Heroic young pilot killed in dogfight
story from this is kent website
A FEW weeks ago I paid a tribute to the Polish pilots who escaped from their occupied homeland in 1939, made their way to France and, when that country fell, came to England to join the RAF.
Those brave men, some in their early 20s and younger, used all kinds of tricks and the most elaborate methods for escaping.
Many dressed in second-hand civilian clothing and, equipped with fake passports, slipped out like eels between guards and gendarmes.
One of those pilots was Stefan Wojtowicz.
At the age of 20 he escaped from Poland to Romania, then to France where General Sikorski was reconstituting the Polish Air Force, and finally to England where he joined 303 Squadron at Northolt.
On September 11, 1940, Stefan was involved with his squadron in a dogfight over Westerham.
Having shot down at least one Messerschmitt, possibly more, he found himself cornered by six German fighters.
Witnesses in Westerham and nearby villages saw the battle fought at low altitude.
Stefan's Hurricane was hit and hurtled to the ground, burning.
It embedded into a field at the top of Hogtrough Hill, Brasted, and he was killed immediately.
A few weeks ago, on the 70th anniversary of that crash, a group of friends unveiled a plaque on the site.
Among them was Peter Finch, of Quebec Square, Westerham, who watched the air battle and many years later corresponded with Nina Britton Boyle, a Polish squadron researcher, who wanted to know more about the circumstances leading to the tragedy.
Peter was able to tell her that he was 14 at the time and, like many schoolboys, a great souvenir hunter. His garden shed contained parts from crashed planes, their equipment, bomb shards and ammo. According to Peter the battle on September 11 lasted about 15 minutes.
He and his friends saw the Hurricane crash and rushed to the site in time to see the body of Stefan Wojtowicz removed to the morgue. There, Peter looked through a window and saw the blackened body not yet covered.
"The pilot had very small hands," he said. "It was the first time I had seen a body and the image is still in my mind today."
A few days after the crash, a 303 Squadron intelligence officer came to this part of Kent to find out more about Sergeant Wojtowicz's death and discovered he had been hit in the head by a shard from a cannon missile.
He also found out that two enemy planes were destroyed, possibly more, by the young Pole. Already, in an earlier mission, he had shot down two Dornier bombers and lost part of his engine, but still managed to land safely in a field near Tenterden.
His commanding officer, Col Johnny Kent, acting CO, recommended the highest British military decoration, the Victoria Cross, for exceptional courage on the battlefield.
He was reminded that it could not be given to a foreigner.
Sgt Wojtowicz was posthumously decorated with the Silver Cross of Virtuti Militari.
The research by Nina Britton Boyle was thorough.
Using a metal detector she found pieces of the plane scattered over a wide area.
She also discovered more about Stefan, his village in Poland, how he enrolled on an advanced pilot course after leaving school and about his adventures when the country fell in 1939.
She wrote comprehensively about his family in Poland, the small plaque in the village commemorating those killed during the Second World War and how she met Stefan's sister, who said she had seen him for the last time on September 17, 1939.
"His mother cried and begged him to stay, but he had to go. He was full of the will to fight. On his leave he said to his mother: 'You will yet read about me'."
He was not wrong.
Nina Britton Boyle and Peter Finch were among those in the commemoration party on Hog- trough Hill, meeting each other for the first time.
She told him that on that day, 70 years earlier, 12 pilots of 303 Kosciuszko Squadron had raised their Hurricanes and destroyed 16 enemy aircraft, one of the greatest successes of the Battle of Britain.
The price of victory was the death of Sgt Stefan Wojtowicz and Lt Arsen Cebrzynski, who was also shot down and severely wounded. He crashed at Pembury and died in hospital several days later.
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