The sad thing is that most of the Polish & Czech pilots had more combat experience than their British counterparts. Many of the Poles had been flight or squadron leaders. Nevertheless, the RAF took forever to actually get them into combat. When they finally made it to the battle, they actually performed better than the average RAF squadrons. The Polish 303 sqdn had 126 kills, the highest of the battle, with a kill to loss ratio of 14:1. Additionally the highest scoring ace of the battle, Josef Frantisek, was a Czech pilot who had 11 kills to his credit before even joining the RAF. (He got 17 more during the battle)
It has been noted that on average the more diverse squadrons were the most successful and maintained the highest morale. Of the top ten RAF aces of the Battle of Britain (with fourteen or more kills), only five were British. (Keep in mind that 80% of the pilots were British.) Of the remaining five, one was a Czech, one was a Pole, one was Australian, and two were New Zealanders. Of the RAF’s top eight aces for the entire war, only two were British. The rest were two South Africans, one Canadian, one Australian, one Irishman and one Frenchman. During the battle itself, foreign pilots on average suffered more casualties and achieved more victories than British pilots.
I'm not discounting the skills of native British pilots. It's just that the foreign pilots on the whole had more experience before the war. The French, Poles and Czechs also were noted to be more aggressive on the whole, presumably because of anger over the fate of their respective countries.
It's a fact that often been overlooked, but with the sole exception of the Chinese Air Force at the beginning of the war, the RAF was the most nationally diverse Air Force of WWII.
Anyway, I thought this little tidbit might interest some of you guys. If you're wondering where I got this info, it's from two research projects I did during my junior year of studying history. All of these facts were double-checked, so if anyone has a specific question about something I've said I'll post the source.
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08-07-2009, 07:05 PM
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