File:To American Heroes....jpg
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[edit]DescriptionTo American Heroes....jpg |
The American Flyers Memorial (sculptured by Józef Starzyński in 1925) at the Łyczakowski Cemetery in Lviv. Both the memorial and the graves were destroyed by Soviet bulldozers around the summer of 1969. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the 90's they were rebuilt by Poles. Recently the Ukrainian government finally gave the permission to restore the American flyer statue too. "TO AMERICAN HEROES WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR POLAND 1919-1920" The epitaph says: For American killed when defending Poland in 1919-1920 - Officers Pilots of the Tadeusz Kosciuszko Fighter Squadron: Edmund P. Graves – lieutenant - born 1891 Boston, MA, shot down 22 XI 1919 in Lwów, Arthur H. Kelly – captain - born 1890 Richmond, VA, shot down 16 VII 1920 near Łuck, G. Mac Callun – lieutenant - born 1890, Detroit, MI, shot down 31 VIII 1920 near Lwów. Polish 7th Air Escadrille, 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 1918 in Kraków, it was soon moved to Lwów, where it took active part in fighting of the Polish-Ukrainian War until June 1919. The units was re-formed in late 1919, when Poland was struggling to maintain its independence as the veil of Communism heavily shrouded neighboring Russia. A group of American pilots embraced the Polish cause and volunteered for service with the Polish forces. Sixteen Americans joined four Poles and a Canadian pilot in the reorganized 7th Squadron. The Americans included Merian C. Cooper, a former U.S. Air Service pilot in France and POW in a German camp, and Cedric E. Fauntleroy, an experienced WWI pilot who had served on the Western Front. The squadron emblem, a distinctive Polish four-cornered cap and crossed scythes on a field of thirteen stars, combined powerful Polish and American symbols. The cap and scythes commemorated Kosciuszko's famous victory over the Russians in 1794, which owed much to the local peasantry's gallant charge, and the 13 stars represented the original American colonies. The Kościuszko Squadron was first used in the Kiev Offensive in April 1920. Its aircraft were Albatros D.III fighters, supplemented by Ansaldo A.1 Balilla. Since there were almost no air encounters, primary missions became reconnaissance and ground attack. 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. Merian Cooper was shot down but survived. It is said, 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 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 Battle of Warsaw it participated in the Battle of Komarów which crippled Budionny's cavalry. Most active days were August 16 and 17, when Escadrille, reduced to 5 uninjured pilots, fulfilled 18 ground attack missions each day. 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. After the Polish-Soviet War, in 1925 the 7th Kościuszko Squadron was reorganized as the 121st Fighter Squadron, eventually renamed as the Polish 111th Fighter Escadrille, each bearing the "Kościuszko" eponym. The 111th Squadron fought in the Polish Defence War of 1939. Perhaps the most famous successor to the original Kościuszko Squadron would be the World War II No. 303 "Kościuszko" Polish Fighter Squadron, the most successful fighter squadron in the Battle of Britain. |
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Author | Robin from Kraków, Poland |
Camera location | 49° 49′ 49.43″ N, 24° 03′ 28.1″ E | View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap | 49.830398; 24.057805 |
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This image, originally posted to Flickr, was reviewed on December 26, 2011 by the administrator or reviewer File Upload Bot (Magnus Manske), who confirmed that it was available on Flickr under the stated license on that date. |
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current | 12:32, 26 December 2011 | 1,000 × 750 (274 KB) | File Upload Bot (Magnus Manske) (talk | contribs) | {{Information |Description=The American Flyers Memorial (sculptured by Józef Starzyński in 1925) at the Łyczakowski Cemetery in Lviv. Both the memorial and the graves were destroyed by Soviet bulldozers around the summer of 1969. After the collapse of |
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Camera manufacturer | Canon |
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Camera model | Canon PowerShot S5 IS |
Exposure time | 1/160 sec (0.00625) |
F-number | f/7.1 |
ISO speed rating | 80 |
Date and time of data generation | 10:23, 27 March 2010 |
Lens focal length | 34.3 mm |
Orientation | Normal |
Horizontal resolution | 180 dpi |
Vertical resolution | 180 dpi |
File change date and time | 10:23, 27 March 2010 |
Y and C positioning | Centered |
Exif version | 2.2 |
Date and time of digitizing | 10:23, 27 March 2010 |
Meaning of each component |
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Image compression mode | 5 |
APEX shutter speed | 7.3125 |
APEX aperture | 5.65625 |
APEX exposure bias | 0 |
Maximum land aperture | 3.625 APEX (f/3.51) |
Metering mode | Pattern |
Flash | Flash did not fire, compulsory flash suppression |
Supported Flashpix version | 1 |
Color space | sRGB |
Focal plane X resolution | 14,506.666666667 |
Focal plane Y resolution | 14,485.207100592 |
Focal plane resolution unit | inches |
Sensing method | One-chip color area sensor |
File source | Digital still camera |
Custom image processing | Normal process |
Exposure mode | Manual exposure |
White balance | Auto white balance |
Digital zoom ratio | 1 |
Scene capture type | Standard |