Jan Kazimierz Daszewski (5 April 1916 – 4 April 1942) was a fighter pilot in the

Polish Air Force The Polish Air Force ( pl, Siły Powietrzne, , Air Forces) is the aerial warfare branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 16,425 mil ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Jan Daszewski was born on 5 April 1916 in Kiev. He trained at the "School of Eaglets" in

Dęblin Dęblin is a town at the confluence of Vistula and Wieprz rivers, in Lublin Voivodeship, Poland. Dęblin is the part of the agglomeration with adjacent towns of Ryki and Puławy, which altogether has over 100 000 inhabitants. The population of ...

. In 1938 he was posted to 112 Fighter Escadrille and participated in the September 1939 campaign in Poland, claiming a Ju 87 destroyed. Via Romania he escaped to France and in May 1940 he was posted to ECD I/55 flying the Bloch MB 152, where he claimed a He 111 destroyed. On 2 August 1940 he was posted to

No. 303 Squadron RAF No. 303 Squadron RAF, also known as the 303rd "Tadeusz Kościuszko Warsaw" Fighter Squadron, was one of two Polish Air Forces in France and Great Britain, Polish squadrons that fought during the Battle of Britain along with No. 302 Polish Fight ...

. His achievements are described in Arkady Fiedler's book ''Dywizjon 303'' (Squadron 303). With

Jan Zumbach Jan Eugeniusz Ludwig Zumbach (14 April 1915, Ursynów, Congress Poland, Russian Empire – 3 January 1986, France) was a Polish- Swiss fighter pilot who became an ace and squadron commander during the Second World War. During the Cold War, he ...

Mirosław Ferić Mirosław Ferić (17 June 1915 – 14 February 1942), was a Polish-Croatian fighter pilot, a flying ace of World War II. Early life Ferić was born in Travnik in Bosnia and Herzegovina, his father was a Bosnian Croat (who died during World Wa ...

and Witold Łokuciewski, Daszewski was one of the famous "four musketeers" of Polish pilots fighting in the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

. On 7 September he was wounded in combat, suffering a severe thigh injury, returning to 303 Squadron on 27 December 1940. On 22 November 1941 he became a flight commander in 303 Squadron. He was shot down and posted missing over the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

in April 1942. His wartime tally was 3 destroyed, 2 'probables' and 1 destroyed on the ground.Those Other Eagles, Shores, page 140 He was awarded the Silver Cross of Virtuti Militari, Cross of Valour and three bars.

References

1916 births 1942 deaths Polish World War II pilots Polish military personnel killed in World War II Royal Air Force personnel killed in World War II Missing in action of World War II Aviators killed by being shot down {{Poland-mil-bio-stub