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Eagle Squadron Skytrain by Mirumoto_Kenjiro

Eagle Squadron Skytrain

Mirumoto_Kenjiro

Shortly after the end of World War II in Europe, rather than returning home in a massive withdrawal of Allied troops, many American fighter pilots re-settled in England and applied to join the Royal Air Force, to be closer to the new Iron Curtain and the fronts of the Cold War against the Soviet Union. Unable to handle the influx of new recruits, the British government negotiated the reestablishment of the Eagle Squadrons as a private agency, rather than a branch of the RAF. Lead by veterans of the original squadrons, the Eagles formed into an impressive fighting force.

The Eagle Squadron’s first deployment was to the Sinai Peninsula shortly after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, to assist with an Anglo-French alliance to apply a buffer zone between Egyptian & Israeli Forces, but its first combat contract came to support British forces in the Malayan Emergency. They returned to the Middle East in the early 1950s as relations between Britain & Egypt further deteriorated, which the latter began arming itself with Soviet weapons and making steps to nationalize the Suez Canal & restrict international shipping. The Anglo-French alliance had over time withdrew much of their forces, but the Eagles were to remain until the last of British troops departed. Things changed drastically in 1955, when an armed group attacked one of the Eagle Squadron bases and killed two ground crewmen, and this became the incentive for the Anglo-French to return in force, with the Eagles, already based and with a personal vengeance, launched immediate attacks against Egyptian targets. Despite Egyptian attempts to gain a political advantage from the conflict, the Eagles and their allies made quick work of the enemy aircraft & ground positions, leaving British & French virtually unopposed as they gain control the eastern banks of the Suez Canal and its crossings.

Now, in the later 1950s, the entire Sinai Peninsula from the Suez to Gaza and the southern Israeli border remains in Anglo-French control, securing international shipping through the canal against attacks from Soviet-supported Egyptian forces. The Eagle Squadron set up a permanent headquarters, protecting the canal in skirmishes against Egyptian & some Communist-bloc pilots in disguises, and offering their services abroad to British & French interests.

The Douglas C-47 Skytrain became the company's premier logistical warhorse, serving in combat over the Sinai, Algeria, & Malaysia. They're even the favorites of British & French paratroopers who would need them when their own planes weren't available in a pinch.

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