ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 292077
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| Date: | Thursday 15 October 1942 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Vickers Wellington Mk Ic |
| Owner/operator: | 304 (Land of Silesia) Sqn RAF |
| Registration: | R1704 |
| MSN: | NZ-P |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Location: | St Brides Bay, Pembrokeshire, Wales -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.) |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | RAF Dale, Pembrokeshire, Wales |
Wellington R1704/P: Took off for Air Test.15/10/1942
Details:
No. 304 ‘Land of Silesia’ Polish Bomber Squadron (304 Dywizjon Bombowy "Ziemi Śląskiej im. Ks. Józefa Poniatowskiego") was a Polish unit. It fought alongside the RAF under their operational Command, serving from April 1941 as a bomber unit in RAF Bomber Command, from the 10th of May 1942 as an anti-submarine unit in RAF Coastal Command. On the 14th of May 1942 they were based at RAF Tiree in the Inner Hebrides. On the 13th of June 1942 the squadron moved to RAF Dale before eventually being moved the short hop over to RAF Talbenny, until the 30th of March 1943.
Wellington R1704 was built at Chester by Vickers and was allocated straight to 304 squadron who were stationed at RAF Dale. R1704 had been in the workshop for maintenance and when declared airworthy, she was taken up by two pilots on an air test local to the station. As with any excuse to fly, the flight was used as a training flight for a relatively new addition to the squadron with some low-level flying over the sea at St Brides Bay which lays just to the south east of Dale. She was being flown by two pilots on this occasion when a master of a local fishing boat saw it plunge into the water mid bay off the island of Ramsey.
The squadron records quote.
“15-10-42 Wellington R1704 came down in the sea while on a low-level training flight in St Brides Bay and it’s two occupants, F/O A Schultz & F/O Skierkowski were lost. The crash was observed by the master of a fishing vessel.
16-10-42 Wellington R1413 was listed as missing along with her crew.
17-10-42 Nothing to report.
18-10-42 Seven A/C Op’ on an Anti-Submarine sweep, all landed at RAF Exeter owing to bad weather at Dale.
19-10-42 The dingy of R1704 was washed ashore, empty, at Newgale Sands. Recovered by personnel of Maintenance Flight.
20-10-42 Funeral at Newark of the body of F/O Schultz was attended by F/L S Milensky, F/O C Pajko, P/O Zieba, Sgt P Brych, Sgt J. Piechocki, Sgt Skwarzynski & Kpl Leszozuk.” I’m assuming, going by the squadron records, the two pilots were from the crew of R1704, and the replacement pilots flew the remaining crew, along with the coffin to Newark for the burial.
What is not clear is why the funeral took place there and not as is the case with other incidents with crews being buried at the local cemetery, where it was sadly evident, the station had a plot there.
Crew:
F/O Tadeusz Rafal Skierkowski (P/0978) 1.Pilot. PAF - Missing.
F/O Adam Ludwik Schultz (P/0783) 2.Pilot. PAF Killed.
Wreckage:
At sea.
Additional Information:
304 squadron was the only RAF unit to be stationed at Dale which was decommissioned at the wars end before being taken over by the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm becoming HMS Goldcrest.
F/O Schultz is wrongly listed in some sources as an Air Gunner! Also due to a typing error, R1704 is listed wrongly as R1794 which I listed as missing along with her crew after a raid on Bremen on the 27th of June 1941 flying with 57 squadron. Such was the sheer volume of losses during the war, errors in records are common.
The squadron took the name ‘Land of Silesia’. I’ve looked into the historical values, and I can only add the following.
Quoted from Wikipedia.
“Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in Czechia and Germany. Its area is approximately 40,000 km2 (15,400 sq mi), and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split into two main subregions, Lower Silesia in the west and Upper Silesia in the east. Silesia has a diverse culture, including architecture, costumes, cuisine, traditions, and the Silesian language (minority in Upper Silesia).
Silesia is along the Oder River, with the Sudeten Mountains extending across the southern border. The region contains many historical landmarks and UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It is also rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. The largest city and Lower Silesia's capital is Wrocław; the historic capital of Upper Silesia is Opole. The biggest metropolitan area is the Upper Silesian metropolitan area, the centre of which is Katowice. Parts of the Czech city of Ostrava and the German city of Görlitz are within Silesia's borders.
Silesia's borders and national affiliation have changed over time, both when it was a hereditary possession of noble houses and after the rise of modern nation-states, resulting in an abundance of castles, especially in the Jelenia Góra valley. The first known states to hold power in Silesia were probably those of Greater Moravia at the end of the 9th century and Bohemia early in the 10th century. In the 10th century, Silesia was incorporated into the early Polish state, and after its fragmentation in the 12th century it formed the Duchy of Silesia, a provincial duchy of Poland. As a result of further fragmentation, Silesia was divided into many duchies, ruled by various lines of the Polish Piast dynasty. In the 14th century, it became a constituent part of the Bohemian Crown Lands under the Holy Roman Empire, which passed to the Austrian Habsburg monarchy in 1526, however, a number of duchies remained under the rule of Polish dukes from the houses of Piast, Jagiellon and Sobieski as formal Bohemian fiefdoms, some until the 17th–18th centuries. As a result of the Silesian Wars, the region was annexed by the German state of Prussia in 1742.
After World War I, when the Poles and Czechs regained their independence, the easternmost part of Upper Silesia became again part of Poland by the decision of the Entente Powers after insurrections by Poles and the Upper Silesian plebiscite, while the remaining former Austrian parts of Silesia were divided between Czechoslovakia and Poland. During World War II, as a result of German occupation the entire region was under control of Nazi Germany. In 1945, after World War II, most of the German-held Silesia was transferred to Polish jurisdiction by the Potsdam Agreement between the victorious Allies and became again part of Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime. The small Lusatian strip west of the Oder–Neisse line, which had belonged to Silesia since 1815, became part of East Germany.
As the result of the forced population shifts of 1945–48, today's inhabitants of Silesia speak the national languages of their respective countries. Previously German-speaking Lower Silesia had developed a new mixed Polish dialect and novel costumes. There is ongoing debate about whether the Silesian language should be considered a dialect of Polish or a separate language. The Lower Silesian German dialect is nearing extinction due to its speakers' expulsion.”
There is a lot more if you, the reader, wants to look!
Sources:
www.rafcommands.com
www.cwgc.gov.uk
www.polishsquadronsremembered.com
www.wales/pembrokeshire-memorials/raf-dale-304-polish-squadron-war-memorial.com
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/silesia
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 08-Oct-2022 14:14 | Davies 62 | Added |
| 09-Oct-2022 20:35 | Nepa | Updated [Aircraft type, Cn, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Narrative, Operator] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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