Bio

He was born on November 23, 1919, in Jaworzno (Kraków Voivodeship), where he completed primary school and three years of vocational school. In 1936, he joined the Air Force Non-Commissioned Officer School for Minors in Bydgoszcz. After graduating in 1939, he was assigned to the 2nd Air Regiment in Kraków as a radio operator on a bomber. In September 1939, he moved with the 24th Reconnaissance Squadron to successive airfields (Klimontów – Ułęż – Wronów – Łuszczów – Strzyżów – Kniahinin – Użyniec). In mid-September, he lost contact with his unit and, after the Romanian border was closed, he made his way to Hungary, where he was interned in a camp in Nagykálló. He escaped in worker’s clothes and then joined the newly formed First Maritime Bomb Squadron in Trieste. In January 1940, the Italian government refused the squadron’s crews permission to take off from Italian territory. Fearing re-internment, he went to France and then to England. In mid-January, he arrived in London, where he was assigned to the Polish camp in Eastchurch. After several trainings (radio operator, air gunner), he became an instructor in the 18 Operational Training Unit (OTU) in Bramcote, where he trained crews for the Polish 304 and 305 bomber squadrons. In June 1941, he was transferred to the 301 bomber squadron. He participated in numerous combat missions (Brest; Bremen; Cologne; battleships Gneisenau, Scharnhorst, and Prinz Eugen; Hamburg; Kiel). In January 1942, he was promoted to the rank of Flight Sergeant. Half a year later, on June 6, during a mission to bomb Essen, his Wellington GR-C Z1331 was shot down by night fighter Helmut Lent over Lake Ijsselmeer in the Netherlands. The entire crew perished. His grave is located in the Eastern Cemetery in Amsterdam.

He was awarded the Cross of Valor I, II, III, and IV class.

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