Baran Adam

Adam Baran (1904–1939) was a senior sergeant pilot of the Polish Army, chief pilot of the 26th Observation Squadron, and a participant in the September Campaign of 1939. He served in the reconnaissance aviation of the Second Polish Republic, specialising in observation operations and cooperation with ground forces. In 1939 his unit was subordinated to the aviation of the “Kraków” Army. On 1 September 1939, at approximately 13:00, he took off from the field airstrip in Zarębice in a Lublin R-XIII D aircraft together with Lieutenant observer Leon Wrzeszcz. The crew was carrying out a mission to reconnoitre the movements of German forces in the Częstochowa area on the first day of the German invasion of Poland. During the execution of the mission their aircraft was shot down by German fighters over the locality of Strzebiń. Both airmen were killed on the spot. They were initially buried in Strzebiń, and in 1958 their remains were exhumed and transferred to a collective grave at the Central Cemetery in Gliwice, where they were laid to rest among the victims of a German camp that had operated in the area during World War II.