WOMEN IN WAR: The Real-life Agent Carters

23. POLISH FEMALE PILOT SERVING WWII (short biographies)

Scan of a 1943 newspaper portraying Anna Leska, Jadwiga Piłsudska and Barbara (Stefania) Wojtulanis via Aeroklub Warszawski.

Polish female pilots serving during World War II

By Lamus Dworski

In occupied Poland, women were playing major role in the resistance movement, often putting them in the front line. Here are short biographies of four determined women serving as pilots during and before the war:

ANNA LESKA | later LESKA-DAAB [1910-1998]

In 1939, just after the outbreak of the World War II, she was assigned to the Polish Air Force HQ squadron to fly liaison missions and confidently delivered one aircraft to an airfield. After the so-called September Defeat (of Poland against Germany and Russia in 1939) she and the rest of the pilots arrived in Great Britain via Romania and France. She initially worked at the HQ of the RAF and subsequently at the Air Ministry and eventually started ferrying aircraft with the Air Transport Auxiliary in February 1941. Of the three Polish women to fly with the ATA, she stayed longest - up until it was disbanded in November 1945. She became Flight Leader in the spring of 1943, in charge of eight women ferry pilots, whom she instructed and assisted. Her subordinates included five British women and one each from the United States, Chile, and Argentina. She was awarded many Polish and British decorations, including the Polish Military Pilot Badge, and was the sole woman flying with the ATA to receive the Royal Medal.

JADWIGA PITSUDSKA | later PITSUDSKA-JARACZEWSKA [1920-2014]

Born as the younger daughter of the Marshal Józef Piłsudski, she began flying gliders and obtained a pilot's licence in 1937, at the age of 17. In 1939 she graduated from secondary school and decided to study aircraft engineering at the Warsaw Polytechnic. After the outbreak of the WWII, she fled with her family to Britain to resume her studies in 1940, matriculating at Newnham College, Cambridge University. She acquired her aircraft pilot's license in 1942 and joined ATA with the rank of Second Officer (Flying Officer). She flew unarmed military aircraft in the dangerous skies of wartime Britain along with Anna Leska and Barbara Wojtulanis. Her decorations included the Bronze Cross of Merit with Swords. After the war she was awarded the Commander's Cross of Polonia Restituta. Due to the Communist takeover in Poland, she remained in England after the War, as a political émigré. She has never accepted British citizenship and used a Nansen passport, valid for all countries in the world, except Poland. She was able to return safely to the country only in 1990, after the collapse of the Communist government.

STEFANIA "BARBARA' WOJTULANIS | later WOJTULANIS-KARPńSKA [1912-2005]

The most experienced pilots of the three. By 1936 she obtained glider, balloon and motor aircraft pilot licences and became a parachute-jumping instructor. In 1937 she entered Warsaw Polytechnic where she studied mechanical engineering. At the start of World War II, on September 1, 1939, she was nominated a First Lieutenant, assigned to the General Staff of the Polish Army and flew missions with orders to deliver fuel to the Fighter Brigade defending Warsaw. When the Soviet Army attacked Poland, she flew to Rumania and then made her way to France where she worked at the Polish Army Headquarters in Paris. Upon fall of France, in June 1940, she evacuated to Britain where Polish Government, Army, Air Force and Navy were reassembled. In January 1941 she was assigned to Air Transport Auxiliary, as a ferry pilot, where she delivered various aircrafts such as small training, Hurricane and Mustang fighters and two engine Wellington bombers. In all she logged over 1000 hours of flying. At the end of World War II, unable to return to Soviet-controlled Poland, she married a Polish Air Force General Stanisław Karpiński and migrated to USA where they settled in Los Angeles. There she attended college and became a computer programmer for Atlantic Richfield Corporation. She was twice awarded Silver Cross of Merit for her services during the war and was honoured at the International Forest of Friendship with a plaque for her aviation achievements.

JANINA LEWANDOWSKA, NéE DOWBOR-MUśNICKA [1908-1940]

Second lieutenant in the Polish air force; the only Polish woman incarcerated in the Soviet Kozelsk POW camp [see: Katyń massacre]. She was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, the elder of two daughters of Colonel-General Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki. Extremely independent and determined, she devoted herself entirely to a flying career. In 1937 she was sent to Lviv to take a military course on radiotelegraphy. Shortly before the outbreak of the war she married instructor-pilot Mieczysław Lewandowski. After the wedding she returned home to Poznań. Sadly, the young couple was never reunited. After mobilization was ordered in August 1939, she was drafted for service in the 3rd Regiment, stationed near Poznań. On 1 September, she was dispatched eastward by train with remnants of base personnel. After many adventures, was taken prisoner on 22 September [after the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September]. There is no doubt, as confirmed by eyewitness, that Lewandowska was imprisoned at Kozelsk. However, her name is missing from the German Katyń list of exhumed identified bodies. Perhaps, in an attempt to hide her true identity (her father was especially hated by the Bolsheviks), she destroyed her documents and memorabilia prior to her death.

Source: Lamusdworksi.wordpress.com