Bajan's list explained

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.

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. The publication, released in 1946, was titled Polish Fighter Pilots Achievements during the Second World War. 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.

List

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). The number of kills during the Battle of Britain is estimated at 2698, many of them by the No. 303 Fighter Squadron.

The list includes 447 entries, with one Czech pilot, Josef František (who joined Polish Air Force as a volunteer[1]), and five entries for the rare cases where victories attributed to the units, rather than individuals. The leading Polish ace, according to the list, is general Stanisław Skalski, with almost 19 confirmed kills. 42 Polish pilots scored 5 or more victories during the war.

The top 50 pilots from the Bajan list are:

LpRankNameConfirmed killsProbable killsDamaged
1genStanisław Skalski18 11/1224 1/3
2genWitold Urbanowicz171-
3pporJosef František171-
4kptEugeniusz Horbaczewski16 1/211
5kptBolesław Gładych1421/2
6ppłkJan Zumbach12 1/351
7ppłkMarian Pisarek1212
8płkAleksander Gabszewicz9 1/21 1/33
9porMichał Maciejowski9 1/211
10porMirosław Ferić9 1/311
11mjrHenryk Szczęsny9 1/312
12chorAleksander Chudek911
13ppłkJan Falkowski911
14porStanisław Brzeski8 1/221
15ppłkWacław Król8 1/211/3
16mjrZdzisław Henneberg8 1/211
17mjrAntoni Głowacki8 1/334
18porEugeniusz Szaposznikow8 1/3-1
19porAdolf Pietrasiak8 1/10-2/5
20mjrWitold Łokuciewski83 1/2-
21chorHenryk Pietrzak7 1/211
22mjrJózef Jeka7 1/2-3
23mjrBolesław Drobiński71 1/3-
24pporMarian Bełc7--
25sierżStanisław Karubin7--
26mjrKarol Pniak6 3/422 5/6
27mjrWacław Łapkowski6 1/3-1
28ppłkStefan Janus6-1
29porLudwik Witold Paszkiewicz6--
30ppłkKazimierz Rutkowski5 1/221
31porCzesław Główczyński5 1/221
32porMichał Cwynar5 1/21-
33płkStefan Witorzeńć5 1/2-2
34ppłkMieczysław Mümler5 1/2-1 1/2
35pporBolesław Własnowolski5 1/2--
36porMieczysław Adamek5 9/201-
37porFranciszek Surma53 1/31
38kptStanisław Blok513
39porKazimierz Sporny511
40porGrzegorz Sołogub51-
41st.sierżJakub Bargiełowski5-3
42mjrJerzy Popławski5-2
43por.4 14/151/31/15
444 5/611
454 3/41
464 1/211
47por.4 1/21-
484 1/2
494 1/343
504 1/33-

See also

Notes and References

  1. Book: Czechoslovak Life. 1970. ORBIS Pub. Hause. 103.