MISCELLANEOUS
Harry Hewat commenced pilot training with No. 14 Training Squadron, R.F.C. in December 1917 and, having gained experience in S.
E.5As at the Central Flying School, was posted to No. 41 Squadron out in France in August 1918, which unit was commanded by
Major G. H. “Beery” Bowman, D.S.O., M.C. and Bar, a highly successful ace who raised his score to over 30 victories by the time he
was ordered off operations a few weeks before the War’s end. Indeed it was Bowman who briefed Hewat the morning of his final sortie
on 28 September, but not before the latter had flown around 15 missions of the eventful kind - thus damage from A.A. fire and a crash
landing on returning from another patrol.
Of events on 28 September, assorted references confirm that 41 Squadron lost no less than five aircraft, Hewat falling to the guns of top
German ace Josef Jacobs of 7 Jasta, recently a winner of the “Blue Max”. In his own account of events that morning, Hewat describes
how he attacked enemy transport and troops amidst ‘very hot’ A.A. fire, but ‘managed to get through with only a few pieces through my
wings’ - until that is he turned for home:
‘I was quite lost by this time and it was taking me all my time to get the machine steadied to get the compass to keep West. When I was
surprised to hear a machine-gun firing quite close to me and when I saw the tracers flying past my head, I guessed that by paying too
much attention to my machine and not looking around, I had allowed a Hun to get on my tail. I was taken completely by surprise
because I had not expected to find a Hun in the air.
I looked round and found a Fokker Biplane and also a Triplane sitting close, both firing hard about 50 yards behind me. I opened my
engine full out and turned into a small cloud hoping to dodge one at least, and when I came out I congratulated myself as I could only
see the Biplane following. He opened fire again and then we started circling for position. I could not get on his tail, but by some slip on
his part, I got him broadside on and opened fire. I had not got a burst in when my Vickers jammed and before I had time to get my
Lewis loaded, I was hit through the left thigh from underneath, my leg crumbling up .... I went down in a spin and when only a few feet
from the ground I managed to get my right foot under the rudder bar and straighten her out of the spin ... my wheels touched the
ground while I must have been going at well over 100 m.p.h. and the machine turned a complete summersault and landed upside
down. Immediately about a dozen Huns came dashing to the machine with revolvers shouting “Kamerad” - they seemed to think that I
might fire on them, although I was on my head under the machine ... when the Huns found that I could not shoot, then they lifted the
machine, which was broken in two, off me, and got me out, and carried me in a sitting position, which was rather painful, into a
Belgian cottage, where the woman made me a bowl of coffee. I was laid on a wooden bed with sacking on it, till a Hun came and cut
my sidcot suit and breeches off and put my leg in a sort of splint ... I had the sidcot suit, helmet, goggles, gloves and boots all pinched
here.’
And confirmation that he was indeed a victim of top ace Josef Jacobs, who flew a Triplane, is to be found in his account of a discussion
with the enemy Biplane pilot who visited him in hospital:
‘The pilot of the Fokker Biplane was there and said he came to see how I was - he claimed me as his 7th victim. He told me the pilot of
the Triplane had shot down 36 of our machines, and I rather think he was the one who got me - as I was hit from underneath, and
anyway I was not in a position to be fired at by the Biplane when I was hit. However, I was not in the mood for arguing as I just wanted
to be quiet and there was no harm in letting him claim me.’
Hewat’s journal goes on to describe his subsequent moves and medical treatment, including the following entry dated 3 October 1918:
‘This morning I was put into a motor ambulance and moved to another place where I was put in a small room. Here they dressed me
for a second time and they gave me an anesthetic again. I was then put in a cellar along with about seven Bosch. That night an ordinary
Bosch orderly came round with a syringe to give us all injections. He had a big syringe and just gave each man a dig with it. I refused
and when in the morning five of the others were dead, I was very pleased that I had refused.’
Eventually moved to a hospital in Cologne, where his leg and shattered thigh became sceptic, the long-suffering Hewat was evacuated
back to the U.K. in mid-December, and, as evidenced by the above photographic archive, he was still receiving treatment as late as
1921.
1003
A group of four Polish medals and British Pilot’s Log Book to Warrant Officer Antoni Seredyn, a ‘Battle of Britain’ Pilot
POLAND,CROSS OF VALOUR, W.W.2, unmarked; CROSS OF MERIT, 2nd Class, silver base metal and enamel, modern production;
CROSS FOR POLISH FORCES IN THE WEST; WAR COMMEMORATIVE MEDAL 1939, all unnamed, generally extremely fine (lot)
£400-450
Antoni Seredyn was born on 15 August 1913, in Torun, Poland. A regular in the Polish Air Force, he flew against the Germans in 1939.
With the German and Russian occupation, he left the country and went to Romania and thence to France and Britain, arriving in
France in January 1940. Volunteering for the Royal Air Force, he was initially based at Manston after which he was sent to the Polish
Air Force Depot at Blackpool. Whilst there he developed kidney trouble which delayed his further posting. In September 1940 he was
posted to 5 OTU, Aston Down, and after converting to Hurricanes, he joined No. 32 Squadron based at Acklington on 12 October.
Later in the year his kidney problems resurfaced and he was again hospitalised. After a long period of convalescence, in July 1941 he
was posted to 13 Group Flight at Turnhouse. Seredyn was later posted to No. 285 Squadron at Woodside, on anti-aircraft duties. He
was promoted to a Warrant Officer in September 1943 and joined No. 286 Squadron. In May 1944 Seredyn was posted to 61 OTU in
preparation for a return to flying duties. He converted to Mustangs at 3 TEU and then joined No. 315 Squadron at Brenzett, Sussex, in
September 1944. The long-rang Mustangs were used as escorts for bombers and after the squadron was moved to Peterhead,
Aberdeenshire, they flew missions to Norway. He left the Squadron on 29 November 1945 and was released from the Polish Air Force
on 25 May 1947. After marrying in 1945, he moved to Barnsley in 1957 and then to Blackpool in 1959, living in Ibbison Court, where
he was employed in driving buses in the resort.
Sold with (a) R.A.F. Pilot’s Flying Log Book (some damage), dating from 22 June 1943 until 10 November 1945, in which it records
flights in Spitfires and Mustangs, with 34 ‘Ramrod’, ‘Rodeo’, ‘Roadstead’ operations against enemy targets in Norway and Germany. (b-
e) Award certificates for the Polish Cross of Valour, dated 20 June 1945; Cross for the September Campaign 1939, dated 1985; Cross for
Polish Forces in the West, dated 1995; War Commemorative Medal 1939, dated 1995. (f) Award document for the Cross of Merit,
dated 1982. (g) Riband bar, showing six Polish ribbons together with those for the British 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star;
Defence and War Medals. (h) Certificate of Registration, with photograph, issued in July 1957 in Barnsley Borough. (i) Gazeta, The
Polish Gazette, July-September 1996. (j) Newspaper cutting, relating to Seredyn’s wartime service. (k) Polish Air Force Association 25th
Anniversary Brochure 1951-1976. (l) Two other booklets. (m) R.A.F. cloth ‘wings’ (3). (n) Small metal badges (10), metal bar and
miniature razor in case.
www.dnw.co.uk
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