American Aviators Through With Spain

American Aviators Through With Spain

Paris (Associated Press) Four disillusioned American aviators announced today they were through with Spain and, furthermore, they were through with civil wars. The Four - Bert Acosta, Frederick Lord, Gordon Berry and Eddie Schneider - had led the Spanish socialist government's "Yankee squadron" on the Basque front in the far north. But, they said, they were not paid, and money was their only reason for joining up. The flyers protested they were given nothing but unarmed sports planes with which to fight, while Russian pilots were assigned "regular American army planes." The American planes were said to be machines built in Russia through contracts giving the soviet government permission to copy American models. The flyers said both the socialists and the fascist air forces in Spain were staffed almost entirely by foreigners.

Source: Associated Press in Oshkosh Northwestern, Oshkosh, Wisconsin; January 06, 1937