In October 1943, Gabreski reported to the Eighth Air Force's VIII Fighter Command in England, at that time a rudimentary new headquarters. After a lengthy period of inactivity, he tried to arrange duty with the 303 Squadron, but that unit had been taken out of action for a period of rest. Instead he was attached to the 315th Polish "Deblinski" Fighter Squadron at RAF Northolt in January 1943.

Gabreski flew the new Spitfire Mark IX. He and his fellow pilots flew patrol sweeps over the Channel. He first encountered Luftwaffe opposition on February 3, when a group of Fw 190s jumped his squadron. Too excited to make a kill, Gabreski learned that he had to keep calm during a mission, a lesson that served him well later in the war. He later spoke with great esteem about the Polish pilots and lessons he learned from them. In all Gabreski flew 20 missions with the Poles.

On February 27, 1943, Gabreski became part of the 56th Fighter Group, flying the P-47 Thunderbolt, assigned to the 61st Fighter Squadron, and quickly became a flight leader. He was immediately resented by many of his fellow pilots, and his opinionated, verbose personality did little to ameliorate the situation. In May, shortly after the group moved to RAF Halesworth and entered combat, Gabreski was promoted to major.

On November 26, 1943, the 56th FG was assigned to cover the withdrawal of B-17s that had bombed Bremen, Germany. The P-47s arrived to find the bombers under heavy attack near Oldenburg and dove into the fray. Gabreski recorded his fourth and fifth kills to become an ace, but had a close brush with death when a 20 millimeter cannon shell lodged in his engine without exploding.

On 20 July 1944, Gabreski had reached the 300-hour combat time limit for Eighth Air Force fighter pilots and was awaiting a plane to fly him back to the United States on leave and reassignment. He had already advised Kay Cochran to proceed with wedding plans, and his home town of Oil City, Pennsylvania, had raised $2,000 for a wedding present in anticipation of his return.

However, Gabreski found that an escort mission was scheduled for that morning, and instead of boarding the transport he requested to "fly just one more." During a strafing pass of He 111s parked on the airfield at Bassenheim, Germany, his Thunderbolt's propeller clipped the runway, bending the tips. The damage caused his engine to vibrate violently and he was forced to crash land. Gabreski ran into nearby woods and eluded capture for five days, but was captured. After being interrogated by Hanns Scharff, Gabreski was sent to Stalag Luft I. He was liberated when Russian forces seized the camp in April 1945.

Gabreski was officially credited by the USAF with 28 aircraft destroyed in air combat and 3 on the ground, flying 166 combat sorties. He was assigned five P-47s during his time with the 56th FG, none of which was ever named, but all of which bore the fuselage identification codes HV: A.

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