You Who?

A Pole, an Englishman, and a Yankee overthrow an evil dictator's regime...

No, no, not the one you're thinking of. (I already wrote about that.) I mean Hitler. I picked up an interesting book, A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II, after hearing about it on NPR. I haven't read it yet, but it sounds like an interesting story... The Kosciuszko Squadron was an exceptional squadron of Polish pilots attached to the Royal Air Force in World War II. Did you know the Polish were the 4th largest contributor of troops to the Allies in WWII -- 200,000 troops! Most of the military escaped Poland after Hitler invaded and made it to Britain to keep fighting.

I find the history amazing: The squadron was named after Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Brigadier General under George Washington. Kosciuszko, like many Poles, came from Poland to volunteer in the Revolutionary War. He was a good friend of Thomas Jefferson. After WWI, when Poland was threatened by Russia, American volunteers returned the favor by traveling to Poland to help establish an air force, which they called the "Kosciuszko Squadron" in honor of the Revolutionary general. This squadron became instrumental in winning the Battle of Britain during WWII. But the story has a sad ending: After WWII the Allies abandoned Poland to Stalin.