The Starry Squadron

Born in Jacksonville on October 24, 1893, died in San Diego on April 21, 1973 – an American filmmaker, director and screenwriter, brigadier general of the United States Army and lieutenant colonel in the Polish Army, who served in the Polish Air Force in the years 1919–1920 during the Polish-Soviet war, Kościuszko Squadron organizer, father of Maciej Słomczyński, recipient of War Order of Virtuti Militari. His most popular movie was King Kong (1933).

One of a hundred

Some people’s lives beg to be turned into a motion picture. One of such people was Merian Caldwell Cooper.
Born in 1893 in Jacksonville, Florida into a wealthy farmer’s family, Cooper enrolled in the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis at the age of 18, but soon dropped out to pursue a career in journalism. He was already fascinated with the bundling aviation, going as far as to say that in future wars, airplanes would be capable of sinking even the largest warships. It is no wonder, then, that once he got wind of the newly formed American air force unit, he didn’t hesitate to enlist. Of a hundred candidates, only ten were selected, Cooper among them.

Buried alive

In 1917, the United States officially entered the Great War (as World War I was known before World War II) and Cooper was deployed to the front line. During one mission, he was attacked by German fighters. His airplane caught fire, severely burning Cooper’s face and hands. He managed to land safely – unfortunately, he found himself behind the German lines.
The American army believed Cooper to have been killed in action and even issued a death certificate. However, Merian survived; he was captured by the Germans and sent as a prisoner of war to Breslau (which today is the Polish city of Wroclaw). Receiving treatment for his burns, he met Polish and Russian POWs who told him about the dire living conditions in the Soviet Russia, instilling a passionate anti-communist sentiment in the American pilot. Conversations with the Poles reminded him of a debt incurred almost 140 years earlier by his great-great–grandfather.

Oath at the hero’s grave

In 1775, the American Revolutionary War broke out, a culmination of the long process of awakening the American national identity. Among the heroes of the American War for Independence were two Polish officers – Tadeusz Kościuszko and Kazimierz Pułaski. The latter died in 1779 in the Battle of Savannah, fighting side by side with John Cooper. It was Merian Cooper’s great-great-grandfather who carried the dying Polish general and his friend from the battlefield. Standing at Pulaski’s grave, Cooper made an oath that when the time came, he or his descendants would go and fight for Poland’s freedom.

Europe celebrates peace

Nearly 140 years later, World War I ended and John Cooper’s great-great-grandson went to jubilant Paris. The Poles also had reason to celebrate, finally regaining independence after 123 years. However, the new country faced dire economic situation. Furthermore, the fight to keep some regions within the borders of restored Poland was still ongoing, for instance in Lwów. Aware of Poland’s struggles, Cooper joined the Food Administration (renamed American Relief Administration in 1919) and went to the fighting Lvov to supply medicine and food to Polish children. Along the way, he had the first opportunity to fight side by side with the Poles, taking part in the heavy battle to restore the railway and road connection from Przemyśl to Lwów to provide the necessary supplies to the starving city. The heroism of the Lwów Eaglets made such an impression in Cooper that he decided to actively join the fight for the reborn Poland. The opportunity came soon with the Polish-Soviet War which erupted in 1919.

21 brave souls

Merian Cooper, who was in Paris at the time, met his old colleague, Cedric Fauntleroy, who had an idea of creating an air force unit of American volunteers ready to fight for Poland’s independence.
They brought their plan to General Tadeusz Rozwadowski, the Chief of the Polish Military Mission to Paris, who decided to enlist the two valiant Americans to Polish 7th Air Escadrille.
Cooper and Fauntleroy were initially joined by six other Americans: George Marter Crawford, Kenneth O. Shrewsbury, Edward C. Corsi, Carl H. Clark, Edwin Lawrence Noble and Arthur H. Kelly. In total, the squadron had 21 American airmen – 20 pilots and 1 air observer.
During the meeting with Ignacy Paderewski, Fauntleroy supposedly said: “All pilots are American, none of them has Polish roots, but they all want to fight in the armed forces of the United States’ new sister republic against all enemies of Poland.” Paderewski was, to use a popular phrase, sold on the spot. However, Marshal Józef Piłsudski was an altogether different matter. Eventually though, despite his doubts as to whether the Americans weren’t actually just a bunch of reckless thrill seekers, he was convinced by Cooper’s enthusiasm. Piłsudski made a great impression on the young Americans. Years later, Cooper recalled in his memoirs: “To this day I remember the steely, piercing glance of his eyes under heavy brows, as he bid us farewell.”

Kościuszko Squadron

In November 1919, Cedric Fauntleroy took command of the escadrille, with Cooper as his second and commanding officer of the Pulaski wing. A month later, the escadrille was officially named after Tadeusz Kościuszko, a hero of the fight of independence of both Poland and the United States. The squadron’s emblem – crossed scythes and the krakuska cap on a shield with stars and stripes, a reference to the American flag – was designed by one of Cooper’s colleagues, Elliot Chees. Twenty years later, identical insignia were placed on the airplanes of the pilots of the legendary 303 Polish Squadron in the Battle of Britain.

Get the Bolsheviks!

The Americans had their baptism of fire during the Kiev Offensive in April 1920. They didn’t meet enemy aircraft in battle, but the squadron was used for reconnaissance and assault, and then to escort Polish bombers attacking Soviet vessels on the Dnieper. Cooper provided a colourful account of those raids: “We took off from the airfield around five o’clock in the morning to get to the enemy before he could attack our ground troops. We flew straight to Cherkasy, a Bolshevik military port on the river. It was a glorious attack. I saw one of the bombs drop straight onto a steamboat, sinking it almost immediately, while the monitor, trying to evade a barrage of bullets, ran aground. Other vessels made a run for it down the river, and we would bomb and fire on them mercilessly. Lieutenant Clark dove so low he seemed certain to hit the steamboat’s chimney. It was his style – not bothering with manoeuvres, but instead attacking from high altitude with his machine guns blazing […].

Retreat on foot

Soon, however, the Soviet troops launched a surprise attack on the airfield in Berdychiv and managed to damage some airplanes, including Cooper’s machine, forcing him to evacuate on foot. In June, the squadron was withdrawn to Lwów. In the meantime, with Fauntleroy’s promotion to commander of the entire 2^nd Air Command of the 2^nd Army, Merian Cooper took command of the Kościuszko Squadron.

Soon, however, the Soviet troops launched a surprise attack on the airfield in Berdychiv and managed to damage some airplanes, including Cooper’s machine, forcing him to evacuate on foot. In June, the squadron was withdrawn to Lwów. In the meantime, with Fauntleroy’s promotion to commander of the entire 2nd Air Command of the 2nd Army, Merian Cooper took command of the Kościuszko Squadron.

Prisoner of war

On July 13th, 1920, Cooper’s airplane was shot down and he was captured by the Soviet troops. It is likely that his life was saved by the scars on his hands, a souvenir from the Great War. Cooper managed to convince the Bolsheviks that he was no officer, but a conscripted farmer. The Soviet graciously sentenced him to labour camp. He attempted to escape, but was unsuccessful. As a result, he was sent to a concentration camp where he was tasked with the murderous job of crushing ice on the railway tracks near Moscow.

On the front line

The 7^th Escadrille, together with the rest of the 2^nd Air Command, was assigned to the 6^th Army on the Southern Front which was tasked with keeping the Soviet Marshal Semyon Budyonny’s forces in check in the eastern Lesser Poland. The commander of the front, Antoni Listowski, wrote: “Despite exhaustion, the American pilots are fighting like men possessed. Without their help, everything would’ve already gone to hell.” Eventually, the joint effort of the pilots, the Polish cavalry and infantry, and the heroism of the people of Lwów forced the Bolsheviks to retreat. After the war, all Americans serving in the Kościuszko Squadron were awarded the Virtuti Militari – Poland’s highest military decoration.

Return home

After the peace treaty in Riga, Latvia in March 1921, repatriation of the Polish prisoners started, but Cooper was not a Polish national and faced further imprisonment. However, with the help of two fellow Polish inmates, he was able to forge documents and escape. Covering 700 kilometres through harsh Russian winter, he eventually reached Latvia in April 1921. A month later he received the War Order of Virtuti Militari from Józef Piłsudski himself. He was also invited to settle down in Poland, but declined, deciding to return to the United States with the rest of the American pilots.

New life

After returning to the United States, Cooper gave his Polish Army coat to a street beggar, symbolically leaving his war past behind. He returned to journalism and writing, publishing his memoir “Faunt-le-Roy and his squadron in Poland. A history of the Kościuszko Squadron” in 1922. A consummate adventurer, he would often find himself in remote parts of the world, far away from beaten tracks. He documented his adventures on film, travelling with his operator Ernest Schoedsack – a fellow veteran of the Soviet war – to New Hebrides, Solomon Islands or Abyssinia. Together with Marguerite Harrison (a former American spy who was imprisoned for a time in the dreaded Moscow prison of Lubyanka), he made documentaries “Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life” (1925), “Chang – The Drama of the Wilderness” (1927), and a feature film “Four Feathers” (1929). During his Hollywood career, Cooper directed 6 films, produced 62 and wrote screenplays to 8. The pinnacle of his film career was the 1933 blockbuster “King Kong”.

A timeless hit

Cooper’s fascination with gorillas, born out of his African travels, resulted in the motion picture which would go on to become an absolute classic. “King Kong” is set in the United States during the Great Depression. Ann Darrow, an unemployed actor, is hired by frustrated filmmaker Carl Denham who wants to shoot his magnum opus on a mysterious Skull Island. But problems begin as soon as they set foot on the island… The story of the great ape was an instant hit, making 10 million dollars against a budget of 670 thousand. Even though the film was shot long before the invention of CGI, the 42-cm tall model of King Kong was very believable as a 5.5-metre ape. His terrifying roar was recorded by mixing the sounds of lions and tigers. Merian Cooper played the commander of the pilots attacking Kong in the finale.

Walk of Fame

The success of “King Kong” earned Cooper a place in the ranks of Hollywood producers. He went on to work on such classics as “Little Women”, “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon”, “Fort Apache”, “The Quiet Man” or “The Searchers”. In 1952, he was awarded an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Cooper invested the money he made on films in Pan American World Airways (Pan Am).

Erasing the history

Meanwhile, Poland did not forget its heroes. Cooper’s memoirs published in 1922 became a bestseller. The brave American pilots were commemorated in poems and films. Leonard Buczkowski’s 1933 picture “Gwiaździsta eskadra” (Star-Spangled Squadron) was the biggest blockbuster of pre-WW II Poland, and also the first Polish aviation film. The role of Captain Bond – based on Cooper – was played by Jerzy Kobusz. Interestingly, during World War II, all copies of “Gwiaździsta eskadra” were confiscated or destroyed by the same people the Americans so valiantly fought against – the Soviets.

Poland in an American heart

Despite his growing Hollywood fame, Merian Cooper kept in touch with Poland and Poles, supporting the fundraising efforts in the US for the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Handicapped Fund. In the tragic September of 1939 when the Nazi Germany and the Soviets invaded Poland, Cooper organised a charity concert, donating all profits to the Polish war effort. Later, he made contact with the legendary Polish 303 Squadron, which carried on the legacy of Cooper’s squadron. After World War II, he provided support to Polish immigrants arriving in the United States, particularly airmen. To his daughter’s wedding in 1965, Cooper wore the first distinction he ever received in Poland – the “Eaglets” Honorary Badge, awarded to him in 1919.

Death will be a new adventure

Merian Caldwell Cooper died on April 21^st, 1973 in San Diego, California, at the age of eighty. Shortly before his death, he said that no other country has as much romance in its name as Poland.” Facing the end, he told his wife: “Death will be a new adventure”.