{"id":1574954,"date":"2018-06-25T10:35:33","date_gmt":"2018-06-25T08:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/armahobbynews.pl\/?p=1574954"},"modified":"2024-07-11T08:34:15","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T06:34:15","slug":"himek-from-eagle-owl-squadron-and-his-p-11c-70015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/armahobbynews.pl\/en\/blog\/2018\/06\/25\/himek-from-eagle-owl-squadron-and-his-p-11c-70015\/","title":{"rendered":"Himek from \u201cEagle Owl\u201d Squadron and his P.11c"},"content":{"rendered":"

– The war started early, about 7 a.m. We have been scrambled, propellers have raised dust from the field, we weren’t able to see anything for a while. We circled in the clouds for a long time, guided by radio orders, so was the beginning… <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

… told 2nd<\/sup> Lt. Hieronim Dudwa\u0142 in the interview given in Spring 1940 in Paris to famous poet and journalist Kazimierz Wierzy\u0144ski. Wierzy\u0144ski was then collecting accounts of September 1939 Polish soldiers for \u201cWiadomo\u015bci Polskie\u201d (\u201cPolish News\u201d), weekly magazine published in London by Polish war emigrants. He met Dudwa\u0142, called \u201cHimek\u201d by friends, almost in the last moment. This excellent pilot, one of the most effective fighters of the Brygada Po\u015bcigowa (Pursuit Brigade) has died in the air, defending France, soon after that interview.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEagle Owls\u201d of Warsaw<\/h3>\n

Hieronim Dudwa\u0142, born in Cz\u0119stochowa, was a boy-scout and modeller before he joined the army aviation. After completion of training in the Air Force Cadet Officers’ School in D\u0119blin (with 6th<\/sup> place in group of 47 graduates!) he has been assigned to the elite, Warsaw 113. Eskadra My\u015bliwska (Fighter Squadron) \u201cEagle Owls\u201d, based in Warsaw-Ok\u0119cie airbase. Before the war, with his unit and other Squadrons of the Warsaw 1st<\/sup> Air Regiment, he participated in numerous excersises and parades which he proudly described in spectacular, carefully illustrated letters to his mother.<\/p>\n

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Page of Hieronim Dudwa\u0142’s letter to mother. Public domain via \u201eAeroplan\u201d – more: publisher webpage<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

In 1938 Himek had a half-year long (May-December) intermission in his glamorous life in the Capital City. With six colleagues he has been dispatched to the Polish Wild East aifield in Sarny very close to the border. Their duty was to prevent Soviet reconaissance airplanes from spying the newly-built Polish fortifications.<\/p>\n

Himek flew the PZL P.11c serialed \u201c8.70\u201d marked with \u201cEagle Owl\u201d and white \u201c10\u201d, for some time armed with four machine guns (there is known photo with wing guns and long empty cartridge chute ejectors clearly visible). Later, but already before the war, the wing machine guns have been removed, which improved airplane’s maneuverability.<\/p>\n

In the Summer 1939 the Pursuit Brigade pilots performed intensive training in night inteception and cooperation with the searchlight units. The last night excersise took place on the night 23\/24 August and it was the last Pursuit Brigade training at all. The airplanes participating in the night flights have been equipped with special lights, visible on the fairing behind pilot’s head on the Dudwa\u0142’s airplane photos.<\/p>\n

Dudwa\u0142’s \u201cwhite 10\u201d take-off, filmed most probably during the training before 3rd<\/sup> May 1939 parade, can be watched on the preserved period newsreel.<\/p>\n