P/O Mierzwa. F/O Strzembosz managed to reach the base with a badly shot-up plane. Till July 13 - when it was rested at RAF Speke near Liverpool - the squadron carried out almost daily operational sorties of various types.

Conspicuous in this multitude of events, is "Rhubarb" from May 15, when the 303 pilots shot down a Ju52, along with several Bf109s destroyed another one on the ground, and strafed and wrecked a small ship. Boleslaw Drobinski recalled later: "This was my first combat mission as a member of this squadron (303). My wingmen was Sgt Belc ... Coming back we passed the French coast and I noticed five ships in a line sailing north. From the direction of travel it was unlikely that they were Allied vessels. Itold Belc - I'll take the first one and you take the last one. Nobody was shooting at us from the ships, probably because they thought that we were their own aircraft coming out from the French coast. At the last moment I opened fire and gave as long a burst as I could. Just before reaching the ship I pulled up into the clouds, as it begun to shoot back. After a while I heard Belc telling me that the ship was burning..."( SS Senateur Louis Barfleur, a merchant vessel. WR ) No less successful was a sortie on June 18, when in a fierce fighting over the France the 303 pilots shot down four Bf109s without losses. A week later the "Kosciuszko" squadron chalked up six