Polish Forces

Polish eagle.

Jadwiga Pilsudska (born 1920), daughter of Polish Marshal and former Head of State Jozef Pilsudski, in uniform as a a Flying Officer of the British Air Transport Auxiliary, in which she served 1942-'44. Her main duty, and that of her mainly female comrades, was to fly newly-built military aircraft from the factories to the workships where they were fitted out and armed. This was often (indeed usually) done flying solo, even if the "cargo" was a Lancaster bomber; Pilsudska had started learning to fly in Poland, and had completed her training in the UK. Safe this was not, since it involved flying unarmed and obviously military aircraft through skies where the possibility of encountering fully-armed German aircraft could never be ruled out. Unglamorous though this duty may seem, it did relieve combat pilots of thousands of hours of otherwise unavoidable ferrying duty, leaving them free to undertake combat sorties. I understand that Ms Pilsudska remained in exile in the UK until the establishment of democracy in Poland; that she is still alive; and that she now lives in Warsaw. Best regards, JR.