SOBIECKI, Olgierd Tadeusz Stefan

Stats:

rank: F/L
status: survived
airforce: RAF    (no: P0549 )
born: Kartuzy Poland

added by: Karen Sobiecki

RAF Spitfire Pilot and instructor F/L Olgierd TS Sobiecki RAF P-0549 born in Kartuzy, Poland on 22 December 1917 son of "Emil" Nestor Sobiecki (first Starost Kartuzy) and Wanda "Cyryla" Grosman. Graduated Deblin "School of Eaglets" 13th Promotion No. 73 in June 1939. Promoted to Lieutenant and flew with PAF until 3 September when he was evacuated from Ułęż Poland via Rumania. The airmen travelled on foot and mostly at night to avoid the enemy. They crossed into Rumania at Śniatyń on September 17 where they were detained and sent to Internment Camps in either Slatine and Turnu-Severin. Escaping the camp he was in a small group of fellow airmen and made it to Balcic (a port on the Black Sea). On October 15, 1939 he boarded the Agios Nicolas for Beirut, Lebanon arriving on October 21st. The next day they boarded the French Ship "Ville de Strasbourg" and sailed for Marseille arriving in the harbour on October 29th and embarking on October 30th. Olgierd among others was sick with most likely Malaria and hospitalized in Marseille until being discharged and sent to Officer accomodations at the Salon de Provence Airbase for training. On March 1st he departed to the airbase in Pau for further training before being assigned in April to the Airbase at Chateauroux (south of Paris). Records note he was assigned to a "Fighter / Hunting Squadron" in Chateauroux until the 14th of June when France fell to the Nazi's.

In small groups the Polish pilots escaped to the south of France where various routes were taken to get to England. Following some handwritten notes from Olgierd (at age 80) we are trying to substantiate a route that appears to take him and his friend Radek east in the Mediterranean to Tunis in North Africa (after a stop in Malta). From Tunis the made their way back west either by boat or overland to a western African port and finally got to Gibraltar. Once in Gibraltar the boarded a British Transport Ship for the journey to England where Olgierd joined the RAF. Initial training took place in Hucknall at the EFTS followed by more training in Ushworth with the 55 OTU and Grangemouth, Falkirk, Scotland where he trained on damaged and salvaged Spitfires from the Battle of Britain and graduated from 58 O.T.U. No. 14 Course in December 1940.

Assigned to RAF Polish 308 (December 1941) - RAF Polish 303 - RAAF Australian 453 and RAF Polish 306. In December 1942 he was assigned to the RAF No. 25 (Polish) E.P.T.S. Hucknall, where he trained pilots on the Spitfire until June of 1945 when he was transferred to the RAF 16 (Polish) S.F.T.S. He married in England and went to Canada as part of the Polish Resettlement Act of 1947 where he raised his family. Olgierd Sobiecki died in Delta, British Columbia Canada on 24 October 2002.