Born Kalisz, on Christmas Day, 1893.  General of Brigade, Polish Army.  In service in the course of the German/Soviet campaigns in Poland, 1939.  Died on or shortly after 7 April, 1940, at Katyn Wood.  Requiescet in Pace.  In sadness, JR.

General Mieczyslaw Smorawinski.

Sub-Lieutenant Jan Dzwonek took part in the defensive war 1939. He was wounded, his plane was damaged, and he parachuted and was gunned by a German pilot. The German pilot was chased away by a Polish plane and Dzwonek was saved. Machine gunning Polish pilots, hanging on parachutes, was a standard German procedure during the 1939 war. 
The painting on Dzwonek’s plane was his proposition as an emblem for his ‘eskadra’, but it wasn’t accepted by the commanding officer. 
When looking in my source I noticed that some small air units were called ‘eskadra’, when the others were known as ‘dywizjon’. I don’t understand the difference as yet.       


War 1939

Jósef Baran-Bilewski, Captain of Artillery, Polish Army, killed at Katyn Wood, early April, 1940.  In sadness, JR.