He returned to Poland after the war but was imprisoned by the communist authorities under the pretext that he was a spy for Great Britain.

Skalski refused to ask for clemency but after his mother's intervention with the president of communist Poland, Boleslaw Bierut, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

In 1972 he was moved to inactive service and in 1988, on the cusp of fall of communism in Poland he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.

Stanisław Skalski was born on 27 November 1915 in Kodyma in Podolia Governorate, Russian Empire (now in Ukraine).

[2] After completing Pilot Training in 1938, Skalski was ordered to the 142nd Fighter Squadron in Toruń (142 eskadra "Toruńska").

On 1 September 1939 he attacked a German Henschel Hs 126 reconnaissance aircraft, which was eventually shot down by Marian Pisarek.

Skalski then landed next to it, helped to bandage wounded crew members and arranged for them to be taken to a military hospital.

[citation needed] The following day, nine PZL P-11s of the 142 Squadron, led by Major Lesnievski, intercepted two formations of Dornier Do 217 on River Vistula.

[3] Attacking head on, the Polish pilots managed to shoot down seven twin-engined bombers, two of them credited to Skalski.

[5] Soon after he fled the country with other Polish pilots to Romania, and from there via Beirut to France and after went on to fight with the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain.

During its two months on operations, the Polish pilots had claimed a total of 26 German and Italian aircraft shot down.

Skalski scored four aircraft, and Pilot Officer Eugeniusz Horbaczewski claimed five confirmed victories.

In the same year, Skalski was the subject of a documentary film entitled Spętany anioł (Shackled Angel) by Zbigniew Kowalewski.

[20] On 2 November 2015, Vice Secretary of State, Maciej Jankowcki, acting on behalf of the Minister of Defence granted the name of Stanisław Skalski to 22nd Air Base in Malbork.