The Polish Campaign, Day Two.

   The second day of the war was very hard for the pilots from the III/4 Fighter Squadron. This unit was attached to the Pomorze Army, which was tasked with defending northern Poland. From the first light of morning, the pilots of III/4 patrolled near Bydgoszcz and Grudziadz. One of these pilots, Leutnant (Ltn., Lieutenant) Marian Pisarek, claimed the destruction of two Luftwaffe aircraft near Kwidzyn, a Do-17 bomber and a Hs-126 Army cooperation aircraft.
   At noon on 2 September 1939, Kaptain (Kpt., Captain) Florian Lakowski, the leader of III/4 Squadron, received unit orders from the Stab (Staff) of the Pomorze Army. The fighter squadron was ordered to attack German solders on the ground.
   Such an order was highly unusual in that such a mission was not only very dangerous, but highly impractical. The PZL P.11 fighters that the III/4 Squadron was equipped with only had two 7.7mm (0.30 inch) Wzor 37 machine-guns. The aircraft's fuselage was not prepared for this kind of action, being incapable of carrying any bombs and was not armored.
   As a result of this highly unusual and impractical mission, both of III/4 Fighter Flight leaders protested. In spite of the Flight leaders protests, the orders were to carried out. Kapitain Laskowski decided by a flip of a coin that 141 Fighter Flight would attack the enemy's forces on the ground while the 142 Fighter Flight would make a sweep to the east of Grudziadz. The decision which Flight would have which task would make destiny.
   At about 14:30, eight P.11 fighters from 142 Fighter Flight took off. Within a few minutes of 142 Fighter Flight's take off, nine P.11s from 141 Fighter Flight led by Kpt. Laskowski, followed.
   In the first attack the P.11 piloted by Kpt. Laskowski caught fire and was forced to make an emergency landing near Gruta village. Though Laskowski was hurt, the German solders would not allow him to receive any help. Laskowski died because of blood loss.
   Within a few minutes another P.11 crashed in Gruta. The pilot, Sec. Lt. Wladyslaw Urban, was killed. Another P.11 fighter force landed near Tarpno Wielkie village. The pilot, Copor. Benedykt MIelczynski, was badly hurt. People from the village took him to their home. The next day, 4 September 1939, German soldiers came and killed both the pilot and a young boy, Janek Kraszewski, who had looked after Copor. Mielczynski.
   There was another P.11 shot down that day. The pilot, Sec. Lt. Edward Jankowski, made an emergency landing near Sierpc. Jankowski came back to his unit a few days later. The losses of German solders as a result of this mission were not too large.
   While 141 Fighter Flight was making its ground attack mission, 142 Fight Flight was attacking two groups of Do-17 bombers. In this aerial engagement, 142 Fighter Flight claimed they destroyed five enemy aircraft. Second Lieutenant Stanislaw Skalski claimed two Do-17s, Kpt. Miroslaw Lesniewski, Cadet Karol Pniak and Copor. Stanislaw Wieprzkowicz claimed one Do-17 each. There were no loses of Polish aircraft. The assigned task of the German aircraft was broken. If this German formation had been attacked with the assistance of 141 Fight Flight also, their losses should have been greater.

   The author Grzegorz Slizewski can be reached at his e-mail address.

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