WIZARD OF THE AIR

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 299, 15 September 1941, Page 5

WIZARD OF THE AIR

Pole’s Record-Breaking Achievement His liea'd swathed in bandages, Iris collarbone shattered, a 25-year-old brown-eyed Foie lay in a..south of England hospital, but he was the happiest man in Britain. To mark his debut with the crack all-l’olish lighter squadron, one day in July, he shot down three Messerschmitt 109's, badly damaged a fourth, and with his ammunition spent, used hid Spitfire as a slicing machine on a fifth. He manoeuvred behind the Messerschmitt and chopped off its tail with the whirling blades of his propeller. Though blinded by blood from a wound caused by Hying fragments from the fifth plane, he succeed.ed in bringing his machine back over the Channel, but in a forced landing hit a telegraph pole and was injured. He plans “very soon” to be back in the air. This story is typical of Polish fliers. They are gay adventurers of the air, whose numerous exploits are voted "wizard” in the jargon of the British R.A.F. Short in stature, always smiling, and amazingly intelligent, they are nearly all university graduates. These Polish airmen have given the Luftwaffe some terrific beatings. Their energy and enthusiasm are boundless. A high R.A.F. officer, who supervised the training of hundreds of Poles, said, "Each of them seems to think he has a personal war to wage against Germany, and their one aim is to get into the air irrespective of weather or opposition. They are aviators without nerves.’ An American pilot, who has flown with all the men of the R.A.F. “Foreign Legion of the Air,” said, "For crazy, death-defying flying in battle, the Poles are tops. They are like madmen, and their boy§ operate their guns like hoses, cursing while they spray lead.”