SIGNED BY SEVEN FIGHTER PILOTS OF THE FAMED EAGLE SQUADRON

KENNERLY, Byron. The Eagle's Roar! A Fighter Pilot's Story of World War II with the American Eagle Squadron. Washington: Zenger, (1980). Octavo, original silver-stamped blue cloth. $1250.

Later edition of this account of this famous hard-hitting interceptor squadron, “the first all-American combat unit to see action in the second World War,” signed on a tipped-in leaf by seven of the pilots: Edwin Taylor, Spiros Pisanos, Carroll McColpin, James Goodson, Robert Wehrman, Robert Priser, and William Slade.

Prior to the United States entry into World War II, approximately 15,000 Americans had joined the Royal Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force, where they were generally assimilated into various flying units. "The exception was the famed Eagle Squadrons which, contrary to popular belief, consisted of three individual squadrons, not one. Manned entirely by American pilots, these three RAF units, Numbers 71, 121 and 133 Squadrons, flew Hawker Hurricanes and Supermarine Spitfires in combat over Europe from February 5, 1941 to September 29, 1942, when they were transferred to the American Air Force. Formed into the 4th Fighter Group, they provided numerous experienced combat veterans who proved invaluable to the inexperienced AAF fighter pilots who began to arrive in England in large numbers in 1943" (National Museum of the U.S. Air Force). First published in 1942, The Eagle's Roar! contains an introduction by Captain Charles Sweeny. Sweeny was a wealthy businessman living in London, who began recruiting American citizens to fight as a U.S. volunteer detachment. His rich society contacts contributed over $100,000 toward processing and sending the American recruits to England for training. Without dust jacket.

A fine multiply signed copy.