The middle of the three gravestones at the Sint Lambertuskerk has the specific shape of a Polish war grave. This stone was solemnly consecrated on 14 September 2014. For almost 70 years, a similar stone stood there, with the inscriptions ‘an airman of the 1939-1945 war’, ‘2nd October 1944’ and ‘known unto God’. A grave for an unknown Polish pilot.

On 27 September 1944, a fighter plane crashed in the outskirts of Veghel. The pilot lay dead next to the wreckage of his plane. Because this location was in no man’s land between German and British troops, it was difficult to approach. A Dutch citizen gave the pilot a field grave in the evening twilight and also quickly noted his name: Polish sergeant T. Kosinski. It was not until 2 October 1944 that this could be reported to the civil registrar of the municipality, who noted that ‘he has become aware today that…..’.

On 3 July 1946, the remains were transferred to the Roman Catholic Lambertus cemetery in Veghel. The date of notification to the civil registrar was used as the date of death and because no Kosinski was missing on that date, the pilot was buried as an unknown.

The investigation by two members of the Study Group Air War 1939-1945, Messrs. van Alphen and Hey, led many years later to the crash of the North American Mustang with registration number FZ196 on 27 September 1944. That day, the aircraft was flown by Tadeusz Józef Kołoszczyk (born 22 November 1919) of the Polish 306 Squadron. Nine aircraft from the Squadron formed part of the escort for British bombers that attacked Sterkrade, a district of the German city Oberhausen. Kołoszczyk did not return to the home bases Brenzett.

It seemed clear that the Dutch citizen had not recorded the name completely correctly in the difficult circumstances and that an incorrect date of death had been used in the civil registry. The Polish and British authorities accepted the evidence and in 2014 a new stone was placed and Kołoszczyk is no longer missing. He was already a pilot in the Polish Air Force in 1939 and, together with many others, was taken prisoner by Russian troops. When he was released in 1942, he travelled via Siberia, Iraq, Iran to what was then Palestine and then to England, where he was retrained and was assigned to 306 Squadron, until he lost his life in Veghel and found his final resting place there.