Eagle Biography
Waclaw Makowski
Colonel Waclaw Makowski's achievements in aviation span 46 years during which time he
fought for the freedom of his homeland in two wars, and helped establish an air force and
two national airlines. Born in 1897 in Tsarist-controlled Poland, he was inducted into
the Russian Army in 1916 and was in Petrograd (Leningrad) in October 1917 at the start of
the Russian Revolution. He narrowly escaped to Poland where he joined the newly organized
Polish Army as it prepared to regain the territory that had been under Russian control
for over 100 years.
In 1919, he became an aviator in the Polish Air Force and flew
reconnaissance missions over the Lithuanian-Belorussian Front. Piloting a wide variety of
surplus World War I German aircraft, he finished the war commanding the No. 1
Reconnaissance Squadron and received the Virtuti Militari and Cross of Gallantry,
Poland's highest orders of valor. Makowski departed the Polish Air Force in 1930 and was
a founding member of the Polish Air Line "LOT," which he left in 1939 as its
General Manager. He was also the last prewar President of the International Air Transport
Association, forerunner of the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO). Shortly before Germany invaded his homeland in September 1939, Makowski was
called back to uniform.
Following the collapse of Poland, he joined 11,000 fellow airmen
escaping to England to fight another day. There he commanded No. 300 Squadron, the first
operational Polish squadron with the Royal Air Force, flying Fairey Battles and later
Vickers Wellington bombers. In this capacity, he first led his unit on a mission against
German barges massed for Operation Sea Lion, the planned invasion of Great Britain in
late 1940. Remaining in England after the war, he began a 14-year career with ICAO in
1951 and worked as an aviation advisor in Iran, Nepal, Tunisia, Morocco, Mali, Upper
Volta, Mauritania, Guinea, and Afghanistan.
While in Afghanistan he was recognized for
contributing to founding that country's national airline, Ariana. Waclaw Makowski retired
from ICAO in 1965. A pioneer organizer in military and civil aviation, his work serves as
a monument to the progress aviation has made throughout the world.
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| More About The Eagle: |
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| Honored as an Eagle In: |
| 1984 |
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Like many of the aircraft flown by the fledgling Polish Air Force during the
1919-20 War of Independence, the Hannover-Roland CL2 was a surplus World War
I German Fighter. These fighters were flown on a variety of missions as
ground support and reconnaissance aircraft assisting the Polish Army's
successful campaign against the Russians. The red and white checkerboard
pattern is the same aircraft national insignia used by today's Polish Air
Force, making it one of the few air forces whose insignia has remained
unchanged since its inception.
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