Illegal Eagles

December 9, 2006 2:57 PM

It's war, and young American illegally men head to Canada. From Canada they are off to join the RAF and fight the Nazis in the Battle of Britain. The U.S. had passed a series of laws during the 1930’s to keep the country from getting embroiled in the growing turmoil in Europe and Asia.... The Neutrality Acts were structured to keep the U.S. out of a possible European war. This, in effect, made it illegal for recruiters to hire Americans to go to Canada or England for enlistment purposes, or for U.S. citizens to volunteer for military service in England.... Violators of the U. S. Neutrality Acts could face stiff penalties of up to $20,000 in fines, ten years in prison, and loss of citizenship. Some F.B.I. agents were assigned to track down these evildoers, but it doesn’t appear they had much success. They became the Eagle Squadrons. A similar group, the Flying Tigers, headed to China to fight the Japanese, this one apparently with some clandestine US government sponsorship, despite the neutrality laws. Brave, effective and colorful as described in this interview.
posted by caddis (16 comments total)

I hearby place you under citizen's arrest for being a man illegally.
posted by Hildegarde at 3:16 PM on December 9, 2006

And having an illegally men head.
posted by strawberryviagra at 3:17 PM on December 9, 2006

No, only young illegally men head.
posted by parki at 3:22 PM on December 9, 2006

heh, looks like caddis has some explaining to do.
posted by j-urb at 3:25 PM on December 9, 2006

what does it mean to 'men head?'
posted by j-urb at 3:27 PM on December 9, 2006

Men head?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 3:34 PM on December 9, 2006

apologies for my dyslexic link title
posted by caddis at 3:48 PM on December 9, 2006

Man, when I think of how nuts my government is today, I can take comfort in the fact that it always has been. I wonder how hard the FBI actually tried to stop those lawbreakers?

FWIW, caddis, I didn't the notice dyslexia.
posted by zennie at 4:06 PM on December 9, 2006

My men head asplode.
posted by The Deej at 4:11 PM on December 9, 2006

Great post, though, caddis. I've just been enjoying a bit of the excerpt from the mentioned book.
posted by weston at 4:13 PM on December 9, 2006

Just last week, my father (now 84) was telling me of packing his bags when he was 16 or 17 and joining a friend headed to Canada for this very effort. He didn't make it through, but his friend became one of The Few and died in the effort. Thank you -- I'm going to get the book for him for Christmas.
posted by ltracey at 4:46 PM on December 9, 2006

It's only illegal in some states to give for men head. Not that theres wrong anything with that.
posted by Effigy2000 at 6:28 PM on December 9, 2006

This, of course, happened during the First World War too. Americans served either directly in the armies involved or in the French Foreign Legion. Sorry, no links, but I'm currently re-reading The First World War by Martin Gilbert. Good book, and recommended together with the Pulitzer-prize winning The Guns of August.
posted by Harald74 at 2:36 AM on December 10, 2006

How about the Lincoln brigade?
posted by Pollomacho at 4:53 PM on December 10, 2006

Yes, it happened in WWI, and in Spain, among others, but the Eagles and the Tigers took a much greater risk (other than that whole risking one's life thing of course) they risked their citizenship. Luckily for them, politics went their way and no one would have denied them citizenship, much less hero status, once the US was in the war.
posted by caddis at 9:07 PM on December 10, 2006

Great post, dyslexia or not. A fascinating subject that I had never heard anything about before, which is what makes the best MetaFilter posts, for me any way.
posted by antifuse at 2:50 AM on December 11, 2006