Looking back with Ian Scott on Grangemouth’s memorial to brave young pilots

I am writing this on November 24 which happens to be the date that the young Polish Pilot Eugene Lukomski died over Avondale when his spitfire fell from the sky after stalling. It is a replica of his plane, X4859, that is the centre piece of the memorial. The project was the initiative of the Grangemouth Air Cadets as this district’s tribute to 71 aircrew who died while serving in Grangemouth during World War II. The boys and girls must be proud that their plan to honour that lost generation was fulfilled so well and that they have given us a permanent reminder of a very important part of our modern history.

In November 1940 the powers-that-be decided to turn what had been at a base for fighter aircraft into a centre where young pilots would learn to fly the Spitfire and practice the difficult and dangerous arts of formation flying, gunnery and combat tactics which no doubt involved rolls, spins and other breathtaking manoeuvres. Soon Grangemouth began to fill up with young men in their teens and early twenties from all parts of the UK, and from Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Holland, Belgium, Ireland and of course, Poland. The young Poles of the Free Polish Forces who had come to Scotland after the fall of France in 1940 were attached to the Royal Air Force and they were particularly skilled and daring in the air.

In the weeks and months that followed the opening of 58 Operational Training Unit hundreds of pilots completed the relatively short training course using old Mark 1 planes which had seen service in the Battle of Britain and were often the worse for wear. Many died before they were ever able to engage the enemy. Crashes during training were not uncommon and the Ochils, the hills of Fife and the rising ground of the Braes claimed the lives of many as they returned from their dangerous exercises. Some sadly came to grief within sight of the aerodrome.

One of them was the Pole, Sergeant Pilot Lukomski who had trained in England as an air gunner and was sent to Grangemouth in October 1941. Just a few weeks later while flying Spitfire X4859 above Avondale in formation prior to landing he entered a wisp of cloud and, for reasons that were never discovered, went into a spin and plunged to the ground. Maybe his engine stalled or he touched another plane – we will never know. He was taken, still alive, from the wreckage and brought to the Officers Mess at Avondale House but died shortly afterwards in the medical facility at Polmont Park. He was just 23 years of age.

He lies alongside his colleagues from all parts of the free world. Grandsable is a place that everyone in this district, and perhaps especially our children, should visit. It is sad of course but uplifting too that young men, scarcely more than children themselves should travel thousands of miles from their homes to risk, and lose, their lives as part of the struggle to combat the advance of fascism and maintain our precious freedom.