Yankee Squadron The Yankee Squadron was a group of mercenary American military aviator s who flew for the Spanish Republican Air Force , during the Spanish Civil War . History . In November 1936 , representatives of the Spanish Republic ( Spanish Republicans , or Loyalists ) began a campaign to hire American pilots to fight in the Spanish Civil War . They used a New York lawyer to find American pilots . " Time " magazine reported on December 21 , 1936 that six U . S . fliers were on the ocean liner " SS Normandie " , headed for Spain , to join their leader , Bert Acosta . They were to be paid $ 1 , 500 a month , plus $ 1 , 000 for each " White " plane destroyed . " Time " reported that the six men were : " [ h ] ilariously celebrating in the ship ' s bar of the " Normandie " with their first advance pay checks from Spain ' s Radical Government . . . en route last week for Madrid to join Bert Acosta , pilot of Admiral Byrd ' s transatlantic flight , in doing battle against Generalissimo Francisco Franco ' s White planes . " British and French pilots were given two weeks of training , but the Americans were expected to fly as soon as they arrived . Another American flyer , Hilaire du Berrier , was already in Spain by time they arrived . Frederic Ives Lord became their squadron commander , and he tried to convince the Loyalist authorities that the planes they were given were too dilapidated to fly . When the commandant insisted that the planes were safe , Lord took him up for a test flight , and at two thousand feet up one of the four wings broke off . The commandant motioned Lord to climb higher so they could escape by using their parachutes . Lord wanted to try to land with the remaining lower wings intact . He landed the plane safely but he was arrested and was going to be shot . The airplane mechanics intervened and explained that his loss of the wing was accidental , not intentional . Things became so difficult and dangerous for the Americans that each time one of them landed they pulled out their pistols in case someone was coming to arrest them . They went to Valencia , Spain to complain to the air ministry , but the ministry was only interested in reading to the flyers the reports on Bertrand Blanchard Acosta and his heavy drinking . Berry , Lord , Acosta and Schneider decided it was time to demobilize and return to the United States . Acosta , Schneider and Lord planned to escape from Bilbao to Biarritz , France by motorboat after they had been refused a promised Christmas leave . Their plan was discovered and the pilot of their boat was arrested and executed . The pilots were then jailed for 18 hours . Return to United States . Four of them resigned and returned to the United States in January . The Associated Press reported that " the flyers protested they were given nothing but unarmed sports planes with which to fight , while Russian pilots were assigned " regular American army planes . " The Spanish Air Force had no US - built planes ; the main fighters used by the Republicans during the war were the Soviet - built Polikarpov I - 15 and I - 16 . The latter was often mistaken for the Boeing P - 26 , but was not related to it . The flyers said both the socialist and fascist air forces in Spain were staffed almost entirely by foreigners . The fliers later told the " Washington Post " that they had quit because " ' it would be suicide to continue ' and because their actions ' might not be in tune with the spirit of neutrality ' . . . While other airmen – British and French – were afforded a two - week courtesy for training , American fliers were just shown to loyalist hangars , given a plane and ordered to do their stuff . ' We were flying old crates , ' Acosta said , ' while other nationalists were given modern ships . But for the protection afforded us by Soviet pursuit planes we would not be alive now to tell you this tale . ' " Eddie August Schneider explained his motives in flying for the Republic : " I was broke , hungry , jobless . . . yet despite the fact that all three of us are old - time aviators who did our part for the development of the industry , we were left out in the cold in the Administration ’ s program of job making . Can you blame us for accepting the lucrative Spanish offer ? " The flyers had their passports confiscated , and they were to be returned when they attested that they had never withdrawn their allegiance to the United States . The flyers claimed that they were not paid what was promised them by the Spanish government . Acosta and Berry started legal proceedings against the Spanish steamship " Mar Cantabrico " to try to collect the back pay that was due each of them . The consul general for the Spanish government , Luis Careaga , arrived in the US and paid some of the money , and declared that they were now paid in full . Their lawyer , Lewis Landes , claimed Acosta and Berry were still owed $ 1 , 500 and Schneider $ 1 , 200 .