The Patrouille de Cognac
was created on May 28, 1940 to protect Warehouse 302, with a planned
endowment of 4 Morane 406. On June 1, five Polish pilots were
detached from Lyon to join this new unit. They arrive on a base
where no one is notified of their arrival ... Base Command will
need a week of exchange with the Air Force Staff to accept these
new pilots In the meantime, they are busy digging trenches or
other "practical" tasks.
Although the Polish pilots
are experienced, with some for war missions in Poland to their
credit, the base commander sends them ... in training in Bordeaux.
Given their experience, this training will result in an hour flight
on Dewoitine D501 and they will soon return to Cognac. On the
base, still without aircrafts, they will continue to dig trenches
with the reinforcement of two new pilots arrived on June 13th.
It was not until June 15
that five Bloch152s, two of them unavailable, arrived at the Patrol.
From June 15 to 19, the pilots are divided into two groups to
ensure the alerts. Some takeoffs for interception take place,
but the alert arriving too late, the Patrol will never meet the
enemy.
On June 19th the pilots
are ordered to join England. The autonomy of Bloch 152 being too
weak, it is by car that they will join Bordeaux, then Biarritz
and finally Saint-Jean de luz to embark on a Polish Boat.
