A group portrait of pilots of No. 308 (Polish) Squadron RAF in front of a Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IX. 1944
Left to right: F/Lt Jeka, F/Lt Mazurkiewicz, S/Ldr Retinger, W/O Lipinski, F/Sgt Soszynski, P/O Waclaw Chojnacki, unidentified, F/O Mierzejewski, F/Sgt Sawoszczyk, F/Lt Bochniak.
Seated on wing: F/O Schiele, unidentified, F/Sgt Korwel, unidentified. Standing on the wing: unknown, unknown, F/O Szczerbinski, F/Lt Kurowski, F/Lt Mach.
@Destroye83 via X
During Operation Jubilee on 19 August 1942, Czechoslovak RAF fighters also struck. Their tally: 1.5 confirmed kills, 4 probable, 15 damaged aircraft, and 1 sunk ship. Among them fought Miroslav Liškutín in EP660 DU-O, who destroyed a Do 217.
One of the great days of Czech. aviation. #Dieppe
@JanMace1970 via X
20 August 1914. Birth of Raymond Towers "Ray" Holmes (d. 27 June 2005). British fighter pilot who was feted by the press as a war hero after saving Buckingham Palace from being severely damaged by German bombing during the Battle of Britain.🇬🇧
@ron_eisele via X
On August 18, 1944, during an air battle near Beauvais in France, Capt. Eugeniusz Horbaczewski, commander of the 315th Fighter Division, was killed.
His Mustang Mk.III crashed near the village of Valennes; the remains of "Dziubek" were recovered in 1947 and buried in the British section of the Creil cemetery. 1/
"Dziubek" was, for me, the best of the best, and I feel a bit connected to that Polish fighter ace, which stuck with me from my interest in aviation.
In 2018, I visited "Dziubek's" grave in Creil, where he's buried next to a subordinate who died just a few days earlier.
In 2024, I went to Vélennes, where I was on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the death.
It was a very rainy August, but over Vélennes the sky calmed down. And the "Dziubek" monument is beautiful, right next to the field where his "Mustang" crashed.
The only place left for me to visit was the former RAF airfield in Brenzett, from where he took off for the last time.
And I'll probably end up there someday too.
@MakoweicPawe via X