LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE

During WWI, the burgeoning French Air Force formed a squadron of volunteer American pilots who served France with distinction over the Western Front

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Although the United States played an important role in securing victory for the Allies in 1918, the country did not declare war on Germany until 6 April 1917. Most Americans agreed with President Woodrow Wilson’s initial stance on neutrality, although pro-Allied sentiment grew as the war progressed.

Within the United States, some members of the population – such as Irish-Americans – were hostile to helping Britain but there was less antipathy towards the French. France was America’s oldest ally and when German forces invaded northern France in 1914, some Americans believed it was vital that the United States join the war.

A small group of Americans, including Norman Prince and Dr Edmund Gros, developed the idea of forming a volunteer unit of American pilots to fly with the relatively new Aéronautique Militaire in the French Army. Prince was an expatriate living in France who was already flying for the French while Gros was the founder of the American Hospital of Paris. They successfully lobbied the French government, who approved the idea in August 1915. The French recognised that a special unit of American fliers within Aéronautique Militaire would have excellent propaganda value to further US support for the Allies.