Poland in US

Close to 30,000 people were trained in military camps located on the border between the United States and Canada, including officers and soldiers recruited from local Polish communities who eventually served in General Józef Haller's Blue Army. The regiments formed in America arrived in Poland in full uniform, armed and well-trained in accordance with U.S. Army regulations.

In the years 1919-1920, Herbert Hoover (who would later become President of the United States) led the American Relief Administration (ARA), which organized economic support for Central and Eastern Europe. From March 1919, Hoover's mission also helped the people of Poland. The ARA provided, among others, medicine, clothes and food; created a network of soup kitchens; and established orphanages for homeless children.

Of particular importance was the military support of American pilots fighting in the 7th Fighter Squadron established on December 21, 1918, active in Eastern Małopolska. The American volunteers who arrived in Lviv on October 16, 1919, were commanded by Major Cedric Fauntleroy. Sixteen Americans who served with their Polish counterparts fought in 1920 against the Red Army, in particular Semyon Budyonny’s 1st Cavalry Army. The American airmen defended access to Lviv during the Battle of Zadwórze on August 17, 1920. The American-Polish squadron was one of the bravest air units in the war with Bolshevik Russia. At the request of the Americans, the squadron was named after the hero of Poland and the United States, Tadeusz Kościuszko.

The American pilots were decorated by Marshal Józef Piłsudski with the Crosses of the Order of Virtuti Militari for their merits in combat, and were awarded the Air Badge "For the Defense of the Eastern Borderlands." The fallen airmen were commemorated with a monument located at the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lviv (otherwise known as the “Eaglets of Lviv”). It was demolished in 1970 by the communist authorities of the USSR, but was newly unveiled during the consecration and opening ceremony of the renovated Cemetery of the Defenders of Lviv in 2005.

 

Photo:
The first American volunteers in the 7th Fighter Squadron named after Tadeusz Kościuszko: Major Cedric E. Fauntleroy, Capt. Merian C. Cooper, Capt. Edward Corsi, Por. George M. Crawford, Por. Kenneth O. Shrewsbury, Por. Carl H. Clark, Por. H.C. Rorison, Por. E. Noble 
1919, author unknown 
Marjan Romeyko (ed.): “In Honor of Fallen Airmen. Memorial Book,” Warsaw, 1933, 
Source: Wikimedia Commons [July 25, 2020]