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316 Squadron relaxing in the Belgium countryside.

A fascinating photo album has sold for £1200 at auction - the previously unseen photographs chart the wartime career of Polish aristocrat Antoni Lipkowski -revealing how the emigree from Nazi Europe became a fighter pilot in the RAF.

Flight Lieutenant Antoni Lipkowski escaped Poland when Germany invaded in 1939 and was desperate to join in the fight against the Nazis.

Previously a cavalry officer, he retrained as a pilot and joined one of the Polish squadrons based in Britain which did such sterling work defending these skies in World War Two.

Flt Lt Lipkowski, of 316 Polish Fighter Squadron, was very tall for a pilot and turned heads with his 'handsome' appearance.

There are images of him in the cockpit of his Spitfire and posing nonchalantly in front of it with a cigarette in his hand.