Cuban pilots in France

[Barrett]

Wikipedia states that Cuban pilots (plural) served in the Lafayette Escadrille but provides no names, of course. Apparently it's yet another frabup between N.124 and the LFC. Anybody know if Cubans actually did fly for France?

Cuba - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[gilles]

Hello!

The only Cuban pilot I know is Francisco Terry, born 18 december 1880 at Cienfuegos, but living in Paris.
He enlisted in Légion Etrangčre in august 1914, then became pilot in esc. MF50, N12 and for Mission Roumaine (Rumania).

Gilles

[Barrett]

Thanks Gilles; I may amend the Wiki entry.

[Froggy]

Bonsoir

Another Cuban fighter :Garcia Santiago Campuzano born in 25/07/1891 at La havane
Was affected at escadrille 64 and was a Caudron Pilot

Cordialement
Bruno

[Der Grüne Flieger]

Barrett,

I've got a know-it-all Cuban father-in-law who made in out of the country literally two weeks before Fidel closed the borders. I'll ask him for you.

Phil

[Larry Daley]

Captain Francisco Terry Sanchez and Lieutenant Santiago Campuzano are inferred to have flown against the Germans in WW I at site:

"In August 1918, Captain Terry who saw combat duty with the Lafayette Escadrille was to command Squadron 1, formed by 10 pilots and 20 mechanics and Lieutenant Santiago Campuzano was to be in charge of Squadron 2."

Air Force History

The first use of war planes inside Cuba was during the supression of the anti-Machado landing in August 1931. Three planes were forced down,

[Larry Daley]

Gilles and Froggy:

Ccould you be so kind as to give formal citations to the material you so kindly provided?

It would be much appreciated

Larry

[gilles]

Hello Larry Daley,

You can find primary documents on Aeronautique personels at memoire des hommes.
As they say, "this base may not be completed", indeed it's not. But Terry got three files there (with the first names Francien (??), Francisco and François) and Campuzano one



Forumite Dario Silva has researched extensively people from Latin America. Maybe he knows more about Terry, Campuzano or other Cubans.

Gilles

[Froggy]

Hello Larry

And for Campuzano, same source as Gilles





Cordialement
Bruno

[Larry Daley]

Froggy and Bruno:

Wow! Thanks that is most useful. Will use cites, and sources.

In my view, the small Cuban War of 1917, in which grandfather, Calixto (Garcia-In~iguez) Enamorado led a column of volunteer "Conservador cavalry," is part of periphery of WW I. Thus this war called the "Chambelona" was one of the few actions of the "Great War" on land in the Western Hemisphere, the small scale of these Cuban events are lost in the massive bloody horror of those times.

In one of the ironies of history, most Cuban historians of the time were allied to the losing Liberales and commonly regard this small war, often called La Chambelona, as a separate entity. Yet when one reads the newspapers of the time one can see that it was commonly viewed it as such, and the Cuban Conservador Government of Mario G. Menocals did declare war on Germany. Grand Uncle Carlos Garcia Velez, then Cuban Ambassador at the Court of Saint James, was instrumental in shipping massive amounts of sugar past the U-boats to supply England ...

Uncle Henry Whitmarsh, US artillery was there in France, unfortunately although US Archives can confirm this, the bulk of his records were lost in a fire. Uncle Henry was a grandson of famous Cuban General of the Cuban Wars of Independence, Calixto Garcia ...

Pertinent notes from my manuscript in progress "Narrations of War in Cuba:"

"Henry is grandson of Grandfather’s father with another woman, legitimate wife Isabel Velez Cabrera. He gets his last name from David Whitmarsh an American Royal Court dentist in Madrid. His mother was the protagonist of a poem by José Martí “A Leonor Garcia Velez. ”

"Uncle Henry certainly is also an old war dog. He was with the U.S. artillery at Clermont Ferrand, Château Thierre (began June 3, 1918), Mont Blanc and Argonne and some other sacred places of bloody battle; there the thunder of the heavy guns of the great war, WW I, made him deaf. "

citations are in manuscript

Larry Daley