305 Squadron pilot turned bomb disposal man

Discussion in 'The War In The Air' started by archivist, Aug 21, 2019.

  1. archivist

    archivist Well-Known Member

    On 5th May 1942, 305 Squadron pilot Stanislaw Krawczyk was shot down over Belgium and successfully evaded capture before returning to England. He was injured and bravely gave his parachute to another airman. He managed a successful crash landing in spite of his injuries.

    Whilst on the run he was treated in a Belgian hospital and during his time there he is said to have defused a bomb in or near the hospital. Does anyone have any knowledge of this incident please?
     
  2. alieneyes

    alieneyes Senior Member

    Oliver Clutton-Brock's "RAF Evaders" has a bit on his evasion, mostly what you have here, but nothing of any bomb being defused.

    He meets up with a Sgt Malecki and a Sgt Edward Polesinski (Wellington W5627 27/28 April 1942) and they travel to Marseille together.

    "Reaching Lyon on 12 May, Krawczyk 'went to the house of a French friend (who is anti DeGaulle, anti English and pro Petain)....."

    Flying Officer S Krawczyk (service number P 1347). Service: RAF. Evasion from... | The National Archives
     
    archivist and CL1 like this.
  3. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

  4. archivist

    archivist Well-Known Member

    Thank you both for your help. That gives me something to work on.

    Neville
     
  5. archivist

    archivist Well-Known Member

    Just as a matter of interest for those who responded. I have found a report of the bomb defusing incident but it is 11 pages long and in Polish so it is going to take me a long time to translate!
     
  6. archivist

    archivist Well-Known Member

    I have tried to order this document from The National Archives but they have rejected my request because they say my email address is already in use - which is worrying - I will have to phone them tomorrow in the hope of being able to resolve this matter.
     
  7. archivist

    archivist Well-Known Member

    I am happy to report that I have managed to order this document at last!

    For those of you who are interested, I have translated the document mentioned above and it is a total figment of the author's imagination. It was written in 1965 and the author gives a detailed description of how he defused a bomb in a children's hospital in Amsterdam several weeks after he crashed and was then arrested by the Germans and later escaped.

    In actual fact he was picked up by the Belgian resistance and handed over to the PAT line people who took him through France, over the Pyrennees to Barcelona then on to Gibraltar. ONE week after the crash he was in Lyons.

    Whether this was fed to him by the Polish secret police as a propaganda thing or whether he wrote a pack of lies because he thought he would get away with it, we will never know (he died in 1977). I would suggest that serious researchers should take anything written by Wladyslaw Kisielewski with a lorry load of salt!
     
    Robert-w and ozzy16 like this.

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