The Mexican Expeditionary Air Force in World War II, Escuadron 201 “The Aztec Eagles”Dur

The Mexican Expeditionary Air Force in World War II, Escuadron 201 “The Aztec Eagles”During World War II Mexico was a minor military contributor to the Allies, playing more of an economic and logistical role for the war effort.  However, Mexico did donate one small combat unit, a squadron of fighter bombers known as the Mexican Expeditionary Air Force.  When the war began in 1939 Mexico officially declared neutrality.  Unofficially Mexico was aligned with the Allies, as Mexico had several political and economic interests shared with the United States.  One day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor the Mexican government seized two Italian oil tankers harbored in Mexican ports.  Mexico then refitted the tankers and used them to ship oil to the United States. Later, both tankers were sunk by German U-boats (submarines) killing 23 Mexican sailors.  Despite Germany’s claim that the sinking’s were an accident due to mistaken identity, Mexico declared war with the Axis Powers on the 22nd of May, 1942.During the war Mexico was never able to build a large military force to do combat overseas.  However, the Mexican Air Force contributed a squadron of fighter bombers known as Escuadron 201 of the Mexican Expeditionary Air Force.  Led by Colonel Antonio Cardenas Rodriguez, the squadron consisted of 30 pilots and 270 support crew equipped with twenty five P-47D Thunderbolts. Interestingly the planes had both American Insignia (star) and Mexican Air Force insignia (red, white, and green stripes on tail) in order to avoid mis-identification or friendly fire accidents. On July 25th, 1944 Escuadron 201 began training in the United States, where they were taught gunnery, combat tactics, and formation flying.  By March of 1945 the squadron was ready for combat and assigned to the US 58th fighter group stationed in Luzon, the Philippines.  Once there the squadron was tasked with providing tactical air support for combat ground forces as they fought with Japanese troops occupying the islands.  Nicknamed the “Aztec Eagles” the squadron served under the command of Douglas MacArthur, but was under direct command of the Mexican military.Between June and August of 1945 Escuadron 201 flew 90 combat missions, accruing 1,900 hours of combat flight time.  Among their most daring missions were a series dive bombing raids on Japanese Naval bases at Formosa (Taiwan).  During this time the squadron fired 166,922 round of ammunition and dropped 957 one thousand pound bombs as well as 500 five hundered pound bombs.  3 pilots were killed in combat along with another 3 who were killed in flight accidents.  Escuadron 201 flew its last mission on August 26, 1945 before returning to Mexico in November of the same year.  In honor of their service, they were commended by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, and later awarded the Philippine Legion of Honor by the Filipino government in 2004. -- source link

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