Operation: Massed Rhubarb

Date: 21st May 1944 (Sunday)

Unit: No. 308 Squadron (Polish)

Type: Spitfire IX

Serial: ML254

Code: ZF-V

Base: R.A.F. Chailey, East Sussex

Location: Buchy, France

Pilot: Fl/Lt. Jozef Jeka V.M. D.F.M. P-1654 P.A.F. Age 27. Escaped

REASON FOR LOSS:

During a mass Rhubarb in the morning of Sunday 21st May his Spitfire was hit by flak  and he was force to make a crash land near Buchy, France. He made his escape back to England with the assistance of the French resistance.

                    

He had survived being shot down earlier on in the war. On the 5th November 1940, flying a Hurricane I V7535 he was shot down over Dorset, England. Despite being wounded he managed to bale out of the aircraft. The Hurricane crashed at Manor Farm, Sturminster Marshall, North West of Poole. He spent some 10 days in a hospital in Shaftesbury recovering.

                   

A fine career in both the P.A.F. after the war joining the R.A.F. he became an ace with a total of eight kills to his name as well as a VI. After war end he settled in England and married an English girl. Whilst stationed in Germany on an American airbase he was approached by the C.I.A. and worked with both the American and British intelligence. Rumoured to have been trained to fly the U2 spy plane.

Sadly he was killed on an operation in April 1958 against Indonesian communist forces when during take off in a B-26-B the aircraft was seen to roll over and crash – killing Jozef as well as the other two crew, John Peter Iżycki and their Indonesian radio operator, Minahasan. The families were initially informed that they were killed in the U.S.A. He had requested to be buried with his former WW2 friends at Newark-Upon-Trent. His body was brought back to England and his wishes fulfilled.

Burial Details:

None – Fl/Lt Jeka survived WW2. But killed later in Indonesia. Buried at Newark-Upon-Trent Polish Cemetery. 

Sergeant – August 15, 1940, Pilot Officer  - November 1, 1941, Flying Officer – October 1, 1942, Flight Lieutenant – November 1, 1943, Squadron Leader – May 25, 1945

Flown the PZL P.11 in Poland, Hurricane, Spitfire and North American Mustang with the P.A.F. and R.A.F. Also the Lockheed U-2 and the Martin Marauder B-26-B for the C.I.A.

Researched for relatives of the pilot. With thanks to Peter Sikora for further information and photographs.