AR banner
Search Tips Advanced Search
Back to Top

Info LogoAdd to or correct this story with a few clicks.
Archive Report: Allied Forces

Compiled from official National Archive and Service sources, contemporary press reports, personal logbooks, diaries and correspondence, reference books, other sources, and interviews.

We seek additional information and photographs. Please contact us via the Helpdesk.
Our only wish is to honour and respect sacrifices made and to record historical facts: but if in so doing any of our content is inadvertently inappropriate, please contact us via Helpdesk and we will correct the matter.
308 Squadron Crest
11.03.1943 No. 308 Squadron Spitfire Vb AD177 F/O. Stabrowski

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.

KTY 14.01.2019

Acknowledgements: Sources used by us in compiling Archive Reports include: Bill Chorley - 'Bomber Command Losses Vols. 1-9, plus ongoing revisions', Dr. Theo E.W. Boiten and Mr. Roderick J. Mackenzie - 'Nightfighter War Diaries Vols. 1 and 2', Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt - 'Bomber Command War Diaries', Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Tom Kracker - Kracker Luftwaffe Archives, Michel Beckers, Major Fred Paradie (RCAF) and MWO François Dutil (RCAF) - Paradie Archive (on this site), Jean Schadskaje, Major Jack O'Connor USAF (Retd.), Robert Gretzyngier, Wojtek Matusiak, Waldemar Wójcik and Józef Zieliński - 'Ku Czci Połeglyçh Lotnikow 1939-1945', Anna Krzystek, Tadeusz Krzystek - 'Polskie Siły Powietrzne w Wielkiej Brytanii', Franek Grabowski, Norman L.R. Franks 'Fighter Command Losses', Aircrew Remembered Databases and our own archives. We are grateful for the support and encouragement of CWGC, UK Imperial War Museum, Australian War Memorial, Australian National Archives, New Zealand National Archives, UK National Archives and Fold3 and countless dedicated friends and researchers across the world.
Click any image to enlarge it

Click to add your info via ticket on Helpdesk •Click to let us know via ticket on Helpdesk• Click to buy research books from Amazon •Click to explore the entire site
If you would like to comment on this page, please do so via our Helpdesk. Use the Submit a Ticket option to send your comments. After review, our Editors will publish your comment below with your first name, but not your email address.

A word from the Editor: your contribution is important. We welcome your comments and information. Thanks in advance.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning we will remember them. - Laurence Binyon
All site material (except as noted elsewhere) is owned or managed by Aircrew Remembered and should not be used without prior permission.
© Aircrew Remembered 2012 - 2021 Last Modified: 14 January 2019, 18:17

Monitor Additions/Changes?Click to be informed of changes to this page. Create account for first monitor only, thereafter very fast. Click to close without creating monitor