Eagle Squadrons

The Eagle Squadrons were three fighter squadrons of the Royal Air Force (RAF) formed during the early days of World War II (circa 1940) with volunteer pilots from the United States prior to the American entry into the war. While many US recruits simply crossed the border and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) to learn to fly and fight, many of the early recruits had originally come to Europe to fight for Finland against the Soviets in the Winter War. Some of the recruits were men rejected by the USAAF as "lacking in intrinsic flying ability" who enlisted with the RCAF instead.

Charles Sweeny, a wealthy businessman living in London, began recruiting American citizens to fight as a US volunteer detachment in the French Air force, echoing the Lafayette Escadrille of World War I. With the Fall of France in 1940, a dozen of these recruits joined the RAF. Sweeny's efforts were also coordinated in Canada by World War I air ace Billy Bishop and with artist Clayton Knight who formed the Clayton Knight Committee, who, by the time the United States entered the war in December 1941, had processed and approved 6,700 applications from Americans to join the RCAF or RAF. Sweeny and his rich society contacts bore the cost (over $100,000) of processing and bringing the US trainees to the United Kingdom for training.