Bolesław Stachoń was a Polish Major General who is buried at the Maczek Memorial alongside lower-ranking soldiers. He was posthumously stripped of his title for disobeying army commands when he refused to abandon his fellow soldiers in combat. Bolesław Stachoń served in the Polish Air Force attached to the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War.
He commenced his pilot training in 1922 and quickly became a Captain. In 1927 he had reached the title of Major Chief Pilot and was the head of various piloting schools.
In 1939, already a Colonel, he was involved in mapping the advance of the German armed forces in the regions of Gdansk and East Prussia. He had escaped the occupation of Nazi Germany forces and came to the United Kingdom. He was placed in charge of Polish Air Camp in Eastchurch on 18 December 1939. On 1 July 1940, he was transferred as Commander of RAF Bramcote and later RAF Swinderby.
Having passed the age of 40 and being a high-ranking member of the air forces, the army leadership prohibited him from flying due to his valuable operational skills. However, on 4 July 1941 Stachoń chose to disobey this order when one of the missions was short of men.
He had trained on Wellington aircraft and now served in No. 301 (Pomeranian) Squadron, RAF. This was a Polish bomber squadron of heavy bombers. He had decided to join the operation and fly because of a sense of duty. This ultimately resulted in his death when his aircraft was shot down by German fighters near Absen, Netherlands. The rest of his crew survived and were captured as prisoners of war.
After Stachoń’s death, since he had refused to follow army orders, he was posthumously stripped of his Major General rank. Consequently, his wife was deprived of any pension and today his body lies next to other lower ranking soldiers at the Maczek Memorial. However, with great difficulty, his son succeeded in having his father’s title reinstated years later.
Plot E, Row 5, Grave 5