Lwów Eaglets is a term of affection that is applied to the Polish child soldiers who defended the city of Lwów, in Eastern Galicia, during the Polish-Ukrainian War (1918–1919).
Lwów Eaglets; Defenders of the Cemetery, painting by Wojciech Kossak, 1926, oil on canvas, 90 x 120 cm, Polish Army Museum, Warsaw
Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów
Children in the military, including state armed forces, non-state armed groups, and other military organizations, may be trained for combat, assigned to support roles, such as cooks, porters/couriers, or messengers, or used for tactical advantage such as for human shields, or for political advantage in propaganda. Children have been recruited for participation in military operations and campaigns throughout history and in many cultures.
Child Soldier in the Ivory Coast, Gilbert G. Groud, 2007
Elementary school students in Imperial Japan were given military drills, May 1942
Children of the Omo Valley in Ethiopia
A group of demobilized child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo