Emanuel Schlechter. This one, however, is a departure from my usual preference for family related sources; but having said that, the story ends with a local Norfolk connection.
The beginning of all this though is rather abstract. I was just browsing by. Uncle Stan. Douglas Bader. I was intrigued. Bader is a legend in wartime aviation history. Knowing that Polish names get anglicised, a search came upon Stanislaw Josef Brzeski. Cate seemed to know that he was held in high regard by her grandmother for his exploits, but little else about him; but when I read the biography of him my chin almost hit the floor. She had no idea who this guy was.
Interestingly for me, he was buried not far from where I live. This is the story of Stanislaw Brzeski. I have no idea whether Stanislaw was from a military family, but in aged about 15 he joined the Infantry NCO school for minors at Nisko.
After graduating in , he was assigned to the 77th Infantry Regiment in Lida. In he volunteered for pilot training, and completed glider training in Ustianowa, a basic flight course with the 5th Air Regiment, and a fighter pilot course at the Flying School of Gunnery and Bombardment in Grudziadz.
He would complete his basic flying training with the 5th Air Regiment and went on to advanced pilot training. By November 23rd he was a fully fledged pilot; such was his prowess that in he was a member of the 5th Air Regiment team in the Polish Fighter Air Force Contest at Torun, winning 1st place. Hitlers Nazi Germany was on the rise, Stalins Russia was mobilised, and war was about to arrive. Stanislaw was by now a pilot with the nd Fighter Escadrille.
