more Messerschmidts.

On June 23, the unit flew two full strength escort missions over France, where its pilots claimed five German fighters destroyed and four probables. During the second one, P/O Gladych was wounded but managed to crash land on an English beach.

The squadron lost another CO on July 2. During escort mission over Lille the 1 Polish Wing, with the 303 in a middle of it, fought some 60 German Bf109s. The squadron lost S/Ldr Lapkowski who was killed in action, while Sgt Gorecki had to bail out and was rescued three days later from the channel. That day 303 pilots claimed four kills. The squadron command was given to S/Ldr Arentowicz, who himself was shot down and killed six days later. He was replaced by the Flightsquadrons continued operational flying but not in expected combat zones) many training flights were done. When returning to front-line service, the squadron had to have full complement of fully qualified fighter pilots.

For some reasons, any squadron during on rest experienced tragic events. The 303 was not excluded as P/O Juszczak on August 11, and F/Sgt Karubin (BoB) a day later, were lost in flying accidents. On a happier note: in September S/Ldr Jankiewicz and F/Lt Drobinski were decorated with DFC, seventh and eighth awarded the unit's pilots. On 7 October 1941, the squadron returned to Northolt and the 1 Polish Fighter Wing. Soon after it was reequipped with Spitfire Mk Vs. That month the unit flown four offensive sorties: three "Circus" and "Rhubarb". In each one, pilots fought