The Germans laughed at the “handful of Poles” until Skalski shot down 6 aces in 15 minutes

April 20, 1943 year, the sky above the pantelleria. Air I’m shivering from the heat. Six Speedfires rise into the blue sky of the Mediterranean Sea. The Polish letters ZX shine on the hulls markings. Men who have already sat in the cockpits they know what it means to die in flames and who have learned kill in cold blood.
The Germans have been laughing at them for weeks. They call them a handful of Poles in strange ways uniforms. They think they are just another coward who they will run away at first contact. That it’s the same cannon fodder as before they have been flying over Africa for two years. In 15 minutes this confidence will turn into horror.
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March 1943 year. North Africa belongs to the Luftwafe like geshwader 53 spades. The best of the best. Their pilots fly over the Tunisian sky like the owners. BF109 meserszmits cut through the air with ease, as if heaven were their private space estate. Commander of JG53, Major Günter von Malzan, seated in officers’ mess in Sicily.
Drinks warm beer, smiles. On the blackboard with chalk more victories are recorded. 286 confirmed planes shot down Allied forces from the beginning of the campaign African. 286 Americans are novices. He speaks to his own people officers. The British are predictable. They fly like in the manual. You see them from 10 km. German pilots call the Sea The Mediterranean is our lake.
Not without reason. P40 warhaki are dropping like flies. Harurry cans burn on the ground before they can take off. Raf is losing machines faster than factories in England. They can eat them produce. Luft Waffe has the advantage numerical. He has experience from the front eastern. He has confidence built on hundreds victories.
Their pilots fly loose formations, because they know, no one cares for them will match. March 17 to Bugrara airport in Tunisia 15 speedfires land. New Mark machines 9C, Merlin 61 engine. Different sound than old spejszy, more dangerous. 15 get out of the cockpits men in British uniforms with Polish badges. They don’t look like elite. Dusty, tired from the long flight.
Some are young, others already have gray hair hair. Nothing special. One more a group of people expelled from the Vistula River who they fight in someone else’s uniform for someone else’s money. British pilots from the base are watching them from reserve. Americans joke among themselves. They come from England.
We’ll see for how long they will survive. No one knows these men are veterans of the Battle of Britain, that every one of them has at least 10 kills under his belt planes, that this is not a random group, but carefully selected unit the best of the best Polish pilots. No one knows he commands them man, who says: “There are no feelings in the air.
” Major Stanisław Skalski is 31 years old, height 170. Slim to the ground, he looks ordinary, but in the cockpit of the Speedfire it becomes something else. A killing machine, cold, precise, merciless. His the pilots call him grandpa, but not at all is not the oldest. They call it that because treats them like family, like sons, which he must learn to survive and kill.
First day on base Skalski gathers his people. 15 men stands in a circle. The sand is seeping in everywhere. For shoes, for engines, for eyes. Germans think we are like British. Skalski says. It doesn’t lift voice. It doesn’t have to. They think we will fly in formations that we will wait on orders that we will fight like gentlemen.
He lights a cigarette. He looks everyone in the eye one by one to the pilot. We’ll show them how Poles are fighting. But not Germany yet they know about it. On March 17, JG53 patrol over Tunisia meets four Polish Speedfires. Standard situation. Four against six Messerszmits. The advantage is on the side of the Luftwafe.
Germany they attack from above. A classic maneuver always works on the British. These run away or they try to maneuver. Easy goals, though Poles don’t run away. They don’t maneuver. They do something crazy, they fly straight into German patrol. One of the Speedfires opens fire from a distance of 80 m. Point blank.
The first series of Messer Schmid explodes in the air. Second series. Second Messer Schzmid dives down smoking engine. The remaining German pilots they disperse. Never before they faced such an aggressive reaction. They’re coming back to the base in silence. In the report they write about: unidentified speedfires, o unusual fighting tactics.
What the Germans didn’t know was that they met Skalski’s circus March 21. First real test, 10 Polish Speedfires are escorted by bombers over the German convoy. It emerges from the clouds 20 mesershmites. British commanders over the radio they shout: “Get away! Too.”big advantage.” Skalski doesn’t answer, gives a hand sign. Poles attack.
15in damn. When the smoke clears, in the sky there is not a single German plane. Four confirmed shooting down. Two probable losses Polish, zero. That evening in the German mess in Sicily prevails silence. Someone finally asks who it was. Nobody knows. It was visible on radar ZX markings.
But what does that mean? New British or American squadron? The answer comes quickly. Interview reports. They are Poles. Only 15 pilots. The group called Polish Fighting Team. 15 laughs one of the German aces. 15 Poles want to fight the entire Luftwaffe, but the laughter stops when the next reports come they start arriving.
March 23, three shooting down. On March 28, four shots were shot down. On April 3, five were shot down. April 11 six shot down. Zero own losses. Germans are starting to fear the letters ZX Speedfire hulls. When someone on the radio shouts ZXZX, German formations disperse. This the self-confident pilots are no longer the same, who dominated Africa.
These are people they know they have met someone better. But the biggest day still coming. April 19, 1943 year, evening. Skalski sits in a tent and studies maps. His pilots play cards. Someone tells a joke about Hitler. Laughter, cigarettes. But everyone is waiting. They are waiting for tomorrow, because the intelligence reported: April 20 The Germans are planning a major operation.
Convoy transport is to sail from Sicily to Tunisia. Cover of 20 fighters. BF109 i Italian poppies C202. Skalski calls for a council. Tomorrow says calm down. We will have the opportunity to show Germans who we are. How many of us will recommend? Second Lieutenant Eugeniusz asks Chorbaczewski. Six machines. Skalski answers. Silence.
S against 20. Enough. Adds scales and puts out his cigarette. April 20, 6:00 in the morning, the sun is still low. Sand cool underfoot. Six Speedfiers stands in a straight line. The mechanics are finishing last checks. They complement ammunition, check the fuel level. Skalski is the last to sit in the cockpit.
He puts on a leather helmet. He fastens his seat belt. Four points strong. Checks instruments. altimeter, compass, speedometer. Everything works. The Merlin 61 engine wakes up come to life. 2000 horsepower power. The propeller starts spinning more and more faster. A characteristic roar. Another than in older Speedfers.
More so aggressive. Six planes take off sky one by one. Battle formation, loose, flexible, no like British hard keys. Everyone the pilot sees the others. Everyone has freedom of maneuver. Direction north. W side of Pantelleria, a small Italian island between Tunisia and Sicily. 10:30. Height 4000 m. The sun is at its zenith.
The sea below it shines like spilled silver. Heaven clean, perfect conditions for hunting. Skalski scans the horizon. Nothing. Still nothing. And then he sees 20 points, maybe more. Formation of German fighters. They fly loose. Sure. Nobody has them he’s been pestering me for weeks. Why would they worry? Skalski gives no signal by radio. Radio silence, only gestures.
He raises his hand and points towards it opponent. Everyone sees. Poles have it height. They’re coming from the south. Sun behind them. The Germans don’t see them. Not yet. This is the moment he’s been waiting for. Perfect position. Height advantage. The sun is in my back. Surprise. Skalski tilts the plane to the left.
He starts diving. Five remaining Speedfires follows him. The speed is increasing. 300 km/h, 400, 500. The air blew out the cabin, hands they tremble on the bar, but strongly. Control. Always in control. Germany still nothing they see. They look straight ahead, down at sides, but not up, not into the sun. 600 m distance. 500, 400.
First German the pilot finally notices. turns his head he sees six shapes swooping down from above. He shouts over the radio, but it’s too late. Skalski is already at the distance of 100 meters. The crosshair aligns. Messer Schzmid right in the middle. Finger on the trigger. Series. Four 20mm guns spit out fire.
Six machine guns joins the concert. Bullets burst Messerszmit’s left lobe. Pieces of metal fly away. black smoke billowed from the engine. German tries to do a barrel roll. Desperate maneuver, but too slow. Second series. Straight into the cockpit. Messer Schmid explodes. The pilot doesn’t have time for catapult. One shot down.
Skalski goes to the right. Next goal. Italian Maki C202. Smaller, more agile, but slower. The Italian sees him and tries to turn. Skalski anticipates the maneuver. He leads. shoots where the opponent will be, not where he is now. Tail hit. Maki loses steering. It goes down in a spiral. Two shot down, but now Germany is waking up.
Formation breaks up into individual planes. Everyone is looking for a purpose. Everyone is trying to survive. Second Lieutenant Chorbaczewski has na in the crosshairs of a Messerschmit that is trying escape down. The German is diving. He thinks that Speedfire can’t do it that fast. Error.The Mark 9C is not the old Mark V.
It’s a machine designed for high speeds. Chorbaczewski dives after him. Speed exceeds 650 km/h. The bar trembles in my hands. The wings get lost under air pressure, but they endure 80 meters distance. Series. Messer Schzmid gets into the fuel tank. Fire. Flames wrap around the hull. The pilot catapults. Parachute opens over the sea. Three.
Lieutenant Stanisław Brzeski is hunting for another one Meserschmit. The German pilot is experienced ace. He does a roll Imelman. Classic maneuver. It rises vertically up. Makes a shelf. It returns in the opposite direction. Brzeski I anticipate this. He doesn’t chase. Waiting for when The German leaves the maneuver.
Brzeski is there already there. He waits like a spider. Side series. Engine hit. Messer Schmid loses power. It begins to lose altitude. Pilot trying to reach the shore. No chance. It falls into the sea 5 km from the coast. Four. The fight has been going on for 10 minutes. The sky is full there is smoke.
They leave condensation marks chaos on blue. Screaming in German radio. Panic. Where are they? I can’t see them. Help. Captain Jerzy Jankiewicz sees a lonely Messerszmit trying to escape north. Towards Sicily, towards home, towards safety. No will arrive. Jankiewicz positions himself behind him. The German does not know that he is being followed.
It’s flying straight. He thinks he’s safe now that he survived. 200 m distance. 150 100. Short, precise series. Missiles they tear the cabin apart. Messer Schmid tilts to the side and begins to fall. Five. Platoon’s Karol Pniak has the least experiences. The youngest in the group, 22 years old, but Skalski chose him for a reason.
W England’s stump was there during training the fastest in response. The best crosshair. Now that counts. Italian Maki tries to attack Chorbaczewski from behind. The stump sees this. Performs sharp turn. Giesały press him into armchair. The blood drains from the head. It’s getting darker in front of my eyes, but it holds.
He’s marrying Matcim. The Italian has no idea. Focused on the target in front of you. He doesn’t look in mirror. Stump opens fire from 50 meters. Blank point. Just like Skalski taught. Only shoot when you can’t miss. Maki disintegrates in mid-air. Tail detaches from the hull. Main part the plane spins down like a leaf.
Six shot down in 15 minutes. The others German pilots escape. They scatter in all directions. Some to the north, some to the east. As long as it’s away from the Polish ones Speedfires with the letters ZX. Skalski no chases, gives a sign. The formation is gathering. J two three cter, five p. Everyone is alive. Everyone is fine. They check the fuel.
Enough to come back. They check ammunition. Worn out. Tanks almost empty, but it doesn’t matter. Six German and Italian planes no will return to its bases. Six pilots did not he’ll see six tomorrow Poles return home. The return flight continues 40 minutes. Nobody is talking on the radio. Silence. Everyone alone with their own thoughts.
The adrenaline rushes away. What remains is fatigue. My hands stop shaking. Landing on Bugrara, one by one. The wheels are touching hot sand. The engines stop. Skalski is the last to leave the cockpit. Mechanics are counting the bullet holes in his plane. Seven. Seven hits. None it didn’t damage anything critical.
Happiness or something more? In the evening a British liaison officer arrives. He wants confirmation. Six shot down. Are you sure? Skalski looks at him without a word. Finally he says: You can check with the Germans. Ask them how much missing. The report lands on the desk general, then on the marshal’s desk.
W finally reaches Eisenhauer himself. Six planes in 15 minutes, six pilots against 20, zero losses own. Impossible says one of American staff officers. Poles! Another responds and that’s enough explanation. But what the Germans didn’t know was when were they laughing at a handful of Poles? No they knew these few were veterans Battles of Britain.
People who fought against the best German squadrons over London who survived during while others died. They didn’t know that everyone of these 15 pilots were selected by Skalski personally. Not for courage, no for heroism, for effectiveness, for coldness blood, for the ability to kill without emotions.
They didn’t know that Speedfire Mark The 9C was better than any Messerschmit at altitudes above 4000 m. Faster, more agile, better armed. And they didn’t know that Skalski taught his own people people of one simple rule. Shoot only when you see every rivet in enemy hull. 80 m. This is the distance at which the circus Skalski opened fire.
On this You can’t miss in the distance. On this At a distance, one accurate shot is enough. The numbers don’t lie. From March 17 to May 8 1943 year, 46 days of Polish Fighting Team. yyy made hundreds of combat sorties. Result 25 confirmed shot down planes, three probable.Nine damages. Own losses, one pilot taken prisoner.
Eugene Chorbaczewski, his Speedfire, got it hit. He descended by parachute. He was sent to a camp, but he survived. He survived and returned to Poland after the war. Zero killed in action. Zero. For comparison. British Squadron 243, which operated during the same period, in same region, lost 11 pilots. American 301st Fighter Squadron D9wi Polish Fighting Team zero. Effectiveness.
On average, one per combat mission The Pole shot down 0.5 German plane. It doesn’t sound like much. This the highest rate in the entire Allies air forces in North Africa. The Germans started calling them Polish madmen. They stopped flying in loose formations. They started guarding the rear. They stopped being confident.
On May 1, a German pilot from JG53 returns to base. He refuses to start the next one day. The officers ask why. I met ZDX and that’s all it says enough. Nobody asks further. May 8 1943 year the Tunisian campaign ends. Germany capitulates. North Africa is free. The war moves to Italy. to Europe.
Polish Fighting Team stays demolished. The pilots return to their own squadrons. Some fly further. To Italy, to France, to Germany. Skalski finishes war with 21 confirmed shot down. Doesn’t sound like much. Gustaw Rödel from UBG27 he was 98. Erich Hartmann 352. But Skalski survived. And they don’t. Hartman he was sent to a Soviet prison and returned only in 1955 year.
Most German aces don’t She lived to see the end of the war, although some did Rodel survived. Skalski returned to Poland, to a communist country that he didn’t want to remember the pilots fighting in the west. He stayed arrested, accused of espionage, tortured, released years later, but never released broken. He died in 2004 in Warsaw.
He was 88 years old. Burial with honors military. Thousands of people. The orchestra plays Dąbrowski’s Mazurek. At this point I have an important question for you. Skalski returned to Poland after the war, although many of his colleagues stayed on the West, fearing repression. How do you evaluate his decision? Is you would do the same to him place? Write yours in the comments sentence.
I read every voice and I enjoy it I will know your opinion, but in Germany there are still people who remember. Old Luft Waffe pilots, those who they survived, they met once after the war. One asked the other, “Do you remember? Polish squadron?” “The one with the letters ZX.” “Skalyski’s Circus.” The other replied. “Long silence. I was lucky.
I only met them once and I survived because ultimately, when history is written, it doesn’t matter who had more planes, it doesn’t matter who had them better technology. It doesn’t even matter who won more battles. What matters is who survived, who returned home, who could tell your grandchildren. April 20, 1943 year, the Germans laughed at a handful Poles.
They thought it was just another meat cannonballs, more cowards. 15 minutes later they stopped laughing because sometimes a handful is enough. When those few are the best of the best when this few are there ready to die, but even more so ready to kill. Skalski’s Circus was such a handful and by 46 days over North Africa showed to the whole world as Poles fight without fear, without mercy until the very end. M