Air Force Index

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No. 301 (Pomerania) Polish Squadron Royal Air Force    No 301 squadron was formed at Bramcote, in July 1940, as a Polish light bomber squadron equipped with Battles. It was involved in night attacks on enemy invasion barges in the Channel Ports, converting to Wellingtons in October 1940. No 301 was withdrawn from operations in March 1943 and disbanded in April, the crews transferring to No 300 Squadron. In November 1944, No 301 (Pomeranian) Squadron re-formed at Brindisi from No 1586 (Special Duties) Flight as part of the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, flying Halifaxes and Liberators in supply-drops to Poland, Yugoslavia and northern Italy, supporting partisan forces. In March 1945 the personnel of No 301 moved to Britain, reforming at Blackbushe in April as a transport unit equipped with Warwicks, flying regular services to Norway, Italy and Greece. After the war, in January 1946, the squadron converted to Halifaxes and by April 1946 was mostly flying training sorties, disbanding in December 1946. Airfields No. 301 Squadron flew from: RAF Bramcote, Warwickshire, formed 22nd July 1940 (Battle I) RAF Swinderby, Lincolnshire from the 28th of August 1940 (Wellington Ic) RAF Hemswell, Lincolnshire from the 18th July 1941 (Wellington IV) - disbanded the 7th April 1943. Brindisi from the 7th November 1944 out of 1586 Polish Flight (Liberator, Halifax II, Halifax V) RAF Blackbushe from the 4th April 1945 (Warwick)   16th Oct 1940 Operation Sealion 26th Apr 1941 Aircraft Lost 8th May 1941 Aircraft Lost 18th Jun 1941 Aircraft Lost 18th Jun 1941 Aircraft Lost 22nd Jun 1941 Aircraft Lost 30th Jun 1941 301 squadron Wellington lost 3rd July 1941 Aircraft Lost 17th Jul 1941 Aircraft Lost 8th Aug 1941 Aircraft Lost 9th Aug 1941 301 squadron Wellington lost 21st Oct 1941 Aircraft Lost 7th November 1941 Aircraft Lost 8th November 1941 Polish crew make forced landing in Sweden 15th Jan 1942 Aircraft Lost 1st April 1943 New Special Duties Flight 4th November 1943 Polish Special Duties Flight 6th January 1944 Two Special Operations aircraft lost January 1944 Increase in Special Duties squadrons 31st January 1944 Relocated and re-equipped 2nd August 1944 SoE Mission shot down over Hungary 4th August 1944 Warsaw Uprising 16th August 1944 Seven aircraft lost on Warsaw supply drops 18th August 1944 Lost on supply mission to Warsaw 28th August 1944 Four aircraft lost supplying the Warsaw Uprising 2nd September 1944 Four aircraft lost on supply drop to Warsaw 11th September 1944 Polish Flight loses 4 aircraft on mission to Warsaw 14th September 1944 Liberator shot down over Hungary 23rd September 1944 Halifax crew drowned 7th November 1944 Flight redesignated as a Squadron If you can provide any additional information, please add it here. Logbooks Do you have a WW2 Flying Log Book in your possession? If so it would be a huge help if you could add logbook entries to our new database. Thank you. View Logbook entries Those known to have served with No. 301 (Pomerania) Polish Squadron Royal Air Force during the Second World War 1939-1945. Banasik KW & Bar. Bonifacy. WO. (d.2002) The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List Records of No. 301 (Pomerania) Polish Squadron Royal Air Force from other sources. The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website. Announcements The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 24 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web. 18th April 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 263925 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible. Looking for help with Family History Research?   Please read our Family History FAQ's The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web. If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation. Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. We are now on Facebook. Like this page to receive our updates. If you have a general question please post it on our Facebook page. Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home. If you have any unwanted photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them. The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted. World War 1 One ww1 wwII second 1939 1945 battalion Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations. Want to know more about No. 301 (Pomerania) Polish Squadron Royal Air Force? There are:2029 items tagged No. 301 (Pomerania) Polish Squadron Royal Air Force available in our Library   These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. WO. Bonifacy "Bonek" Banasik KW & Bar. 301 Squadron (d.2002) Bonifacy Banasik was my father-in-law. He was born in Czestochowa, Poland in 1912. He lost his father in 1918 or 1919. There is no clear record of his father's death except that his dad went off to war and was killed, grave site unknown. He graduated from his hometown schools and then attended Mechanical School in Warsaw. From 1932 to 34 he served in the 3rd Air Regiment, Polish Air Force and then remained in the Polish Air Force Reserves until 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland. At that time, he was reported to have destroyed a Nazi plane and went into hiding. The Nazis captured and tortured his mother but finally released her after she signed a document saying she did not know his whereabouts and would report him immediately if he returned to her. Otherwise, she herself and the rest of by the family would be killed. Bonek, as he was called, fled into Russia, was captured by the Russians and sent to a Siberian Concentration POW camp in the Ussa River area, from which he managed to escape. He eventually found his way to England in 1942 and served in the Polish 301 (Pomerania) Squadron of the RAF. There he met my English mother-in-law who served in NAFFI and they married in 1944. She related stories to me of how he would go on bombing missions and she feared never seeing him again. She said he served in and we recently saw his photo posted on another site while in Brindisi. After the war, he brought his family to the US in 1954 where he worked as a design engineer. He passed away in 2002. Dad rarely spoke of his war days and we never knew of his Cross of Valor award with Bar or his title of Defenders of Warsaw until a few months before he died. He never saw his mother again. (She died in 1955). He returned to Poland only once in 1974, still fearing reprisal. After his return he stopped all contact with his family. They found us on Fb in 2016 and we were reunited last year in Poland. I am writing this to share his story and honour his memory. Robert & Carol Banasik Add to this record. Recomended Reading. Available at discounted prices.

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