A film about Polish pilots in the Royal Air Force is in the works and
will be released this year or next.
Kaleidoscope Film Distribution has published the teaser for “Hurricane,”
which will tell the story of No 303 "Warsaw-Kosciuszko" Squadron of the
RAF, whose Polish pilots performed remarkably during the Battle of
Britain. The story is set to be seen through the eyes of Polish ace Jan
Zumbach.
Squadron Leader / Major Jan Eugenius Ludwik Zumbach was born 1915 in
Warsaw but registered as a Swiss citizen because of his paternal
grandparents. He joined the Polish army in 1934 and transferred to the
air force two years later. He was badly injured in a crash before the
German invasion but managed to rejoin his unit as it evacuated through
Romania, Bulgaria, and the Mediterranean. He briefly flew a
Morane-Saulnier 406 in the Battle of France. On June 10, 1940, he was
one of three M-S 406 pilots who downed a much superior Bf-109 but were
themselves shot down by other Messerschmitts. He bailed out and managed
to get on a ship to England on June 18, where he joined 303 Squadron for
the Battle of Britain. Flying Hurricanes, Spitfires, and a Mustang, he
was credited with 12 planes destroyed in the air, 2 planes shared, and 5
probables.
Postwar (though I would be surprised if the film goes into this) he
obtained a Swiss passport and flew contraband around Europe and the
Middle East, and in the 1960s flew as a mercenary pilot for the
short-lived African nations of Katanga and Biafra under the nom de
guerre of John Brown. He then returned to France and settled down,
publishing his autobiography as "On Wings of War." He died in 1986.
-- Dan Ford US
