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Andrzej Wesolowski | Warrant Officer Andrzej Wesolowski He was a wireless operator/air gunner and was born on 17th November 1916 at Alexandrow Kujowski near Torun. He initially served with the Polish Army and was captured in 1939, by the Russians, during the September Campaign. He escaped and was later captured by the Germans and held as a POW in France where he volunteered to work in the Commandant’s garden, thereby supplementing his diet with the odd potato he was able to liberate! He escaped again and made it to England in early 1943 where he joined 304 Squadron after training as a wireless operator/air gunner and being a regular rear gunner with them before transferring out to 6OTU for a three month course. Near the end of his time there, he was on board Wellington Mk X HE747 when it crashed, on 18th February 1944, during a training flight out of RAF Silloth, Cumberland (now Cumbria). He was participating in a co-operation exercise with fighters when the engines on the Wellington overheated and the pilot made a forced landing near the village of Skinburness, about a mile north of Silloth. In an effort to avoid buildings, the plane lost speed and crash landed – killing the pilot and another crew member. Andrzej Wesolowski was one of three survivors but he was injured and recuperated at the Polish Depot in Blackpool. As soon as he was fit, he rejoined 304 Squadron and completed 27/29 operations with them (sources vary). During his military service he was awarded the Cross of Valour. After the war he settled down in Derby. |
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Day Duties for the Night Workers by Robert Taylor. With its mission completed, the mighty Lancaster slowly rolls to a halt on the lonely dispersal point, the roar of its four pulsating Merlin engines steadily slackens, replaced by an eerie silence, broken only by the snapping cracks of cooling metal. Slowly the seven weary crew tumble out of the fuselage, their faces etched with strain, eyes rimmed red with tiredness. For them it is the final act of another long, arduous and nerve-wracking operation, another eight-hour ordeal to attack industrial targets in the Ruhr. This time they know they've been lucky, they reached the target and returned home safely, despite the deadly flak and prowling Luftwaffe night-fighters. For others, however, the work of war has just begun. As the massive Lancaster looms majestically over them, the ever vigilant ground crew begin the task of preparing their aircraft for the coming night's operation. Checking, repairing and double-checking again, making sure that nothing goes wrong on the next trip, nothing that could endanger the lives of the crew who depend on them. And then there are guns to be re-armed, bombs to be loaded and near-empty fuel tanks refilled. It will be a race against time. |
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