Jan Zumbach: Polish Mercenary Pilot

Jan Zumbach enlisted in the Polish Army in 1935 and a year later would transfer to the Airforce. During the summer of 1939, prior to the German invasion, he crashed a plane and suffered a broken leg. His injury prevented him from flying against the Germans during their invasion. His unit was evacuated to France through Romania where he would fly against the Germans. He was shot down by a Messerschmitt Bf-109 and escaped surprisingly unscathed.

He would take to the skies once again in June 1940 during the Battle of Britain, where he would shoot down 8 Bf-109s. He would get shot down once again in May 1941 and once again bailout unharmed. He was also one of the first Allied pilots to engage in dogfight with the venerable Focke-Wulf Fw-190. In 1945, on a routine flight to visit the group headquarters, he made a navigational error and ran out of fuel, forcing him to land in German territory where he remained a POW until the end of the war. By the end of WWII he had a total of 12 kills, 5 probable, and 1 damaged.

In January 1962, Zumbach was contracted by Moïse Tshombe to organize and command Avikat, the air force of Congolese breakaway state of Katanga, and was the commander until December 1962. Zumbach took part in over 60 raids on behalf of Katanga, but it soon became clear they couldn't keep fighting the better armed and equipped UN. He dealt in second hand planes until he answered the call to the back to mercenary life and headed to Biafra in 1967.

He helped organize and take command of the Biafran Airforce, and flew under the name John Brown or "Kamikaze Johnny". His plane of choice was a B-26 Invader. He took part in several bombing raids, including an attack on Makudi airfield, neutralizing a Nigerian Army Chief of Staff. Most of the "bombs" dropped were IEDs made out of cooking pots and various explosives. 

After the Nigerian Civil War, Zumbach went back to France and wrote an autobiography Mister Brown: Aventures dans le ciel (On Wings of War: My Life as a Pilot Adventurer). Zumbach was quoted as saying “Trouble comes naturally to some men, while soft living feels like a hair shirt" when it came to his exciting life as a mercenary. Zumbach passed away on January 3rd, 1986 in France. The circumstances are still unclear as to how and why he passed away. Investigations of his death were closed by French Authorities with no public explanation. Jan was buried at Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw, Poland.