Did a Few Reckless Pilots Save the World? | "303" The Documentary

it is the summer of 1940 and all eyes are on the skies above the English Channel where the most important Air Battle in History is about to take place as Hitler and the Germans have just recently taken France his eyes now move to a new Target Britain the upcoming Invasion Operation Sea Lion is being planned but all of the German commanders are aware of the fact that before any Landings can be made one last obstacle Must Fall the Royal Air Force for without control of the Skies there can certainly be no Invasion so appropriately the commander of the luftwaffa Hermann Gering directs his Fighters and bombers to prepare to win the air War over Britain what would come next would be one of the most iconic battles in history with quite possibly the fate of all of Europe and even the world on the line and as we will see the stars of this battle would turn out to be the heroes that no one could have ever expected a group of Reckless under-equipped and undervalued fighter pilots whose contributions without a doubt turned the tide in the war and Changed History forever but before we get there we have to rewind to the very first shots of World War II that would thrust these Heroes into the conflict this would be the German invasion of Poland on September 1st of 1939 Hitler stormed forward into Poland and famously would take the entire country in a matter of weeks in this Invasion the Germans virtually dominated the smaller and weaker polish military their technology was outdated their tactics were weak and they were vastly outnumbered the only branch that somewhat held their own in this battle was the Polish Air Force who brilliantly moved all of their combat aircraft to smaller airfields just weeks before the invasion and allowed themselves a Fighting Chance in the air the polls had roughly 300 obsolete aircraft compared to 1300 Cutting Edge Fighters and bombers of the luftwaffa the primary fighter aircraft that the Germans were flying during this time was the Messerschmitt bf-109 unquestionably the most advanced fighter in the world it was the fastest plane to ever fly and was an elite dogfighter in the air the poles on the other hand were equipped primarily with the pzl P11 the P11 was actually also widely considered the best aircraft in the world at the time of its conception in first flight but that was five years earlier in 1934. and with the pace of aircraft development in the late 1930s it might as well have been from a different century by the time Poland was attacked in September of 1939 the P11 was completely outclassed having fixed landing gear a high mounted wing and a top speed of 390 kilometers per hour it was no match for the new messerschmitts but miraculously despite this polish pilots flying these vintage Fighters shot down more than 130 German aircraft however when the ground forces were quickly overtaken in the first two weeks of the battle there was no way for the Polish Air Force to continue to operate and eventually their aircraft were mostly destroyed giving their pilots no chance to put up any real fight thus by the end of October the Germans had beaten the polls or at least that's how it appeared once Poland fell many of their pilots were scattered as they tried to flee German occupation and headed to Friendly borders as they ran from their beloved Homeland the Polish Pilots wanted just one thing an aircraft to fly and another chance to fight but as they would see this would be hard to find it quickly became clear that France would be the next Battleground and that the French may be in need of men to fight so the Polish Pilots that had evacuated their Homeland spent the next few months desperately trying to make it to Paris but as they traveled across Europe the German Army was also on the move in May of 1940 Hitler began his invasion of France and around this time most of the Polish Pilots began to arrive in the country but as they began to arrive the situation was far from what they had hoped the French Air Force like the rest of its military was in chaos with many not wanting to create a squadron of foreigners and unfortunately those that did try to utilize their polish allies found no opportunity as every potential Airfield that they might be able to fly from was quickly overtaken by the Germans as fast as details could be arranged eventually one single polish Squadron was approved and eventually put into operation hoping to finally get a chance to fight the Germans in formidable planes like the respected ms-406 the Polish arrived at their Airfield in France only to find that the French had no real Combat planes left for them the only aircraft that the French Air Force was able to spare were cauldron c714 Fighters the c714 was actually not even a combat aircraft but instead a trainer designed a couple of years after the P11 the c714 was in many ways a step back from their initial polish aircraft although the c714 was newer and faster it handled very poorly in the air and was not agile at all in a dogfight to put into perspective just how ineffective and obscure this fighter would be in history only 90 of The Cauldron c714s would ever be produced but the polls who had traveled across the continent for the opportunity to finally fight would not turn away on May 18th eight days after the invasion of France began the Squadron of foreigners named the Polish Fighter Squadron of Warsaw was given 35 c714s to take on the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world almost immediately in the first few sorties the polls complained that their outdated planes were no match for The Messer Schmidt 109. it was obvious that if they were to have any Fighting Chance they would need better Fighters immediately listening to their Grievances and seeing their losses the French minister of War ordered that all c714s be removed from combat service this initially seemed like good news for the Polish pilots who were under the impression that this meant that they would get better Fighters but they quickly realized that due to the poor situation in France there was no chance that they would be getting any replacement aircraft so immediately the Polish Squadron ignored the orders of the French and continued to fly their 714s into combat this failure to follow orders and passion to fight the Germans would be indicative of their future behavior and would actually be one of the primary contributing factors to their success as we will see soon as the summer continued against orders and flying only trainers the Polish Pilots took to the air against the luftwaffa in the Battle of France in a handful of missions in early June Against All Odds they saw success in three battles between June 8th and June 11th the Polish Pilots shot down 12 German aircraft while losing only nine of their own among these claims were three me-109s and five me-110s all aircraft which were undoubtedly better Fighters than the 714 in every way it is here that a story of a group of unsung heroes had already appeared to be developing but how exactly was this possible how could these Pilots actually be seeing success against such daunting odds the first reason became clear their training incredibly the Polish Air Force despite being so small and young had done an incredible job of training their pilots before the outbreak of War furthermore because of the small size of their Air Force they were able to be very picky about their recruits allowing only the highest quality Pilots into the program according to most historians because of the small size of their force and the highly qualified talent pool to choose from by the time any polish pilot got his wings his training was as good as if not better than that of the luftwaffe or Royal Air Force this Advantage gave them an incredible Edge and now with combat experience increasing the polls were only getting better but tragically their opportunity to contribute would once again be taken from them shortly after their first aerial victories in the Battle of France the French began to capitulate to the invading Germans and the polls were forced to evacuate to the only remaining place of safety a place that they would call the last island of Hope Britain with the fall of Dunkirk The crucial battle for this island was about to begin and every Commander knew that it would take place in the air in late June of 1940 all of the remaining polish Pilots began to arrive in Britain their final Fortress of Defense once again these aviators want nothing but to fly and fight but yet again bureaucracy and politics would continue to bedevil them upon their arrival the Royal Air Force was not willing to accept polish Pilots it was clear that they were not respected At All by the British after all their country had fallen in just a matter of weeks how useful could these Pilots truly be in the air British officer John Kent who would end up being posted to 303 Squadron as one of their leaders echoed this sentiment writing all I knew about the Polish Air Force was that it had only lasted about three days against the luftwaffa and I had no reason to suppose that they would shine any more brightly operating from England but as the days passed in mid and late June it became clear that the British needed every man that they could get after losing a vast portion of her weapons and vehicles at Dunkirk the outcome of the battle for the air would likely make the difference in Victory and defeat should the luftwaffe defeat the RAF Operation Sea Lion would commence and the Bloody invasion of Britain would take place should the RAF be victorious no Invasion would be able to take place and the fight could be taken back to the Germans the stakes could not possibly be higher and so at this point the RAF was in no position to turn away men that could potentially contribute the Royal Air Force began to accept polish Pilots under a variety of disappointing conditions the polls were only allowed in a pilot volunteer reserve and they were not allowed to wear or fly polish Flags in addition every single one of the Polish Pilots would be a pilot officer the lowest possible rank allowed regardless of their status in the Polish Air Force furthermore these highly trained polish pilots who nearly all of which have seen valuable combat in Poland and France were now sent to First wait in training centers slowly having to learn the English language and command procedures of the RAF at one point in this training the RAF even had polish Pilots riding tricycles around the Airfield with radios connected to their bikes to try and practice formation flying and communication polish pilot officer Jan zumbach around this time wrote in his memoirs the British are wasting so much of our time with these childish exercises when nearly all of us had already won their wings and fascinatingly while these polish Pilots are in simple training exercises the first phase of the Battle of Britain had begun and during this time the Royal Air Force was seeing heavy losses due to the lack of experienced Pilots so as the most intense air combat in history was underway the most valuable asset for the British was right under their nose and no one had any idea but they were about to find out and in dramatic fashion in August after a great deal of red tape and training the first polish Squadron was officially formed this would be 303 Squadron in addition to the Polish Pilots this new unit was given a handful of British Pilots that would be in charge of leading the group and keeping them in line after being assigned to the Airfield at Northolt 303 was equipped with the Hawker hurricane the hurricane although not quite as fast Nimble or as powerful as the me-109 or Spitfire was Leaps and Bounds better than the c14 or P11 it was faster had a far better Armament and was all around a solid fighter in a dog fight it was definitely not the best plane in the sky but it was finally an aircraft on the same playing field as the Germans and for the Polish that was enough flying their new hurricanes the first combat of 303 Squadron would actually take place on August 30th the day before the unit was even officially operational this would take place when a flight from 303 Squadron was actually on a training mission during this sortie as the unit flew near the coast in an exercise a small group of German aircraft were spotted they were immediately ordered to stand down and return to base but ignoring the orders of their commanding British officer the polls attacked this famous scene was depicted in the famous 1969 movie The Battle of Britain T5 what's that uh training Squadron sir the poles get them out of it get them down Black Fork leader back to two three zero and return to base immediately over Blackhawk leader received and understood out Blackhawk leader to a flight turn to port and steer 2 3 0. stop that polish chatter and steer two three zero the beep is I say again two three of crying out loud oh God's truth [Music] in this engagement disobeying orders 303 pilot Ludwig pashkovitz shot down a Messerschmitt bf-110 here we can see the actual combat report from this date and the note of the first kill which here interestingly is actually incorrectly identified by the pilot as a do17 this Victory would be the first confirmed kill for the Polish pilots in the Battle of Britain officially the pilot was reprimanded for this action but unofficially he was congratulated back at the Airfield at this point many of the commanders of the RAF still believe that the Polish Pilots were not ready to contribute but that day Squadron leader Ronald kellett put in a call to fighter command saying that under the circumstances sir I do think we might call them operational considering that the RAF had lost nearly 100 pilots in the past week alone they were in no position to make an argument so the following day on August 31st of 1940 303 Squadron officially became operational finally and God Alone knows why I've received the following signal congratulations as of today this Squadron is operational signed Keith Park advised martial arts [Music] foreign so after much trial pain and loss the polls were now in the fight on an even playing field their first day as a unit would not be a letdown either coincidentally coming exactly one year from the Nazi invasion of Poland on the 31st of August 303 was scrambled in the late afternoon here they met with a large group of German fighters in the air and in just 15 minutes of dog fighting the polls scored a clear victory the pilots of 303 claimed four confirmed kills and two probables losing none of their own in the first five days of September 303 was scrambled a few more times and in these sorties the Polish Pilots claimed eight German Fighters shot down and three bombers while losing only three of their own one of which who bailed out and returned while the two others simply crash landed safely after being hit in a large dogfight on the fifth one of the most interesting kills of the Battle of Britain took place when one of the pilots of 303 Sergeant stanisva karuben shot down one Messerschmitt in a dogfight but after pulling behind a second German fighter at low level he realized that he was out of ammunition but being the passionate polish pilot that he was he was not going to let the Bandit Escape karuban then opted to pull directly above the German fighter within feet of the me-109 in the low chase the German pilot saw the hurricane directly above him and panicked not knowing what was going on he pushed the stick forward to avoid a collision and crashed into the ground in England this was karuben's second kill of the day also turning heads at this time was another 303 pilot jumping to an early lead in the victory count a young Joseph frantizek interestingly frontisec was actually not polish but Chechen and had actually been on the Run even longer than the polls since he had first fled from his home country and joined the Polish Air Force in 1939. like the others he had ended up in the RAF at this point and was making quite a name for himself on September 7th just their eighth official day as a combat Squadron the Luft buffer shifted to the bombing of the London docks after a massive wave of German aircraft were detected early on in the day 303 Squadron was scrambled to intercept their unit would be one of the only fighter groups sent to the correct location and conveniently the German Fighters were late to the scene leaving a massive flight of dornier do7 teams with no escort the poles pounced in and tore into the German bombers claiming a total of 12 destroyed along with two 109 shot down as well after the escorts eventually showed up 303 would trade just two polish aircraft in return both of which saw the pilot survive around this time the Battle of Britain was reaching its climax the Germans knew that it was now or never the RAF recovering from their early losses had few planes and even fewer Pilots but were now rallying behind the inspiring words of Winston Churchill the Gratitude of every home in our Island in our Empire and indeed throughout the world except in the abodes of the guilty goes out to the British Airman who undaunted by odds and wear it in their constant Challenge and Mortal Danger are turning the tide of the World War by their promise and by their devotion never in the field of human conflict but so much old by so many by now it is clear that the polls are making a difference their success is undeniable but what was making them so much more effective than their RAF counterparts as we have already mentioned their Elite Training and combat experience was a contributing factor and as we already saw as well they commonly disobeyed orders from the RAF that they disagreed with often involving tactics and strategy they had ample combat experience and simply did whatever they thought was the best move even if that meant ignoring the commands of their less experienced officers but in addition to these factors there was one other that might have been the greatest of all the fact that the Polish were fueled by a hatred and thirst for vengeance for the Invaders of their Homeland the British no doubt were experiencing a similar feeling as the Germans began to bomb London but the Polish hate was truly on a different level every one of the Polish Pilots had already watched the German invade their Homeland on the ground destroying many of their cities and killing loved ones most of the pilots had been forced to leave every one of their family members behind with no idea if they were dead or alive polish pilot bolisa drobinsky put it into words well when you see the swastika or black cross on the aircraft your heart beating gets much quicker and you decide that you must get him or you get shot yourself it is a feeling of absolute vengeance this is the reason that they had traveled across the continent in search of a chance to fight and now this is why they were effective the Polish fought as if they had every reason to hate the Germans and absolutely nothing to lose should they die with this Spirit the fighting continued and 303 Squadron would be scrambled again on September 9th their hurricanes came into contact with a group of German Fighters over the channel and a dogfight ensued four Fighters are claimed by the unit won by British leader Kent and Rising Star Yosef frantizak claims too although one an he-111 claim would be given only as a probable for 303 one hurricane is shot down but again the Polish pilot bails out and survives the only other loss for the unit is frontazx Hurricane which took substantial damage he was however able to crash land the plane which was completely destroyed and somehow walked away with no injuries and was fighting again the next day two days later September 11th would go down as a day of both glory and sadness for 303. shortly after being scrambled to intercept a large raid contact was made with the Germans the Squadron dove in on a large fight and broke up the attacking Force but in the initial attack Lieutenant arson sobrinsky is badly wounded by the Gunners and would die in a hospital one week later a few minutes later an incredible dog fight ensued for the next few days all that was known by the unit was that 303 pilot Sergeant Stefan voitovitz was lost in combat but eventually a report showed up from the residents of a city named westerham apparently the citizens on the ground had looked up and witnessed a dogfight with the young polish pilot here they saw one single Hurricane in a large fight with six German measurements in two back-to-back attacks the Polish hurricane shot down two German aircraft but was then shot down and killed himself overall the pilots of 303 claimed 14 victories on the day 10 of which would be later confirmed by loss reports these victories included one measurement downed by Yosef frantizek that was later discovered to be German Ace Hans viggers around this time the claims of 303 have begun to turn heads in the Royal Air Force and understandably some of them have begun to question these claims thinking that there was little chance that the numbers could be legitimate these suspicions were so prevalent that it was decided that station Commander group Captain Vincent fly with them for one mission to see if there was any truth to their claims a few hours later the group Captain arrived back rather shaken and said what they claim they indeed get September 15th would be known as the turning point in the battle and it is important to keep in mind that 303 has at this point only been operational for two weeks nonetheless they are scrambled twice on this day and here would see the thick of combat in their first scramble 303 claimed nine victories after an intense duel many of their hurricanes would be shot up in this engagement but only one casualty was inflicted Lieutenant Vito Lucas the following is his combat report from this mission after about 25 minutes I noticed several waves of enemy planes our Squadron went after the bombers escorted by 109s and 110s I wanted to join but a 109 pass in front of me with the very obvious intention of attacking me a few hops and a quick look back into both sides and I'm after the hunt I had a feeling that it might be some kind of trick and it was I fire one burst he's trailing smoke I fire another see black smoke in Flames I thought to myself time to finish him off but at that moment I heard a loud thump I flew into a cloud and when I got out I noticed a large hole from a cannon shell in the wing and both of my legs were wounded by splinters which had penetrated my boots the plane of course lost its aerodynamics and to make things even worse the glycols started leaking but I made it to the Airfield and landed after landing his plane Vito lost Consciousness from blood loss he was transported to a hospital where more than 30 pieces of explosive Cannon shells were found in his legs he would be out of commission for a few months in recovery and would eventually go on to be one of the few 303 Pilots that survived the war after the second raid where they were scrambled 303 would claim a few bombers destroyed but traded two of their own one who bailed out safely and another sergeant Michael blzovsky on the day the total claims of the Polish Squadron were 15 German aircraft destroyed over the next week there would be a handful of small sorties but no major dog fights the weather prevented much air combat but 303 actually experienced quite a good week nonetheless as word of the unit's exploits had gained them national attention on September 20th the following telegram was received by the air base from the BBC the BBC sends warm greetings to the famous 303 polish Squadron with Lively congratulations upon its magnificent record and all best wishes for its future you use the air for your Gallant exploits and we for telling the world of them Long Live Poland FW Ogilvy director General on the 26th as the poor weather had finally led up Northolt Air Base the home of 303 received a visitor King George himself giving the unit thanks and encouragement at the end of his visit however the alarm went off and 303 was scrambled before the King was able to leave his majesty wanting to know what happened in their sortie requested to the grounds Crews that the result of the flight be sent back to Buckingham Palace as soon as the unit returned a few hours later he received them 303 Squadron had claimed 13 more victories including nine bombers while just three hurricanes were damaged the following day as the Battle of Britain raged their success continued a massive dogfight developed after the Squadron is scrambled to take on a large raid but by now there's a problem with the consistent damage that the aircraft are taking every day the grounds Crews of 303 are struggling to keep a high number of combat aircraft ready so on this occasion just 11 hurricanes are sent into the air where they spot a flight of 30 bombers with heavy fighter support the polls claim 15 more victories but pay for it with two of their own one of them being the popular Lieutenant pashkovitz who scored their very first Victory on August 30th Lieutenant Vito urbanovic is the hero of the day claiming four victories in this mission by the second time they are scrambled later only six hurricanes are able to be made combat ready showing the clear indication that the RAF is struggling to keep up with the rates of attrition by the 30th of September the grounds Crews have worked nearly Non-Stop and the Squadron was nearly back to normal numbers on this day Lieutenant urbanovic claimed four more kills while the rest of the Squadron claimed two after a few days of rest on October 5th of 1940 the Squadron would see its final major action in the Battle of Britain the Polish Pilots claimed nine victories in this engagement six of which have been positively verified after the war interestingly one of these would actually be a Messerschmitt bf-109 piloted by Victor mulders the younger brother of one of the most famous German aces in history Werner mulders again the ratio was outstanding as the Polish lost only one of their own the next week would be mostly quiet as the luftwaffa began to pull back their efforts reeling from the high losses they were sustaining but on October 8th one of the most bizarre events in the history of 303 took place this would be when their leading Ace Joseph frantisek was taking part in an uneventful Patrol but as they were returning from this Mission he abruptly left the formation and Dove towards London never to be seen again some historians have suggested that based on his personality and history he could have been trying to show off for a girl that he fancied in London others have theorized that it could have simply been from exhaustion or fatigue from Battle no definitive answer has ever been established but what we do know is that his hurricane crashed into a field in England frantizak would finish the Battle of Britain with 17 kills one of the highest in the RAF and the highest score for any non-british pilot three days later on October 11th 303 Squadron was pulled from the front lines after 40 days of intense action they were being relieved the Battle of Britain would end just a few weeks later with a decisive British victory the RAF against more planes and better Pilots had held off a massive air Onslaught preventing an invasion Operation Sea Lion was called off and Hitler's plans were turned upside down changing the momentum of the war despite the fact that they had entered the battle two months late 303 Squadron would go down as the highest scoring RAF unit in the Battle of Britain with 126 kills and 14 probables overall 38 Pilots flew with 303 with 34 being polish nine of their pilots had become Aces and nine were lost in combat their final kill to loss ratio was 14 to 1. Johnny Kent the British squadron commander who was sent to lead 303 and was originally upset about the assignment was in tears when he was finally transferred out of the Squadron in addition Hugh doubting the commander of fighter command admitted that most of the leaders of the RAF were wrong far from negatively affecting the morale of the royal Air Force the Polish had actually improved it after the battle ended he would ride had it not been for the Magnificent material contributed by the Polish squadrons and their unsurpassed gallantry I hesitate to say that the outcome of the battle would have been the same if you enjoyed this documentary please consider joining My Free World War II history newsletter at the link below or consider supporting me on patreon comment your thoughts on 303 Squadron and I'll see you next time

Channel: TJ3 History

Views: 157,629

Keywords: Polish Battle of Britain, Polish Fighter Squadron, 303 WWII, Supermarine Spitfire, 303 RAF, WW2 Air Combat, Battle of Britain, Hawker Hurricane, 303 Squadron, 303 Squadron Documentary, Polish Squadron, Battle of Britain Dogfight, War Thunder Battle of Britain, Battle of Britain Documentary, IL-2 Sturmovik, IL2, Flight Sim, World War II Flight Sim, Dark Skies, War Thunder, Dunkirk Documentary, History Channel Dogfights, Historic, Documentary, Mark Felton, Yarnhub, TJ3 Gaming

Id: rgTLwN-SysI

Length: 34min 45sec (2085 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 16 2023