Talk:Polish 111th Fighter Escadrille

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An entry from Polish 111th Fighter Escadrille appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 17 April 2006.

Could the Do-17 downed by Palusiński be the first downed airplane in the IIWW (European Theatre)?--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 21:56, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

Also - what was the equipment used before 1934?--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 22:01, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

There is an ongoing controversy as to the first WWII air kill as several historians attribute the fact to various pilots of various escadrilles (not squadrons!). This site describes yet another candidate, this time the plane shot down was Ju87 over Kraków. There are also several other candidates, all of them scoring their first victories in the early morning of September 1. Also, you might want to read a contemporary interview with wounded Palusiński here :)

As to the planes used prior to PZL P.11 - the matter is pretty well described in Jerzy Pawlak, Polskie eskadry w latach 1918-1939 (I will expand this article basing on that book ASAP). In short, the 121st escadrille (the predecessor of the 111st) was equipped with obsoleted Ansaldo A-1 Balilla planes, all of which were inherited from the 7th Kościuszko Escadrille. In 1926 the planes were scrapped and replaced with Spad 61 C1, but these proved to be very prone to malfunctions and easy to stall; after the plane stalled, it was practically impossible to level it again. Because of that in less than a year most were replaced with their older versions, the Spad 51 C1; not as heavily armed, these were much more reliable. However, the Spad 51 had yet another problem: the Spads were very prone to loosing their wings, even in relatively decent conditions, which however is a completely different story. In 1931 the escadrille received new all-metal Wibault 70 C1 planes (drawn from the reserve until the PZL P.7 and PWS.10 were ready). Then in 1933 the pilots were trained in PZL P.7 and the last Spad 51 (crashed on February 25) was replaced soon afterwards. The book however mentions that the PZL P.11 (initially PZL P.11a) did not arrive until November of 1935. Will check that. //Halibutt 17:07, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

The numbers given in the article do not seem to add up: "On September 1, 1939 the escadrille had 9 planes, including 7 PZL P.11c and 2 PZL P.11a" "it received an additional PZL P.11c" That makes 8xP.11c, 2xP.11a but we are told that the unit lost "9 of its own PZL P.11c" (1 more than it had of that type) and we are then told that "the unit was evacuated to Romania together with its 4 remaining fighters". Don't know what is correct - losing only 6xP.11c would make the totals balance (with 2xP.11c 2xP.11a making it to Romania), but is that right?

I guess the author of that journal simply summed up all the planes the escadrille had throughout the war. AAMoF it absorbed several units in the course of the campaign, which would explain the problem with numbers. I'll check with sources ASAP. //Halibutt 02:39, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

I couldn't find an exact mention, but it seems the number of the planes received as reinforcements is simply wrong while the losses seem probable. So it would seem that the escadrille received 4 planes and not 1. //Halibutt 10:37, 29 September 2006 (UTC)