New Distractions: Spanish Civil War Aviation

Having just finished the Falcon and the Gladiator, one theme that kept coming up was the large number of veterans from the Spanish Civil War that flew in North Africa. This sent me looking up more information about the SCW and the beginnings of a SCW supplement have started.

In reading up on the Aviazione Legionaria (Italian Aviation Volunteers), I stumbled upon some really interesting books. The first was by Frank Tinker who was an American mercenary serving with the Republicans. He wrote a biography of his time there called "Some Still Live." He was anti-fascist but interestingly, he was anti-communist as well. He spent the large part of his service in Escuadrilla de Lacalle, a Spanish unit flying Russian I-15 fighter aircraft.

Each of the Spanish Squadrons had 12 aircraft that were divided into four patrols or Patrulla. Each patrol flew in a 3 aircraft vee formation. Frank's patrol was labeled "Patrulla Americano" as the original four members were all American citizens: Charlie Koch, Whitey Dahl, Frank Tinker and Manuel Garcia Gomez. Whitey Dahl was also a mercenary like Tinker. Both were former military. Dahl would later serve with the American Volunteer Group in China during WWII. Manuel claimed to be from Guatemala but Frank believed he was actually from Paraguay. But Paraguay had recognized the Nationalist government and it would not be politically convenient for him to admit his home country. Also in the squadron was Ben Leider, another American who actually knew Spanish. Ben was an avowed communist and in some ways was separate from the other Americans. Charlie Koch fell ill prior to their deployment and was replaced with Jose "Chang" Selles. Jose was part Japanese who spoke English very well and was placed in the Patrulla Americano.

Tinker claimed that the American volunteers were better pilots than their Spanish comrades. The explanation was that the Spanish pilots had very few flying hours before being posted to fighter aircraft while the Americans had each been experienced pilots prior to Spanish service. He went into action with Escuadrilla de Lecalle in February of 1936.

I am thinking of changing the format of this scenario pack and concentrate on a couple of squadrons and organize them by squadron rather than historically. Any interest?