown as "Hurricane: 303 Squadron" and in the USA as "Mission of Honor," cost about 10 million dollars. Zumbach was played by Iwan Rheon, John Kent by Milo Gibson, and Urbanowicz by Marcin Dorociński. Both films are dramatized and should not be treated as faithful chronicles of events.

Memorial in Northolt

The most important memorial to Polish aviators in the UK is the Polish War Memorial in South Ruislip, at the southern edge of the London Borough of Hillingdon, near RAF Northolt. It was unveiled on November 2, 1948, by Marshal of the RAF Arthur Tedder, with a speech by Marshal Charles Portal, and attended by the President of the Republic of Poland in exile, August Zaleski. It was designed by Polish sculptor Mieczysław Lubelski. Originally, 1,243 names of fallen aviators were inscribed on it. Later, about 659 more were identified, and during the expansion from 1994 to 1996, 23 aviators who fell in the 1940 French campaign were added. In 2020, the memorial received Grade II* listed status, and in 2015, a memory garden was opened behind it. Every year at the end of August, a ceremony is held here in honor of the fallen Polish aviators.

Intelligence Report

The Polish contribution to the war was not limited to aviation. In 2000, with the support of the prime ministers of both countries, the Anglo-Polish Historical Commission was established to investigate the archives of British intelligence. Its report, "Intelligence Co-operation between Poland and Great Britain during World War II," edited by Tadeusz Dubicki, Daria Nałęcz, and Tessa Stirling, was published in 2005 and consists of 586 pages. A reviewer from the Australian War Memorial noted an important point: very few original Polish reports on V weapons have survived in British archives, making it difficult to document some past claims today. The story of the breaking of Enigma by Polish mathematicians is told in a separate guide.

Monuments in London, Warsaw, and Dęblin

On September 18, 2005, on the 65th anniversary of the battle, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall unveiled the Battle of Britain Monument on Victoria Embankment by the Thames, designed by Paul Day. The bronze plaques list the names of 2,937 aviators from fourteen countries, including Poles.

In Warsaw, at Pole Mokotowskie, where an airport operated before the war, President Aleksander Kwaśniewski unveiled the Monument to Polish Aviators Who Fell in 1939–1945 on August 27, 2003. The initiative came from the Association of Polish Aviators in Great Britain. On the granite wall, 2,118 names were inscribed, and a steel sculpture depicts three intertwined contrails, as in a dogfight of fighters. One of the designers was Tadeusz Dziewulski, a wartime pilot of Squadron 315.

Round anniversaries revive memory. On July 16, 2025, the Senate of the Republic of Poland adopted a resolution for the 100th anniversary of the School of Eagles and the 85th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. It recalled that over a hundred graduates from Dęblin fought in the battle, and 29 of them became aces during the war. In May 2025, the Warsaw Aero Club organized an air rally from Poland to the UK, culminating in a symbolic landing in Northolt on May 29 and a ceremony at the monument. A thanksgiving service was held at Westminster Abbey on September 21, 2025, marking the 85th anniversary of the battle. In Mississauga, Canada, on November 28, 2021, the "Spiral of Victory" monument was unveiled, the first in that country dedicated to Polish aviators, ground personnel, and airwomen.

RAF Museum and the "People's Pilot"

In 2017, the RAF Museum, in collaboration with "The Daily Telegraph," organized a vote for "The People’s Spitfire Pilot," a Spitfire pilot chosen by the public. Franciszek Kornicki, commander of Squadron 308, won decisively, receiving 325,000 votes, while the legendary British pilot Douglas Bader came in second. Kornicki passed away in November 2017 at the age of one hundred. On June 29, 2018, Polish Ambassador Arkady Rzegocki unveiled his life-size silhouette at the RAF Museum in London, standing under a Spitfire Mk Vb in an exhibition about the first hundred years of the RAF.

How the British Remember Them

The most frequently quoted British words about Poles are attributed to Marshal Hugh Dowding, commander of Fighter Command in 1940: "Were it not for the splendid material contributed by the Polish squadrons and their unmatched bravery, I would hesitate to say that the outcome of the battle would have been the same." These words are cited by the RAF Museum and the RAF Benevolent Fund. However, it is worth noting that none of these institutions points to a document in which Dowding wrote this. The RAF Museum also reminds that the same Dowding initially did not want to allow Poles into combat units, later admitting he was wrong. Meanwhile, Churchill's famous statement from August 20, 1940, that never before have so many owed so much to so few, referred to the RAF aviators and their allies fighting in the Battle of Britain, not specifically to the Poles. It is important to remember this, as it is sometimes attributed solely to them.

Curiosities

• On May 15, 1941, 2nd Lt. Jerzy Jankiewicz and Sgt. Wacław Giermer from Squadron 303 shot down a transport Junkers Ju 52 near Saint-Omer. On board was Gen. Ulrich Grauert, commander of the 1st Air Corps of the Luftwaffe, the highest-ranking German officer killed by Poles during the war.
• In 1941, the intelligence officer in Squadron 300 was Michael Bentine, later a co-creator of the famous British comedy show "The Goon Show."
• Janusz Żurakowski, a former commander of Squadron 316, invented the first new aerobatic figure in 20 years. Known in the West as the "zurabatic cartwheel," he became the first pilot in Canada to break the sound barrier on a CF-100 on December 18, 1952.
• In 1948, a group of about 30 Polish aviation officers and technicians arrived in newly formed Pakistan with Władysław Turowicz. Turowicz became the deputy chief of staff of the Pakistan Air Force for training in 1960 and ended his service with the rank of air commodore, equivalent to general.
• Jan Zumbach, one of the most famous pilots of Squadron 303, became a mercenary after the war. In 1962, he organized and commanded the aviation of the rebel Katanga, and from 1967, under the pseudonym "John Brown," he formed the aviation of Biafra and flew there in an old B-26 Invader bomber.
• Józef Jeka, commander of Squadron 306 from 1945 to 1946, later worked for the CIA. He was to be dropped in Poland to hijack a MiG-15, but the plan was abandoned when Franciszek Jarecki escaped to Bornholm in a MiG on March 5, 1953. Jeka died on April 13, 1958, in Indonesia when one engine of his B-26 failed at takeoff while the other caught fire.
• The first commander of Squadron 303, Zdzisław Krasnodębski, briefly worked as a taxi driver in the Republic of South Africa. He died in 1980 in Toronto, and on May 14, 2014, his ashes and those of his wife Wanda were buried at Powązki Military Cemetery.
• The last Polish participant in the Battle of Britain, Tadeusz Sawicz, according to "The Times," died on October 19, 2011, in Toronto at the age of 97.
• Włodzimierz Miksa, wartime commander of Squadron 317, married Angela Pilkington, daughter of the chairman of the glass company Pilkington Brothers, in 1945. He did not stay in the RAF but founded a company producing PVC-coated fabrics, which employed mainly Polish emigrants.
• Wacław Król, an ace fighter pilot and later an author of popular books about Polish aviators, lost his job with LOT Polish Airlines for political reasons after returning to the country in 1949 and later worked as a warehouseman. He returned to military aviation only in 1957.
• In 1943, the Polish special squadron made 27 flights to Poland and 108 to other occupied European countries, dropping weapons, equipment, and parachutists.
• Witold Łokuciewski returned to the country in 1947. The security service suspected him of espionage, and he was removed from aviation, but after the thaw, he returned to service and was military attaché of the Polish People's Republic in London from 1969 to 1971.
• Wojciech Kołaczkowski, former commander of the 2nd Polish Fighter Wing, started in England by trading used cars. After emigrating to the USA in 1948, he worked in New York as a sales representative for Austin and Jaguar, among others.