Bajan's list

Bajan list is a list of Polish fighter aces of World War II. It was released in 1946 and is named after the officer who supervised the project, colonel Jerzy Bajan.

Bajan (left) with Marshal Józef Piłsudski (centre) and Gustaw Pokrzywka (right) after Challenge in 1934

History

The list of Polish Air Force and Polish Air Forces in Great Britain fighter pilots air victories was compiled for the Polish Air Force Historical Commission by colonel Jerzy Bajan of the Fighter Claim Commission, and a liaison officer at the RAF Fighter Command headquarters.[1][2] The publication, released in 1946, was titled Polish Fighter Pilots Achievements during the Second World War.[3] Not all documents (particularly for the first years) could be recovered at that time, so some of the data was based on interviews; after reviewing earlier documents and statistics Bajan's methodology attempted to reduce the number of false reports.[1]

List
126 German aircraft or "Adolfs" were claimed as shot down by No. 303 Squadron pilots during the Battle of Britain. This is the score of "Adolfs" chalked onto a Hurricane.

According to the final list Polish pilots accounted for 105 aircraft destroyed during the Polish September Campaign (most of these occurred during the first six days of the war).[1] The number of kills during the Battle of Britain is estimated at about 2698, many of them by the No. 303 Fighter Squadron.[2]

The list includes 447 entries, with one Czech pilot, Josef František (who joined Polish Air Force as a volunteer[4]), and five entries for the rare cases where victories attributed to the units, rather than individuals.[3] The leading Polish ace, according to the list, is general Stanisław Skalski, with almost 19 confirmed kills.[3] 42 Polish pilots scored 5 or more victories during the war.[3]

The top 50 pilots from the Bajan list are:[3]

Lp Rank Name Confirmed kills Probable kills Damaged
1 gen Stanisław Skalski 18 11/12 2 4 1/3
2 gen Witold Urbanowicz 17 1 -
3 ppor Josef František 17 1 -
4 kpt Eugeniusz Horbaczewski 16 1/2 1 1
5 kpt Bolesław Gładych 14 2 1/2
6 ppłk Jan Zumbach 12 1/3 5 1
7 ppłk Marian Pisarek 12 1 2
8 płk Aleksander Gabszewicz 9 1/2 1 1/3 3
9 por Michał Maciejowski 9 1/2 1 1
10 por Mirosław Ferić 9 1/3 1 1
11 mjr Henryk Szczęsny 9 1/3 1 2
12 chor Aleksander Chudek 9 1 1
13 ppłk Jan Falkowski 9 1 1
14 por Stanisław Brzeski 8 1/2 2 1
15 ppłk Wacław Król 8 1/2 1 1/3
16 mjr Zdzisław Henneberg 8 1/2 1 1
17 mjr Antoni Głowacki 8 1/3 3 4
18 por Eugeniusz Szaposznikow 8 1/3 - 1
19 por Adolf Pietrasiak 8 1/10 - 2/5
20 mjr Witold Łokuciewski 8 3 1/2 -
21 chor Henryk Pietrzak 7 1/2 1 1
22 mjr Józef Jeka 7 1/2 - 3
23 mjr Bolesław Drobiński 7 1 1/3 -
24 ppor Marian Bełc 7 - -
25 sierż Stanisław Karubin 7 - -
26 mjr Karol Pniak 6 3/4 2 2 5/6
27 mjr Wacław Łapkowski 6 1/3 - 1
28 ppłk Stefan Janus 6 - 1
29 por Ludwik Witold Paszkiewicz 6 - -
30 ppłk Kazimierz Rutkowski 5 1/2 2 1
31 por Czesław Główczyński 5 1/2 2 1
32 por Michał Cwynar 5 1/2 1 -
33 płk Stefan Witorzeńć 5 1/2 - 2
34 ppłk Mieczysław Mümler 5 1/2 - 1 1/2
35 ppor Bolesław Własnowolski 5 1/2 - -
36 por Mieczysław Adamek 5 9/20 1 -
37 por Franciszek Surma 5 3 1/3 1
38 kpt Stanisław Blok 5 1 3
39 por Kazimierz Sporny 5 1 1
40 por Grzegorz Sołogub 5 1 -
41 st.sierż Jakub Bargiełowski 5 - 3
42 mjr Jerzy Popławski 5 - 2
43 por. Jan Kremski 4 14/15 1/3 1/15
44 Eugeniusz Nowakiewicz 4 5/6 1 1
45 Władysław Potocki 4 3/4 1
46 Tadeusz Nowak (pilot) 4 1/2 1 1
47 por. Kazimierz Wünsche 4 1/2 1 -
48 Mirosław Ignacy Wojciechowski 4 1/2
49 Julian Kowalski 4 1/3 4 3
50 Tadeusz Koc 4 1/3 3 -

See also

References
  1. Air League of the British Empire (1 January 1989). Air pictorial: journal of the Air League. Air League of the British Empire. p. 348. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
  2. Robert Gretzyngier, Wojtek Matusiak, "Udział Polaków w Bitwie o Anglię", Biuletyn IPN nr 8–9 (129–133) 2011.
  3. "Lista Bajana". Polishairforce.pl. Retrieved 2012-06-27.
  4. Czechoslovak Life. ORBIS Pub. Hause. 1970. p. 103.
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