AIRCRAFT COLOURS AND MARKINGS OF THE FIRST
WORLD WAR ERA
Polish Air Service
The Polish Air Service was born from the ashes of WW1, its members and
aircraft coming from all countries whether they were formerly friend or
foe. An excellent example of this is the 7th Eskadra. . originally under
Stefan Stec, a former A-H ace, it later came under the command of the
American Cedric Fauntleroy. The Polish Air Services aircraft were a similar
mixture of types, some of which can be seen in the following pages. These
ranged from the decidedly frightful SPAD A.2 to the superlative Austrian
Albatros D.III(OEF), as well as the Bristol F2b .. in fact almost any
aircraft flown in the war years could probably be seen in Polish service.
The national markings worn by the Polish aircraft went through many
changes, in November and December 1918 they had at least three diffrent
sets of markings. The first was the "Warsaw" (red/white shield) "Cracow"
(red Z on white square) and "Lwow" (red/white tips of wing and tail).
Each one had its own variations. Officially, the Polish red/white checkerboard
marking was approved 1.12.1918 but up until the end of 1918 "old" markings
were used. Add to this special markings used on planes in Silesian Uprisings
1919-1921 (blue square on left wing and white on right - both with black
outline). Another set of marking was used in 'Zeligowski's revolt' in
Lithuania in 1920-21 - red square with white outline on left wing and
white square with red outline on right.
My thanks to Witold Kozakiewicz for the above information on Polish
markings.
There is a great book called Samoloty Wojskowe W Polsce 1918-1924
by Andrezej Morgala, which although in Polish, has photos and GA drawings
of the various types used by the early Polish Air Service.
The various unit types are translated as
Eskadra
Squadron
Eskadra Lotnicza Air
Squadron
Eskadra Mysliwska
Fighter Squadron
Eskadra Wywiadowcza Reconaissance
Squadron
Wyzsza Szkola Pilotow (WSP) Advanced Pilot's School
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