Replica Spitfire fatal crash in Poland.

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18 years 11 months

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Replica Spitfire is pushing it. The aircraft was a Midget Mustang, painted in the colours of a Spitfire!

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Regardless of what it was or wasn't, someone lost their life. RIP.

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Yes, but if not for the 'Spitfire' tag I doubt that the nationalist Daily Mail would have even mentioned a light aircraft crash in Poland!

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Yes, but if not for the 'Spitfire' tag I doubt that the nationalist Daily Mail would have even mentioned a light aircraft crash in Poland!

Likewise I know of a nationalistic forum that would not have mentioned it. ;)

Seems to have been another fatal Midget Mustang crash in Italy yesterday, "N6V".

Is Ken Sword's G-AWIR still around? I remember seeing it in a hangar at Leicester covered in dust in the early 1980s.

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Seems to have been another fatal Midget Mustang crash in Italy yesterday, "N6V".

Is Ken Sword's G-AWIR still around? I remember seeing it in a hangar at Leicester covered in dust in the early 1980s.

Me too: metallic maroon and gold IIRC?

I recall the maroon. Too dusty to recall metallic!

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Any chance we can modify the title given it wasn't a replica Spitfire

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Hi All,
RIP The pilot a sad end to a chaps passion.

I think the Mail article rather typical sloppy journalism to be honest a short mention of the accident then infill with historical facts to flush out the thing. I have mentioned before about some so called documentaries and news articles that use stock footage/Pictures showing different aircraft that are meant to be the one they are chuntering about.

It only took me five minutes to locate the real story behind the Midget Mustang's adopted camouflage and that it is dedicated to a certain Polish fighter pilot (Wing Commander Jan Zumbach) Pictures and article courtesy of :- http://www.626-squadron.co.uk/willem15.htm . ( Recommend reading the whole of the linked page, very interesting historically not just about the aviation side of thing.....:eagerness: )

Also another fact is Airfix actually produced a plastic kit of the pictured Spit so if I can delve and do a little why can't so called professional journalists ?

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The son of a Swiss father and a Polish mother, Jan Zumbach was registered as a Swiss citizen and hid his nationality in order to join the Polish army. He did his A-Levels in 1935, then and then joined the Army. He did just a short few months unitary course infantry, obligatory for all future officers, but he was going Air Force from the beginning. Mind you the Air Force was at the time a part of the Army and not yet a separate structure.

He served as an infantryman until 1936 when he transferred to the Polish Air Force. He registered with serial no. P-1382.After graduating from flying training in 1938 he was posted to 111 Eskadra Mysliwska. Zumbach did not fly during the German invasion of Poland due to a broken leg as a result of a flying accident during the summer of 1939. He returned to his unit only to be evacuated to France via Romania. While in France, Zumbach flew the Morane 406 and Curtiss Hawk 75 with GCII/55. On 10 June, he was one of several pilots shot down by Bf 109s, but escaped unscathed.

On 18 June 1940, he traveled to England by boat and on 2 August was posted as one of the founding members of the newly formed No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron. During the Battle of Britain, Zumbach scored eight confirmed kills and one probable, mostly against Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters. Zumbach was shot down by a JG 3 Bf 109 over Dover on 9 May 1941 when returning from a mission, but he was able to bail out unharmed.

Zumbach became one of the first Allied pilots to engage in combat with the German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 when he damaged, and in return, his aircraft was damaged by a "single radial-engined fighter" on 13 October 1941. In December 1941, Zumbach was posted to 58 OTU, and in March 1942 returned to 303 Sqn as a flight commander. In May, he was promoted to Squadron Leader and took command of the squadron, a post Zumbach held from 19 May 1942 until 30 November 1943.

During this period, Zumbach flew three Supermarine Spitfire VBs, carrying the serial numbers BM144, EP594 and EN951. All these aircraft carried the same code, RF-D, ("RF" being the squadron code for 303 Sqn) and "D" being the individual aircraft code. All three aircraft carried a cartoon of Donald Duck on the port side of the fuselage, slightly forward of the cockpit. Zumbach's victory tally was marked with German crosses under the cockpit on the port side; confirmed kills were outlined in white, probable kills in red, and damaged aircraft with no outline.

Franek mentions that Zumbach was called Donald Duck because of his characteristic voice and that the Cartoons differed on each Spitfire and believes colour outlines were introduced only on EN951. After handing over command of 303 Sqn to Sqn Ldr Bieñkowski, Zumbach spent a year in staff appointments, including the Polish Air Force Staff College. He returned to flying duties as the commander of the 2nd Polish Air Wing, No 133 Wing.

On 25 September 1944, he scored his final victory of the war, a probable kill over a JG 26 Fw 190 over Arnhem. I do not have the record at hand butbelieve it was downgraded to 'damaged'. Franek. On 30 January 1945, Zumbach was posted to HQ, No. 84 Group. While flying in Auster MT440 on April 7th 1945, and with Squadron Leader Kawalecki in Auster NX532, a light unarmed two-seater aircraft used to visit units under the Group's command, he made a navigational error and ran out of fuel. Both Austers force-landed in enemy territory and their pilots spent the final month of the war as a prisoners of war. At the end of the war Zumbach's final victory tally was 12 (and 2 shared) confirmed kills, five probables and one damaged. Post war he resumed service with HQ, No. 84 Group.

Demobbed in October 1946, he joined a small air taxi company involved in smuggling. He continued those activities for a few years, then settled in Paris and started in the catering business (a bar/restaurant gastronomic - not sure the proper name). Apart of that he became entangled in the arms dealing business, and was personally involved as a mercenary pilot during the Katanga and Biafra wars.

He passed away on 3 January 1986 in Paris, France. He is buried in Warsaw, Poland, at the Powazki military cemetery.

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Just a shame that the Mail never included a few historical snippets about the history behind the unfortunate pilots personal dedication to a Polish fighter pilot.

Geoff.

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