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Post by kiwi172 on Aug 5, 2018 22:02:28 GMT 12
I recall Tony. He used to pop up at the Wellington Aero Club like a whirlwind of fresh air. Always happy to chat to a low timer like myself. 1963 I think was the first time we met. I also recall those Cessna 205's and the fuel injection starting procedures. For the first few days we had the odd little ground fire on start up. I last met him at Invercargill on 10-06-1968 when he was flight planning for a run out to the Chathams with the Baron ZK-CWH.
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Post by elkapitan on Nov 27, 2019 21:37:40 GMT 12
I knew Fl. Lt. Glowacki whilst I was an armourer in the RNZAF stationed in Ohakea from mid 1955 to April '57. I was interested in buying his car, an Austin A40. during that time. I discovered a dent in the boot and pointed this out to him and he replied " I'll knock 10 quid off it for you". During a gunnery exercise with vampires, the trainee pilots complained to him (Glowacky) the reason of their bad marksmanship was that the armourers had not done a very good job on adjusting the Hispano cannon alignment. Tony went up in his vampire and blew the drogue to bits, then gave them a mild lecture when he got back.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 4, 2021 22:09:09 GMT 12
Polish Air Ace Instructs R.N.Z.A.F. Jet Fighter Pilots
Grooming New Zealand’s jet fighter pilots in the finer points of aerial gunnery and combat flying is a Polish air ace—Flight Lieutenant A. (“Tony”) Glowacki (Gwovatski). Now settled at the R.N.Z.A.F. station, Ohakea, with a commission in the Royal New Zealand Air Force, Flight Lieutenant Glowacki has behind him a distinguished record of courage and determination.
In his 25 years’ service with three air forces this pleasant round-faced man has flown more than 120 different types of aircraft—from a glider of his own manufacture to Canberra and Sabre jets. He also has an impressive list of decorations to remind him of the Battle of Britain, the air war over Europe, and his long-range flights escorting bombers to the north of Europe.
His decorations include the Polish equivalent of the Victoria Cross, the Virtuti Militari, the British Distinguished Flying Cross, and the D.F.M. with Battle of Britain, France and Germany clasps. He won the Polish Cross of Valour (equivalent to the D.F.C.) four times for his exploits as commander of several Polish fighter squadrons with the Royal Air Force, and he was awarded the Cross of Merit, a Polish decoration equivalent to the O.B.E.
Flying is life to Flight Lieutenant Glowacki. It began about 1926 when he took the air in a glider he made himself and slithered along for about 50 yards. But long before this he had been keenly interested in the possibilities of flight.
When he was 18 Flight Lieutenant Glowacki, then studying radio at a Polish technical college, joined the Polish Air Club and paid for flying lessons. He won a scholarship, graduated as a pilot, and then joined the Polish Air Force. From 1930 to 1939 he was a fighter pilot with this service and scored his first kill against the Luftwaffe over Poland in the very early days of World War II.
Resourcefulness is one of Flight Lieutenant Glowacki’s strong points. Twice he was captured in Europe, and twice he escaped before crossing to England to join the Royal Air Force. In his own words the story is as follows:
Captured in Rumania “Poland had a treaty with England and I was one of the pilots chosen to go to Rumania to collect some Spitfires sent to us. We arrived to claim our aeroplanes, but instead of flying off we were interned. Twenty-four hours later I ran away from the prison camp with a few friends and tried to get into Jugoslavia. We swam across the Danube one night, but the Jugoslavs were frightened and sent us back. We were picked up by a patrol and taken into a medieval castle on the bank of the Danube. We escaped by sliding down a rope of blankets and sheets, got into Bucharest, got false papers, got aboard a ship which took us to Malta, and from there I went to France to join up with a Polish unit.” As he told of his escape from the castle a broad grin spread across his face. “They said no-one could get out of there. But we did.”
In France “someone remembered I had been a flying instructor and over to England I went.” Later he became one of the first Poles to take part in the Battle of Britain (flying a Hurricane). As a pilot in 501 Squadron of the R.A.F. Flight Lieutenant Glowacki met his first New Zealander, John Gibson, who is still in the R.A.F. This squadron contained pilots from many nations—Czechoslovakia, France, Norway, Poland, New Zealand, Australia, and Britain.
“Sometimes I never knew the names of the pilots who joined us,” Flight Lieutenant Glowacki said. “They would arrive, take off on a sortie and never be seen again.’’
Reception Committee Thirteen pilots from Flight Lieutenant Glowacki’s squadron were decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the total strength was 14 pilots. This was 501 Squadron operating from an airfield only 12 miles from Dover. “We were the reception committee for the German bombers coming over the coast,” he said. “It was magnificent war. I was frightened, but I enjoyed it.”
After the Battle of Britain Flight Lieutenant Glowacki returned to instructing, and met more New Zealanders, including two Maori pilot officers. "I was thrilled to meet them and fly with them,” he said. In 10 months he trained 220 pilots in advanced combat flying.
One of the instructors in his squadron about this time was a Czech. This pilot, sent out on patrol over the North Sea one day, landed his aircraft in occupied Holland. He gave himself up to the Germans and later offered to go, pretend to be a British pilot shot down, make contact with the underground movement, and give its members away to the occupiers. Many Dutchmen were executed by the work of this man. Later he was discovered and shot by Dutch leaders. Flight Lieutenant Glowacki, a keen amateur photographer, still has a photograph of this man taken on a British air station.
His period of instructing ended, and Flight Lieutenant Glowacki was posted to 611 Squadron, and then to 303 (Polish) Squadron; pilots of this unit scored a total of 206 enemy aircraft destroyed. At this stage of the war, about the end of 1941, Flight Lieutenant Glowacki was a flight commander. At the end of his tour, and now wearing the ribbons of the D.F.C. and D.F.M., he was sent to America to train on long-range Mustang fighters.
Escorted the "Dam Busters" A few months after returning to Britain, Flight Lieutenant Glowacki got his first squadron command—309 (Polish) Squadron flying long-range Mustangs on escort missions deep into Germany. In the historic attacks on the Eder and Mohne dams this squadron covered the Lancasters of Wing Commander Guy Gibson’s 617 Squadron—the "Dam Busters.”
Later missions were to take him over Berlin and Hitler’s Berchtesgarten. Altogether he flew 69 missions (each of more than five hours) over Germany. At the end of the air war in Europe Flight Lieutenant Glowacki volunteered to fight the Japanese. A few British jet fighters were entering squadron service, "so I went to jet school,” he said. ‘‘Until that time I was chief flying instructor with an operational training unit of the R.A.F;
"After the war I decided to look after my lost private life,” he said. “I volunteered to go to Germany with the British Air Force occupation squadron. No. 302, equipped with Spitfires. One of my boys was going home to Poland on leave, and I asked him to look for my fiancee whom I had not seen since I left for Rumania in 1939. Three weeks later she arrived in Berlin, and we were married the next day in the station cinema.”
Fiancee Came in Box Ground transport had to pass through Russian-occupied territory to reach Berlin from Poland, and the only way Flight Lieutenant Glowacki’s fiancee could reach him was in one of the R.A.F. trucks—nailed up in a packing case.
In 1947 Flight Lieutenant Glowacki applied to the Royal Air Force for a short service commission, which he was granted. Operations in night fighters, Mosquitoes and, later, Meteors, filled his time between 1949 and 1950."In 1952 someone remembered I was an instructor in aerial gunnery, and I was sent to the Vampire squadrons operating from Cyprus.” There he met members of New Zealand’s No. 14 Squadron. When his contract with the R.A.F. expired he applied for and was granted a commission with the R.N.Z.A.F. Mrs Glowacki and their two children (a girl aged eight and a boy of seven) came to New Zealand with him. and the family now occupies a house next to a farm owned by one of their countrymen in the Marton district.
Gliding is one of Flight Lieutenant Glowacki’s great interests. He has been exchanging letters with Dr. Reimer Horten, a German sailplane designer now living in Argentina, who has recently produced a revolutionary tail-less sailplane which Flight Lieutenant Glowacki considers could be the answer to cheap flying in New Zealand. With gliders such as these enthusiastic boys could be taught to fly at minimum expense, he says. "If the New Zealand Government would foster a scheme of flying training with gliders through the Air Training Corps, the country would reap great benefit.” The Reimer glider is, he says, "an epoch-making aircraft.”
PRESS, 2 JUNE 1955
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