Operation: Rhubarb

Date: 11th March 1943 (Thursday)

Unit: No. 308 Squadron

Type: Spitfire Vb

Serial: AD177

Code: ZF-?

Base: RAF Northolt

Location: English Channel

Pilot: F/O. Tadeusz Stabrowski P-0709 PAF Age 25. Missing - believed killed (note)

REASON FOR LOSS:

During a Rhubarb operation in the afternoon his aircraft was hit by flak off Le Treport. The pilot was forced to ditch and members of his squadron later saw his lifeless body in the sea. His body was understood to have been washed up at Le Crotoy where the citizens buried him as 'unknown'.

A pilot from the 308th Squadron, Fl/Lt. Tadeusz Kazimierz Schiele 780975 PAF, described Stabrowski as a lovable drunk and crazy artist-painter.

“On the ground he was humble, hunched, unkempt, constantly blinking, reckless, always late, absentminded and in disregard of everyone and everything. In the air, he became a calm, precise and brave pilot with nerves of steel, and one of the best I have ever known.”

Note: Initially listed as missing. However in September 2017, following a request by the Polish Department of Cultural Heritage and Wartime Losses, experts from Pomeranian Medical University carried out an investigation into the identity of the 'Unknown Polish Airman' in Le Crotoy. DNA testing was carried out with positive identification being made. The CWGC will be updating the headstone.

Burial details:

F/O. Tadeusz Stabrowski. Le Crotoy Communal Cemetery. Row 1. Grave 16. Born on Wednesday the 16th May 1917 at Lubinówka, Poland (now Belarus) Husband of Elizabeth and father to Andrew.