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Operation: Dive bombing operation
Date: 02nd February 1945 (Friday)
Unit: No. 308 Squadron (Polish)
Type: Spitfire IX
Serial: MJ342
Code: ZF-O
Base: B.60. Grimbergen (Belgium)
Location: B.60 - Pilot managed to return.
Pilot: F/O. Waclaw Stanski P-2677 (782355) PAF Age 25. Survived, unhurt.
REASON FOR LOSS:
Squadron attacked several targets in the Deventer area of Belgium. Direct hits on a railway station and train were reported, also a suspected V1 site in a wood was bombed. A convoy moving in the vicinity of Nijkerk was also attacked but due to the intense accurate flak no reports were available.
Above: Showing both sides of Spitfire cockpit with F/O. Waclaw Stanski in the centre
Spitfire MJ342 was badly shot up by the flak but the pilot managed to bring it back to base. The aircraft was struck off charge as a result, such was the damage.Burial Details:
None, F/O. Waclaw Stanski managed to return safely to the forward base in Belgium. He joined the Squadron in December 1942 after training at 58 OTU Grangemouth, Scotland. Settled back in Poland after the war. Died on the 18th June 1986 in Warsaw, Poland.
Researched for relatives of the pilot. With thanks to the following for further information supplied by the 1333 (Grangemouth Spitfire) Squadron and the Grangemouth Spitfire Memorial Trust who provided me with so much information and assistance during my visit, Norman L.R. Franks 'Fighter Command Losses' Vol'.3. I.W.Museum for Spitfire cockpit photographs.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning we will remember
them. - Laurence
Binyon
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Last Modified: 23 February 2015, 09:52