Polish Air Force in France 1939

Perhaps the date has something to do with when he reported to the military in Rumania after escaping. A commission on the 1st September looks like he was still a cadet at the outbreak of war. Perhaps he was one of the 50 officer cadets that Urbanowicz took to Rumania on a requisitioned coach. If so, he would not have seen any action. “They wanted to fight and I kept explaining to them that I understood their desire to grab a gun and have a go at the enemy, but that they would make lousy infantry men. They were worth more in the air ….. My job was to take them where they could again climb into the cockpit of the fighter plane.”

Conditions in Bron-Lyons were pretty grim. These days they would be called ‘severe depredation.’ The French divided the Poles into professional soldiers and reservists. Reservists received only minimum pay on which it was impossible to survive. Likely it was these conditions that caused his illness. A full account can be found in Grzegorz Śliżewski’s Stracone Złudzenia The Lost Hopes (bilingual). It seems it is still available.

https://www.ianallanpublishing.com/product.php?productid=14044&cat=0&page=1

Accommodation at Foire – that’s water on the floor.

The first organised groups of Polish soldiers started to arrive in France at the end of October 1939. He must have got there very quickly! Are you sure the date isn’t the 10th August, when he was mobilised?

His Fiche is states: date a laquelle il a rejoint cette formation (date has which it rejoined this formation) clearly dated 8th October 1939 for his mobilisation,
On the rear it states: la somme de
et la prime de demobilisation (the sum of and the premium of demobilisation) and has a date stamp: 9 MAI 1945

This is a copy of his Fiche de Demobilisation, dated 8th October 1939. He also acquired a French driving licence on 20th December 1939

I have the following,

Boleslaw Henryk Paley was born on the 14th of September 1915 in Bitkow in the district of Nadworna, he later lived in Stanislawow, which is now part of the Ukraine, he went to school and college to study mathematics and sciences leaving in 1935.

He joined the Polish Airforce on the 27th September 1937 at the Polish Air Force Officers School in Deblin with No 13 entry, upon completion he was commissioned with the rank of Pilot Officer on the 1st September 1939

With the beginning of the war all pilots in his year were evacuated to Romania and then by train to France via Italy after arriving at Lyon on the 8th January 1940 he became ill, later he was posted to Chateauroux airfield on the 1st March 1940 to take up flight training, he was later evacuated via Bordeaux to England, by ship, probably the Arandorra Star which arrived at Liverpool in late June 1940.

I have a copy his Polish Airforce Records amongst other info somewhere so I will look them out to see what more I can add, I seem to recall he was involved in military ballooning before the war

The attached photo I understand is a pre war one.

In ‘Poles in Defence of Britain’ Paley is noted in one of the appendices

55 OTU; 20/05/41 to 315S; 26/05/41 to 245S

regards

DaveW

The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, 20 Princes Gate, London SW7 1P, should have his military record, both pre-war and while in the UK. http://www.sikorskimuseum.co.uk/

Poland had a system like national Service. You could join the Air Force, qualify as a pilot and then return to civilian life. You would then becoame part of the reserve, bit like being in the Territorial Army. Very similar to the system countries like Switzerland operate. The first organised groups of Polish soldiers started to arrive in France at the end of October 1939. He miust have giot there very quickly! Are you sure the date isn’t the 10th August, when he was mobilised?

There is no mention of him in the ‘The Lost Hopes’ by Grzegorz Śliżewski or Polish Wings 2 by Bartłomiej Belcarz.

PM me your e-mail, and I’ll see what my colleage, an expert on the Polish Air Force in France can come up with.
Cheers