On 6 November 1944, at 4.05pm, a Spitfire LF.IX (registration number NH339) of 308 (Polish) Squadron crashed in the De Dullaert nature reserve in Sprang-Capelle. The pilot, Flight Lieutenant Kazimierz Budzik, took off from St Denis Westrem airfield near Ghent for a mission to attack train transports near Zwolle. It is already the third mission of the day. At an altitude of 13,000 feet, his aircraft is hit by German anti-aircraft fire, damaging the engine. Despite the damage, Budzik decides to make an emergency landing in liberated territory. He still has enough altitude and the controls are functioning normally. He manages to land the plane safely in a meadow near the drainage canal in Capelle.

After landing, he is picked up by a British armoured car and taken back to his base in Ghent. However, the plane has been damaged beyond repair and is a complete write-off. Budzik must have had an angel on his shoulder in the autumn of 1944, because a week earlier, on 29 October 1944, he was also shot down, this time near a bridge between Breda and Dordrecht (possibly the Moerdijk bridge). The area was still in German hands at the time, Breda only just having been liberated by his countrymen. With the help of some Dutchmen, he quickly reached the Allied lines and resumed his missions on 2 November. Only to be shot down again.