Landships II

Centurion · Legend

The Brazilians

James H · Legend

Centurion - if you follow one of the links on this page, you'll find stuff on Portugal with a picture of troops in colonial uniforms.

Tim R · Hero

Good stuff Centurion, I love to read about the small countries, that were involved directly or indirectly in the Great War.

All the best

Tim R

Centurion · Legend

Tim R wrote:

Good stuff Centurion, I love to read about the small countries, that were involved directly or indirectly in the Great War.

All the best

Tim R

Thanks. I've just sent Peter a short item on the Siamese Expeditionary Force - possibly the smallest expeditionary force to go to France.

Tim R · Hero

That will be interesting, I have collected a few good photos of the Siamese Expeditionary Force over the years, I look forward to that information. Do you by any chance know what battle's they participated in?? and possibly what regiments and divisions they were attached to.

All the best
Tim R

-- Edited by Tim R at 22:26, 2007-01-09

Centurion · Legend

Tim

I wish I'd known - I found info and photos very hard to find.

I have not located the sector on which they fought just one item that one of their transport units found itself the subject of a German artillery barrage which is where some of their casualties occured.

One other thing I'm homing in on - but U might already have the info - is that a Siamese pilot serving with the French shot down more than five enemy thus becoming an ace. Unfortunately those Siamese pilots who preceded the expeditionary force seem to have had their names francified (if there is such a word) so its difficult digging out the detail. I had the same problem finding the first ever Indian ace (who served with the RFC and RAF) before he in turn was shot down. In one of those examples of perverse nationalism the Indians themselves don't seem to want to make anything of him. However the Thais seem quite proud of their WW1 involvement.

jellytwig · Lieutenant

Hi Centurion, In addition to the Siamese contingent I recently found references to Japanese pilots fighting for France on The Aerodrome Forum website. Baron Kiyotake Shigeno flew Spad VII's for Escadrille 26. He�named at least one of his aircraft� Wakadori (young bird ).
He was credited with two confirmed kills and six probables. Also Onokita Isobe flew with SPA 57 and Yamonaka with SPA 77. There are photos out there somewhere but I haven't tracked them down yet, I can thoroughly recommend The Aerodrome Forum: it's chock full of good stuff.
�Best regards, Jellytwig.

Peter Kempf · Field Marshal

Regarding the siamese: A gentleman from Thailand has contacted me, and volunteered his services. He is a bit critical regarding the article on the Siamese Expeditionary Force, and has volunteered to supply new info on this less well-known subject.

Centurion · Legend

Peter Kempf wrote:

Regarding the siamese: A gentleman from Thailand has contacted me, and volunteered his services. He is a bit critical regarding the article on the Siamese Expeditionary Force, and has volunteered to supply new info on this less well-known subject.

Well as I said I found information dificult to come by. Is he offering to write a replacement article? If not I'd be happy to use any info he can send and amend/update the one I did.

Centurion · Legend

jellytwig wrote:

Hi Centurion, In addition to the Siamese contingent I recently found references to Japanese pilots fighting for France on The Aerodrome Forum website. Baron Kiyotake Shigeno flew Spad VII's for Escadrille 26. He�named at least one of his aircraft� Wakadori (young bird ).
He was credited with two confirmed kills and six probables. Also Onokita Isobe flew with SPA 57 and Yamonaka with SPA 77. There are photos out there somewhere but I haven't tracked them down yet, I can thoroughly recommend The Aerodrome Forum: it's chock full of good stuff.
�Best regards, Jellytwig.

Windsock some years ago published a series of articles entitles The French Foreign Legion of the Air. It gave potted biogs of pilots from many countries who flew with the French including at least three from Persia (Iran). Unfortunately I don't have every issue so I have some gaps but I'll look out what I have.
It seems that the French first enrolled pilots from neutral countries in the Foreign Legion and then transfrered them to squadrons in the flying service. This was a technical device to get round French legal restrictions about foreign nationals in their forces - I believe this is how many of the American pilots were enrolled as it also meant that they did nor have to make any declarations of alliegence etc that would have broken US law (although some pilots such as Bert Hall had already broken this law when flying as mercenary pilots in the Balkan wars).