Last Polish WWII Fighter Pilot Dies

[henryk]

https://www.polskieradio.pl/395/7789/Ar ... n-New-York

Last Polish WWII fighter pilot dies in New York
Polish Radio15.04.2020 10:25

Jerzy Główczewski, the last living Polish fighter pilot who fought in World War II, died in New York on Monday, at the age of 97.
Jerzy Główczewski, pictured in 2017.Photo: PAP/Marcin Obara
Born on November 19, 1922 in Warsaw, he fled Poland soon after the Nazi and Soviet invasions of 1939, making his way, through Romania, to Palestine, where he later graduated from a Polish high school in Tel Aviv. He then joined the Polish Independent Carpathian Rifle Brigade and, having undergone flight training in Britain, was posted to fly Spitfires in the No. 308 "City of Kraków" Polish Fighter Squadron. He was decorated with the Polish Cross of Valour three times.

After the war, Główczewski lived for a short period in France, before returning to Poland in 1947. He graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology, and worked on some of the city’s post-war reconstruction projects. He left for the United States in the early 1960s, where he lectured at the North Carolina State University and pursued a career as an architect in the USA and Arab countries.

Główczewski is the author of three volumes of memoirs: Accidental Soldier (2003), Optimist After All (2004), and The Last Fighter Pilot (2017).
In an introduction to Accidental Soldier, which has been published in the United States in an English translation, Główczewski wrote: “I have lived on the edge of a precipice, yet have somehow managed to miss the worst fate. I have been steps away from death, a refugee fleeing deportation, starvation, and death camps. “While fighting on two fronts during World War II, I had been shot at innumerable times; while in combat, I have without a doubt caused the death of others. “After the war’s end, living under a Soviet-imposed communist regime, I was spared torture and prison. And I did not choose emigration, but circumstances forced me and my wife and daughter to accept it.”
(mk/gs)

[henryk]

http://www.polishairforce.pl/glowczewski.html

Jerzy Główczewski
Jerzy Eligiusz Główczewski was born on November 19, 1922 in Warsaw (parents Kazimierz and Józef née Bernhard). He had an older brother Andrzej. His father was the owner of a lithographic company, and his mother did not work at first. After her husband's fatal road accident in September 1929, she took over the management of the enterprise. In 1938, she married Witold Rzadkowski for the second time.

Jerzy Głównyczewski attended primary school in the capital, and from 1935 he studied at the Private Male Junior High School of the Jan Zamoyski. In 1938 he was transferred to a boarding gymnasium in Chyrów near Przemyśl, operating under the name of the Jesuit Fathers Scientific and Educational Department. After the outbreak of war, on September 4, 1939, he and his stepfather left Warsaw east - first to Lviv, then further south. On the day of the USSR invasion of Poland, he crossed the border with Romania. He got to Bucharest, where he stayed longer. At the Polish school, he continued his interrupted education, passing another class. In early November 1940, during a period of rapid political change in Romania, he decided to flee to the Middle East. Still under the protection of his stepfather, he left for Constanta, where he boarded the Transilvania ship, which he sailed to Istanbul. Then by train he set out to the port of Mersin on the Mediterranean Sea, from where he reached Haifa by ship "Warsaw". In Tel Aviv, he graduated from the last class at a Polish school and in July 1941 he received his high school diploma.

Shortly afterwards, he volunteered to a Polish military facility and was admitted to the army. As a private, he underwent initial training in Palestine, after which he was sent to the reserve center of the Independent Carpathian Rifle Brigade in Sidi Bishr near Alexandria, Egypt. Then he was directed to the port of Agami (also near Alexandria), where, as a guard, he expected a transfer to the besieged Tobruk. At the same time, however, sea convoys to the fortress were suspended and ultimately Głukewski did not wait to leave the fortress.

On April 20, 1942, he began a course for cadets at the SBSK school in El Amryia. At the beginning of June 1942, during the recruitment conducted by the Polish Air Force, he volunteered for aviation. Therefore, he stopped the course for cadets and was directed to Great Britain. On June 23, 1942, in Suez, he boarded the transport ship "Queen Mary", which he reached Great Britain via South Africa, Brazil, the United States and Canada. On September 4, 1942, he appeared in Blackpool, where he underwent detailed medical examinations, and then, in the second half of this month, he began a theoretical course at the Air Crew Training Center in Hucknall. He continued ground training at the Polish Initial Training Wing in Brighton. At the end of June 1943, he was directed to the initial pilot school of 25 (Polish) Elementary Flying Training School in Hucknall, and then - at the end of August 1943 - to the pilot school of 16 (Polish) Service Flying Training School in Newton. He completed the course in February 1944 and immediately after that he received an apprenticeship at the 4 Air Gunnery School in Morpeth. His task there was to tow sleeves, which shooter students shot at.

On June 20, 1944, Głównyczewski was sent to fighters for training at the 61 Operational Training Unit in Rednal. He graduated on September 8, and the day after, he was assigned to the 84 Group Support Unit in Thruxton (RAF 84 Support Group), where he flew for several days on the Spitfire IX. On September 18, 1944, he registered in the 308 Fighter Squadron "Krakow", already stationed in France. By the end of the war, he had carried out exactly 100 combat flights, primarily for the bombing and attacking of ground targets by onboard weapons - German troops' groups. On January 1, 1945, he took part in the famous battle of Ghent and shot down Focke-Wulf 190 in the area of ​​the Sint-Denijs-Westrem airport. On the "Bajan list" he was only credited with destroying 1/2 of the plane, and the remaining half was awarded to anti-aircraft defense, as in the wreck traces of artillery hits found.

On May 5, 1945, Główczewski left the squadron and began a course at the Polish School of Infantry and Motorized Cavalry Officers in Dunfermline, Scotland. Then, on August 21, 1945, he was assigned to the 25th Polish Pilot Elementary Flying Training School in Hucknall, where he began a training course for instructors. On November 14, 1945, he was transferred to the 16th Polish (Flying) Service Flying Training School in Newton, and on January 27, 1946, he returned to the continent to the 131 Fighter Wing stationed in Germany. From February 7 he was the pilot of the 317 Fighter Squadron "Vilnius", and from March 4 - again the 308 Fighter Squadron "Krakow"

Jerzy Głównyczewski for service during World War II was awarded three times with the Cross of Valor, the Air Medal and the Field Pilot's Sign (No. 1696). He was demobilized in 1946 in the Polish rank of officer sergeant and British Warrant Officer. In December 1946 he left Great Britain and came to France, where he spent three months. In the spring of 1947 he returned to Poland and settled in his family home in ruined Warsaw. He joined the Warsaw Aero Club, but in June 1949, as a result of repression by the authorities, he lost his pilot license (he regained it in 1957). In October 1947, he began studying at the Faculty of Architecture of the Warsaw University of Technology. He graduated in 1952 and joined the team rebuilding Warsaw. Initially, he worked on the reconstruction of historic buildings, then he dealt with the construction of the Ten Years Stadium and independently designed industrial facilities throughout the country. In the summer of 1958 he went to Crimea, for archaeological excavations under the direction of prof. Kazimierz Michałowski.

From 1957, Główczewski went abroad for internships - to France, Ireland and the United States. In the 1962/1963 academic year, he became a lecturer at North Carolina State University. In 1964 he went to Aswan, where he was entrusted with the task of rebuilding and modernizing this ancient city. In 1967, as a result of the Israeli-Egyptian war, he left Egypt, but later returned and completed the project. Until retirement, he worked in the US and various Arab countries. Major pilot Jerzy Główczewski lives in New York. He is the author of the memories of "Wojak z case" (2003), "Optimist despite everything" (2004) and "The Last Fighter Pilot" (2017).

Date 01/01/1945
Plane Spitfire LF.IX, ZF-U (MJ396)
Unit 308 squadron
Destroyed for sure 1/2 x Fw 190

Wojciech Zmyślony

[Futurist]

May he RIP.

[Futurist]

He wasn't Jewish, was he?

[henryk]

Probably not:
" In 1964 he went to Aswan, where he was entrusted with the task of rebuilding and modernizing this ancient city. In 1967, as a result of the Israeli-Egyptian war, he left Egypt, but later returned and completed the project. Until retirement, he worked in the US and various Arab countries."

[Futurist]

Interesting. He seems like he had a good and interesting life.