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Tadeusz ZABICKI

Polish Air Force

Tadeusz Piotr Żabicki was born on 16 May, 1920, in the small village of Kolonia Wilanów in the province of Kielce. His parents were Stanisław and Małgorzata (nee Szymańska).

 

After completing school, he volunteered to join the armed forces and dreamt of becoming a pilot. Having passed all the necessary medical tests, he was accepted as a pilot trainee at the Polish Air Force N.C.O.s Training School in Świecie. He was later transferred to Krosno, where he completed the glider pilot course and began elementary pilot training in the nearby airbase at Moderówka.

After the Russian Army invaded Polish territory on 17 September 1939, he was evacuated to Romania, along with the other pilot trainees and instructors. Then they crossed the Mediterranean on passenger ships „Patris” and „Franconia” for France, reaching Marseille.

It took four months before Żabicki was sent to Great Britain in a transfer of Polish airmen, which was to be the basis for the first two Polish bomber squadrons planned for the UK.

On 16 March 1940 he took the oath at the Polish Air Force Centre at Eastchurch, was registered on the official list of Polish Air Force personnel, and received his service number 781302. then he commenced his initial training at the Air Crew Training Centre in Blackpool, after which on he was transferred to 18 Operational Training Unit at Bramcote, then the No 15 Elementary Flying Training School at Carlisle, and the No 3 Flying Training School at South Cerney. On 6 August 1941 he finally received the pilot's badge and was promoted to the British rank of Sergeant.

He was posted to 300 Polish Squadron stationed at Hemswell. Żabicki's crew consisted of: observer - F/O Józef Gryglewicz, wireless-operator - Sgt Bolesław Cywiński and two air gunners - Sgt Tadeusz Garczynski and Sgt Marian Roman.

As one of the "fresher" crews in the squadron, at the start of their tour they were assigned nearer, less well-defended targets in Northern France: Cherbourg, Calais and Brest. At this time, their No 1 pilot was the experienced P/O Stanisław Boczkowski, who had joined 300 Squadron six months earlier and had completed 20 sorties. The experience they gained under his command allowed them soon to join the crews capable of undertaking the more dangerous and difficult tasks - bombing operations over the most heavily defended German cities. By the end of 1941 Żabicki and his crew had bombed Cologne and Düsseldorf.

He twice bombed the port of Brest, where two German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were moored. Żabicki then carried out successful bombing missions on Wilhelmshaven, Kiel and Emden. After this operation Tadeusz Żabicki was given command of his own crew as No 1 pilot.

On 4 March 1942, Żabicki was awarded the Field Flying Badge (no 973) and the Polish Cross of Valor with Bar, upon completion of 13 sorties during the month.

In April 1942, Żabicki bombed Cologne, Hamburg (twice), Essen (twice), Dortmund and Rostock. He was then awarded a second Bar to the Cross of Valour.

June 1942 turned out to be the most arduous month yet for Żabicki. He completed 11 operations, during which he flew over Essen (three times), Emden (four times) and Bremen (twice). Twice he also took part in an operation which was new to the Polish airmen: dropping mines in designated areas code-named "gardening" operations due to resemblance to planting flowers in the garden. So he "planted" his mines in the approaches to ports and sea communication routes near the Frisian Islands. In recognition of his bravery in combat, he was promoted to Corporal and was awarded the highest Polish award for gallantry: The Silver Cross of Virtuti Military, No. 9462.

After completion of his tour of duty, Żabicki was posted to 18 Operational Training Unit at Bramcote for pilot-instructor duties. It should be emphasized that the number of operations he had flown was remarkable - 38. Moreover, all of them were successfully completed. Even in three cases where aircraft failures justified abandoning the mission, he preferred to press on and complete the operation by dropping his bomb load on secondary targets.

He was promoted to Flight Sergeant and received the Third Bar to the Polish Cross of Valour. At the end of 1942, he volunteered to begin his second tour of duty, and was posted to the British 138 (Special Duties) Squadron based in Tempsford. The main duties of this unit, using the heavy four-engined Handley Page Halifax aircraft, included droppings supplies and agents for the underground organisations throughout German-occupied Europe.

After completing 58 operations, Żabicki's luck unfortunately ran out. During his 59th sortie on 23rd/24th June, in an attempt to deliver agents and supplies to the Netherlands, his Halifax BB379 NF-J was seriously damaged by flak. Eventually the crippled, burning aircraft crash-landed near Amsterdam. In the wreckage pilot F/Sgt Tadeusz Żabicki, 2nd pilot F/Sgt Walenty Siciński, navigator F/O Wacław Kalkus and wireless-operator F/Sgt Kazimierz Kidziak perished. Only flight engineer Sgt Stanisław Roehr, rear air gunner F/Sgt Józef Rek and dispatcher Sgt Edward Kasperowicz managed to bail out, and were taken prisoner by German soldiers.

Pilot (Sergeant) Tadeusz Żabicki is buried in the New Eastern Cemetery at Amsterdam in collective grave no 62.

 

Excerpts from: https://www.polishairforce.pl/zabickieng.html

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