Polish pilots in the Congo

[keith A]

I am trying to find out who were the pilots who flew alongside Jan Zumbach in the Congo in 1962. I know that one of these was Witold Lanowski does anyone have any other names and details of their careers before an after the Congo war?

[Leendert]

Keith,

I don't know if there were other Polish pilots than the two you mentioned, but there were at least three Belgians: Joseph Delin (reportedly co-pilot only on the Fouga Magister), José Magain and Sub Lt Dubois.
Also found the name of Hungarian Sandor Gyurkits, flying props, but no confirmative info on this man.

Regards,

Leendert

[keith A]

Cheers Leendert,

I have very little information, and most of that comes from Zumbach's autobiography. I don't think Derlin flew with Zumbach, I think he was mentioned as having "flown away" after the controvertial Hammerskold shoot-down.

I have a book about the Biafran war which mentions three pilots as ex-Congo veterans, Terry Peet (British) and Francois Reip, Henry Laurient (both Belgian) no details but they probably flew transport planes because they flew dc-3 FNAF.

A South African, Charles Kearey was also in the Congo (he wrote three excellent flying novels).

regards

Keith

[Franek Grabowski]

Somehow missed the post.
The expert on Katanga is doubtless Leif Hellstroem. I had no luck contacting any of the airmen, the last of them passing in the early 1990s I believe. There was Leif's article in one of the recent SAFO issues, which provided some details.
Generally, Zumbach's book cannot be considered a reliable reference, but I am not sure if any documents are available.

[keith A]

Hi Franek,

What's SAFO?

[Franek Grabowski]

http://safch.org/index.htm

[napoleon]

See http://napoleon130.tripod.com/id307.html

[Franz von Werra]

A website reports that Zumbach was found dead under unclear circumstances, implying that he might have been killed by a stealthy, unidentified murderer, on behalf of a former "business" partner seeking revenge (why? Perhaps Zumbach double-crossed him?).
I do not want to take this as fact but, as you know, the Pole had been involved in the ominous world of mercenary fighting and gun running. So the murder hypotesis might have been considered an option...Perhaps by some journalist or early "conspiracy theorist" of the time.

What do you think?