Flying Officer W. Szulkwoski (76749)
 

At 19:00 hours on Tuesday the 26th of November 1940, Spitfire R6987 was being flown by a Polish Flying Officer W. Szulkwoski (76749) of no.65 East India Squadron.

He was based at RAF Leuchars, and diverted to RAf Dyce where he proceeded to hit Telegraph wires (earlier reports stated a house) before damaging 2 further houses.

Anybody any information on the pilot (first name) and how he faired in the war or what happened to the aircraft?

Re: Flying Officer W. Szulkwoski (76749)
 

I have a Wladyslaw Skulkowski serving in 65 Sqn, claiming a Bf 109 on August 22, 1940 (FC3; CR: Air 50/25-299&300). He was KIA on March 27, 1941 while serving with 315 Sqn. However, his service number is given as 76747, both in my files, and in the CWGC website.

Enjoy!

Frank.

Re: Flying Officer W. Szulkwoski (76747)
 

Thanks Frank

76747 - is the correct no. Apologies.


Regards

Alan

Re: Flying Officer W. Szulkwoski (76749)
 

Hello ,

F/L Szulkowski Władysław
76747
06.11.1909 Goworowo Ostrołęka Polanddate of birthplace of birthcountycountry
27.03.1941 Liverpool
65, 315 Sqdn

Re: Flying Officer W. Szulkwoski (76749)
 

Cheers

Anybody got any info on the aircraft

Spitfire R6987

Re: Flying Officer W. Szulkwoski (76749)
 

Hello ,

R6987
Mk Ia EA
FF
20-7-40
8MU
23-7-40 65S
11-8-40 undershot landing struck house
26-11-40 Scottish Aviation 132S
17-7-41 FACB 19-9-41 ros 215MU
23-9-42 City of Lancaster 7-9-43
Portugal 20-11-43

Regards
Alain57

Re: Flying Officer W. Szulkwoski (76749)
 

Thanks Alain57

Was the aircraft lost on Portugal 20-11-43?

Re: Flying Officer W. Szulkwoski (76749)
 

Alain

It seems your details are from the Shacklady/Morgan book?
Their details are not complete and (my opinion) somewhat difficult to read.

The way you have written the details underline my opinion.
Luckily Jim Halley published a very detailed account of the Spitfire Mk Is and here is what he had to say about R6987

8 MU: 23.7.1940
65 Sq: 11.8.1940, undershot night landing and struck house, Dyce, Cat W 26.11.1940 (F/O W Szulkowski - Polish - injured)
Scottish Aviation: 3.12.1940
45 MU: 8.4.1941
132 Sq: 17.7.1941, landed with undercarriage retracted, selected down but failed to check lights, Peterhead, Cat B, 19.9.1941 (Sgt A Stewart OK)
ROS (repaired on site) by Vickers 24.9.1941
repaired date 27.9.1941
132 Sq: 27.9.1941, pilot failed to lock undercarriage down which collapsed on landing, Peterhead, Cat B, 20.10.1941 (P/O F J Sherlock OK)
Scottish Aviation: 1.11.1941 (aircraft awaiting collection 25.3.1942)
45 MU: 12.4.1942
215 MU: 23.9.1942
3 PATP (Packed Aircraft Transit Pool): 25.9.1942
to Portugal (departure) 7.1.1943, arrived 20.1.1943

In Portugal it most likely received serial number 376 and code XZ-G "Escadrille XZ" at Ota(this is deduction only, but from preserved/known details, it seems the Portuguese numbered/coded their Mk I in delivery + ex serial number order!)
This unit later became Escadrille No 3 within the Grupo Supranumerário de Aviacão de Caca.

Unfortunately the Portuguese records are not as available as the British ones are, and it also seems big pieces are still missing, perhaps never to be found.
With that I have no final fate in Portuguese service for this aircraft.

Finally, I was also a bit intrigued by the use of "City of Lancaster" which I can only assume is a reference to R6987 being a Presentation Aircraft. If it is such a reference at least I cannot locate a single Spitfire so named.

Cheers
Stig

Re: Flying Officer W. Szulkwoski (76749)
 

Stig,

"City of Lancaster""

..........Departed ...................Convoy...................... Arrived
Liverpool, Jan 7, 1943.. KMS.7G (Clyde-Algiers)..Lisbon. Jan 20. 1943.

Convoyweb.org.uk & The Allied Convoy System 1939-1945/Hague/p.163.

For more on Spitfire Ia R6987, see: Spitfire International/Terbeck, van der Meer & Sturtivant/Air-Britain,2002, p.269

Col.

Re: Flying Officer W. Szulkwoski (76749)
 

The format used by Alain seems to me the same that is used by the Spitfire production list available online.

In this case, City of Lancaster is not the name of a presentation aircraft but the name of the ship that brought the Spitfire to Portugal. It left UK as part of the convoy KMS7 going to North Africa, and his destination was Lisbon. See https://www.warsailors.com/convoys/kmsconvoys.html

Edited: Col was faster than me !

Re: Flying Officer W. Szulkwoski (76749)
 

Col

Doh....so it was the vessel....:rolleyes: :o
Unfortunately the Spitfire Int'l book gives only very general details about this aircraft in Portuguese service. What I did forget to mention was that Escadrille XZ moved to Tancos soon after they received their first Spitfires.

Laurent

Fully possible, but what is on that web site is a straight copy from the book with possibly added small details.

Cheers
Stig

Re: Flying Officer W. Szulkwoski (76749)
 

Thanks chaps, great info!

Re: Flying Officer W. Szulkwoski (76749)
 

I don't have the book, but from what I have seen on forums, yes it is the same content, just the fact that it is online means it is available to anyone, and Alan may be interested.

One problem with this production list, and AFAIK the similar book, or for that matter the original RAF documents used to write them, is that it is heavily UK-centric. You have a lot of details on what happens in UK but once the Spitfire moves to Africa, Italy, India or Australia, or is sold to another country, you often have nothing.

Re: Flying Officer W. Szulkwoski (76749)
 

Quite so Laurent

Reason is that both the two authors (and the website of course) have basically only checked the UK record cards and not specific unit histories.
The further away an aircraft came, ie North Africa, Middle - Far East, the tougher it was to get details back to the UK and thus complete the cards.
Some unit records were also destroyed for various reasons and never made it back in the first place, hence these gaps. I also believe the unit histories from North Africa and later Italy are much more complete than those from the Far East for example.

I don't know if you have the Air Britain range of RAF serial number booklets, but to try and interpret the cards was the initial approach taken by the late Jim Halley. When he updated some of these volumes more unit details were added as they had become known to him.

It is a huge task trying both to read the cards and then also track down each and every unit and correlate the data. Sometimes (quite often perhaps?) the unit histories clash with the cards making things very difficult to interpret.

My hat is off any day in the week for those trying!

Cheers
Stig