Eagle Squadrons Memorial, War memorial in Grosvenor Square, City of Westminster, United Kingdom
The Eagle Squadrons Memorial is a war memorial in Grosvenor Square, London, made up of a white Portland stone obelisk topped by a bronze eagle. The four sides of the stone are carved with the names of the pilots who served in these RAF squadrons, along with each unit's crest.
The memorial honors pilots who flew with three RAF squadrons formed between 1940 and 1942, at a time when the United States had not yet entered the war. When America joined the conflict, the squadrons were folded into the US Army Air Forces, and the memorial was later built to keep their service on record.
The bronze eagle on the memorial was made by British sculptor Elisabeth Frink and shows an American eagle with a painted white head. Each face of the stone column carries a different squadron's crest, giving visitors a sense of the distinct groups that came together under the RAF.
The memorial sits in the center of Grosvenor Square and is easy to reach on foot from the surrounding streets. Walking around all four sides of the obelisk is the best way to read the carved names and squadron crests in full.
Many of the pilots named on the stone were civilian volunteers from the United States who crossed the border into Canada to enlist, bypassing a US law that would have cost them their citizenship. A total of 71 names of those who died in service are listed, giving the stone a deeply personal character beyond its role as a public monument.
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