The summer of 1940 saw a massive battle for air superiority in the skies of Great Britain which became know as ‘The Battle of Britain’ starting at the 16th of June with ‘Adlertag’. In the mean time the Polish units – with already battle hardened pilot – where trained in RAF procedures. On August 2nd 303 Tadeusz Kościuszko Warsaw Fighter Squadron was formed (in Polish 303 Dywizjon Myśliwski „Warszawski im. Tadeusza Kościuszki”).
On August 30, 1940 during another training exercise Polish pilot Ludwik Paszkiewicz spotted a German Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighter in the area, and he shot it down. An event used in the epic film the Battle of Britain.
The next day, the squadron was declared operational and officially put on full duty to become the highest scoring unit in the Battle and gained lasting fame which resulted in books and films. A long read can be found on Polen in beeld (long read in Dutch but embedded clips are in English).
Few people know that later in the war the unit saw action in the skies over the Netherlands and lost three men of which details can be found on our website:
- Plutonowy Stanisław Dworski, born 25-11-1919 | Killed in action on 18-09-1944 | Buried in Bergen op Zoom
- Porucznik Sergiusz Szpakowicz, born 24-03-1915 | Missing in action on 25-02-1944
- Plutonowy Jan Wierchowicz, born 1-04-1918 | Killed in action on 01-11-1944 | Buried in Amsterdam