| dc.description.abstract | On September 3, 1938, after England and France declared war on Germany, President Franklin D. Roosevelt perceived the Nazis as a serious threat to the United States. In an attempt to structure a hemispheric defense, Roosevelt sought to develop a joint military alliance with Mexico. Six months after Germany overran France on June 22, 1940, Mexico joined the coalition. In May 1942, Nazi submarines sank two Mexican tankers, and Mexico declared war against the Axis powers. Soon thereafter, President Manuel Avila Camacho offered, unofficially, to send Mexican troops to join with the United States in their war effort. The United States finally responded to his proposal in the spring of 1944 and Roosevelt offered the Mexican Air Force an opportunity to fight in the war with the United States. That spring, Mexico formed the Fuerza Aerea Expedicionaria Mexicana, a three-hundred man Air Force squadron, known later as Squadron 201. In July 1944, Squadron 201 came to the United States to train in P-40 and P-47 fighter planes. Initially stationed at Foster Field, Victoria, Texas, they trained at Pocatello Air Base, and Majors Field, Greenville, Texas. Accidents took the lives of two pilots in Texas. On March 18, 1945, they shipped out of Majors Field for the Philippine Islands, arriving there on April 30. Squadron 201 flew fifty-nine combat missions from Porac and Clark Fields on the island of Luzon against Japanese positions until the war ended in August 1945. Five 201 pilots died in the Philippines. One was shot down by enemy antiaircraft fire; one died in a crash, and three ran out of fuel, crashed and died at sea after being lost in bad weather. Returning home to Mexico on November 18, 1945, President Avila Camacho and a proud nation gave Squadron 201 a tumultuous welcome. Thirteen days later, Camacho terminated and mustered out the Fuerza Aerea Expedicionaria Mexicana. No other Latin American country, except Brazil, stood with the Allied nations whose citizens gave their lives for the cause of liberty. Members of Squadron 201 are the only veterans of foreign wars in the history of Mexico. | |
