The night of August 16/17, 1944, was one of the worst nights in the supply drop operations for the Home Army. Air Marshal Slessor’s ban on making drops directly on Warsaw was in effect, due to the heavy losses suffered over Warsaw on the nights of August 13/14 (3 crews) and 14/15 (as many as 7 crews, of which 4 in the area of the fighting capital). On the night of the 16th/17th, drops were to be made at sites in the Kampinos Forest and in other regions of the country. The operation was seemingly safer. Nineteen aircraft were dispatched: 6 from the Polish 1586th Squadron, 4 from No. 148 Squadron RAF, 3 from the mixed No. 178 Squadron RAF (which included Australians, among others), and 6 from No. 31 Squadron of the South African Air Force. One aircraft turned back due to engine failure.
The Germans already had a very well-organized anti-aircraft defense, implemented through a radar system using a very small number of night fighters stationed at the Rakowice-Czyżyny airfield in Kraków.
They carried out a veritable slaughter of the crews, which probably took place within just a dozen or so minutes, over a relatively small area between Kraków, Kazimierza Wielka, and Tarnów. During this time, at least 33 airmen were killed.
Of the 18 aircraft dispatched that night, one-third were lost. They were:
1. Polish Halifax JP-220 “C” from the 1586th Squadron (pilot W/O Leszek Owsiany), shot down near Bochnia around 02:15, made a forced landing near the village of Dębina. Radio operator W/O Bohanes was killed; the pilot, seriously wounded, was taken prisoner; 6 crew members reached a Home Army unit.
2. Polish Liberator EW-275 “R” from the 1586th Squadron (pilot F/L Zygmunt Pluta), shot down near Tarnów, crashed with the entire crew (7 persons) around 02:19 in the village of Olszyny.
3. British Liberator KG-933 “P” from No. 178 Squadron RAF at Zabłocie (pilot F/L Wright), probably damaged by a night fighter and finished off by anti-aircraft artillery, crashed at 02:27 at Zabłocie. Three crew members were confirmed killed, three more are missing; one — the radio operator — survived.
4. South African Liberator EW-248 “P” from No. 31 Squadron SAAF (pilot Maj. I. J. M. Odendaal), shot down after a prolonged engagement with a night fighter, crashed north of the village of Ostrów, near Klimontów. The co-pilot, Lt. J.J.C. Groenwald, saved his life by parachute and reached a Home Army unit. Seven crew members were killed. To this day, the memory of the heroic crew is preserved by the school in Ostrów, where a memorial plaque and a small museum exhibit are located.
5. South African Liberator EW-161 “M” from No. 31 Squadron SAAF (pilot Cpt. G. Lawrie), shot down by 2 Luftwaffe fighters in the Tarnów area. It crashed near the village of Łysa Góra with the entire 7-member crew.
6. South African Liberator EV-941 “Q” from No. 31 Squadron SAAF (pilot Cpt. L. C. Allen), shot down in the Kraków area by a night fighter, crashed near Luborzyca with the entire 8-member crew. A monument still stands at the cemetery in Luborzyca at the site of the crew’s first burial, before they were later exhumed to the Rakowicki Cemetery. It is a damaged Hamilton propeller from the Liberator — one of only two that can be seen in Poland (the other is on display at the Museum of Wadowice Region). In 1985, a damaged Liberator engine nacelle could still be found in the fields behind the last farmstead in Luborzyca; at that time, no one showed any interest in it.
Liberator KG-933 “P” of F/L Wright from No. 178 Squadron RAF was making a drop at the “Nida” 504 site, located 28 km from Piotrków, near the village of Górale. On the return route, shot down by heavy anti-aircraft artillery, it crashed at Zabłocie at 02:27. There is a version that the aircraft was damaged by a night fighter and finished off by anti-aircraft artillery in the Kraków area.
The crew consisted of:
The aircraft broke apart along the flight axis Grzegórzki – Zabłocie. The tail turret with fragments of the tail section and the dead gunner inside most likely fell on the northern bank of the Vistula, onto the coal storage areas of the municipal slaughterhouse; many more parts and, possibly, the bodies of further airmen fell into the Vistula, exactly at the site of today’s bridge; most of the airframe fell onto the storage grounds at Zabłocie.
At the crash site, between Lipowa and Dekerta streets, the following were killed: Australian F/Lt John P. Liversidge and Britons F/Lt. William D. Wright (pilot, aircraft commander) and gunner F/Sgt. John D. Clarke. Reportedly, three airmen tried to save themselves by parachute, of whom two — Sergeants Blount and Helme — went missing, while the Australian, Captain Hammet, landed safely despite his wounds, northeast of Kraków. Transported to a Home Army safe house near Kocmyrzów, given attentive care, he recovered. He subsequently took part in many operations, fighting actively in the ranks of the Home Army. From November 1944, he was in hiding in Święcice, where he awaited the arrival of the Soviet army. Via Odessa, he returned to his unit and later to his home. He married a Polish woman, had two sons, and died in 1981.
The fates of the remaining airmen from the 8-member crew are unknown. According to an unverified oral account, 1 or 2 airmen were temporarily held by the Germans at Fort V Mogilski. A memorial plaque was placed on the wall of the “Unitra-Telpod” plant in 1986 on the initiative of the Kraków Aviation Seniors’ Club; only the names of three airmen are listed on it.
