Spitfire Vb, S/Ldr Jan Zumbach

[David Mooney]

This is my Spitfire Vb built from the Hobbyboss kit, I know many complain about it for a few reasons, but to me it looks like a Spitfire...…...and that's good enough for me lol! Its was built out of the box and MRP paints were used. 

 

Hope you like it, but here is a bit about the man in the machine first.

 

The son of Polish-born Swiss parents, Zumbach was registered as a Swiss citizen and hid his nationality in order to join the Polish army in 1934. He served as an infantryman until 1936 when he transferred to the Polish Air Force. After graduating from flying training in 1938 he was posted to 111 Eskadra Mysliwska.

Zumbach did not fly during the German invasion of Poland due to a broken leg as a result of a flying accident during the summer of 1939. He returned to his unit only to be evacuated to France via Romania. While in France, Zumbach flew the Morane 406 and Curtiss Hawk 75 with GCII/55. On 10 June, he was one of several pilots shot down by Bf 109s, but escaped unscathed. On 18 June 1940, he traveled to England by boat and on 2 August was posted as one of the founding members of the newly formed No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron.

 

During the Battle of Britain, Zumbach scored eight confirmed kills and one probable, mostly against Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters. Zumbach was shot down by a JG 3 Bf 109 over Dover on 9 May 1941 when returning from a mission, but he was able to bail out unharmed.

Zumbach became one of the first Allied pilots to engage in combat with the German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 when he damaged, and in return, his aircraft was damaged by a "single radial-engined fighter" on 13 October 1941. In December 1941, Zumbach was posted to 58 OTU, and in March 1942 returned to 303 Sqn as a flight commander. In May, he was promoted to Squadron Leader and took command of the squadron, a post Zumbach held from 19 May 1942 until 30 November 1943

During this period, Zumbach flew three Supermarine Spitfire VBs, carrying the serial numbers BM144, EP594 and EN951. All these aircraft carried the same code, RF-D, ("RF" being the squadron code for 303 Sqn) and "D" being the individual aircraft code. All three aircraft carried a cartoon of Donald Duck on the port side of the fuselage, slightly forward of the cockpit. Zumbach's victory tally was marked with German crosses under the cockpit on the port side; confirmed kills were outlined in white, probable kills in red, and damaged aircraft with no outline.

 

After handing over command of 303 Sqn to Sqn Ldr Bieńkowski, Zumbach spent a year in staff appointments, including the Polish Air Force Staff College. He returned to flying duties as the commander of the 2nd Polish Air Wing, No 133 Wing. On 25 September 1944, he scored his final victory of the war, a probable kill over a JG 26 Fw 190 over Arnhem.

On 30 January 1945, Zumbach was posted to HQ, No. 84 Group. While flying an Auster that was used to visit units under the Group's command, he made a navigational error and ran out of fuel. He force-landed in enemy territory and spent the final month of the war as a prisoner of war.

Zumbach's final victory tally was 12 (and 2 shared) confirmed kills, five probables and one damaged.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[spitfire]

Nice job, that looks great, I found that the kits are fun to build, very enjoyable.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[JWM]

Very nice Spit! Is a addition to description of Jan Zumbach he was a character indeed with a not simply life after WWII: we fought as soldier of fortune in African wars on Douglas A 26 Invader (Kongo and Biafra AFAIR) and finally was murdered on a street in Paris.... He is also a main hero of the movie "Hurricane" which currently is available to see in cinemas. If one saw this film will like Zumbach for ever!

Thanks for sharing

Jerzy-Wojtek

[Pete in Lincs]

Nice build, and what a man! 

[F-32]

Great build of a classic

[stevej60]

Another great build David and in my favourite Vb scheme,love it !

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Great piece of history, great looking Mk. V 👍 

Edited October 10, 2018 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[RMCS]

Very  nice 

[GrzeM]

Very good build.

Jan Zumbach was indeed great personality. He missed 1939 fights as he had broken his leg shortly before the war when his PZL fighter hit the car standing on the runway. Despite that he managed to escape German-occupied Poland and fight in France in spring 1940. He flew many fighter types including Curtiss P-36, Bloch 152, Morane-Saulnier 406 and even esoteric Arsenal VG33. After fall of France reached Britain and fought in first crew of famous 303 Kościuszko Squadron in Battle of Britain.

Zumbach on the left, with cigar. His nickname was "Donald" so his personal marking on the airplanes was Disney's Donald duck with baseball bat.

 

[David Mooney]

On ‎10‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 6:29 PM, GrzeM said:

Very good build.

Jan Zumbach was indeed great personality. He missed 1939 fights as he had broken his leg shortly before the war when his PZL fighter hit the car standing on the runway. Despite that he managed to escape German-occupied Poland and fight in France in spring 1940. He flew many fighter types including Curtiss P-36, Bloch 152, Morane-Saulnier 406 and even esoteric Arsenal VG33. After fall of France reached Britain and fought in first crew of famous 303 Kościuszko Squadron in Battle of Britain.

Zumbach on the left, with cigar. His nickname was "Donald" so his personal marking on the airplanes was Disney's Donald duck with baseball bat.

 

Thanks for that addition information, a real legend of a man. 

[303sqn]

Born on 14th April 1915 in Ursynów, now part of Warsaw to Jan Eugeniusz Zumbach (a Swiss citizen born an brought up in Poland) and Halina nee Grzechowska (Polish). In 1935 he graduated from secondary school and in January 1936 joined the Polish Air Force College. Commissioned 1938 as a fighter pilot he was posted to 111 Esk of the 1 Air Regiment in Warsaw.   

 

On the 26th May 1939 Zumbach was returning from the firing range near Brześć in PZl P11a 7.13  ‘1’. When landing at Warsaw-Okęcie airfield he collided with a parked car on the perimeter track and overturned. Badly injured, with a complicated fracture of his left leg, resulted in him being hospitalised for three months.

 

On 3rd September 1939 he was posted as a liaison pilot to the Bomber Brigade. From 7th September he accompanied 111 Esk, evacuating to Romania on 17th with RWD 13 SP-BMF. H e arrived at Marseilles by sea on 30th October 1939’ In the spring of 1940 he was posted to the Polish Fighter section on Major Kranosdędski, attached to the French GC I/55.Following the collapse of France he arrived in Britain on 18th June. On 2nd August he was posted to 303 Squadron and flew with them during the BoB and afterwards. On the 26th May 1941 he was shot down and bailed out by Bf 109s near Dover in Spitfire Mk IIA P7962 RF-A . 4th December he was posted to 58 OTU at Grangemouth as an instructor was a rest period. He returned to 303 Squadron on 23rd March 1942 as A Flight Commander, taking command of the squadron on 17th May. On 1st December 1942 he was appointed Polish Liaison Officer to HQ 9 Group RAF. From 15th April 1943 he studied at the Polish Air Force Staff College. After he graduated he was posted to RAF Northolt on 16th January and two weeks later appointed commander of the 3rd Polish Wing. 14th June 1944 he was posted to HQ 18 (Polish) Sector and on 8th July appointed leader of 135 Wing RAF, 222 British, 485 New Zealand, 349 Belgian squadrons, becoming the only Polish officer to command a non-Polish fighter wing in the RAF. In mid-July a major reorganisation of 2nd TAC took place and on the 16th Zumbach moved to 133 (Polish) Wing. From 30th January 1945 he became Operations Officer for 84 Group RAF on the liberated Continent. During an inspection flight with F/Lt Tadeusz Kawalecki in Auster MT440 on 7th April he landed in enemy territory by mistake, becoming a PoW until the end of the war. On returning to the UK he held several staff appointments until 6th June 1946 when he was posted to RAF Hethel, base of the 3rd Polish Wing. After demobilisation he invoked his Swiss nationality and was promptly given three day to leave the UK by the British Government. Zumbach moved to the Continent,eventually settling in Paris.

 

Zumbach’s smuggling career began in December 1944 after meeting, in the bar of the Wellington Club, a pre-war entrepreneur from Poland with a shady reputation. He was soon transferring uncut diamonds in his Mustang from London to Brussels claiming he had made £3,000 by the end of 1945 keeping the Antwerp dealer supplied before they regained their pre-war sources.

 

Following the end of the war he started an air charter company with two former RAF pilots, that specialised in what is today called money laundering. Each trip was worth £10,000. By 1948 they had seven planes and five ex-fighter pilots smuggling Swiss watches to London, gold bars from Tangier to Paris, penicillin to Prague, Israeli agents to Palestine and arms to various countries. Then one of them ran off with their capital. They pursued him to all the way to Rio de Janeiro where the trail ran cold.

 

After a few years working in a towel factory, in 1957, he opened a discothèque on the Champs-Elysées in Paris, married a girl half his with whom he had a son. In 1962 he was contacted by old acquaintances who introduced him to Moise Tshombe in Geneva who asked him to create an air force for Katanga, a province that had seceded from the Congo after it had gained independence from Belgium. He recruited four more Polish pilots and a team of ground staff in London, and were soon bombing and strafing the Congolese but he did not like Tshombe or his politics and took the earliest opportunity to return to Paris. In 1967 he was lured to Biafra. On bombing raids, Zumbach piloted Biafra’s only aircraft, a WWII B-26 while his Ibo tribesman bombardier dropped homemade explosives on Nigerian targets.

 

In late 1985, he told Ludwik Martel in London that he was involved in a hush-hush deal that was going to make him a lot of money. Two weeks later he phoned Tolo Łukuciewski in Warsaw an talked vaguely about some buying and selling he was doing. The next day

Łukuciewski received another phone call informing him that Zumbach had been found dead in Paris. No cause of death was ever given but many were sure that he had met with foul play.

 

EN951 belonged to 133 Squadron before transfer to 303 Squadron in September 1942. There it had been flown by F/Lt Don Blakeslee (27 sorties) and scored some victories over Dieppe on August 19th. Only three other pilots flew a single sortie in EN951.

 

On 1st December 1942 Zumbach’s tour came to an end. EN951 continued to be used by the squadron as RF-D still fitted with Zumbach’s tall mirror. On 26th February 1943, whilst flown by Sgt Tadeusz Szymkowiak during Circus 274, the wing was hit by shrapnel but by the following day the Spitfire was ready for service. Photographs in the spring of 1943 show that the wings had been clipped and that ‘Donald’ had gone.

 

In early June En951 was transferred to 315 Squadron where it was coded PK-D. On 20th June it was transferred to 19 Squadron. It was damaged on 26th June 1943 while piloted by Sgt W. T. Warren. Some RAF records list the Spitfire as allocated to 315 Squadron as late as October 1943.

 

7/9/1940 2-0-0 Do 215s  Hurricane I V7242 RF-B 303 Squadron

9/9/1940 1-1-0 Me 109   Hurricane I R2685 RF-G 303 Squadron

11/9/1940 1-0-0 Me 109 Hurricane I R2685 RF-G 303 Squadron

15/9/1940 1-0-0 Me 109 Hurricane I P3577 RF-E 303 Squadron

26/9/1940 1-0-0 He 111  Hurricane I V6684 RF-F 303 Squadron

                  1-0-0 Me 109

27/9/1940 1-0-0 Me 109  Hurricane I V6684 RF-F 303 Squadron

2/7/1941 1-0-0   Me 109  Spitfire IIB P8385 RF-A 303 Squadron

13/10/41 1-0-0   Me 109  Spitfire VB AB976 RF-D 303 Squadron

                0-0-1 Fw 190

24/10/1941 1-0-0 Me 109 Spitfire VB AB976 RF-D 303 Squadron

27/04/1942 0-1-0 Fw 190 Spitfire VB BM144 RF-D 303 Squadron

19/08/1942 1-1-0 Fw 190 Spitfire VB EP594 RF-D 303 Squadron

                    1/3-0-0 He 111 Spitfire VB EP594 RF-D 303 Squadron

25/09/1944 0-1-0 Fw 190 Mustang III HB866 JZ 133 Wing