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Faces of No. 305
Polish Squadron
Some pictures are missing good or
any captions; I prefer to leave them without it rather than having it
captioned wrongly. Should you be able to help in that matter, please
contact me by email.
Any help will be much appreciated.
RAF Lindholm, probably July 1941.
The S/Ldr Scibior crew: (from left) Sgt Waclaw Rybak gunner,
F/O Mieczyslaw Saferna navigator, S/Ldr Szczepan Scibior
pilot, F/O Jerzy Sukiennik navigator, Sgt Stefan Tomicki
pilot, and Sgt Michal Kowalski wireless operator.
The crew shot down over France in Wellington W5593/SM-P on August5,
1941. Saferna, Sukiennik and Rybak were killed, Scibior became POW,
while Tomicki and Kowalski evaded capture. (Courtesy of Simon Roguska)
 
The first four squadron's commanders (from left): Jan Jankowski,
Bohdan Kleczynski, Robet Beill and Kazimierz Sniegula.
(All pictures via R. Gretzyngier)
 
And those that followed: Tadeusz Czolowski (via R. Gretzyngier),
Kazimierz Konopasek, Boleslaw Orlinski and Stanislaw Grodzicki
(via R. Gretzyngier)
W/Cdr Beill (third from left) and his crew. (via R. Gretzyngier)
Left:
RAF Lindholm, early 1942. The F/Lt
Ostaszewski's crew. Their Wellington
Z8438 crash-landed at the aerodrome on March 4th. The aircraft returned
from the mission damaged by flak, and hit some building at the end of
the runway bursting into flames. F/O Ostaszewski (second
from right)
F/O Rynkiewicz, P/O Dranicki (first on right), Sgt Bala
and Sgt Sasin all died. Sgt Galas (second from left) was
safe suffering only minor injuries. Right:
P/O Walerian Gidaszewski. Navigator of the Wellington W5423,
which the whole crew perished on February 26, 1942, while returning form
bombing Cologne.
Left:
Two members of the Wellington crew which on 5 March 1943 was
despite being badly damaged by flak over target, and then attack by a
night fighter was brought back to base: Pilot F/Sgt Kazimierz
Artymiuk (left) and Sgt Bronislaw Godlewski, a rear gunner.
Godlewski who lost both his arms during that sortie, was a P.A.F.
volunteer from U.S.A. Right:
Bronilsaw Godlewski receives the highest Polish decoration, Virtuti
Militari.
Left:
Navigator Alfons Nowak, pilot Kazmierz Kielich and unidentified. (via R. Gretzyngier).Right:
Sgt Henryk Kwiatkowski, who piloted bombers for the squadron. He
did his second tour with No. 301 Squadron.
(from left) Sgt Chalejka second pilot, Sgt Poniatowski
wireless operator, S/Ldr Czolowski pilot,
F/O Jezycki navigator, Sgt Zajac and Sgt Wzietek
gunners. (via R. Gretzyngier)
Left: navigator, Mieczyslaw Pruszynski.
Right: F/Lt Jan Paradysz
(left), highly decorated navigator, who flew many missions with the
squadron on Wellingtons, Mitchells and Mosquitoes.
On his right: pilot F/O Karol Rach.
After war picture of the 305 airmen. First from left F/Lt Paradysz, F/Lt Poplawski,
xx, W/Cdr Konopasek. Second from right is Jan Artymiuk, pilot of
No. 300 Squadron, who after being shot down in 1941, spent the rest of
the war as a POW.
Others are unidentified. Needs info. (via R. Gretzyngier)
Left: Mosquito navigator F/O
Zbigniew Groszek (right). Right:
Probably Epinoy, France. Group of the 305 airman at the end of the war.
In the middle is pilot F/O Waclaw Banaszuk soon after being decorated
with DFC. On the right is pilot F/Lt Stefan Rose.
Needs info. Airmen of the 305 at Volkel (Germany), summer 1945. Seating in a
middle front row is pilot W/O Mieczyslaw Ligeza. Needs info. (Courtesy
of Mike Ligeza)
F/Sgt Hass (left) and F/O Wilczewski formed a crew with a good
chemistry.
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