**** DONE: Mustang Mk III of No. 315 (Polish) Squadron RAF, Sqn Ldr E.Horbaczewski

With above.

Definately some great stuff in this thread 8)

Great set of Pics Antoni.....

Antoni goin above and beyond, great stuff...

Awesome stuff!

On 30th July 1944, 315 Squadron was tasked to provide ten aircraft to escort 48 Beaufighters attacking enemy shipping off the coast of Norway. Four Mustangs became detached on route and the six others, led by S/Ldr Horbaczewski, encountered a mixed formation of about 15 enemy fighters 30 miles west of Lister Fjord and in a surprise attack destroyed seven without loss.

F/Lt Cwynar recalls:

In early morning of July 30th, 1944, ten Mustangs of 315 Squadron, with Horbaczewski leading, took off from Brenzett with empty droppable combat fuel tanks. After an hour we landed at RAF station Coltishall. We enjoyed a sumptuous lunch in the Officers' Mess and then went back to the airfield to await the order to take off. Our Mustangs had been refuelled. The droppable tanks were also full, holding 75 US gallons each.

There was nothing else to do but relax in the shade of the aircraft wings before an arduous, five hour long flight. I closed my eyes and my mind began to wander... Abrakadabra (sic) (nonsense) ... what a change. After our stodgy meals under Brenzett canvas, good steak and desserts, all served up by WAAFs ~wih pretty faces and shapely, inviting legs ...

At this point, to explain the purpose of our mission, I must digress.

The Allies were receiving reports that the Germans were shipping uranium ore from the Bergen region of Norway, along the cost towards the Kattegat and on to Schweinemunde(now Świnoujście in Poland). The British were sending light bomber formations to sink anything that moved along the Norwegian coast. The Germans posted one Staffel of Bf-109 to Stavanger to protect vital traffic. Our light bombers, mainly Canadian Beaufighters, were taking heavy losses at the hands of the German fighters. To counter it, the RAF High Command decided to surprise the Germans by sending an escort of Mustangs along with the Canadians.

Finally the control tower ordered a rendezvous with the Canadian squadron. We took off, as
usual, with the fuel in the main tanks behind the pilot's cabin. When escorting at heights of 20k feet or more, we always flew 25 to 30 minutes on these tanks to make sure we used up a certain amount of fuel. That eliminated the Mustang's adverse lateral instability. This time, however, heading low towards the Wash, we had to change to droppable combat fuel tanks soon after being airborne. This, as it later transpired, posed some difficulties.

As we approached the Wash, the weather began to close in with a rainy, warm frontal system from the west. We soon spotted the Canadians in close formation, low down, "on the deck", to avoid radar detection. CO Horbaczewski, with his section of three Mustangs, took up position on the starboard side of the Beaufighters while I went to port and Maciek Kirste to the rear.
The weather worsened rapidly as we closed in on the Beaufighters, forming a tight formation around them. Their leader kept steady course whilst "hugging the waves". Maciek Kirste came through on the radio to inform that he had lost visual contact with the formation. Horbaczewski ordered him to fly back to England. (According to Kirste, this happened only while coming back to England.) It was dangerous in bad weather or while in the clouds to accelerate in an attempt to rejoin a formation after losing visual contact. With only six of us left, we ordered our wingmen to go echelon starboard and port respectively, and as in cloud formation, held on grimly. We did not dare lose Canadians because we had to protect them.

After two hours of total concentration, suddenly it was as if we had flown through a curtain or passed over a cliff. We had overtaken the eastern edge of the frontal system. The sun was behind us - a useful tactical advantage - and in front we had a beautiful panoramic view of the Norwegian coast. So this is Glieg' s homeland, I said to myself. But it was not a time to think of music!

A few miles from the land, the Canadians turned to the right along the coast in search
of shipping. Behind them and slightly above, Horbaczewski tucked in with his section
while I moved to his right with mine. We changed to the main fuselage fuel tanks and, keenly observing the Norwegian coast, waited. Not to betray our positions in the sun, we 'still kept our droppable fuel tanks under our wings.

Within a few minutes, one of Horbaczewski 's wingmen spotted German fighters approaching through a fjord's inlet, heading for the Beaufighters. There were two groups of four Messerschmitt 109' s, leisurely, almost nonchalantly carrying out a left hand turn to take up position to attack the Canadians. Jettisoning our wing fuel tanks, we attacked. Horbaczewski went in first, attacking the inner group, and I engaged the outer formation.

They were taken completely by surprise at first. They turned towards us and, having
learned a thing or two in battles over France (they were told the Spitfire, when diving shuddered and with us approaching out of the sun they had not recognised our Mustang's) they dived towards the sea.
In diving and then climbing in a left hand turn, I had engaged the group's leader. By the way he was scything through the air, the edges of his Messerschmitt's wings stitching the sky with air-condensed threads, I realised he was good.

He pulled hard, so did I! With the fuselage fuel tank still full and the Mustang's adverse lateral stability, there wasn't much room for imaginative manoeuvring. I had to hold a steady, smooth turn. With a few hundred revs always in reserve, I held on patiently. For one 360 degree circle or more there was stalemate. Then the Mysza/Michał duo's idea came in useful. I lowered flaps 10 degrees and was gaining on him. My solar plexus stopped churning as I felt sure of getting on his tail, all the time thinking Pull smoothly. Get that extra reserve throttle on. I got him in my gunsight's illuminated ring, pulled straight through his line of flight, one diameter - two - three diameters of deflection and then pressed the firing button. For a split second there was nothing, then I saw bullets punching holes, first on his tail section, and then on the fuselage, canopy, wings ...

I broke-off to the left, put the flaps "up" and, diving to gain more speed, in left turn, started to climb, and spotted another Messerschmitt 109 above, at about eleven 0'clock, also in left-hand turn! It appeared that he did not see me. I came close behind him, and opened
fire ... His undercarriage dropped down, so did the wing flaps - hydraulics shot-up. Pilot's canopy flew past me above. I stopped firing, and moved to his starboard side to avoid collision (his speed dropped). I came close abreast. The pilot, leaning forward, was wiping his face. Suddenly, one of colleagues' Mustangs started firing at him, pumping tracer bullets from behind. In this grim, merciless "it's-either-him-or-me-down-in-the-water" situation. A spark of humanity took over... I pressed R/T button and shouted - Zostaw go! Zostaw go! Leave him alone! Leave him alone! My colleague stopped firing. The Messerschmitt 109's pilot was still wiping his face with his left hand, the aircraft's propeller idling, he glided gently towards the dark blue waters of the sea. War is a strange, cruel affair!

The following year, 1945, as Commanding Officer of 316 Warsaw Fighter Squadron,
I flew the unit to Fairwood Common, South Wales, for air to air and air to ground gunnery course. At the pre-course cinema show there was a selection of fascinating air battles of the war... my film of the engagement in Norwegian Fjords was there! ...Somewhere in the Air Ministry archives Michał' s film is gathering dust.

...After the engagement which ended in an individual melee, we tried to gather ourselves together. To save valuable fuel, it was decided we would fly home in two separate sections. Horbaczewski "inherited" my wingman, Idrian. Dziubek' s Bozydar Nowosielski , became my companion. We headed home.

In no time we had flown back into the same atrocious weather. It seemed, probably because of the strain, even worse than before. There was water below and water lashing down from above. It is written that God created land, sea and the filmament. There was, as, far, and much farther, than we could see, only one: the water. I decided to pay more attention to the flying panel, the instruments. Came gradually to the sea level, approximately 10 feet above the waves, and to get that extra safety margin set the altimeter to zero! Only now and again checked to see if the wingmen were still with me and continued to head for home.

Tadek Jankowski, a gifted pilot and trusted wingman, good raconteur, began to pester me. Michał! Let's go above the clouds. Let's climb up! It would have been pleasant to go above, to see the sun and skim over the clouds having a breather. But soon we were to realise that we were in trouble.I was approaching land through a low cloud base without a clue as to my position or when and where I was going to get down. To have gone above would only have compounded our difficulties. I told Jankowski to keep quiet. Steady Nowosielski did not utter a word.

After reaching the English coastline, I turned south and to orientate myself, flew along the coast. South of Bridlington, I found an airfield and the three of us landed safely. We spent the night in a comfortable bed which was a pleasant change from Brenzett's camp bed in the tent. Dziubek Horbaczewski's section landed about thirty miles south of us near Hull.

The next day, we flew back to Brenzett to learn that after sinking one merchant ship and setting a few barges on fire, the Canadian Beaufighters returned safely to base. The result was 7 : 0, the enemy casualties were seven Messerschmitt Bf 109's destroyed.

After a successful mission, you are exhilarated; you light a cigarette, talk and laugh, and, most importantly, it strengthens friendship with your flying colleague that remains until your dying day. Mercifully, you never knew whether the following day you might be packing your friend's personal belongings to be kept for relatives in his native land.

Two weeks later, going on a few days statutory leave. Dziubek Horbaczewski drove me in his Jeep to Ashford railway station, and promised to collect me on my return journey from Scotland.

At the end of my holiday, before leaving Dumfries, my Scottish wife, as on previous occasions, packed a real "treat" into my suitcase: a large, roasted chicken! In our tent, Dziubek and I shared, using God-given utensils (tools), with fingers, we kept dismantling the succulent bird!

Back at Ashford railway station alighting from the train I kept scanning the platform, searching for a slender, handsome figure - Horbaczewski was not there! Something went terribly wrong ... Dziubek always kept his word! At our Brenzett airfield base, I learnt "the worst". I went into our tent and sat on Dziubek' s camp-bed. We knew each other's personal affairs. Lately, he did not feel well. Had I been in our tent that fateful morning on 18th of August 1944, perhaps I could have been able to persuade him not to fly that day. 315 Squadron lost a legendary commander, I lost a dear friend.

The final tally for the day's outing was: F/Lt Michał Cwynar (PK*Z) one destroyed and one shared (Bf 109), P/O Gwido Świstuń (PK*Y) one destroyed and one shared (Bf 109), S/Ldr Eugeniusz Horbaczewski (FB382 PK*G) one destroyed and one shared (Bf 109), F/O Bożydar Nowosielski (FB174 PK*S) one shared (Bf 109), W/O Tadeusz Janowski (FX985 PK*V) two destroyed (Bf 109 and Fw 190). In addition W/O Ryszard Idrian (FB123 PK*W) flying separately sighted a lone Bf 110 in the same area and shot it down bringing the score to eight destroyed with no losses.

To be continued

Great stuff!

Excellent Antoni!8)

Very interesting read, thanks Antoni.

FB387 42-103537 P-51C-10-NT- (NA-103).

From the 1st to 3rd August 1944, shortly after the Norwegian expedition, the Polish Film Unit visited 315 Squadron at Brenzett taking a number of publicity photographs of the participants together with some of the ground crew and the squadron's intelligence officer for the Polish press. These are sometimes captioned as the squadron's return from Norway. This is probably how they were presented in the press. In fact the squadron had spilt into two sections landing at different airfields in the north of England and did not return to Brenzett until the next day (31st July) and the photographs are obviously "staged".

Only a few days before the visit FB387 had been taken on charge by the squadron and was to become Horbaczewski's new PK*G. The aircraft featured prominently in the photographs and the opportunity was taken to photograph the painting of Horbaczewski's colourful markings.

Photo 1. Horbaczewski, seventh from left, surrounded by pilots and ground crew. Note Hobaczewski is wearing an American life-jacket.

Photo 2. L to R: F/Lt Przymeński (intelligence officer), P/O Świstuń, S/Ldr Horbaczewski, P/O Nowosielski, F/Lt Cwynar, W/O Jankowski, F/Sgt Będkowski.


Photo 3. The same pilots with FB387.

Photo 4. F/Lt Przymeński (standing) and his second take down reports of the returning 315 Squadron pilots. An obviously "staged" photograph.

Photo 5. Nowosielski, and Horbaczewski.

The artist at work. Note, unlike FB166 and FB382, FB387 was not fitted with exhaust shrouds. White overspray on the propeller blades and no framing on the hood are again evident.

The markings and squadron badge were first applied with stencils and then enhanced with a brush. The bombs were yellow, not white, with red details. Only FB387 featured the four V1 kills. The full sequence of photos show that the white triangle of the squadron badge was first applied rather untidily and later corrected after the V1 markings were applied.

What great info Antoni and what a lot to filter through Igor.

Great stuff....

Very cool!

First of all, I wish to thank Antoni once more for posting all that information and pictures. When starting this modeling thread I would never have guessed that someone will share so much materials on this subject, which makes this project ever more interesting.

Well, I finally started to work on this model (and it was about time no doubt). So far I've finished the work on the cockpit and painted all parts which should be in interior green color. As I didn't have this precise color I've mixed some dark green and yellow and hopefully the result is close enough to the real thing. So here's one photo of progress so far (picture is not of best quality I'm afraid). New photos soon...

Hey Wojtek, that was one fast response...

When working on the instrument panel, I've experimented by painting it with thinned black color. The idea was that tinned color will settle in the back of the panel leaving the edges of the instruments visible in light gray. I was pleased with the result, especially for this scale (1/72). Don't know how much is visible on this close up photo though.

Nice start Igor, and the Interior Green looks close enough!

Good work mate!