United States Army Air Forces Witold Urbanowicz (30 March 1908 – 17 August 1996) was a Polish fighter ace of the Second World War.

According to the official record, Witold Urbanowicz was the second highest-scoring Polish fighter ace, with 17 confirmed wartime kills and 1 probable, not counting his pre-war victory.

He was officially reprimanded and unofficially congratulated by his superior officer and as "punishment" in October 1936 he was transferred to an air force training school in Dęblin where he was nicknamed "Cobra".

The same day he managed to escape with two cadets and crossed the Romanian border and eventually found his way to France where, after the fall of Poland, a new Polish army was being formed.

While in France he and a group of other Polish pilots were invited to join the Royal Air Force in Great Britain.

[1] On 18 September 1940 Urbanowicz was awarded the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari by the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Forces, General Sikorski.

Despite his success Urbanowicz was never popular at the Polish headquarters and on 21 October he was forced to hand over command of the Squadron to Zdzisław Henneberg.

Between 15 April 1941 and 1 June 1941 he commanded the 1st Polish Fighter Wing based at RAF Northolt, before being posted to staff work at No.

On 11 December he fought against six Japanese Mitsubishi Zeros and claimed two shot down (these were actually Nakajima Ki-44 "Tojo" fighters of the 85th Sentai).

[1] In 1946, he returned to Poland, but was arrested four times by the communist Służba Bezpieczeństwa secret police as a suspected spy.

[5] A fibreglass Hawker Hurricane gate guardian was unveiled at RAF Uxbridge in September 2010 in the colours of Urbanowicz's aircraft from the Battle of Britain.