first used in the Kiev Offensive in April 1920, rebasing from Lwów to Połonne. Its aircraft were Albatros D.III (Oef) fighters, supplemented by Ansaldo A.1 Balilla. Since there were no air encounters, primary missions became reconnaissance and ground attack. Most of the Squadron's flights were directed against Semyon Budionny's First Cavalry Army. The Squadron developed a tactic of low-altitude machine-gun strafing runs. Polish land commanders highly valued the contribution of the Kościuszko Squadron. General Puchucki of the 13th Infantry Division wrote in a report: "The American pilots, though exhausted, fight tenaciously. During the last offensive, their commander attacked enemy formations from the rear, raining machine-gun bullets down on their heads. Without the American pilots' help, we would long ago have been done for." Merian Cooper was shot down but survived. Budionny had put half a million rubles on Captain Cooper's head, but when he was caught by the Cossacks he managed to convince them that he was a corporal. A few months later he escaped from a POW camp near Moscow to Latvia. In August 1920 the Kościuszko Squadron took part in the defense of Lwów, and after the Battle of Warsaw it participated in the Battle of Komarów which crippled Budionny's cavalry. Most active days were August 16 and 17, when Escadrille, reduced to 5 uninjured pilots, fulfilled 18 ground attack missions each day. After the Polish-Soviet War, in 1925 the 7th Kościuszko Squadron was reorganized as the 121st Fighter Squadron, eventually renamed as the Polish 111th Fighter Escadrille, each bearing the "Kościuszko" eponym. The 111th Squadron fought in the Invasion of Poland. Perhaps the most famous successor to the original Kościuszko Squadron would be the World War II No. 303 "Kościuszko" Polish Fighter Squadron (Warszawski im. Tadeusza Kościuszki), the most successful fighter squadron in the Battle of Britain. Squadron statistics In 1920 the Kościuszko Squadron made over 400 combat flights. Colonel Cedric E. Fauntleroy and Lt.- Col. Merian C. Cooper received Poland's highest military decoration: the Virtuti Militari. Other Kociuszko Squadron recipients of the Virtuti Militari included Major George M. Crawford, Captain Edward C. Corsi, Captain Władysław Konopka, 1st Lieut. Elliot W. Chess, 1st Lieut. Carl H. Clark, 1st Lieut. E. H. Noble, 1st Lieut. H. C. Rorison, 1st Lieut. K. O. Shrewsbury, 1st Lieut. Jerzy A. Weber and 2nd Lieut. A. Senkowski. Mieczyslaw Garsztka was to be awarded the Virtuti Militari posthumously. See also Antoni Mroczkowski of