Kosciuszko, We Are Here ─ American Pilots of the Kosciuszko Squadron in Defense of Poland, 1919-1921

Poland was in ruins after World War I. The fighting front had rolled through some areas more than seven different times, destroying the roads, railways, bridges, water systems, and power plants. Even after Poland regained her independence in 1918, the borders were not yet defined and the nation was vulnerable to continued threats from Germany and Russia.
This work presents the story of the Kosciuszko Squadron, a small group of American flyers that formed, without the support of the State Department and the American Expeditionary Force in Europe, to defend Poland from the Bolshevik armies and to prevent the communist revolution in Russia from uniting with Germany. The book explores why that small group of Americans felt compelled to fight for Poland and follows their actions in detail. The squadron was named in honor of Tadeusz Kosciuszko, who famously came from Poland in 1776 to join the Colonial forces.

Janusz Cisek is the deputy director of the Department of International Relations and European Integration at the Ministry of Culture in Warsaw, Poland.