Witold Urbanowicz

Witold Urbanowicz never participated in either the Polish Campaign of 1939, or in the Western European Campaign of 1940. When the war erupted he was an instructor at the Centrum Szkolenia Lotniczego (Aviation Training Centre). With a platoon of 50 junior officers-trainees under his command he made his way (on the ground) to Romania by 17 September. Leaving his subordinates in that country, he went back to Poland to rejoin the struggle, was captured but managed to escape back to Romania on the very same day. In August of 1940 he was already 34 years old, nevertheless, he volunteered for active flying duty. In 1942 he was sent to the U.S. as an assistant to the Polish air attaché. In September of 1943 he was send, on his own request, to fight against the Japanese in China. Of his confirmed victories 21 were achieved in air-to-air combat (17 of them were over German planes), and nine were enemy planes destroyed on the ground. He, along with Jozef Frantisek, achieved the best result of any Allied fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain.