THE KOSCIUSZKO SQUADRON
______Following the October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power and the defeat of the Central Powers, an independent Poland was once agin on the map of Europe. However, the Bolsheviks had decided that a COMMUNIST Poland would be much more to their liking and proceeded to invade the country in 1919.
______Europe was in the middle of a humanitarian crisis as civil war raged in Russia, countries fought for independence and leftists attempted to take power in Bavaria and Hungary. In the midst of this was an American pilot who had volunteered for relief work after the war. Impressed by the heroic struggle the Poles were putting forth in defense of their new country, Merian C. Cooper decided to create an American volunteer squadron similar to the Lafayette Escadrille. Like the Lafayette unit, the Kosciuszko Squadron was named after a European who volunteered to help America win its independence.
______Seventeen Americans answered the call and flew against the Bolsheviks. The new republic had difficulty equipping, paying, or even feeding these volunteers, but the Kosciuszko Squadron endured and fought with whatever aircraft Poland could scrounge, even if some of it was from former enemies.
______War against the Bolsheviks was hard. Trotsky, who was then Commissar of War, sent General Budenny with his cossack horsemen to subdue the Poles. But the Americans of the Kosciuszko Squadron put up heroic resistance, strafing and bombing the enemy ground troops and occasionally engaging in air-to-air combat with Red pilots. And that's how that tail rudder with the big red star ended up in the U.S. Air Force Museum, boys and girls.
______By the time the Bolsheviks gave up in May 1921 the Americans had earned the love and respect of the Polish people. Several members were awarded the Virtuti Militari, Poland's highest award for gallantry in the field. And although many Americans have today forgotten these heroes, a Free Poland is today rediscovering what was considered its "politically incorrect" past just a few years ago.
WHICH ISLAND EARNED THIS MEDAL:
?
