Can You Add To The Story Of Flight Lieutenant Tadeusz Pawel Ch?opik?

December

12

4 comments

Have you heard of Tadeusz Pawel Ch?opik? He was a Polish pilot who served in the RAF during the Battle of Britain. He died in Rawreth following combat.

There’s a very eloquent dedication to him on the Southend Polish Saturday School website.

Here’s an extract:

Flight Lieutenant Ch?opik was based at RAF Duxford and on 15th September 1940 during the Battle of Britain, he was fighting in fierce air combat with enemy aircraft who were attempting to destroy the RAF North Weald airbase in Essex.
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His squadron had been scrambled twice that day for two defensive sorties and he had already destroyed two enemy aircraft, but on the second sortie he was attacked and chased by enemy ME109 fighters. His Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft P2954, WX-E was badly damaged and he baled out.
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His aircraft crashed in Mark’s Farm near Battlesbridge and he parachuted and landed at Rawreth near Rayleigh in Essex. Mark’s Farm is in Rettendon Parish near South Woodham Ferrers, Essex.
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By the time help reached him, he was already dead. He died aged 32 on Sunday, 15th September 1940. He is buried in Southend on Sea, Essex. He was born in Lwow, Poland on 18th June 1908.
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The day he died – 15th September 1940 was the worst day of The Battle of Britain. It was day of the greatest number of enemy attacks, the greatest number of invading German aircraft, the greatest number of aircraft shot down – 61 Luftwaffe and 31 RAF aircraft were lost and the greatest number of aircrew killed. Fl Lt Chlopik was one of 16 RAF pilots and 93 Luftwaffe aircrew who died that day. That worst day with its highest number of attacks and highest aircrew losses became known as – “Battle of Britain Day” which is celebrated every year on the 15th of September.
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The Imperial War Museum at Duxford has a vast collection of aircraft. The Gate Guardian aircraft at the entrance to the museum is a Hawker Hurricane mounted on a pedestal. It is the first aircraft you see – and it is Tadeusz Chlopik’s aircraft – it is painted and marked as the Hurricane P2954 WX-E.

If anyone has any information or data about this event, the aircraft, the pilot and the local actions or rescue attempts or an accurate location of where the pilot landed or was found and about where his aircraft crashed – please let us know, and we will put you in touch with the person who is researching into this.

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  • I am not sure but there are two monuments to pilots situated on dolimans farm alongside the railway .There is now a more formal plaque on hodgsons way shotgate which i believe commemorates those fallen pilots .I can remember the two monuments as two white propellers near each other .The site was disturbed with the excavation for the new A130 .Whether either of these are to do with the Polish pilot I do not know .

  • We have come across the monuments a.matthews details during our Geocaching exploits but neither are commemorating FL Tadeusz Pawel…

    The two on the farm commemorate the crash sites of two planes that collided whilst trying to intercept a German Gotha bomber on it’s way to London on 7/8 March 1918. The planes were piloted by Capt Alexander Bruce Kynoch and Capt Henry Clifford Stroud. We visited both these memorials recently which are still there although one is in a better state than the other.

    The memorial in Hodgsons Way is for Pilot Officer William Henry Hodgson DCF a young New Zealander who flew for 85 Squadron, RAF during the Second World War. He was awarded the Distinquished Flying Cross when on 31st May 1940 he engaged hostile bombers and fighters over the River Thames in his Hawker Hurricane. His plane was hit and caught fire. In attempting to return to his base at RAF Debden flew his damaged plane away from heavily populated areas and then rather than bail out he crashed landed in the field near this memorial. He was killed on 13 March 1941 when the Havoc he was a passenger in crashed near Debden,Essex. Killing all on board.

    Brave men indeed.

  • I talked about Tadeusz Chlopik at the Christingle service for the school last Tuesday. They had already prepared dramas arising out of their WW2 projects this past term, so it seemed appropriate.

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