Founding members of the No. 71 ‚Eagle‘ Squadron at Church Fenton,

Yorkshire, October 1940. From left: F/O Andrew Mamedoff of Thompson, Connecticut, P/O Vernon Charles Keough of Brooklyn, New

York, and P/O Gene Tobin of Los Angeles. Mamedoff was a former

stunt pilot in an air circus. Keough was a professional parachutist

with 480 drops at the time this photograph was taken. Tobin was

a commercial pilot who also did some film work in Los Angeles

(Photo: IWM).

Canadian squadrons. For instance, another future ace and 4th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force commander Donald Blakeslee, who served

with Canadian No. 401 Squadron, purposely avoided joining the

Eagle squadron, supposedly due to the poor relations among the

personnel and pilots overclaiming the kills. He changed his opinion

after he completed his tour of duty with No. 401 Squadron RCAF

and the only option to continue flying combat missions was joining

the No. 133 (Eagle) Squadron. On the other side, a number of the

Eagle Squadrons members, after they completed their tours of duty,

were for similar reasons leaving for British squadrons, quite often

based in Malta or North Africa.

No. 71 (Eagle) Squadron

The first American unit within RAF, No. 71 (Eagle) Squadron was

formed out of the American volunteers who at that time already

served with RAF. Many of them were Battle of Britain veterans and

some had even served with the French air force. The squadron was

established at RAF airbase Church Fenton on September 19, 1940.

During the operational training it flew the American Brewster Buffaloes which, due to their obsolescence, were replaced by Hurricanes

in November 1940. On February 5, 1941, at Kirton in Lindsey airbase, the unit was declared operational and in April commenced its

combat flying at RAF airbase Martlesham Heath in Suffolk. In May it

recorded its first combat loss when Mike Kolendorski was shot down

and killed during the offensive sweep over the Netherlands. In June

the unit was deployed to RAF airbase North Weald under the No. 11

Group command. On June 21 Nathaniel Maranz was shot down and

captured becoming the first American POW in WWII. A month later,

on July 21 P/O William R. Dunn scored the first Eagle Squadron kill

when he shot down a Bf 109F over Lille. Soon P/O Dunn became

the first American fighter ace in WWII after he scored his fourth and

fifth kills on August 27. In August 1941 No. 71 (Eagle) Squadron was

re-equipped with Spitfires Mk.IIa just to replace them with more

powerful Spitfires Mk.Vb in a short time. In December the unit was

re-deployed to Martlesham Heath and in May 1942 relocated to

Debden, where on September 29, 1942, together with the other

two Eagle Squadrons, was transferred under USAAF command.

No. 121 (Eagle) Squadron

The second RAF American squadron, No. 121 (Eagle) Squadron, was

established in May 1941 at RAF airbase Kirton in Lindsey. In July the

unit was declared operational and initially flew Hurricanes Mk.IIb

on the patrol sorties to protect the convoys. On September 15 the

Instruction on Miles Master trainer at the RAF Flying Training School where Eagle Squadron pilots underwent the training. All Eagle

Squadrons’ pilots had flown prior to their recruitment but since their level of experience differed widely, they all were put through the

RAF standard pilot training curriculum (Photo: IWM).

INFO Eduard - August 2021

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