PO E L Horbaczewski

[keith A]

I am looking trying to find out if this pilot flew with any of the Polish flights in France, and when he joined 303 Squadron (in late 1941).

[Nefiakoff]

Hello,

According to polish sources, Eugeniusz 'Dziubek' Horbaczewski didn't participate in air combats of French Campaign; spent it without posting to fighter unit and swam to Great Britain on 24 June 1940.
Joined 303 Sqn. on 21 August 1941 (with polish rank F/O).

Regards

Nef

[Franek Grabowski]

He was at Bordeaux-Merignac and never attached to a combat unit. When attached to 303 Sqn, he had a rank of podporucznik which is equal to Pilot Officer, which was his PWR at the time as well.

[Nefiakoff]

Hello Franek,

There are a lot of contradictory data in polish sources, I've read he had a rank of porucznik (equal to Flying Officer).
Thank You for correction and supplement.

Regards

Nef

[Franek Grabowski]

No, he could not have been, he was just a fresh pilot straight from an academy. The problem is that without access to personal files it is hard to find exact dates of promotions and awards, especially as dates of promotion, seniority, commendation, award or decoration are usually confused with each other.

[VoyTech]

According to the ORB of No. 303 Sqn Horbaczewski was posted in on 26 August 1941. The squadron monthly report (in Polish) dated this posting at 27 August.
Horbaczewski was a Pilot Officer at the time of posting. He was promoted Flying Officer with effect from 1 September 1941, but this was announced by the Air Ministry on 16 January 1942. At the time it was usual to announce junior officer promotions well after the effective date.

(There was a detailed article about Horbaczewski's service with No. 303 Squadron published over a year ago which gave all this information, but it was in Polish, in a Polish magazine. Franek knows the article, so I'm surprised by his misleading reply!)

[Franek Grabowski]

Beg me pardon? What was misleading in the reply? The mentioned problem with establishing the exact date of the posting just proves my point. Of course, the one may assume that the first date was posting and the another the date he arrived to the Squadron. This should be clearly noted in his movement record card held at MoD, but as you know, access is denied. Apart of that I do not have that article handy, and that is why I have not mentioned exact dates.

[keith A]

As the culprit for the initial enquiry can I just say thanks to all of you for the replies. I read that Horbaczewski had flown in the BoF but it did seem odd that he wasn't in action with the RAF until 1941 if he was an experienced combat pilot.

thanks again

K

[Franek Grabowski]

Keith
It really had little to the actual combat experience. You must consider two other very important factors. One is ability to learn English and different procedures, which is often not that easy for mature people, another is in numbers in which Polish airmen arrived. They all had to be sorted, verified send for courses, trained, etc. That said it was often just a pure coincidence a date of posting. For example look for two other Horbaczewski's academy mates, Drobiński and Gładych. The former saw action during the Battle of Britain, but the latter flew during the Battle of France but was posted to 303 Sqn only in April 1941.

[Nefiakoff]

Very well said, Franek.
It is well known that there were two groups of polish airmen (fighter, bomber and others), as well as ground stuff, which were organised in France around 1939/40 after Polish Campaign.
Smaller group – as I remember about 200 of the flyers and about 2000 ground stuff (I can be inaccurate in number) – were moved to Great Britain before BoF. That’s the reason why some polish fighters, like Urbanowicz, Skalski, started their combat flights in the middle of BoB.
After BoF the rest came to Great Britain and were subsequently added as supplement or to new created Squandrons.
As Horbaczewski spent all the campaign in France (doesn’t matter he didn’t fight), he just had to wait for his turn – because of the reasons Franek wrote.

I’ve got a question – is it known exactly when he was promoted to polish porucznik (equal of F/O?

Regards

Nef