304 squadron : Wellingtons against the U-boats

98 Pages·2005·13.06 MB·English

by  Mariusz Konarski

Mariusz Konarski
No 7106
Wellingtons against
the g-Boats
PublishedinPolandin200SbySTRATUS
ArturJuszczak,Po.Box123,27-600Sandomierz1,Poland
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ISBN 83-89450-18-6
Editorinchief RogerWallsgrove
EditorialTeam BartlomiejBelcarz
RobertP~czkowski
ArturJuszczak
ColourDrawings JacekJackiewicz
DTP DariuszKarnas,
RobertP~czkowski
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Adam Jarski, Andrzej Jeziorski, Marian Kowalczyk, Jacek Kutzner, PiotrLaskowski, Wojtek
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PRINTEDINPOLAND
Introduction 4
HistoryoftheSquadron 5
BomberCommand 5
CoastalCommand .•.........................................................................•..............•.................24
TransportCommand 67
Footnotes 73
Appendices 71
Colourprofiles 81
To My BelovedSon
304Squadron3
Introduction
304DYWiZjOn Bombowy"Ziemi
Slqskiej" im. Ksi~cia J6zef
Poniatowskiego,knownas304(Polish)
SquadronintheRAF,wasfonnedon22
August 1940atRAFBramcote,Leicester.Itspersonnel wasrecruitedfrom
amongairmenoftheformer2ndand6thAirRegimentsofthepre-warPolish
AirForce,subsequentlyreinforcedwith3rdAirRegimentstaffarrivingafter
thefall ofFrance. W/CdrJan Bialy was appointed OfficerCommanding,
and SlLdrJulian Wajda his deputy. W/CdrWilliamM. Graham was the
RAFadvisor.
"Shootingtraining"on
aTigerMoth.
Engineoverhaulofan
AvroAnson, oneofthetwo
usedbytheSquadronin
1940-41.
BattleTrainercodedNY-Z,
oneofthetwosuchaircraft
usedbytheSquadron.
4304Squadron
History of the squadron
00
rnU0~
Q[bQ
83qJTI8JiliUill
Bomber Command OneoftheWellington
MklAs usedasatrainerin
1941.
Initiallythesquadronwasequippedwith16FaireyBattleIlightsingle
enginebombers and two BattleTrainers. From 1November 1940it
used twin-engine Vickers WellingtonIAtrainers, andfrom 22November
Ie
1940Vickers Wellington bombers. TheWellington crew includedthe
pilot,co-pilot,navigator,radio-operatorandtwogunners. Mjrpil. JanBialy, thefirst
"Atan early stage oforganisation- pplk pi!. Jan Bialy wrotein his commanderof304Squad
memoirs thesquadronwasequippedwithFaireyBattles.Asingle-engine ron.
I-
aeroplanewithretractableundercarriage,crewofthree(pilot, navigatorand
gunner), armedwithtwomachineguns, bombloadof750kg.Aircraftofthe
typeweresimilartoourKaras,neverthelessthecrewshadtogetacquainted
withthenewtypeofaeroplane,especiallypilotswhohadtoremembertoraise
the undercarriageaftertake-offandloweritbeforelanding.
(...)Crews hadto make overadozenflights to learn the newdevices,
besidesthepilotsunderwentconversiontraining in 'blind'flying, piloting
onlyaccordingtoinstrumentsinthecockpit.Navigatorsunderwentconver
siontrainingaccordingtoEnglishairnavigationstandards,basedlargelyon
maritimenavigation. Knowledgeofthistypeofnavigationwasnecessaryin
daylightandnightflying, as wellasovervastoceanareas, whennavigator
wasabletomakehiscalculationsbasedonlyaccordingtothewinddirection
304Squadron5
History of the squadron
VickersWellingtonMkIe, andforce, speedoftheaeroplane, andflighttime. Gunnersoftheaeroplane
codedNZ-T. weretrainedinoperatingthemachineguns, aswellas indropping bombs,
alsonavigatorsweretrainedinthelatter.
Thewholeconversiontrainingwasveryintensive.Aftersixweeks,bythe
endofOctober1940, crewswere completedandtrained, andthesquadron
waspreparedtoparticipate incombatoperations.
InNovemberthesquadronwasre-equippedwithWellingtons.Bothflying
andengineeringpersonnelneededconversiontrainingonthenewaeroplane
Pplkpi!. PiotrDudzinski, type.Asflyingwasplannedtobedoneentirelyatnight, specialattentionwas
thesquadron'scommander paidtoconversiontrainingofpilots,notonlyintermsoftwin-engineaircraft
between20.12.1940and piloting, butalsoininstrumentflying. Navigatorswereadditionallytrained
12.11.1941. inlong rangenavigationwithoutaidofgroundfeatures. Shortage offlying
personnelwasmadeupwithpostingsfrom Britishreserves(...)"
DuetomisunderstandingswiththeBritishadvisor,on22December1940
W/CdrJ. Bialyleftthesquadron.Hewasreplacedattheheadoftheunitby
W/CdrPiotrDudzinski.
On27January 1941 Polish304and 305 Squadrons werevisitedbythe
King George VIand QueenElizabeth. TheRoyal couple inspectedPolish
airmenin adecoratedhangar. The visitwas agreathonour andjoyfor the
personnel.
Theunitachievedcombatreadiness on25 April 1941.Itwouldoperate
undercontrolofBomberCommand. Its aircraft wereidentified bytheNZ
codesappliedonthefuselages.
6304Squadron
History of the squadron
Establishmentofthesquadron,No.WARlBCI116(wartimeheavybomber
squadronRAF) stipulatedthesquadronHQof 106and two flights of218,
atotalof324officers and men. Itwas to beequippedwith 16twin-engine
bombers.2
Atthetime304and305SquadronswerebasedatSyerston,Nottingham
shire.On25April 1941 twocrews(ofPIOAntoniSymandFlOKazimierz
Czetowicz)of304Squadron tookpartinaraid onRotterdam. Thecrewof
WellingtonICNZ-D(N2852)includedPIOJerzyIszkowskiastheco-pilot,
andhewroteinhismemoirs:3
"Imademyfirstcombatsortieon25April1941intheunfamiliarcrewof
FlOCzetowicz.Aeroplane-Wellington-Pegasusno.2852.Bombs:incendiary
andhighexplosive.Task:bombpetroltanksinRotterdam, Holland. Thiswas
thefirstoperationalattemptofthesquadron.Twocrewsweremadeupofthe Kpt.pi/.KazimierzCzetow
bestpilots. Take-offwasatdusk. Inthedarknessofthenightwepassedthe icz, thesquadron'scom
Englishcoastand, aftercrossingtheNorthSea, wecrossedtheDutchcoast manderbetween16.08.1942
southofEmden. Approaching the bombingarea wemaintainedaltitudeof and18.01.1943.
12,000to14,000feet.1ntheEmdenareawecircledinsearchoftheprescribed
targetofdestruction. Thecompletelydarknightmadeitimpossibletoidentify
thetarget,relativelysmallanddifficulttohit.Wedroppedthefirstmagnesium
bomb. Forafewminutesthegroundwaswellvisible. Iadjustedtheheading
slightlyandthe tanksappearedahead. Imadeaquickpass, butsuddenlya
coneofaboutadozen coupledsearchlightscaughtusinthe middleofthe
beam. Powerfullights blindedus andfilled the blackabyss. By aviolent
manoeuvre Ifreed myselffrom the trap and resumedthe attack, this time
withgoodeffect.Asalvoofbombsleftthefuselage. Quicklydepartingfrom
Rotterdamwewatchedtheresultsofthebombardment.Sixpoweifulflashes
ofhighexplosivebombexplosionsandhundredsofsmallerincendiarysparks
startedfourfiresofwhichtwoexpandedrapidly.Later, itcouldbeseenhow
bombsfrom otheraircraftoftheraidhitthosefires.
WellingtonMkIC, NZ-F;
notethelettersizeandcam
ouflagescheme.
304Squadron7
History of the squadron
WellingtonMkIeduring
preparationforanopera
tionalflight.
500poundbombloading.
The inscriptionis "Foryou
criminal"
Another500poundsbomb
withthe inscription
"Shiverbandits"
8304Squadron
History 01 the squadron
As soon as we turnedourbackon Emden, three
searchlightconescaughtusandtheartilleryfire inten
sified. Things onlycalmeddown belowusonce wegot
overthesea".
The subsequent action, on the night of2 May,
involvedfourcrews.Theyattackedtheportandcityof
Emden. Theduty wascarriedoutwithoutlosses. Next
sortieswereflownonthenightof5May,withLeHavre
asthetarget.Thistimethefirstpainfullossesweresuf
fered. During the attack the Wellington (R1443) with
thecrewofPIOAntoniSymwasshotdown.
Thecrew ofPIO Jerzy Iszkowski was incredibly
fortunate. As the engines were started, the aeroplane
burstinflames.
Fire immediately engulfed the entire port wing,
wrote Iszkowski in his memoirs, which had several
thousandlitresofpetrolinitstorsionboxes.Fromthere
itcaughtthefuselage,loadedwithexplosivesinthebomb
bays. Extremelydangerous situation. British auxiliary
maintenancepersonnel ran away from the dangerous
place. Only three Polish groundcrewmen and myself
ofthecrewstayedneartheaeroplane.BeforeImanagedtounstrapanddrop Loadingammunitionforthe
myparachutewithitsharnessandruntotheaeroplane,thethreefittershave noseturretmachineguns,
alreadybroken into theaeroplane withfire extinguishers. Thecrewpassed WellingtonMkIe.
fireextinguishersfromnearbypoststoreplacethosealreadyempty.
BritishfIrefIghtingtruckapproachedtheburningaeroplanerapidly,butit
stoppedseveralhundredyardsaway.Quiterightso,asitcouldblowupwith Extinguishingthefire on
its entirecrewoffiremen. Moments later, when thefire was extinguished, aWellingtonMkIe.
304Squadron9