Franek, I had the honour to fly in Flt Lt Ignatowski's Hastings when my late father's 202 squadron disbanded in 1964 after years of met reconnaissance from RAF Aldergrove. We were one of three escorts and I can still see him working hard to hold formation on the lead aircraft which continued with the squadron standard to Leconfield, I think it was. One could almost count the rivets on the leader's tailplane ...
F/Lt Ignatowski, known as Iggy to everyone, and a colleague had stolen a light aircraft when the Germans invaded Poland. They managed quite a long distance across Europe until they could no longer obtain fuel, and by devious means they reached England where Iggy continued his flying career.
Another vastly experienced pilot was Master Pilot Frantisek Radina (1915-1968) who escaped from Czechoslovakia to join 311 Sqn on Wellingtons. In 1943 he was posted to the Bahamas as an instructor on Liberators, ending up with 202 Sqn first on Halifax and later on Hastings. The air and ground crews had an impressive reliability record built up over many years, each Bismuth flight taking off at 0800 and lasting between eight and 10 hours despite the Atlantic weather.
Last edited by Geriaviator; 1st Sep 2018 at 16:27.
Reason: This new Prune garbles my punctuation!