Andrzej Mynarski was a Canadian of Polish descent, an RCAF pilot during the Second World War, a gunner aboard a Lancaster KB-726 VR-A bomber, and a recipient of the Victoria Cross - the highest and most prestigious award for soldierly courage and gallantry in the face of the enemy, awarded to British and Commonwealth Armed Forces soldiers. Mynarski was the first member of the Canadian Air Force to receive this honour posthumously for an act of heroism during the Second World War.

Andrew Charles Mynarski (Andrew Charles "Andy" Mynarski) was born in Winnipeg on 14 October 1916. He was the son of Polish immigrants from near Lublin. He had five siblings, two brothers and three sisters. He was educated at primary schools: King Edward, Isaac Newton and at St. John's Technical School. After his father died to help support the family, he worked as a furrier in Winnipeg for four years. However, he dreamed of flying.

In November 1941, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). He trained as a bomber gunner in Calgary, Edmonton and at McDonald. In December 1942, he was posted to England, where he was assigned to the RCAF's 9th Squadron in October 1943 and to the RCAF's 419th Squadron in March 1944, where he took up the position of top gunner on a Lancaster bomber.

On 12 June 1944, Mynarski's crew took off on their fourth mission in a new Canadian-made Lancaster Mk-X bomber with the side number KB-726 VRA. It was also Mynarski's thirteenth mission with his current crew. The objective of the flight was to bomb a railway area in Cambrai, France. Unfortunately, just before completing the task, the aircraft was attacked by a German Ju-88 fighter. Three explosions occurred and both engines on the left side of the Lancaster caught fire. The captain gave the order to abandon the burning aircraft. As the crew members happily evacuated the bomber, gunner Pat Brophy was caught in the rear gun turret and could not get out. It was then that Second Lieutenant Mynarski rushed to his friend's aid. Andrew grabbed an axe and, ignoring the flames, rushed to the rescue. He failed to free his friend, who kept shouting to him: "Jump out!" The Pole, however, did not want to leave Pat and, banging his axe against the turret door, wanted to free him at all costs. After unsuccessful attempts, however, he stepped back, stood at attention, saluted, paying tribute to his friend and jumped out of the burning plane. The parachute seized from the burning suit. Falling, Mynarski was one fireball. When he found himself on the ground he was so badly burned that he died a few days later and was buried in the municipal cemetery at Meharicourt, near Amiens, France.

Gunner Pat Brophy, on the other hand, miraculously survived. The downed aircraft fell into a tall tree and shattered, freeing Pat. A few months later he commented on Mynarski's heroism as follows: "I will always believe that God saved me so that I can tell the world what I saw and how brave was the man who risked and lost his life to save a friend."

At the request of the bomber's commanding officer, Art de Breyne, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and British Air Force (RAF) commands decided to posthumously award Andrew Mynarski the highly prestigious decoration, the Victoria Cross, as a mark of the highest recognition and heroism expressed as "exemplary courage and a special act of sacrifice in the face of the enemy". Mynarski was the first Canadian Air Force pilot to receive this decoration during the Second World War.

On 12 December 1946, this extremely rare award was presented by the Governor of the Province of Manitoba, J.A. McWilliams, to Andrew's mother, Stanislava Mynarska. Mynarski's Victoria Cross was donated by his family to Air Command in 1989 and is on display in the entrance hall in the Mynarski Memorial Room at the 1st Canadian Air Squadron Headquarters in Winnipeg (where many other family mementos are housed). Squadron 419 at CFB Cold Lake houses the original axe with which Mynarski tried to free a friend trapped in the gun turret.

In 1973, Andrew Charles Mynarski was honoured and ceremonially inducted into the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame. Today, he is among those Canadians in the pantheon of heroes of the Maple Leaf Country. Several schools are named after him, including a middle school in Winnipeg, a network of three lakes in northern Manitoba, a park in CFB Penhold, and at the largest veterans' cemetery in Pointe Claire, Quebec, where alleys are named after notable Canadian veterans, one is named 'Mynarski'. Meanwhile, on the fiftieth anniversary of the pilot's death, an obelisk with a commemorative plaque was unveiled in Kildonan Park in Winnipeg, near where he grew up, and in 2005, a statue of the heroic pilot, sculpted by Keith Maddison, was erected in the UK at the RAF bomber base at Middleton St. George where he served.

On 11 November 2006, a bust of Mynarski was unveiled in Canada's capital, Ottawa, near a monumental memorial to the victims of all the wars in which Canadian soldiers have participated. It is part of a memorial to fourteen individuals honoured for their personal and outstanding contributions to Canada's military history. Meanwhile, the unveiling of a statue of Andrew Charles Mynarski, which was erected to a design by Canadian sculptor Charlie Johnston, took place at Vimy Ridge Memorial Park in Winnipeg on 12 June 2015.

In honour of the Polish-Canadian pilot, one of only two World War II capable bombers in the world was built, reconstructed with markings of his aircraft. The Mynarski Memorial Lancaster is located at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Mount Hope near Hamilton, Ontario.

Location: bust of Lt. Andrew Charles "Andy" Mynarski, at the intersection of Wellington Str. and Algin Str., Ottawa, Province of Ontario, Canada. Stone obelisk, Kildonan Park, Winnipeg, province of Manitoba, Canada. Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, 9280 Airport Road, Mount Hope, Province of Ontario, Canada.