Stanisław Chałupa and Polish Fighters over France in 1940.
Polish fighter pilots in France (from left): Józef Brzezinski, Stanisław Chałupa, Antoni Beda. In background - French Morane Sauliner MS-406 fighter.
Stanislaw Chalupa was born on 14 January 1915. In 1937 he completed the Officer Pilot School in Deblin. Then he was posted to 123 Eskadra Mysliwska (123 Fighter Squadron). When the war began on 1 September 1939, 123 Eskadra flew on obsolete P-7 fighters (while almost all other units used P-11). This unit experienced heavy losses, succedeed by destroy of 3 German planes - one of them was shared by team Sec.Lt. Chałupa, Sec.Lt. Kawnik and Cadet Kawnik. After evacuation to France via Romania, Chałupa joined the GC I/2 'Montpellier Group'.
"On March 29th, three Moranes, with red-and-white checkers painted on the fuselages, landed at Xaffévillers, a base for GC I/2. They were piloted by por. Józef Brzeziński, ppor. Stanisław Chałupa and plut. Antoni Beda. Poles got assigned to the Flight “A”. In early April the squadron moved to Toul-Ochey. Till the German offensive, Polish pilots took part in ten escort missions to Potez 63s, which reconnaissanced enemy territory mostly in the area of Saarbrücken and Zweibrücken. Those missions were flown at the altitudes of 15-21 thousands feet and the German fighters were never encountered, but their flak was a menace. During one of those flights, shrapnel hit the aircraft of a French officer. The pilot force landed in the center of a small town – his plane overturned. While helping the pilot out, somebody accidentally pressed the trigger of the machine guns, killing four bystanders.
The Polish Flight’s first brush with the enemy came on May 10th. While patrolling over his airfield, ppor. Chałupa scuffled with three Ju88s east of Nancy, without conclusive results. Later that day, plut. Beda and S/L Husson attacked and damaged a He111. The next day, Chałupa and Beda chased five Ju88s, and were credited with one German bomber damaged.
There was no warning before the raid on Toul-Ochey, made by the Luftwaffe on May 12th. The German bombers caught the airfield completely unprepared and all three Polish aircraft were damaged. They were flown, however, the very next day during the escort to the Zweibrücken area.
Starting from May 15th, GC I/2 flew mostly against German bombing raids and over the front southeast of Montmédy. Unfortunate for ppor. Chałupa proved to be the May 17th. After the combat over St. Vallier-sur-Marne, malfunctioned engine’s radiator forced him to land. His Morane’s (no.951, L-982, “6”) landing gear didn’t come down and the aircraft was destroyed.
Receiving a serious head injury in that crash, Chałupa was hospitalized till May 22nd. Meantime, por. Brzeziński left the unit, not being fit to fly because of some stomach problems. His departure was marked by a separation of the other two Poles. From then on, they flew only with French pilots. Being an officer, Chałupa enjoyed much more liberty then Beda. Accompanied by a French NCO, he often took off for an unscheduled patrol. During one of those patrols in twos, on June 1st, they twice attacked and chased, without success, formations of He111s and Ju88s. The unit’s C/O ignored this Pole’s activities. He forbade them only when a whole squadron’s sortie was coming up.
On June 2nd, the squadron’s vic with ppor. Chałupa, encountered a group of He111s returning from a bombing mission, shooting down one of them. On June 5th, plut. Beda scored a victory. His victim crashed near Chaumont.
The airfield at Coulommiers became the unit’s new location on June 8th. This day proved to be a lucky one for Chałupa. He recalled:
We were patrolling at 12,000 feet when we caught sight of nine Bf109s flying in the opposite direction, some 600 feet lower and slightly to the side. They probably didn’t see us since we had the sun at our backs. The leader of our Flight let the other pairs attack first, and then, he and I followed. We bounced the last pair of enemy aircraft, shooting from a range of some 40m. After a couple of burst from my guns, I saw hits on the aircraft, which flew on the formation’s right side. It started to burn, scattering some metal parts. Having its tail all shot up, it spiraled down all the way to the ground. The leader of my flight shot down the other two. Other pilots of our Flight witnessed it.
The same day, at 7:45 p.m. the six of us attacked a force of about 20 Ju87s “Stuka”, flying at 6,000 feet. It happened some 2 km from the city of Soissons. A dogfight started in which I destroyed a Ju87 making a frontal pass, from little above. It dived steeply and crashed. Next, I attacked another Junkers, which started to smoke and went for a deck. In that instance, two others Moranes joined in. After shaky flying for a few kilometers, the enemy aircraft tried to force land but crashed, hitting a tree.
Shot down Ju87s were likely from the StG2, which lost four aircraft that day. The German fighters from that day’s encounter, could have been from JG27, which on June 8th lost in combat, Leutnant Herman Dörr of the 7th Staffel and Leutnant Walter Reimer of the 2nd Staffel. 30
On June 15th, the squadron moved to Chalon-Champforgueil.
For Poles, the next clash with the Luftwaffe’s fighters came on June 15th (some French sources indicate June 11th), when six Bf110s attacked the GC I/2 airfield. The two Polish pilots were the only ones who managed to scramble. Immediately, plut. Beda run into trouble with a Messerschmitt on his tail. Seeing this, ppor. Chałupa chased the attacker away with a long deflection shot. Beda landed a badly shot up aircraft (no. 947, which was promptly written off) while Chałupa, being boxed in by the Zerstörers, flew under the cover of the airfields AAA.
The squadron’s next move came on June 17th to St. Symphorien-d’Ozon, and three days later to Nîmes-Courbessac. Their last operational sorties were made from Montpellier, the very airfield where the Poles flew a French aircraft for the first time. From there, by train, they went to St. Luiz, where they boarded a British ship to England - suffering from a severe case of arthritis, ppor. Chałupa had to be carried on. "
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After French campaign Chałupa, like many other Polish aviators, arrived to Britain. On 6 August 1940 he was posted to new formed, on Leconfield airfield, 302 Polish Fighter Squadron "City of Poznań". On 20 August there was first enemy encounter - 3 Hurricanes of 302 Sq, leaded by S/Ldr Satchell (British commander of 302.) encountered single Ju 88 over British coast. German bomber was shared by Satchell and Sec.Lt. Wapniarek.
One day later, section of 3 Hurricanes (Riley, Chałupa, Paterek) was directed against pair of Ju 88s. In combat over Hull harbour, Sec.Lt. Stanisław Chałupa scored his first kill under British sky, while second one was shared by Railey and Paterek. Chałupa's Hurricane got some hits, and pilot was forced to belly land.
During hottest days of BoB 302 Sq was moved to Duxford airfield, located North from London. On famous day, 15 September, pilots of 302 flew two missions, scoring 11 confirmed kills and 7 probable (3 Hurricanes were lost, one pilot killed). In first sortie (about 12:00) Chałupa downed 2 Do 17 bombers.
In spring of 1941 Chałupa was posted to Fighter Command (OPS) in Kenley sector. Having some health trouble he didn't return to active pilot duty till end of war. Offical score of Chałupa is 4 confirmed kills.
After war Stanisław Chałupa emigrated to Canada, but in 1995 he finally returned Poland.
Stanisław Chałupa on right, on left Antoni Beda.
2000.10.08, © WW II Ace Stories.