Add Information to Record of a Person who served during the Second World War on The Wartime Memories Project Website

252480 WO. Bonifacy "Bonek" Banasik KW & Bar. Polish Air Force 301 Squadron from:Czestochowa, Poland (d.2002) Bonifacy Banasik was my father-in-law. He was born in Czestochowa, Poland in 1912. He lost his father in 1918 or 1919. There is no clear record of his father's death except that his dad went off to war and was killed, grave site unknown. He graduated from his hometown schools and then attended Mechanical School in Warsaw. From 1932 to 34 he served in the 3rd Air Regiment, Polish Air Force and then remained in the Polish Air Force Reserves until 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland. At that time, he was reported to have destroyed a Nazi plane and went into hiding. The Nazis captured and tortured his mother but finally released her after she signed a document saying she did not know his whereabouts and would report him immediately if he returned to her. Otherwise, she herself and the rest of by the family would be killed. Bonek, as he was called, fled into Russia, was captured by the Russians and sent to a Siberian Concentration POW camp in the Ussa River area, from which he managed to escape. He eventually found his way to England in 1942 and served in the Polish 301 (Pomerania) Squadron of the RAF. There he met my English mother-in-law who served in NAFFI and they married in 1944. She related stories to me of how he would go on bombing missions and she feared never seeing him again. She said he served in and we recently saw his photo posted on another site while in Brindisi. After the war, he brought his family to the US in 1954 where he worked as a design engineer. He passed away in 2002. Dad rarely spoke of his war days and we never knew of his Cross of Valor award with Bar or his title of Defenders of Warsaw until a few months before he died. He never saw his mother again. (She died in 1955). He returned to Poland only once in 1974, still fearing reprisal. After his return he stopped all contact with his family. They found us on Fb in 2016 and we were reunited last year in Poland. I am writing this to share his story and honour his memory. Please type your message:      We recommend you copy the text about this item and keep a copy on your own computer before pressing submit. Your Name:             Email Address:       @ **Please type the first part our your email in the first box (eg. john.smith) the @ sign is added automaticallly, please type the second part in the second box (eg. gmail.com). Do not enter your full email in each box or add an @ sign or random spaces.** Please type in the code shown here:    If you are unable to read the code please click here. If you have received an error message for incorrect code, please click to refresh the code before resending. This should overcome the error message.