Bajan's list

Bajan (left) with Marshal Józef Piłsudski (centre) and Gustaw Pokrzywka (right) after Challenge in 1934

Bajan list is a list of Polish fighter aces of World War II. It was released in 1946 and is named after the officer who supervised the project, colonel Jerzy Bajan.

History

The list of Polish Air Force and Polish Air Forces in Great Britain fighter pilots air victories was compiled for the Polish Air Force Historical Commission by colonel Jerzy Bajan of the Fighter Claim Commission, and a liaison officer at the RAF Fighter Command headquarters.^[1][2] The publication, released in 1946, was titled Polish Fighter Pilots Achievements during the Second World War.^[3] Not all documents (particularly for the first years) could be recovered at that time, so some of the data was based on interviews; after reviewing earlier documents and statistics Bajan's methodology tried to reduce the number of false reports.^[1]

List

126 German aircraft or "Adolfs" were claimed as shot down by No. 303 Squadron pilots during the Battle of Britain. This is the score of "Adolfs" chalked onto a Hurricane.

The final list revealed that the Polish pilots accounted for 105 aircraft destroyed during the Polish September Campaign (most of those occurred during the first six days of the war).^[1] The number of kills during the Battle of Britain is estimated at about 2698, many of them from the No. 303 Fighter Squadron.^[2]

The list includes 447 entries, with one Czech pilot, Josef František, and five entries for the rare cases where victories attributed to the units, rather than individuals.^[3] The leading Polish ace, according to the list, is general Stanisław Skalski, with almost 19 confirmed kills.^[3] 42 Polish pilots scored 5 or more victories during the war.^[3]

The top 50 pilots from the Bajan list are:^[3]

References