United Kingdom. A Rare Royal Air Force (RAF) Eagle Squadron Shoulder Patch, c. 1941

A rare Royal Air Force (RAF) Eagle Squadron shoulder patch, constructed of white machine embroidery in the shape of an eagle with open wings clutching a stem of laurels and a grouping of five lightning bolts, surmounted by “E.S.” embroidered at the top, on a dark blue wool core and a black cotton backer, measuring 70 mm (w) x 78 mm (l).

Footnote: The Eagle Squadrons were three fighter squadrons of the Royal Air Force (RAF), formed with volunteer pilots from the United States during the early days of the Second World War (circa 1940), prior to America's entry into the war in December 1941. Before America's entry into the war, many US recruits simply crossed the border and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) to learn to fly and fight. Many early recruits had originally gone to Europe to fight for Finland against the Soviets in the Winter War. Some of the recruits were men rejected by the USAAF as "lacking in intrinsic flying ability", who instead enlisted with the RCAF. Charles Sweeny, a wealthy businessman living in London, began recruiting American citizens to fight as a US volunteer detachment in the French Air Force, echoing the Lafayette Escadrille of the First World War. Following the Fall of France in 1940, a dozen of these recruits joined the RAF. Sweeny's efforts were also coordinated in Canada by the First World War air ace Billy Bishop and the artist Clayton Knight, who formed the Clayton Knight Committee, which by the time the United States entered the war in December 1941, had processed and approved 6,700 applications from Americans to join the RCAF or RAF. Sweeny and his rich society contacts bore the cost (over $100,000) of processing and bringing the US trainees to the United Kingdom for training.