Chciuk Władysław

Władysław Chciuk (1915–2007) — second lieutenant pilot of the Polish Army, later captain of the Polish Air Force and RAF, Knight of the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari War Order, associated with the 2nd Aviation Regiment in Kraków. He was born on 6 June 1915 in Oświęcim. In 1939 he graduated from the Air Force Officer Cadet School in Dęblin and was assigned to the III/2 Fighter Group. In the September Campaign he served as a pilot of the 121st Fighter Squadron. After evacuation through Romania he made his way through Yugoslavia and France to the Polish Air Force in the West. He fought in the French campaign, scoring an aerial victory over the Luftwaffe. He then served in the RAF, receiving number P-0548 and an assignment to No. 308 Fighter Squadron “Kraków”. In 1941, during a combat flight over France, he was shot down and taken prisoner by the Germans. He was held at, among others, Oflag X C Lübeck, Oflag VI B Warburg and Stalag Luft III in Żagań, where he participated in the preparations for the so-called “Great Escape”. After the war he remained in exile — he lived in Great Britain, and from 1951 in the United States. He spent his final years in San Francisco, where he died on 6 October 2007.