Arct fought in the Polish armed forces until the fall of Poland at the beginning of World War II.

After France capitulated in June 1940, Arct flew to Great Britain and became a fighter pilot at the beginning of 1941, attending Royal Air Force (RAF) Operational Training Unit 61, and then joined the No.

During mid-1943, Arct flew missions in North Africa with the Polish Fighting Team, which was attached as "C" Flight to No.

In 1947, Arct moved with his English wife Beryl and their daughter to Communist Poland, first to Wrocław, then Warsaw and finally Dobrzanów, where he joined his mother.

Like many other Poles who had fought in the armed forces of the Western Allies, he suffered repression from the new government of the People's Republic of Poland until the 1956 Khrushchev Thaw and De-Stalinization.