After the beginning of operation Barbarossa the Free French offered a fighter squadron. Stalin was only too glad to get the Normandie Squadron. The unit flew Soviet LaGGs and Yaks against the Germans, who declared that any Normandie pilots captured by them would be shot. Despite this, the Normandie Squadron racked up 273 confirmed kills and 36 probables during their short tour of the Eastern Front.

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Normandie-Niemen Regiment was a unit of Free French. The Free French Forces (Forces Françaises Libres in French) were French fighters who decided to go on fighting against Germany after the Fall of France and German occupation and to fight against Vichy France in World War II.

First 12 Free French pilots were assigned to Soviet Union in the August 17 1942.

They were equipped with Soviet Yak fighters and initially named 3rd Fighter Group Normandie.

Pilots began active service in March 22 1943.

The regiment fought in three campaigns and in the battles in Smolensk, Belarus, Lithuania and east Prussia.

After July 1944 Stalin renamed the group Normandie-Niemen after they had participated in the Soviet victory at Alitous on the Niemen river. Field Marshall Keitel in turn ordered all the captured Normandie pilots shot. By the end of the war the group had grown to four squadrons.

Four of the pilots were awarded with the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

Pilots returned to France June 20 1945.

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionar...men%20Regiment

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