Ah! 300 Sqn, then?

If he was a pre-war trained pilot, he would have been subsumed into the RAFVR on arrival in Britain - like nearly all of the wartime expansion.

I'm not especially well-versed on the politics of the Poles during the time, but a lot of the allied Air Forces had their own policies on commissioning. For example, there was a certain push from the RAAF and RNZAF to get their lads promoted and commissioned. Most aircrew reached their first operational Squadron as Sergeant (No aircrew were of lower rank - only a certain percentage of outstanding trainees were commissioned on completion of training) and, assuming they didn't "put up a black", could expect to be promoted at periodic intervals - assuming they survived! There is also occasional weirdness where someone was shot down as an NCO and later commissioned while a PoW; this being back-dated to the day before they were shot down.

Another thing to consider is, your grandfather would have been financially better-off in Warrant rank than a junior commissioned rank!

You probaly know about this already, but there is an excellent project from a Polish group to put all their Squadron Operations Record Books online. You can find it here:-

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Posted By: Iwan Husarmi on June 11th 2011 at 16:48:40

Message Thread

FAO Dr Dubs (General Chat) - Iwan Husarmi, Jun 11, 16:21:14
- Both! :) He was with the polish air force but then came over to England when invaded. He (General Chat) - DrDublin, Jun 11, 16:27:38
  - But his son, my uncle did ok being a Wing Commander. Not bad for a Pole. :) (n/m) (General Chat) - DrDublin, Jun 11, 16:36:07
  - The Polish seemed adapted well to the Lancaster bombers which he was a pilot of. (n/m) (General Chat) - DrDublin, Jun 11, 16:30:04
    - Ah! 300 Sqn, then? (General Chat) - Iwan Husarmi, Jun 11, 16:48:40
    - My uncle was (General Chat) - W1nged Eel Creo5ote, Jun 11, 16:32:17
      - Dangerous being on one of them all round I reckon. (n/m) (General Chat) - DrDublin, Jun 11, 16:33:37
        
        50% casualty rate something like that (General Chat) - W1nged Eel Creo5ote, Jun 11, 16:37:08
        
        Dreadful. (n/m) (General Chat) - DrDublin, Jun 11, 16:38:22
        
        Ever seen one of those turrets? (General Chat) - Iwan Husarmi, Jun 11, 16:55:11
        
        I really don't know very much to be honest Iwan. My grandfather was.. (General Chat) - DrDublin, Jun 11, 17:06:35
        
        Fantastic stories! (General Chat) - Iwan Husarmi, Jun 11, 17:37:54
        
        Oh, and before I forget (General Chat) - Iwan Husarmi, Jun 11, 17:46:55
        
        Sad that they were forced to go home where a lot were then arrested. I'm not huge... (General Chat) - DrDublin, Jun 11, 18:44:01

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