Berlin

MATUSZEWSKI FRANCSZEK ppor.

 Airman. P 2722 Polish Air Force. 16 January 1945. Age 26. Plot IV Row J Grave 15 TO 17

 PIOTROWSKI MIKOŁAJ kpr.

Airman. P 794471 Polish Air Force. 16 January 1945. Age 28. Plot IV Row J Grave 15 -17

RAJPOLD CZESŁAW kpr. 

Airman. P 781417 Polish Air Force. 26 August 1943. Age 24. Plot V Row J Grave 36

 SKONIECZNY JOZEF kpr.

Airman. P 792624 Polish Air Force. 6 February 1943. Age 38. Plot VIII Row J Grave 34

SMOCZKIEWICH ANTONI kpr. 

Airman. P 706697 Polish Air Force. 16 January 1945. Age 22. Plot IV Row J Grave 15 TO 17.

On the night of the 16th to 17th of January 1945 Lancaster I BH-U (PD257), the No. 300 "Mazovian Land" Bomb Squadron, being part of the Royal Air Force, was shot down by the anti-aircraft defence during an air raid on a target in Zeitz and crashed near Hohenstein. Out of a seven-person crew, Matuszewski, Piotrowski and Smoczkiewicz were killed. The other four airmen were taken prisoner.

Two other pilots buried at the cemetery died as prisoners of war. Skonieczny, pilot of the No. 300 Bomb Squadron, took part in an air raid on Essen. The German anti-aircraft defence shot down Wellington IV BH-J (Z1495). The crew tried to land on the Dutch territory. During this manoeuvre, deck shooter Gębaczek was killed and his last resting place is in that country. The rest of the five-man crew were captured. Skonieczny, wounded and burned, died on the 6th of February 1943 of a heart attack in the Stadtroda hospital of Stalag IX C Bad Sulza.

Rajpold, the crew's radiotelegraphy officer from the OTU 18 school unit in Bramcote, also died in captivity. He and his crew participated in the air raid of 1,000 bombers on Bremen on the night of the 25th to 26th of June 1942. His plane Wellington IC XW-N (DV765) was shot down over the Netherlands, where it crashed. The entire crew was captured. Rajpold was a prisoner of Stalag IVA in Hoyerswald-Elsterhorst, Germany, where he died on the 26th of August 1943.