Charles Casimer Krawczyk

Remembrance: As Long As We Live Charles Casimer Krawczyk

In the ?August Madness? of 1914, most of Europe was at war. They, of the forgotten Polish Blue Army Air Corp, soared as eagles in their rickety crates, through two wars, their wings straining and guy wires screaming as their machine guns chattered and bombs dropped in support of the ground wars. By a combination of historical facts and fiction the human drama of the times is brought to life through the struggles of a young Polish farm peasant. To avoid Austrian army conscription he immigrated to the United States, but nevertheless became a part of the obscure Canadian-trained, American-immigrant Blue Army. Under the command of the French, they fought the tragically devastating battles of the trenches. Transferred to its newly formed air corps, he became an airman. Facing the German Fokker scourge with each flight, the airman?s mortality rate became greater than of the trenches. Most barely lasted weeks, a few became aces. After Armistice, the surprised Blue Army Air Corps was transferred to Poland, now as part of the country?s air force. A group of veteran pilots from the American Air Corps also appeared in Poland, volunteered their services, and created the ?Kosciuszko Squadron.?Russia, shattered by Germany, convulsed by civil war, fell into the grip of the Bolsheviks. Considering that all of Europe was in disarray and professing its intentions to spread the communist revolution throughout the world, the Bolshevik horde crashed on through Poland in the Russo-Polish war of 1920, bent on invading all of Europe. Germany, France and England were too devastated for another war. Only infant Poland stood in the Bolshevik?s way. All of Western European civilization was at bay, and perhaps that of the world. Then a miracle happened.