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(More customer reviews)Besides its obvious significance, this work provides priceless details on the resurrection of the Polish state in 1918, the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1918, and the 1919-1920 Polish-Soviet War.
Although Poles and Soviets had fought earlier, the first official military encounter of the 1920 Polish-Soviet War was as follows: "At seven a. m. on February 14, 1919, in the town of Bereza Kartuska...five Polish officers with 57 men engaged a small unit of Bolsheviks occupying the remote Lithuanian site. In the course of the skirmish, 80 Red Army soldiers were taken prisoner..." (p. 11).
Eight young American airmen, veterans of the American and British air-combat units, chose to come to Poland as compatriots, not as mercenaries. None of the Americans were of Polish descent. (p. xi). Karolevitz and Fenn continue: "The Kosciuszko flyers--a bit brash, a bit idealistic and a bit impatient--were dedicated to the Polish cause, but to them the antagonist was Bolshevism with all its attendant evils. On the other hand, Pilsudski, the ex-socialist revolutionary and ardent nationalist, at that time was not particularly concerned about political ideologies or world revolution. His foe--Poland's age-old enemy--was Russia the nation, pure and simple, whether her leaders at the moment were Communists, Tsarists, or anarchic freebooters." (p. 80).
The use of aircraft for combat purposes was in its infancy, and the challenges of creating a fighting squadron in such a short time were formidable. A motley collection of mostly-obsolete aircraft was available. The infant Polish Air Force ended up relying largely on stocks of German aircraft abandoned during the latter's WWI retreat. (pp. 41-42).
The Squadron played a major role in the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1918 and then the Bolshevik War of 1920. Many combat details are provided. A map (p. 125) shows the locations where the Squadron was based during Pilsudski's drive into the Ukraine. Amazingly, one of the American men, downed behind Soviet lines, managed to evade his captors and return to Poland. (p. 222). Polish women's battalions also distinguished themselves in both wars. (p. 176).
The Pilsudski-Petlura (Petlura) alliance was intended to culminate in an independent Ukraine and withdrawal of Polish forces from the Ukraine. (p. 91). Its practical goals were as follows: "In simple terms, he [Pilsudski] wanted to meet and defeat the Soviet forces south of the Pripet Marshes before the enemy had time to organize and launch an attack of its own. By winning a notable victory, the Polish leader hoped to establish an independent buffer state in the Ukraine, to convince the Allied Powers (especially an overly skeptical England) that Poland was a nation capable of directing its own destiny, and to win badly-needed support from his own people who were divided by Communist propaganda, torn between political philosophies and--more than anything else--weary and apathetic because of a seemingly endless subjection to the miseries of war." (p. 105).
The American flyers were honored by the likes of Paderewski (p. 27) and Pilsudski (p. 36, p. 153). They received many kinds of military decorations. (see p. 121).
Much later, during WWII, the Kresy (Poland's eastern half) was handed over to the USSR as part of the Churchill-Roosevelt Teheran-Yalta betrayal of Poland. The destruction of everything Polish on these lands continued decades after almost all of the indigenous Poles had been expelled. For instance, in August 1971, the Soviets sent tanks into the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwow (Lvov, Lviv) to crush the Polish monuments, including those dedicated to the American flyers. (p. 236).
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