Polish 7th Air Escadrille
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Polish 7th Air Escadrille (Polish: 7. Eskadra Lotnicza), better known as the Kościuszko Squadron, was one of the units of the Polish Air Force during the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1921. Formed in late 1919 from American volunteers, it became the most successful Polish squadron in the war.
[edit] Operational history
In late 1919 several American volunteers, including Major Cedric Fauntleroy and Captain Merian C. Cooper, arrived in Poland and joined the 7th Squadron. More pilots arrived during the following weeks. Meanwhile the Polish Air Force underwent reorganization. Even though most volunteers asked to be sent to the frontlines as soon as possible, the Polish high command delayed their deployment in view of the coming Polish offensive.
The Kościuszko Squadron was first used in the Kiev Offensive in April 1920, rebasing from Lwów to Połonne. Most of the Squadron's flights were directed against Semyon Budionny's First Cavalry Army. The Squadron developed a tactic of low-altitude machine-gun strafing runs. Polish land commanders highly valued the contribution of the Kościuszko Squadron. General Puchucki of the 13th Infantry Division wrote in a report: "The American pilots, though exhausted, fight tenaciously. During the last offensive, their commander attacked enemy formations from the rear, raining machine-gun bullets down on their heads. Without the American pilots' help, we would long ago have been done for."
Merian Cooper was shot down but survived. Budionny had put half a million rubles on Captain Cooper's head, but when he was caught by the Cossacks he managed to convince them that he was a mere corporal. A few months later he escaped from a POW camp near Moscow to Latvia.
In August 1920 the Kościuszko Squadron took part in the defense of Lwów, and after the climactic Battle of Warsaw it participated in the epic Battle of Komarów which crippled Budionny's cavalry.
After the Polish-Soviet War, the 7th Kościuszko Squadron was reorganized as the 121st Fighter Squadron and later as the 111th Fighter Squadron, each bearing the "Kościuszko" eponym. The 111th Squadron fought in the Invasion of Poland. Perhaps the most famous successor to the original Kościuszko Squadron would be the World War II No. 303 "Kościuszko" Polish Fighter Squadron (Warszawski im. Tadeusza Kościuszki), the most successful fighter squadron in the Battle of Britain.
[edit] Squadron statistics
In 1920 the Kościuszko Squadron made over 400 combat flights.
Cedric Fauntleroy and Merian C. Cooper received Poland's highest military decoration: the Virtuti Militari. Another member of the Kociuszko Squadron to receive the Virtuti Militari was Mieczyslaw Garsztka (posthumously).
[edit] Further reading
- Janusz Cisek, Kosciuszko, We Are Here: American Pilots of the Kosciuszko Squadron in Defense of Poland, 1919-1921, McFarland & Company, 2002, ISBN 0-7864-1240-2, Google Print
