1943, yet again Eder flew alongside his victim and waggled his wings, before flying away. The two aces possibly met in combat once more in 1944, when again Eder shot up Gladych's P-47 aircraft over Vechta, but the Pole cleverly tricked Eder by flying through the German flak barrage to escape. (Apparently in 1950 Eder and Gladych met by chance at a pilots reunion in Frankfurt and managed to confirm they had been adversaries in each case.) Another story relating to Gladych is that in the autumn of 1943 Gladych mistakenly almost shot down the aircraft carrying Prime Minister Winston Churchill. RAF Fighter Command grounded Gladych as a punishment. United States Army Air Forces After ending his second RAF tour in January 1944, Gladych, along with fellow Pole Flt Lt. Witold Lanowski, arranged a wholly unofficial secondment to the 56th Fighter Group of the U.S. Army Air Forces in early 1944. Recruited by Major Francis Gabreski of the 56th, who as a captain had previously been attached to the RAF Polish Fighter Wing in 1942, Gladych helped organized battle training for American replacement pilots, and was assigned to Gabreski's 61st Fighter Squadron. On 21 February 1944 Mike downed 2 Bf 109s in a single sortie. When the Polish authorities became aware of the arrangement in June 1944 they attempted to discipline the pair with threats of expulsion from the Polish Air Force. Both continued to fly with the Americans, however, and were consequently expelled. Therefore, Gladych's combat claims with the USAAF are not recognised by the Polish Air Force. Gladych was not formally accepted into the USAAF either (his kill credits were officially recognized, however), and continued to fly unofficially until October 1944, when the Polish Air Force finally relented and sanctioned his secondment. Gladych was carried in American records by his RAF rank of squadron leader but was known in the unit by his equivalent American rank of major. He became the leading figure among six Polish pilots flying with the 61st Fighter Squadron, all but one of whom survived the war. Gladych had claimed a further 10 air kills and 5 ground kills by the end of September 1944. Gladych reported that on 8 March 1944 while escorting bombers to Berlin, he engaged three Focke-Wulf Fw 190s. Low on fuel, he attempted to disengage after shooting down one of the Fw 190s, but the other two fighters boxed