Jerzy Główczewski

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Jerzy Eligiusz Główczewski (19 November 1922 – 13 April 2020) was a Polish pilot of the Second World War.

Early life and wartime activities[]

Jerzy Eligiusz Główczewski was born in Warsaw, Poland, on 19 November 1922. He studied at a strict Jesuit-run school as a child. In 1939, during the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, he fled Poland alongside his father.^[1]

He joined the Polish Armed Forces in the West of the Polish government-in-exile in 1941, and fought in Egypt and Libya before travelling to Britain to undergo flight training with the Royal Air Force and flew on 100 missions with the No. 308 Polish Fighter Squadron.^[2]

Awards[]

He was awarded the Cross of Valour three times^[2] and was awarded the Order of the White Eagle.^[3]

Post-war activities[]

Główczewski returned to Poland in 1947. He received a degree in engineering from the Warsaw University of Technology in 1952 and helped reconstruct the city of Warsaw after it had been damaged by bombings during the war.^[2]

Death[]

Jerzy Główczewski died from complications of COVID-19 at a nursing home in Manhattan on 12 April 2020. At the time of his death, he was the last surviving Polish fighter for the Royal Air Force.^[2]

See also[]

• Polish Air Forces in France and Great Britain
• U.S. deaths near 100,000, an incalculable loss

References[]