Description:

WITOLD URBANOWICZ
(1908 – 1996) Polish fighter ace of the Second World War. According to the official record, Urbanowicz was the second highest-scoring Polish fighter ace, with 17 confirmed wartime kills and 1 probable, not counting his pre-war victory. Fine content T.L.S., 1p. 4to., New York, Sep. 12, 1984 to a collector. In part: '...My [most] memorable experience of WWII was my first fighting with German fliers on the first of September, 1939 over air base Deblin, where I had been an instructor in the fighter school. Our training airplanes were antique in comparison with the Messerschmitt 109. I found that the fame of Luftwaffe pilots was exaggerated by German propaganda. On the first day of combat over Deblin, Berlin radio gave record of 24 Polish planes shot down over our base. We had only 12 fighter planes PZL-7 armed and did not lose even one airplane...we shot down on the first day 2 German bombers, which were not mentioned on the German radio...On the basis of the given example it is easy to surmise that the supposed great victories of the Nazi fighter pilots were fakes. According to my experience...the best fighter pilots in WW II were American, British and Polish. During few years of war the victories of allied pilots averaged several planes. Lot of the German fliers, on the other hand, claimed over 100 victories and there were some who went as far as claiming 300. One of the[m] called 'Star of Africa' claimed shooting down 8 planes in 10 minutes (all of them fighter planes). The picture of the plane on the letterhead is my original Hurricane from the Battle of Britain, 1940. This plane had this inscription: We Do Not Beg For Freedom We Fight for Freedom...' Very good. Urbanowicz refers to Hans-Joachim Marseille (1919-1942) who claimed 158 kills, with 17 enemy fighters shot down in one day.

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April 5, 2022 10:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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