EUGENIUSZ HORBACZEWSKI

Horbaczewski was born in 1917 in Kiev, he was known throughout his life as Dziubek which in English means 'Darling' or 'Kid'. He arrived in England in 1940 after fleeing Poland and was posted to 303 sqn. Horbaczewski first met with enemy planes on the 6th of October 1941, when the 303 Squadron escorted bombers over France. He came up empty on his first attack on three Bf 109s. Noticing a formation of eight Bf 109s, "Dziubek" decided not to attack, but soon saw a lone Messerschmitt which he jumped and put several bursts into. The German began burning, but the victim's wingmen forced Horbaczewski to disengage into the clouds. He landed on fuel fumes at West Malling, the first British airfield he spotted.

At the end of 1942 Horbaczewski joined a group of selected Polish pilots in North Africa under the command of Stanislaw Skalski. After spectacular successes, they received the nickname of 'Skalski's Circus'. On the  28th of  March 1943 Horbaczewski downed a Ju 88 near Sfax 1. On the 2nd of April his victim was a Bf 109. After the North African campaign, Horbaczewski took command of the RAF 43rd Squadron, 324th Fighter Wing. They flew the "Spitfire" Mk Vc, with squadron codes of "FT". In combat over Sicily and southern Italy, Horbaczewski added three victories to his scoreboard, two of which were Bf 109s he downed within 40 seconds! On the 18th  of October 1944 during a massive air battle in which Dziubek's squadron was credited with downing 16 FW-190s (three downed by Dziubeks himself) he was shot down and killed, although his wingman saw the victory's no-one else in the squadron actually saw the moment when Dzibbek was downed. Horbaczewski finished the War with 16.5 victories he was also credited with downing four V-1' rockets.

Eugeniusz Horbaczewski far right

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