Victory
13
Biography
Jan Zumbach who, although born in Warsaw, inherited the citizenship Swiss by his father. In 1936, he fabricated documents allowing him to pose as a Pole and join the Polish armed forces. Cadet Zumbach of the S.P.L of Deblin, became an officer in 1938 (at the same time as Stanislaw Skaiski) and was sent to 1 1 1 Eskadra. Wounded in an accident, he did not participate in the Polish campaign. In France he fought with ECD 1155. Upon his arrival in Britain he was one of the founding members of 303 Squ, winning all but one of his victories with that unit. He then commanded the 3rd Polish Squadron, from 1943 to 1944, then the 133rd Wing, from 1944 to 1945.
Unable to return to Poland after the war, due to his family "imperialist", Zumbach gave up the Swiss nationality. Rather than settling down, he became a smuggler, transporting shipments of wristwatches to Britain. He also convoyed arms and soldiers for Israel. In the middle of the 1950s, he opened a restaurant and a nightclub in Paris. He returned to his old activities in the early 1960s, organizing the Katangese air force, at the request of dictator Moïse Tshombe. Five years later, "Mister John Brown" (nom de guerre adopted by Zumbach, when he was a mercenary) found himself involved in an identical unfortunate affair, in Biafra. He returned to Europe and settled in France. After his death, which occurred in 1986, he was buried in Warsaw.
