By Flight Lieutenant Rob Pitt- Media Officer at RAF Valley
RAF Valley has always had really strong links with the people of Anglesey. On Remembrance Day I was asked to represent RAF Valley in Holyhead. It’s always a very proud time for a serviceman to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the men and women of the town’s Royal British Legion.
After the service I was invited to pay tribute alongside the family of Sgt Kazimierz Stefan Rosiewicz, who were visiting from Poland and Boston, Massachusetts. Their ancestor had perished in a sea crash during WW2. I stood with his family in the Holyhead Catholic Church of St Mary, as we celebrated mass together. After, we visited Kazimierz’s grave and together and lit candles, in the fashion of tribute in Poland.
I wanted to re-tell this story to commemorate this incredible story of Anglesey bravery and wartime tragedy. Most of all I wanted to remember those people who stood in a time of darkness and weren't afraid to fight it. I'm very thankful to Lukasz Nowak, of Sgt Kazimierz's family for sending me the story and pictures.
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| Sgt Kazimierz Stefan Rosiewicz |
Sgt Kazimierz Stefan Rosiewicz (P-782028) - Biography
He was born on 19 Feb 1917. In 1937 he joined the Polish Air Force Cadet School (Szkola Podchorazych Lotnictwa) at Deblin. He was discharged on the strength of Order No.117/38.
Later he was called up in August 1939, and managed to get to the UK where he completed a flying training course and was posted to No.4 AOS at RAF Valley as a pilot.
On 28 August 1941 he took off on a training flight with two RAF airmen in Blackburn Botha LG417.
The aircraft experienced engine failure and crashed into the sea. All the three crew members were drowned. Sgt Rosiewicz's body was washed ashore on 11 September 1941 and he was buried at Holyhead, Anglesey, grave 128.
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| The Blackburn Botha |
Source: Olgierd Cumft, Hubert Kazimierz Kujawa. Ksiega Lotnikow Polskich Poleglych, Zmarlych i Zaginionych 1939-1946. Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej, Warszawa 1989.
The story of the day is an amazing piece of local history. The bravery of the people of this area shines through in this incredible story, here it is, in it's full glory.
At about 11.30 in the morning of the 28th of August, 1941, a Blackburn Botha crashed in the sea off Rhosneigir. High winds aboundwith searing gales were blowing from the south-west, creating a very disturbed sea.
The nearest life-boat- the Holyhead motor life-boat- was at a shipyard for overhaul, and her crew were away fetching a relief life-boat.
The Porthdinllaen motor life-boat was called out and launched at 12.48 in the afternoon. She reached Rhosneigir about 2.30. By that time there was nothing to be seen of the aeroplane.
The most gallant attempts at rescue were made by four shore boats, and by many people working from the beach, but all the efforts failed. Not only were the three airmen lost, but eleven of the local rescuers.
The honorary secretary of the Holyhead life-boat station, who visited Rhosneigir afterwards, said that these gallant attempts must have been hopeless from the start. The seas were smashing onto the shore and the tide running out against them. The waves were not rolling in and breaking on the open beach in the usual way, but moving like walls of water, preventing any forward momentum.
Almost as soon as the aeroplane came down on the water, two of her crew were washed off her. The third clung to the fuselage.
He was seen by two boys of seventeen, Mr. John L. S. Wood, of Chester, and Mr. Derrick Baynham, of Walton-on-Thames. With a total disregard for their own safety they at once launched a small dinghy and set out to the rescue. It took them three-quarters of an hour of hard rowing to reach the aeroplane. This Herculean effort won them the George Medal and a silver cigarette case from the CINC of the Polish Air Force.
But as they turned it to go alongside the aeroplane, a sea caught it broad-side on and capsized it. Both the boys were thrown into the water, but both succeeded in clinging to the over-turned boat. Then they left it and swam to the aeroplane on which the airman was crouching. When they had regained their breath they decided to make for their boat again. It was being driven shoreward and they feared that at any moment the aeroplane might sink. They persuaded the airman, a Pole, to go with them.
He had been slightly injured in the crash, and was weak from shock and exposure. He was scarcely able to help himself, and was supported by the two boys as, battered by the seas, they struggled to keep their heads above water.
The aeroplane as well as the boat was being carried shoreward, and in their struggle they used anything they could get hold of, an oar, the boat and occasionally the aeroplane itself. In this way they gradually drifted nearer to the shore and one of the boys and the airman managed to seize a beach defence post. It was not strong enough to bear their combined weight, so the boy left the airman to hold on to it, and again struck off towards the shore.
Both the boys had now almost given up hope of reaching another defence post or the shore itself, but people on the shore, who had watched their splendid struggle, were preparing to go to their help. They formed a human chain, reaching far out from the shore, and this chain succeeded in seizing and passing in the two boys.
Unfortunately the beachsupporterswere not able to rescue the Polish airman. In a cruel trap, he was actually then in shallow water as he clung to the post. Exhaustion overtook him. He lost his grip and was claimed by the sea. Meanwhile other, very gallant, efforts had been made to reach the aeroplane.
One man had put out in a boat alone, but was forced by the heavy seas to turn back. Then nine men put out in a whaler. Seven of them were soldiers, the other two were an officer of the merchant navy and a police constable. They must have realised that they were making an almost hopeless attempt, at the risk of their own lives, but they refused to listen to the warning of other people on the shore. They felt it their duty to make the attempt. For this they were issued the RNLI Bronze Medal.
They succeeded in rowing the whaler well out to sea, but in trying to bring her under the lee of the aeroplane they were caught and capsized by the treacherous sea. They were also thrown into the water, in all directions. One of the nine men managed to struggle ashore himself. Incredibly two of the men who put out, could not swim and clung to an oar- incredible bravery.
A man swam out from the beach to help them and brought them in. They were only half conscious, but were revived. The other six men were all washed up, but it was impossible to revive them. Yet a fourth boat put out with two men on board, a coastguard and an aircraftsman. This boat too was capsized.
The coastguardsman was drowned, but the aircraftsman was saved. People on shore saw the capsize of the boats and the men on board them thrown into the water, and fourteen soldiers and airmen swam out to help them. Four of these fourteen men lost their lives. During these heroic efforts aeroplanes were flying low overhead and dropping life-belts to the rescuers struggling in the water.
Awards for the day were made to:
The Institution made the following awards to those who had attempted rescue with the use of boats :
To JOHN L. S. WOOD and DERRICK BAYNHAM, each the silver medal for gallantry, with a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum. They were also both awarded George Medals, and received money rewards from the Air Ministry, and silver cigarette-cases from General Sikorski, Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Forces, with his signature on them.
To SERGEANT C. JACKSON, LANCE BOMBARDIER T. TAYLOR and GUNNER J. W. PARKINSON, the three survivors of the nine men who manned the whaler, each the bronze medal for gallantry.
To AIRCRAFTSMAN(1st Class) ALBERT E. ATKINSON the survivor of the two men who manned the fourth boat, the bronze medal for gallantry.
The bronze medal for gallantry was also posthumously awarded to each of the seven men who lost their lives in the boats:
SECOND-LIEUTENANT PETER T. WHYSALL
R. A. BATTERY SERGEANT-MAJOR ALFRED W. MOGER
GUNNER CLARENCE H. THORNTON
SECOND MATE, MERCANTILE MARINE, ARTHUR J. OWEN
POLICE CONSTABLE GEORGE C. ARTHUR
COASTGUARD OFFICER EVAN JONES
GUNNER REGINALD EATON.
The Royal Humane Society rewarded those who had made attempts at rescue by swimming.
Fourteen men put out in boats. Seven of them lost their lives. Fourteen men swam out. Four of them lost their lives.
