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Old 20th June 2019, 10:40
BartekPL BartekPL is offline
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Achievements of Polish Air Force on the Eastern Front.

Recently I made a list of main Polish combat aircraft units which took part in fights on the Eastern Front:

A) 1 DL (Polish 1st Aviation Division) - the division entered the fights on 23rd August 1944, renamed in October 1944 to 4 MDL (Polish 4th Mixed Aviation Division) - for its war merits, this unit received "Pomeranian" title and was awarded with the Order of the Cross of Grunwald (2nd class), the unit consisted of:

a) 1 plm "Warszawa" (Polish 1st Fighter Aviation Regiment) - unlike in almost any other case, the regiment received "Warsaw" name on 6th October 1943 already, not "Warsaw" title for distingusihing itself during fights. For distinguishing itself during the fights, the regiment was awarded with the Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari (5th class). It is noteworthy that from the very beginning, this unit was made as guards-model unit, however the great number of Yak-1bs (Yak-9s sadly weren't majority until the very late war and postwar periods) was being used throughout the war, this surely didn't help the regiment. The unit operated during combat missions: Yak-1bs, Yak-9Ds, Yak-9Ts and Yak-9Ms,

Between 23rd August 1944 and 4th May 1945 1 plm made 1401 sorties in time of 1393 hours, the highest number of sorties made: ppor. (ppor. = 2nd Lt) Wiesław Bobrowski (94), ppor. Wiktor Kalinowski (89) and ppor. Witold Gabis (76). Regiment's pilots fought 56 dogfights shooting down 9 enemy planes - 8 Fw 190 and 1 Bf 109, the regiment also carried out 394 ground attacks, destroying among others: 40 cars, 11 locomotives, 18 horse drawn carts, 10 AAA batteries, 2 cargo trains and one Ju 52. The highest scoring pilot of the regiment was por. Wiktor Kalinowski, who shoot down two Fw 190s in April 1945 thus becoming the only ace pilot (6 confirmed kills) of Polish origin who served in a Polish unit on the Eastern Front (according to the Soviet archives - before joining 1 plm, he scored 4 planes in Soviet units - 2 Fw 190s, 1 Bf 109 and 1 Ju 87, in "Pułki ludowego lotnictwa polskiego 1943-1945" by Czesław Krzemiński author states, that por. Kalinowski shoot down 10 planes in Soviet units).












In the picture below - duel of ppor. Wiktor Kalinowski's Yak-9M with German Fw 190 A-8:

I am not sure whether this plane ("White 100") had "such" Polish insignia in April already. In fact, I doubt this.



b) 2 pnb "Kraków" (Polish 2nd Night Bombers Regiment) - unlike in almost any other case, the regiment received "Cracow" name in early April 1944 already, not "Cracow" title for distinguishing itself during fights. For distinguishing itself during the fights, the regiment was awarded with the Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari (5th class). This unit operated during combat missions U-2LNBs.

Between the night 11/12 September 1944 and 2nd May 1945, 2 pnb made 2121 sorties, including 183 to deliver supplies (in all 18,5 tones were delivered) for Polish resistance in Warsaw (obviously during the Warsaw Uprising). On German defence positions, combat equipment and troops has been dropped a total amount of 242 tons of bombs. During these actions, the regiment's crew destroyed and damaged 265 guns, howitzers and mortars, 230 cars, 11 railway cars, destroyed 320 buildings - Germans' resistance points and caused 45 explosions of fuel and ammunition dumps, plus killed unknown number of German soldiers.




c) 3 plsz (Polish 3rd Assault Aviation Regiment) - for distinguishing itself during the fights, the regiment was awarded with the Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari (5th class). This unit operated during combat missions: Il-2Ms, Il-2Ms with NS-37 and Il-2M3s,

Between 23rd August 1944 and May 1945 3 plsz made 1150 sorties, destroying 672 cars, 13 tanks, 2 Bf 109 shoot down by rear gunners and 2 planes destroyed on airfields, 15 locomotives, 179 railway cars, 9 cisterns with fuel, 317 horse drawn carts, 1 cargo ship, 4 barges, 110 artillery guns, 24 mortar batteries, 39 AAA batteries, around 4 000 German soldiers were killed or wounded in result of attacks. It is noteworthy, that this unit also heavily damaged/destroyed German V rockets launchers on Chrząszczewska Island.








B) 1 MKL (Polish 1st Mixed Aviation Corps) - the Corps entered fights on 25th April 1945 and its units flew combat missions for the last time on 3rd May, the same year against retreating troops of 12. Armee and 21. Armee, even despite joining the fights so late, still the corp's planes played key role in fights of the Polish 1st Army, North and West of Berlin, especially during repelling of Steiner's Armeegruppe forces.

1) 1 DLB (Polish 1st Bomber Aviation Division) - due to a lack of trained personnel - this unit didn't take part in the fights, the unit consisted of:

a) 3 plb (Polish 3rd Bomber Aviation Regiment) on 1st May 1945, this unit had 30 Pe-2 and 1 Pe-2UTI.

b) 4 plb (Polish 4th Bomber Aviation Regiment) on 1st May 1945, this unit had 32 Pe-2 and 1 Po-2.

c) 5 plb (Polish 5th Bomber Aviation Regiment) on 1st May 1945, this unit had 30 Pe-2 and 2 La-5s.

2) 2 "Brandenburska" DLSz (Polish 2nd Assault Aviation Division) - for distinguishing itself during the fights, the division received "Brandenburg" title and was awarded with the Order of the Cross of Grunwald (3rd class), this unit consisted of:

a) 6 plsz (Polish 6th Assault Aviation Regiment) This unit operated during combat missions: Il-2M3s and probably Il-2Ms,

Between 25th April 1945 and 3rd May of the same year 6 plsz made 134 sorties, destroying and damaging 14 tanks, 135 cars, 40 trailers, 19 railway cars, 14 artillery guns, 23 AA guns, 60 horse drawn carts, 6 ammunition and fuel dumps, killed or wounded 350 German soldiers.





b) 7 plsz (Polish 7th Assault Aviation Regiment) This unit operated during combat missions: Il-2M3s and probably Il-2Ms,

Between 25th April 1945 and 1st May of the same year 7 plsz made 90 sorties, dropping on German troops 15 tons of bombs and firing 250 RS-82 rockets and around 30 000 bullets from cannons and MGs, thus destroying 80 cars, over 40 railway cars, and 10 horse drawn carts, causing over 20 fires and putting out of action 2 AAA batteries.

c) 8 plsz (Polish 8th Assault Aviation Regiment) This unit operated during combat missions: Il-2M3s and probably Il-2Ms,

Between 25th April 1945 and first days of May, the same year 8 plsz made 104 sorties, mainly attacking troops of Steiner's Armeegruppe, destroying over 20 cars, putting out of action 4 AAA batteries and 2 field artillery batteries, blowing up 2 ammunition dumps, causing around 30 fires and attacking few train stations, destroying 3 planes and airfield's installations at Neuruppin airfield.

3) 3 "Brandenburska" DLM (Polish 3rd Fighter Aviation Division) - for distinguishing itself during the fights, the division received "Brandenburg" title and was awarded with the Order of the Cross of Grunwald (3rd class), this unit consisted of:

a) 9 plm (Polish 9th Fighter Aviation Regiment) This unit operated during combat missions: Yak-9Ts, Yak-9Ms and Yak-3s,

Between 25th April 1945 and 3rd May 9 plm made 216 sorties, but didn't fight against Germans planes which were simply withdrawing.

b) 10 plm (Polish 10th Fighter Aviation Regiment) This unit operated during combat missions: Yak-9Ts, Yak-9Ms and Yak-3s,

Between 25th April 1945 and 3rd May 10 plm made 254 sorties, pilots of the regiment fought 6 dogfights (in all 26 10 plm's planes took part in them), claiming shooting down for sure 4 and probably 1 Fw 190.

c) 11 plm (Polish 11th Fighter Aviation Regiment) This unit operated during combat missions: Yak-9Ts, Yak-9Ms and Yak-3s,

Between 24th April 1945 and 3rd May 11 plm made 329 sorties in time of 349 hours and 58 minutes. Pilots of the regiment fought 6 dogfights, shooting down 2 enemy planes (Hs 126 and Fi 156) on 2nd May 1945. While carrying out ground attacks, the regiment destroyed 1 plane, 1 locomotive, 17 cars, 2 military dumps and killed around 80 German soldiers.

In case, you are interested in Polish air kill claims (only aircraft vs aircraft, as ground vs aircraft isn't complete, at least not yet) on the Eastern Front, then be sure to check out my other thread: http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showth...178#post268178

I took units' achievements from "Pułki ludowego lotnictwa polskiego 1943-1945" by Czesław Krzemiński.


Best regards
Bartłomiej

Last edited by BartekPL; 20th June 2019 at 13:54. Reason: New content.
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