Dual identity salutes two different Polish Battle of Britain pilots who served at Duxford on the same unit
The Polish Heritage Flight organisation has announced that the Historic Aircraft Collection’s Hawker Hurricane XII, G-HURI, will this year fly in the markings of two pilots from No 302 Squadron during the time the unit was stationed at Duxford — this warbird’s modern-day base.
The starboard side has been finished as P2954/WX-E, the Hurricane I flown by Flt Lt Tadeusz Chlopik, while the port side represents P3935/WX-D, the mount of Flt Lt — later Wg Cdr — Julian Kowalski. No 302 Squadron was stationed at Duxford for a brief time during the Battle of Britain, and it was in the course of this period that both pilots were scrambled after German bombers over North Weald on 15 September 1940. The 32-year-old Chlopik claimed the shared kill of a Dornier Do 17 before P2954 was shot down above the Essex airfield. He bailed out, but was killed. Today he is buried in Southend-on-Sea’s Sutton Road cemetery.
Kowalski downed another Do 17 in the same engagement and damaged another. Later becoming No 302 Squadron’s CO and, from April 1944, commander of No 1 (Polish) Wing at Northolt, he left the RAF in 1947. Staying in the UK while Poland came under communist control, he took up a career designing agricultural equipment for Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies in Ipswich, where he lived until his death in 1986.
The Hurricane’s new colours have been sponsored by Audley End-based Vintage Fabrics, which also applied them. In so doing, G-HURI became the first example of the type, it is believed, ever to have landed at the Essex aerodrome. Now back at Duxford, it will appear at a range of events in the 2023 season.
Meanwhile, the Polish Heritage Flight has an exhibition running until 30 September at The Atkinson in Southport. Various items of memorabilia and scale models are on display in this arts centre in the Lancashire town, the local connection being that several Polish-manned RAF fighter squadrons were stationed during wartime at nearby Woodvale.
