AIRCRAFT COLOURS AND MARKINGS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR ERA
Polish Air Service
The Polish Air Service was born from the ashes of WW1, its members and aircraft coming from all countries whether they were formerly friend or foe. An excellent example of this is the 7th Eskadra. . originally under Stefan Stec, a former A-H ace, it later came under the command of the American Cedric Fauntleroy. The Polish Air Services aircraft were a similar mixture of types, some of which can be seen in the following pages. These ranged from the decidedly frightful SPAD A.2 to the superlative Austrian Albatros D.III(OEF), as well as the Bristol F2b .. in fact almost any aircraft flown in the war years could probably be seen in Polish service.
The national markings worn by the Polish aircraft went through many changes, in November and December 1918 they had at least three diffrent sets of markings. The first was the "Warsaw" (red/white shield) "Cracow" (red Z on white square) and "Lwow" (red/white tips of wing and tail). Each one had its own variations. Officially, the Polish red/white checkerboard marking was approved 1.12.1918 but up until the end of 1918 "old" markings were used. Add to this special markings used on planes in Silesian Uprisings 1919-1921 (blue square on left wing and white on right - both with black outline). Another set of marking was used in 'Zeligowski's revolt' in Lithuania in 1920-21 - red square with white outline on left wing and white square with red outline on right.
My thanks to Witold Kozakiewicz for the above information on Polish markings.
There is a great book called Samoloty Wojskowe W Polsce 1918-1924 by Andrezej Morgala, which although in Polish, has photos and GA drawings of the various types used by the early Polish Air Service.
The various unit types are translated as
Eskadra Squadron
Eskadra Lotnicza Air Squadron
Eskadra Mysliwska Fighter Squadron
Eskadra Wywiadowcza Reconaissance Squadron
Wyzsza Szkola Pilotow (WSP) Advanced Pilot's School
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