Wartime Polish pilot who fought alongside both the RAF and USAAF and later commanded the 1st Polish Fighter Wing at Northolt
The death of Tadeusz Sawicz closes an important chapter in the story of Polish participation in Allied air operations during the Second World War. Sawicz was the last survivor of the 145 Polish pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain in 1940.
Tadeusz Sawicz was born in 1914 in Warsaw, then the principal city of a Poland that was part of the Russian Empire. In 1934 he joined the Air Force College in Deblin, in what was by then an independent Poland, and was commissioned in 1936. When Germany invaded on September 1, 1939, he was with the Pursuit Brigade, flying a PZL P11 fighter, a small high-wing monoplane with a fixed undercarriage and open cockpit — obsolescent but robust and manoeuvrable.
The brigade was tasked with defending Warsaw. It was for long received wisdom that most of the Polish Air Force was destroyed on the ground by the Luftwaffe; in fact many of its aircraft had been dispersed to well camouflaged airfields before war’s outbreak. Outclassed in all but skill and determination by the Luftwaffe, the Polish pilots fought doggedly, and are credited with having shot down 126 German aircraft. Sawicz himself destroyed a Dornier Do17 bomber on September 5 and another the following day.
After the Soviet invasion, air and ground crew were evacuated to Romania. Sawicz, like most of his fellow airmen, evaded internment and made for France via Yugoslavia and Italy.
In France, the Polish Air Force was re-formed to fight alongside the Armée de l’Air. Sawicz was first based at the Lyons-Bron air base. After conversion training on the Bloch MB152, a somewhat underpowered French fighter, he was assigned to a Polish flight with a French Groupe de Chasse squadron at Deauville. With this, he flew several sorties from airfields which rapidly changed hands in the face of the German Blitzkrieg, in May and June 1940. On France’s capitulation he flew his Bloch to Algiers. From there he made his way to Casablanca, reaching Britain, by sea on July 17.
After further conversion training, this time on Hurricanes, he was posted in October to No 303 (Warsaw-Kosciuszko) Squadron for the final stages of the Battle of Britain. The squadron had already distinguished itself and was to become the top scoring squadron of the battle. The contribution to victory in the Battle of Britain by Polish pilots was to be a vital one. Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, Commander-in-Chief Fighter Command, was to acknowledge: “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.”
On February 22, 1941, Sawicz was posted to the newly formed 316 (City of Warsaw) Squadron based at Pembrey in Carmarthenshire. On April 9, 1941, while flying an escort sortie over a convoy he destroyed a Heinkel He111 over the sea. Three crew were rescued. Sawicz was refused a request made to British authorities for a Luftwaffe button from the crew, as a war souvenir, but one of the German survivors volunteered a Luftwaffe wing.
With his tour expired Sawicz was rested and posted as an instructor to 58 Operational Training Unit at Grangemouth on the Firth of Forth in June 1942. In September that year he was given command of 315 (City of Deblin) squadron, then based at Northolt with its Spitfires. Sawicz and his squadron were frequently involved in operations over enemy-occupied territory .
Sawicz was involved in a running battle on April 4, 1943, when 315 and 316 Squadrons, acting as escort to USAAF B17 Flying Fortresses, came to grips with a number of Focke-Wulf Fw190s near Rouen. Three of the Polish Spitfires were lost as were three of the German fighters. Sawicz was credited with damaging an Fw190.
In July 1943 he was appointed liaison officer with HQ 12 Group before once more being posted as an instructor. In October that year he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
At the beginning of 1944 Lieutenant-Colonel Francis “Gabby” Gabreski, operations officer of the American 56th Fighter Group, visited Polish friends at RAF Northolt with an offer. Gabreski, who was to become one of the top US aces with 37 kills in the Second World War and later in Korea, had been born in Pennsylvania of Polish parents and was a fluent Polish speaker. In January 1943 he had attached himself to 315 City of Deblin Squadron and took part in some 20 sorties with the Poles. He had been impressed by their aggressive tactics.
He now invited several Poles to fly with 56th Group, and among those who accepted the exchange posting was Sawicz. Another who accepted was Gabreski’s tutor from 315 Squadron days, the future Squadron Leader Tadeusz Andersz (obituary, November 16, 2007). The Polish authorities welcomed this arrangement, thinking of it as a means of cementing ties between their and the American air forces after the war.
Sawicz and the Poles, flying P47D Thunderbolts, completed many sorties with 56 Group’s 61st Fighter Squadron in the run-up to D-Day. He was awarded the American DFC and Air Medal. Sawicz was recalled to service alongside the RAF and in October 1944 was appointed commander of the 1st Polish Fighter Wing (No 131 Wing RAF) comprising the Polish 302, 308 and 317 Squadrons. He led the wing until the end of the war.
Victory over Germany did not bring freedom to Poland, which fell under Soviet rule. The 14 Polish Air Force squadrons and their training establishments, which had served alongside the RAF, were disbanded by the end of January 1947. The same happened to the rest of the 200,000-strong Polish forces which had fought under overall British command. Most chose a life of exile rather than returning to Poland.
Sawicz’s first marriage was dissolved, and in 1957 he emigrated to Canada, and found employment in the aeronautical industry. On retirement he settled near Toronto and attended Polish Air Force reunions in London and in Poland after its return to democracy.
In 2006 the President of Poland promoted him to the honorary rank of brigadier general. He also held the Polish Virtuti Militari, and the Polish Cross of Valour and three Bars.
His second wife predeceased him and he is survived by his third wife, Jadwiga, and by a step-daughter of this marriage.
Wing Commander Tadeusz Sawicz, DFC, wartime fighter pilot, was born on February 13, 1914. He died on October 19, 2011, aged 97
'Бій відлунав. Жовто-сині знамена затріпотіли на станції знов'
