Escadrille (French for "little Squadron") is a type of military unit in numerous armed forces, notably in air forces of continental Europe. While the term is sometimes translated to English as Squadron (especially in modern context), escadrilles of nations other than the United Kingdom and United States were usually half the size.
During World War II a typical British aerial squadron had ca. 18 planes, and its American counterpart could have anywhere between 24 and 40 planes. At the same time France, Poland and Italy's basic air force unit fielded around ten machines (twelve in France, ten in Poland, nine in Italy). Typically two to three escadrilles formed an Air Group or Squadron (French: Groupe, Polish: dywizjon, Italian: gruppo). The German equivalent of the Squadron, the Staffel, was also usually half the size of a British squadron, with the unit actually called a squadron (German: Geschwader) being an equivalent of an Anglo-American Wing rather than a squadron.
The first air escadrilles were formed in France already before the Great War, in 1912,[1] initially as a loosely-defined group of planes capable of similar tasks, in most cases not more than 6 aeroplanes in each.[2] During the war the escadrille became the basic independent unit of aviation within the French armed forces. An escadrille of the epoch was a homogeneous unit, armed with a single type of aeroplane, with permanent flying and ground personnel attached, motorised transport and tent hangars.[1] By mid-1915 the French Air Force grew to 119 escadrilles of 10 aircraft each: fourteen of fighters, 50 of bomber planes and the rest composed of reconnaissance, spotter and communications planes.[1]
Initially acting independently, during the Battle of Verdun of 1916 the fighter plane escadrilles started to be formed into larger formations, for easier coordination of tasks. [3]