Anna Leska-Daab...

 A female pilot who once took off from a captured airfield, while trying to flee from Poland in 1939. A woman who flew bombers, and a sister of a Polish spy extraordinaire...meet Anna Leska-Daab.

The history of Polish aviation is written by remarkable people. Not all of them were airmen….some of them were air…women.

She was one of the few female pilots in pre-WW2 Poland who could not only fly airplanes, but also gliders and balloons.

She was the sister of Kazimierz Leski, also a pilot who would later become a successful spy, travelling through occupied Europe disguised as a German general.

Anna fled from Poland in 1939 by air, flying an airplane. Compared to Kazimierz who was shot by the Soviets and became a POW, Anna had more luck, as she successfully took off from an airfield captured by the Germans.

She reached Great Britain, through Romania and France, where she joined the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) as the first Polish female pilot. What is worth mentioning is that Anna was one of the three Polish female pilots in service with ATA during WW2.

The other were: the daughter of Józef Piłsudski, Jadwiga Piłsudska and a sport pilot Stefania Wojtulanis.

The majority of 166 females in ATA served as pilots who flew various airplanes from repairing facilities or factories to the airbases and back. It was a tough and demanding job, often flying in bad weather without radio communication. 15 of them lost their lives.

What is impressive is that those women had to learn to fly a vast array of airplanes. From the fast and agile Spitfires or P-51 Mustangs, to the four-engine heavies like Avro Lancasters or B-17 Flying Fortresses. It was something that their male counterparts assigned to particular RAF squadrons didn’t usually do.

In 1947 Anna became the wife of Mieczysław Daab, a Polish airman from the 301 Squadron. They returned to Poland in 1977. Anna Leska-Daab, the first Polish female pilot in ATA passed away in 1998.

#WW2 #femalepilot #PolishHistory