Marceli NEYDER
Polish Air Force
Marceli Neyder was born on September 3rd, 1918, to a Polish emigré family in Essen, Germany. His father was a hard-working miner, supporting a family of several children.
In 1922 the Neyders returned to Poland, settling in Bydgoszcz. In 1925 Marceli began his education. His first year was spent at the school in Osowa Góra; afterwards he attended Czyżówek school. After gaining his higher school-leaving certificate in 1937 he attended the joint cadet college; on passing out he joined the Polish Air Force Academy in Dęblin on 2nd January 1938.
Marceli did not participate in the military defence of Poland, as on 8th September he was evacuated with a group of air cadets to the Romanian border area. On September 19th he crossed the border and made his way by train via Bucharest, Yugoslavia and Italy, to reach the rallying point near Paris (arriving by 10th October!) In December 1939 he was transferred to Bron, Lyon. In May 1940 he began training on the MS-406 at Tours airfield, but the capitulation of France forced him to evacuate by sea to Britain.
Marceli disembarked at Liverpool on 27th June 1940. He was sent to the 5th OTU at Aston Down for re-training on British aircraft and later posted to the 303 "Tadeusz Kościuszko" Squadron as a non-operational pilot to train on Hurricane fighters. He was then posted to 302 „Poznań” Squadron.
Neyder requested a transfer to 307 "Lwow Eagle Owls" Night Fighter Squadron, defending the Exeter area against German bombing raids. Here he re-trained on two-seater Beaufighters and, accompanied by navigator Sgt. Jan Woźny, began to fly night patrols.
In August 1942, Neyder applied to be transferred to RAF 23 Night Fighter Squadron (then stationed at Manston). With this British squadron Neyder re-trained on the modern Mosquito Mark II fighters (it had been his wish to fly the "Wooden Wonder" that prompted him to apply for the transfer). Neyder crewed up with British navigator F/O Sydney John Cornes.
In December 1942, 23 Squadron was posted to the Mediterranean theatre, to Luqa air base, Malta. The 23 Squadron aircrew, including Neyder and Cornes, specialised in long-range "ranger" and "intruder" missions over Sicily, Italy, Tunisia and even southern France.
On 21st February 1943, at 3.35 a.m., Neyder and Cornes took off for a mission in the Maratimo-Pantellaria region. Following the take-off there was no further radio communication and when the crew failed to return it was acknowledged that they had perished. They probably crashed into the sea.
Flight Lieutenant Marceli Neyder was awarded the Silver Cross Virtuti Militari (no. 8376) and the Cross of Valour and two bars.
Excerpts from: https://www.polishairforce.pl/neydereng.html