Not sure if this should be here or in the Modern Military or if someone has not already posted on this subject.
Polish Air Force’s 23rd Tactical Base’s 1st Tactical Squadron (based at Minsk Mazowiecki near Warsaw) maintains traditions of the ‘Kosciuszko’ Squadron of the 1919-1921 Polish-Russian war and those of No. 303 Squadron of WW2, and still use the same badge. A couple of years ago one of their two-seat trainers was adorned with a huge rendition of the badge on its back. Now one of their single-seaters was applied with a low-viz variant of the badge on the back and low-viz portraits of F/O Miroslaw Feric, a 303 Sqn Battle of Britain ace, on the fins. It is a part of a projects to have all aircraft of the squadron similarly adorned with portraits of outstanding pilots of the unit in the two wars that it fought in. The portraits and insignia are applied with standard low-viz paints so as not to compromise the camouflage effect of the overall scheme.
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Another single-seater, scheduled to be the display machine for the unit, has the full-colour badge on the back and portraits of W/Cdr Marian Pisarek, another 303 Sqn ace of the Battle of Britain.
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More photos from last Saturday’s air show at Minsk Mazowiecki here:
http://imageshack.us/g/215/img06872.jpg/
By: pb299 - 19th June 2012 at 21:26
The MiGs won’t be at Legends… but will attend RIAT.
/p.
By: Arabella-Cox - 6th June 2012 at 12:49
Simply stunning!
By: VoyTech - 6th June 2012 at 12:16
Well, there are more cases of irony like in the history of the unit.
1) When the American pilots joined the squadron in 1919 it flew Albatross D.III (Oef) fighters: German designed and built in Austria, the two countries having occupied Poland (together with Russia) for the entire 18th century.
2) When the unit reformed in 1940 as No. 303 Squadron (continuing the same tradition), it defended Britain but still bore the name of Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a definitely anti-British hero (a Polish general in the American War of Independence, who made significant contribution to the victory of the ‘colonies’ against Britain).
By: antoni - 4th June 2012 at 14:54
I have always found it rather ironic that the badge of a squadron of volunteer American pilots that found fame fighting the Soviets should adorn a MiG 29. Issue 70 of the Polish magazine Mini Replica has four pages of photographs of the full-colour MiG 29 in the paint shop. You can see a few of them here if you page down a little.
http://www.jadarhobby.pl/mini-replika-70-modeling-magazine-p-24075.html
By: Mike J - 4th June 2012 at 13:47
Now that’s really nice VoyTech. Great to see them celebrating the unit’s heritage in this way.
Are there any public events in Poland this year? I understand that the Goraszka Air Picnic is no more. I’ll be making a visit to Poland later in the summer and would like to tie it it with an aviation event if possible.
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June 4, 2012 at 12:13 pm