Shas corrected my post, with some accurate facts (thank you Shas!)
the non polish members of the 303 were flight commander John Kent, a Canadian from Winnipeg serving in the RAF, and Josef František a bit eccentric Czech pilot that entered Polish service after the III Reich annexed Czechoslovakia and he fought with the 303rd to his end in a crash near Cuddington Way. At that time he was number 4 top ace pilot in all allied forces.
Looks amazing, but I will correct one thing. Polish pilots did dominate squadron roster but there were two other nationality pilots in BoB time. Flight commander John Kent, Canadian from Winnipeg serving in RAF and Josef František a bit eccentric Czech pilot that enter Polish service after III Reich annexed Czechoslovakia and fight with us to his end in crash near Cuddington Way. At that time he was number 4 top ace pilot in all allied forces.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sur what you're correcting, something I wrote? Was Kent in the 303? I was not discussing the top aces, just the record of the 303 as the squadron with the most enemy kills, at 75 - and that Wikipedia (and Pawelek Kalinowski) state that the 303 was only Polish pilots
DeleteYes, it is incorrect that 303rd was only Polish pilots, both Kent and František did flew with 303rd in Battle for Britain. Kellet was de facto commander of squadron from 1940 to 1941 (it was after all part of RAF so RAF commander was in place) and beyond Kent there was also squadron commander Forbes. Most of the staff were Poles but they flew under RAF officers in time of Battle of Britain and it is just a pity that anyone (I don't mean you) would omit such an extraordinary character like František, top scoring 303rd ace and person who constantly refuse to be transferred to Czechoslovak fighter squadron under RAF and stay with Polish 303rd to his tragic end. 303rd became 99% only Poles squadron when Kellet was transferred in 1941 and Kent in 1942 to other units, Brits start to trust Poles to fully command own squadron by themselves. Still some RAF liaison officers were presented.
DeleteNumber of enemy kills is also unclear, it is high but original 126 or even 131 was significantly exaggerated, nothing unusual it war times. Some historians give about 59 confirmed kills, other 44 and there is that 75 confirmed that is not confirmed at all. Today we don't have enough solid data to say at 100% what number of kills was correct, couple of dozens for sure but how much, 44, 59, 75, 126 ect. we will never know.
thank you for the accurate information! I only used the two sources (standard journalism 101) and moved on to the rest of the days posts.
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