Stanisław Jan Litak
© Polish Wargraves
The Mustang Mk III FX 925, code SZ-U, of Kitak crashes due to engine problems according to the loss register. This also states that the pilot tried to save himself with his parachute.
The location was taken from Traces of War. There is also a photo of the monument unveiled in 2025.
Monument
On May 4, 2025, a small monument was unveiled in memory of the pilot near the crash site on the Zilverschoonbeek at number 22. Following this unveiling, several reports appeared in the local media. For example, on helmondnu.nl, the Eindhovens Dagblad and the AD.
The latter contains additional information about the pilot’s death. The engine problems are said to have been caused by the plane being hit during the escort of bombers on their way to a coke factory in Gelsenkirchen. When the pilot wants to land at the Rijpelberg airfield, which was built in 1944, he is not allowed to do so for fear of a crash. Litak decides to jump, but his parachute does not open.
His airforce carreer
According to various reports, the pilot born in Oświęcim attended aviation school, which he completed in May 1938. After the German invasion of 1939, he managed to flee to France and then Great Britain. Litak saw action in 58 combat missions and 40 so-called operational missions, a total of 98 missions until things went wrong two months before the end of the war and he died here in the Netherlands.
Traces of War reports the following details of his career:
- 1938: Polish Air Force;
- January 21, 1941: No. 15 Elementary Flying Training School, Carlisle;
- May 24, 1941: No. 8 Service Flying Training School, Montrose;
- March 24, 1942: No. 58 Operational Training Unit, Grangemouth;
- May 27, 1942: No. 316 (Warsaw) Squadron;
- August 2, 1944: No. 1 RAF Delivery Flight, Croydon;
- October 28, 1944: No. 316 (Warsaw) Squadron.
The Polish website polishairforce.pl has a longer account of his career. It shows that despite 58 combat missions he had only two shared victories to his name, namely 2 times a V1.
The various reports use the photo below, in which the pilot can be seen leaning against the tail of a Spitfire. This image probably dates from 1942.
The artist Litak
That Litak also had a penchant for drawing, and did so with considerable merit, is evident from the three pastels that surfaced on the One Bid website in early 2024. They were offered by Antykwariat Bartoszko from Poznań and show three aircraft models of the Polish Air Force from the 1930s and the battles of 1939. With the permission of the antiquarian, we may reuse the images here.
Enfant Terrible, Anglia 1940r.
Ubog Krewny – Karaś, Anglia 1940r.
Spracowana osa, Anglia 1940r.
Clockwise, Litak depicted here the medium bomber of the PZL.37 Łoś (elk), the fighter PZL P.11 and the light bomber PZL.23 Karaś (carp).
Litaks gun camera
The IWM archive contains several films with images from ‘gun cameras’. The still below is from the film with archivenumber CGC 1401~1500.
From 2:25, the first various images of the Polish 317 squadron and then of the 316 squadron can be seen. The images of Litak can be seen at time code 5:11. Unfortunately, these images are not very clear.
In another film (archive number CGE 6517-7060) there is footage of Litak filmed from a Mustang during attacks on V1s in the summer of 1944, time code 59:56. Litak can be seen firing at a shadow in the distance.
A third film also includes footage from his gun camera from 1943 firing at an Fw190 from timecode 36:16:
In Great Britain, his name can be found on a stone list in Goosnargh, Lancashire, judging from the photo below in the IWM archive.
Soucre picture Litak with Spitfire: Mark Gorton
Insignia of 316 Squadron: By Voytek S - Own work based on jpg version, Public Domain