Bristol Beaufighter, part eleven. The Beau in Polish hands.

 

To write about the Beaufighter working with Poland, means to write about the history of No. 307 Polish Night Fighter Squadron, as it was the only Polish Squadron of the Royal Air Force (RAF) which employed the Beau.
In spring 1941 the No. 307 Polish Night Fighter Squadron was rebased to RAF Clyst Honiton, Exeter, in south-west England. Initially they were equipped with the Boulton-Paul Defiant turret fighter and, in spite of some early success, the squadron's staff complained about the Defiant, as it was clearly obsolete and it could not cope with the increasing pace of the war. 
Squadron Commander, Captain Antonowicz requested officially more modern equipment, so in August 1941 his petition for Beaufighters was accepted. However, as Antonowicz did not know the Beaufighter well, he applied for the Beau Mk. IIF from the Group Headquarters, which he thought it was better than the Mk. I. 
As that unfortunate decision could not be reversed, two weeks later the Beaus Mk. IIF began to land at RAF Clyst Honiton airfield. 
Flying this type, the squadron began to suffer a number of losses to aerial accidents, with Cpt. Antonowicz falling victim to one of them. The increasing number of accidents, arrived to the ears of the Commander of Polish Fighter Aviation in Great Britain, Col. Stefan Pawlikowski,  who stated that "a good pilot can fly even on a barn door", meaning that the causes for the accidents should be attributed to the pilots for not having enough control on the aircraft, and not to any design flaw. 
It was not until May 1942 when the unpopular Mk. IIF, nicknamed as the "Flying Coffins" by the Polish pilots, were replaced by the much better Mk. VIF, on which Polish crews could face the enemy. 
Of the Polish forces serving with the RAF, only No. 307 squadron employed the Beau from 14th August 1941 to 24th December 1942, when most of the Beaus were replaced by the De Havilland Mosquito NF. Mk. II, except for the Beaufighters Mk. VIF, which served until January 1945. During the period of service, the Polish Beaus scored 15 enemy aircraft, with two additional possible ones, damaged 7 and lost, mainly to accidents in the Mk. II, nine aircraft.

Sources:
1st https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._307_Polish_Night_Fighter_Squadron
2nd https://www.historyofwar.org/air/units/RAF/307_wwII.html
3rd https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dywizjon_307 (translated)
4th TBiU 67 - Beaufighter (translated)