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Marian Pisarek - one of most effective Polish aces.
Written by Dariusz Tyminski .

Marian Pisarek belonged to the most experienced group of Polish fighter pilots. In 1939, he was a Second Commander of 141st Fighter Squadron (and flew P-11c's). On September 1st, 1939, he shot down a German Hs 126 (after some sources this kill was shared with Stanislaw Skalski ). On the next day, he took part in a tragic attack on a German armored column, where a few pilots were killed. This same day, in the evening, Pisarek downed - by mistake - a Polish recon-bomber, a P-23 "Karas" (which looked very similar to a Ju 87). On September 4th, there was no mistake, he killed personally one Ju 87.

After receiving evacuation orders, he moved through Romania to France. Here, Pisarek came into the newly organised kpt. Tadeusz Rolski Squadron, but this unit was not combat ready till the end of the war in France. After France's capitulation, the Polish aviators, who had been at Gaillac Airfield, took French Caudron Goeland aircraft and flew to Oran. They next, by way of Casablanca, arrived in Great Britain.

After August 2nd, Lt. Marian Pisarek was a member of the 303rd "Kosciuszko" Squadron. He took part in the Battle of Britain. On September 7th, 1940, at 16:35, he started a sortie, with all 11 aircraft in his squadron, to catch a German bomber group. A Quarter of an hour later, the air combat began. The Polish fighters scored 14 confirmed victories (12 Do 215's and 2 Bf 109's) and 4 others, that were probably 2 additional Do 215's and 2 more Bf 109's. But unfortunately Pisarek, after shooting down one Bf 109, had to bail out in his parachute, and Second Lieutenant Kaszewski was gravely injured.

Mr Dennis Barnes, who was a witness of that epizode, remembers:

"During the battle of britian in 1940 I was a young lad living in Loughton in Essex close to London. On the afternoon of Sept 7th a great air battle was in progress above us. at about 4.56 pm a plane crashed not far away from us, and very soon after my mother, 2 sisters and I observed a parachutist who appeared to be coming to land at the end of our long back garden. Thinking it must be a german, I went into the house to get my father's 12 bore shotgun. Just then, much to my disappointment, or (relief) a gust of wind caught the chute and it was taken over some houses and into a field. A pilot who have bailed out of his hurricane after trying (typically) to steer it away from the houses and into a field was captain Marian Pisarek.

He had infact almost suceeded in doing this, but unfortunately the aircraft crashed in the garden of a house next to the field and killed 3civil defence personnel in an air raid shelter there. Pilot who landed in that field was given a rather rough handling.first by the local defence volenteers who thought he was a german and the aircraft that had crashed was german. Marian who i think could speak little english at that time was able to remove part of his flying overall and show the 'Poland' flashes on his uniform tunic to them. There were then frofuse apologies all round and i understand that soon after that the pilots of 303 squadron at Northolt were invited to a dinner at the Loughton town hall by the mayor in order to make ammends for this mistakes!

So I dont get to meet this great ace personally. After all I did get to meet his 303 Squadron pal. Canadian ace John Kent 12 years later as Wing Commander Kent DFC when I was introduce to him as a young airman at the end of the war, I was also able to sit in the cockpit of Douglas Baders personal Spitfire as an air cadet when he was the co at Northweald. i still remenber his mascot (a Scottish kilted doll) hanging from the windscreen.years later, I got to meet and speak to him when he came to British Airways h.q. to give a lecture to raes.the subject was 'THE BIG WINGS IN THE BATTLE OF BRITIAN'.

3 years ago i did visit the crash site of Hurricane R4173 at 40 Roding Rd Loughton. The owner told me that the site was excavated by an A/C PRESAVATION SOCIETY 4 years previously the engine had gone down deep. Even after all this time corroded .303 mg rounds are still found and he had to give up using a rotivator to till the soil as it was too dangerous still..."

(The autor of this recollection, Mr Barnes, in1945 joined 12 f squadron ATC attached RAF Northweald. In 1949 he joined RAF and became an engineer. After this he joined BOAC as an engineer staying till retirement in 1991. As a member of British Airways flying club and later Booker Gliding CLUB his favorite pastime was flying sailplanes. He had now been living in Malasia with his wife for the last 8 years. He still had an interest in the RMAF museum at Kuala Lumpur.)

Another very busy day for the 303rd Squadron was the 15th of September, 1940. Polish fighter pilots took part in two hard and great air battles, where they achieved 16 confirmed kills. Pisarek led a section with wingmen Sgt. Brzezowski and Sgt. Josef Frantisek (the later of the two a Czech pilot). Pisarek's victim, this day, was again one Bf 109.

On June 23rd, 1941, Captain Marian Pisarek was ordered to command the Polish 308th "City of Krakow" Squadron. The squadrons code letters were "ZF". Flight leaders were, at that time, Lt. Stefan Janus ("A" flight), and Lt. Erwin Kawnik ("B" flight). On June 27th, 1941, Polish fighters claimed 4 destroyed Bf 109's, one of them was by Pisarek. On that day, JG 26 only reported 2 Bf 109's destroyed and one damaged. In 4/JG 26, Unteroffizier Otto Friedrich was killed.

On July 2nd, 1941, the squadron escorted 12 "Blenheim's" on a mission to attack the electric facility at Lille. During the return, they were attacked by a big group, about 60, of German fighters from JG 26. The Polish fighters claimed 5 Bf 109's (one of them again personally by Pisarek) destroyed, 2 probables, and one damaged. But, in the battle 2 "Spitfires" crashed. Lt. Erwin Kawnik was killed, and Sgt. Pawel Kowala became a prisoner of war. Sec. Lt. Budrewicz luckily returned to the airfield with a heavily damaged aircraft. JG 26 lost, at least, 2 Bf 109's. One of them was piloted by Oberleutnant Martin Rysavy (who had 8 kills) from 2/JG 26. Also, in that battle, a Messerschmitt belonging to Adolf Galland (more details on German Ace page) was heavily damaged.

On July 17th, 1941, the 308th Squdron, under command of Captain Pisarek, was ordered to a recon flight over France, in the Bolougne-Calais area. A dozen Polish "Spitfire's" were attacked by a big group of Bf 109's. The leader decided to make a defence circle (ring) of fighters, were each plane covered an aircraft before it. The formation all slowly rotated to the Channel direction. The Germans, sure of their advantage, furiously attacked. The Polish formation defended itself well. Sec. Lt. Witold Retinger downed one Bf 109, next was one destroyed by Capt. Pisarek and Sec. Lt. Taeusz Schiele. During that battle, Sec. Lt. Tadeusz Hegenbarth was killed, and Sec. Ltn. Maciejewski had to parachute and was taken prisoner of war. On the German side, Unteroffizier Gerhard Oemler, of 9./JG 26, was killed.

On July 22nd, 1941, over German airfields in the area of St. Omer, Polish fighters had a lot of combat with Messerschmitts at low altitude. They scored 4 victories (one by Pisarek). Unfortunatelly, 2 pilots were killed -Sec. Lt. Wladyslaw Bozek and Sec. Lt. Miroslaw Orzechowski.

On 14 August 1941 Pisarek claimed a Bf 109F as destroyed. Here is his official combat report:

"Leading 308 (polish) Squadron N.W. of St. Omer, I saw 30-35 Me. 109E's & F's flying in formation at about 15,000 ft, above them and ahead. I ordered 308 and 315 Squadrons to attack, and 306 to give cover. The two Squadrons attacking, dived on the enemies out of the sun.

I attacked a Me. 109F firing three short bursts. After the third burst the enemy machine cought fire, and pieces fall off. It dived vertically towards the ground and disappeard in cloud. I attacked it from above and astern, firing the first burst from about 200 yds, and closing to about 50 yds.

My No. 2 (P/O Budzalek) saw this Me, dived vertically in flames. I claim this Me. 109F as destroyed"

In September 1941 Squadron 308 flew few dangerous Circus operations, and Pisarek added new kills for his score.

His combat report from 20 September 1941 describes dramatic dogfight: "On the way back to the Channel flying at 20,000 ft. I was leading the Squadron - the whole formation was retiring. I saw an Me. attacking P/O Zbierzchowski from close range - He was flying in my group of four. I warned Zbierzchowski to turn to the left - As he did so, I approached the Me. giving 5 short bursts from 100 yds, closing to 50 yds, from behind, to port, and above - The Me. broke away sharply - Later the same Me. attacked me from above and a dog fight ensued - I lost height in tight turns, and then suddenly shot up so that the Me., overshot me and found itself below me. I then got on his tail, and putting my nose down gave a long burstfrom 50 yds. The e/a belchced smoke and getting into a steep dive, plunged into Channel. I was then at 3000 feet. I claim this Me.109F as destroyed."

Next day - next combat (21 September 1941): "Circus 104. I was leading 308 Sqdn. which was supposed to be middle Sqdn. of the Northolt Wing. As I could not see any of our a/c above, I decided to increase height to 30,000 ft. After crossing the French Coast south of Le Touqet, I saw at the same altitude 8 Me.'s ahead and to port and 7 ahead and to starboard.

I gave order to attack the 7 that were closest. A number of dog-fights started. I attacked an Me. 109F from astern on the port side, but could not get close enough to fire - as a result of numerous dog-fights we found ourselves over Channel, and the Me.'s vanished.

I reformed the Sqdn. and once more flew into France. And we were again engaged by a group of eight or more Me.'s, probably the same we had previously seen on our port side - I attacked an Me. 109F from astern, the first burst was from 250 yds. I kept on his tail getting closer and from 200 yds. gave a second longer burst, and then a third burst from 150 yds. The me. started to smoke, I got to within 100 yds., and gave another burst, flames appeard, the E/A turned on it's back and went into a spin, with clouds of smoke and flames pouring out. As I saw three other E/A above me, and had no more ammunition, besides which my R/T was u/s, I dived down and flying low, returned to base"

Pisarek got his last kill, Bf 109, on 13 October 1941.

On December 10th, 1941, Capt. Marian Pisarek ended his tour of battle duty, and the new 308th Squadron Leader, Capt. Marian Wesolowski arrived. The 308th Squdron achieved, in 1941, mostly under Pisarek's command, the highest number of victories in all the Polish Air Forces: 52 confirmed victories, 10 probables, and 13 damaged enemy planes.

After April 19th, 1942, Major Marian Pisarek received command of the 1st Polish Fighter Wing (303rd, 316th, and 317th Squadrons). Ten days later, the wing had a fighter sweep in the Hardelot-Desrves-Marck area. Over Le Treport (other sources say Le Touquet or Bologne) the wing was surprised by an attack by 15 FW 190's. This strike hit the 317th Squadron. They lost, unfortunately, the Squadron Leader; Capt. Piotr Ozyra, and Wing Commander Major Marian Pisarek. The Germans, after rapidly attacking, disengaged from the battle. 303rd Squdron simply did not manage to enter into this combat. Pisarek was probably shot down by the famous German ace, Commander of the II/JG 26, Htpm. Joachim Muncheberg , or Obfw. H. Hoffman from the 4./JG 26.

Major Pisarek is ranked in 7th position on the list of best Polish aces, with a record of 12 confirmed, 1 probable, and 2 demaged enemy aircraft.