An Elk from the Forest

On 4 September 1939, the 3rd Platoon of the 212th Bomber Squadron, based at the airfield in Kuciny near Aleksandrów Łódzki, was given the task of bombing German motorised columns in the area of Wieluń. The unit, under the command of the observer Lieutenant Kazimierz Żukowski, took off on its last mission. Not one of the crews returned from this assignment.

The formation of three aircraft was led by Łoś 72.43, commanded by Żukowski; on his left flew Łoś 72.16 (observer 2nd Lt Kazimierz Dzik), and on his right Łoś 72.91 (observer 2nd Lt Mieczysław Bykowski). Soon after take-off, the flight of Łoś bombers was intercepted by eight Messerschmitt Bf 109Ds from 1./ZG2. After two attacks, the aircraft of Lt Żukowski was shot down over the village of Ślądkowice and crashed onto the field of Stefan Dychto. The entire crew was killed. The second aircraft, of 2nd Lt Bykowski, fell onto the meadows in the area of the village of Patok and landed in a peat working.

Only one airman escaped from the burning aircraft — Corporal pilot Kazimierz Kaczmarek, who jumped out with a parachute. The Polish army took the wounded man away. After the crash, fire engulfed the lower part of the fuselage. All that could be seen were the wings and the aircraft's tail sticking up into the air.

The third of the Łoś bombers — the aircraft of observer 2nd Lt Kazimierz Dzik — suffered serious damage during the air battle. The engine and the fuel tank in the wing caught fire. The crew managed to drop the bombs, and the aircraft made a forced landing in the area of the village of Dłutówek, in young woodland, about 6 km from the village of Ślądkowice. Before the landing, two crew members jumped from the burning aircraft — Corporal gunner Aleksander Danielak and Konstanty Gołębiowski. Despite being fired upon by the Germans, they survived and landed by parachute. The two remaining crew members got out of the burning aircraft. As a result of the impact, the pilot ended up head down. He had a broken arm and his femurs dislocated from their joints. Farmers working in a nearby field (Piotrek Olkusz and Edward Szymak) ran to his aid. They ran after the falling aircraft. Piotrek, with a knife taken from his pocket, cut the straps and saved the pilot.

Other people came running, a horse-cart was brought, the airmen were placed on it and taken to the military hospital in Pabianice, and then, together with him and the front retreating eastward, they reached Vilnius. There the pilot — as soon as his health allowed him to leave the hospital — was taken in by a friend's parents. Under a changed name (Jan Żarnowski), and thanks to the help of various people, changing addresses, he managed to avoid arrest and deportation to a camp. The crew's commander died in Katyń. Peter Olkusz — for that was the name of the man who saved the pilot — died on 15 October 2010 in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 97. Edward Szymak did not survive the war and was killed on the eve of its end during the bombing of Bremen.

On 6 September 2009, on the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, a ceremony was held in Dłutówek to unveil a commemorative obelisk and a monument-aircraft at the site of the forced landing of the PZL.37 B Łoś bomber (72.16) of the 212th Bomber Squadron, shot down in air combat on 4 September 1939. The monument was built at a 1:1 scale, and the main initiator of its construction was LOT Polish Airlines captain pilot Wojciech Tomaszewski, together with Jan Rybak — head of the volunteer fire brigade in Dłutów.