In 1942, the German army was at the gates of Moscow and General De Gaulle decided to create a unit of the FAFL (Free French Air Force) to fight on the Eastern Front. After leaving Scotland in August 1942, the first pilots were regrouping at the Rayak base in Lebanon and in Tehran. On November 29, 1942, the first 14 pilots and their thirty French mechanics arrived at the Ivanovo base, 250 km northeast of Moscow, and took the baptismal name of Fighter Group No. 3 "Normandy". In July 1943, Soviet mechanics replaced the French mechanics. In 1944, the pilots took part in supporting the crossing of the Niemen River by Soviet troops and on July 21, 1944, by decision of Marshal Joseph Stalin, the group took the name of fighter regiment "Normandie-Niémen".
Equipped with Soviet Yak-9 fighter planes, the three squadrons of the unit ("Rouen", "Le Havre" and "Cherbourg") carried out more than 5,000 missions in Germany and the USSR, fought more than 800 air battles and won 273 victories. These feats of arms earned the regiment the title of "Companion of the Liberation" by General De Gaulle.
On the occasion of the regiment's final return to France, Marshal Stalin donated 41 Yak-3 fighter planes to the unit.
On June 20, 1945, after several stopovers in Germany and France, a parade at Le Bourget airport marked this definitive return. This ceremony, presided over by Charles Tillon, Minister of Air, took place in the presence of a very large crowd. Also present: Mr. Bogomolov, USSR Ambassador to France, Army General Georges Catroux, French Ambassador to Moscow, Air Force General René Bouscat, Inspector General of the Air Force, General Martial Valin, Chief of the Air Force General Staff, Army Corps General Pierre-Marie Koenig, Military Governor of Paris, Colonel Pierre Pouyade, former commander of the "Normandie-Niemen" regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Louis Delfino, his successor, and the regiment's French and Soviet pilots and mechanics. The event was widely covered by the radio press in particular.
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