Blood on their Wing Tips: A Second World War Timeline for No. 303 Kosciuszko Polish Squadron at RAF Northolt

The Polish Air Force’s vital role during the Battle of Britain is not widely known.

Blood on their Wing Tips is the story of No. 303 Kosciuszko Polish Squadron and its founder members flying from RAF Northolt during the Battle of Britain.

When the first Polish pilots arrived in England in 1940, most of them were not allowed to fly with their RAF colleagues in combat. But the Luftwaffe’s punishing bombing raids on British airfields left the RAF struggling to fight.

On 31 August 1940, the second Polish Squadron in Great Britain, known as ‘No. 303 Kosciuszko Squadron,’ became combat operational. During the Battle of Britain, the squadron claimed the highest number of destroyed enemy aircraft.

Blood on their Wing Tips is a true life timeline for No. 303 Kosciuszko Polish Squadron during the Second World War. It combines the personal memoirs of surviving pilots written before Poland regained independence in 1989, letters from the families of those who gave their lives, and official combat records and war diaries.

Nina Britton Boyle has spent over 30 years collecting a unique archive of material about the pilots who flew with No. 303 Kosciuszko Polish Squadron. Some of the original handwritten accounts and photographs in the book have never been published before.

WE POLISH AIRMEN GAVE OUR SOULS TO GOD OUR BODIES TO THE BRITISH SOIL AND OUR HEARTS TO POLAND 1940-1945 ZA NASZA WOLNOSC I WASZA (FOR OUR FREEDOM AND YOURS)