18. Love and its consequences

Until the end of his life he kept a vivid and grateful memory about Poland. He maintained intense ties with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 1920s and 1930s. This is also evidenced by his memories published in 1922 in Chicago – “Faunt-leRoy and his squadron in Poland. History of Kosciuszko’s Squadron.” The book was published in Poland in the same year and became a bestseller. Cooper took care of comrades-in-arms of the aggrieved party in war operations, supported fundraisers in the US for the Ignacy Jan Paderewski’s handicapped fund. When in September 1939, Germans and the Soviets invaded Poland, Cooper organized a concert, from which the income was sent to the country. He was keenly interested in the fate of the exiles from Poland who came to the United States and organized help for them. Polish aviators fighting during the Battle of Britain were unbelievably popular, they received hundreds of letters. “But probably the nicest were the letters from two American founders of the Kosciuszko’s Squadron. That is why the letters from Merian Cooper and Cedric Fauntleroy were carefully pasted into the squadron chronicle. When, in March 1941, Cooper visited the squadron he created, Zumbach, Ferić and others were happy like schoolboys. “Cooper was especially proud of the Fighter Kosciuszko’s Squadron and his participation in the battles with “pains”. Young airmen greeted him with a shout: “Glory to the heroes”, the same one that was used to farewell to his comrades when he left Poland in 1921.