Mieczysław Garsztka

Mieczysław Sylwester Garsztka
Mieczysław Sylwester Garsztka
	7th Air Escadrille
Commands held	1st BN, 1st Nassau Infantry Regiment Nr. 87
Battles/wars	World War I 1915-1918; Polish–Ukrainian War 1918-1919
Awards	Virtuti Militari 5th Class; Iron Cross 1st Class; Iron Cross 2nd class

Mieczysław Sylwester Garsztka (31 December 1896 - 10 June 1919) was a Polish pilot and a

Polish-Ukrainian War

.

World War I German service

He was born to a Polish family in

German army. Initially he served in the infantry on the Western Front with Grenadier Regiment 110 and Infantry Regiment 87. After completing officer training in April 1917 he became a Leutnant.^{[citation needed}

]

He was slightly injured commanding a company in the 1st battalion of the 1st Nassau Infantry Regiment Nr. 87, and was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class. Then he asked to be transferred to the air service, and in November 1917 he was sent to flying school.^{[citation needed]}

After completing his flying training in Posen (Poznań), and then a fighter pilot course in Nivelles, he was assigned to Jagdstaffel 31 (Jasta 31) in St. Loup in Champagne on 7 June 1918. Initially he flew the Albatros D.V and later the Fokker D.VII fighter.^{[citation needed]}

His combat career was short but successful. He shot down his first claim, a SPAD fighter, on 16 July 1918 and was given a fighter pilot badge. On 18 September he shot down an

DH.9 bomber, then another DH.9 on 25 September. The following day he shot down a Sopwith Camel of No. 208 Squadron, and on 30 September he claimed his sixth (and last) kill, an S.E.5a. from No. 92 Squadron.^[1]^[2]

On 2 October he was wounded during combat with Camels of

fighter ace.^[1] On 25 September 1918 he was awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class.^{[citation needed}

]

Polish service

After the war, when

Kościuszko Squadron) in Lwów. From 10 May to 7 June he undertook sixteen combat missions, mostly as a pilot of a bomber-reconnaissance LVG C.VI. Among others on 14 May, he flew three times bombing Ukrainian positions.^[1]

On 10 June 1919, Mieczysław Garsztka was killed in an air crash, flying a newly reconstructed

Łyczakowski Cemetery.^{[citation needed}

]