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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Flying for France, by James R. McConnell
+
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+Title: Flying for France
+
+Author: James R. McConnell
+
+Release Date: November, 2004  [EBook #6977]
+[This file was first posted on February 19, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, FLYING FOR FRANCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Paul Hollander, Juliet Sutherland, Linton Dawe, Charles Franks
+
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+FLYING FOR FRANCE
+
+With the American Escadrille at Verdun
+
+
+
+
+BY
+
+JAMES R. McCONNELL
+
+Sergeant-Pilot in the French Flying Corps
+
+
+
+
+Illustrated from photographs through the kindness
+of Mr. Paul Rockwell
+
+
+
+
+To
+
+MRS. ALICE S. WEEKS
+
+Who having lost a splendid son in the French Army has given to a great
+number of us other Americans in the war the tender sympathy and help
+of a mother.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+Introduction
+ By F. C. P.
+
+CHAPTER
+
+  I. Verdun
+ II. From Verdun to the Somme
+III. Personal Letters from Sergeant McConnell
+ IV. How France Trains Pilot Aviators
+  V. Against Odds
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+James R. McConnell _Frontispiece_
+
+Some of the Americans Who are Flying for France
+
+Two Members of the American Escadrille, of the French Flying Service,
+Who Were Killed Flying For France
+
+"Whiskey." The Lion and Mascot of the American Flying Squadron in
+France
+
+Kiffin Rockwell, of Asheville, N.C., Who Was Killed in an Air Duel
+Over Verdun
+
+Sergeant Lufbery in one of the New Nieuports in Which He Convoyed the
+Bombardment Fleet Which Attacked Oberndorf
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+One day in January, 1915, I saw Jim McConnell in front of the Court
+House at Carthage, North Carolina. "Well," he said, "I'm all fixed up
+and am leaving on Wednesday." "Where for?" I asked. "I've got a job to
+drive an ambulance in France," was his answer.
+
+And then he went on to tell me, first, that as he saw it the greatest
+event in history was going on right at hand and that he would be
+missing the opportunity of a lifetime if he did not see it. "These
+Sand Hills," he said "will be here forever, but the war won't; and so
+I'm going." Then, as an afterthought, he added: "And I'll be of some
+use, too, not just a sight-seer looking on; that wouldn't be fair."
+
+So he went. He joined the American ambulance service in the Vosges,
+was mentioned more than once in the orders of the day for conspicuous
+bravery in saving wounded under fire, and received the much-coveted
+Croix de Guerre.
+
+Meanwhile, he wrote interesting letters home. And his point of view
+changed, even as does the point of view of all Americans who visit
+Europe. From the attitude of an adventurous spirit anxious to see the
+excitement, his letters showed a new belief that any one who goes to
+France and is not able and willing to do more than his share--to give
+everything in him toward helping the wounded and suffering--has no
+business there.
+
+And as time went on, still a new note crept into his letters; the
+first admiration for France was strengthened and almost replaced by a
+new feeling--a profound conviction that France and the French people
+were fighting the fight of liberty against enormous odds. The new
+spirit of France--the spirit of the "Marseillaise," strengthened by a
+grim determination and absolute certainty of being right--pervades
+every line he writes. So he gave up the ambulance service and enlisted
+in the French flying corps along with an ever-increasing number of
+other Americans.
+
+The spirit which pervades them is something above the spirit of
+adventure that draws many to war; it is the spirit of a man who has
+found an inspiring duty toward the advancement of liberty and humanity
+and is glad and proud to contribute what he can.
+
+His last letters bring out a new point--the assurance of victory of a
+just cause. "Of late," he writes, "things are much brighter and one
+can feel a certain elation in the air. Victory, before, was a sort of
+academic certainty; now, it is felt."
+
+F. C. P.
+
+November 10, 1916.
+
+
+
+
+FLYING FOR FRANCE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+VERDUN
+
+
+Beneath the canvas of a huge hangar mechanicians are at work on the
+motor of an airplane. Outside, on the borders of an aviation field,
+others loiter awaiting their aerial charge's return from the sky. Near
+the hangar stands a hut-shaped tent. In front of it several
+short-winged biplanes are lined up; inside it three or four young men
+are lolling in wicker chairs.
+
+They wear the uniform of French army aviators. These uniforms, and the
+grim-looking machine guns mounted on the upper planes of the little
+aircraft, are the only warlike note in a pleasantly peaceful scene.
+The war seems very remote. It is hard to believe that the greatest of
+all battles--Verdun--rages only twenty-five miles to the north, and
+that the field and hangars and mechanicians and aviators and airplanes
+are all playing a part therein.
+
+Suddenly there is the distant hum of a motor. One of the pilots
+emerges from the tent and gazes fixedly up into the blue sky. He
+points, and one glimpses a black speck against the blue, high
+overhead. The sound of the motor ceases, and the speck grows larger.
+It moves earthward in steep dives and circles, and as it swoops
+closer, takes on the shape of an airplane. Now one can make out the
+red, white, and blue circles under the wings which mark a French
+war-plane, and the distinctive insignia of the pilot on its sides.
+
+"_Ton patron arrive!_" one mechanician cries to another. "Your boss is
+coming!"
+
+The machine dips sharply over the top of a hangar, straightens out
+again near the earth at a dizzy speed a few feet above it and, losing
+momentum in a surprisingly short time, hits the ground with tail and
+wheels. It bumps along a score of yards and then, its motor whirring
+again, turns, rolls toward the hangar, and stops. A human form,
+enveloped in a species of garment for all the world like a diver's
+suit, and further adorned with goggles and a leather hood, rises
+unsteadily in the cockpit, clambers awkwardly overboard and slides
+down to terra firma.
+
+A group of soldiers, enjoying a brief holiday from the trenches in a
+cantonment near the field, straggle forward and gather timidly about
+the airplane, listening open-mouthed for what its rider is about to
+say.
+
+"Hell!" mumbles that gentleman, as he starts divesting himself of his
+flying garb.
+
+"What's wrong now?" inquires one of the tenants of the tent.
+
+"Everything, or else I've gone nutty," is the indignant reply,
+delivered while disengaging a leg from its Teddy Bear trousering.
+"Why, I emptied my whole roller on a Boche this morning, point blank
+at not fifteen metres off. His machine gun quit firing and his
+propeller wasn't turning and yet the darn fool just hung up there as
+if he were tied to a cloud. Say, I was so sure I had him it made me
+sore--felt like running into him and yelling, 'Now, you fall, you
+bum!'"
+
+The eyes of the _poilus_ register surprise. Not a word of this
+dialogue, delivered in purest American, is intelligible to them. Why
+is an aviator in a French uniform speaking a foreign tongue, they
+mutually ask themselves. Finally one of them, a little chap in a
+uniform long since bleached of its horizon-blue colour by the mud of
+the firing line, whisperingly interrogates a mechanician as to the
+identity of these strange air folk.
+
+"But they are the Americans, my old one," the latter explains with
+noticeable condescension.
+
+Marvelling afresh, the infantrymen demand further details. They learn
+that they are witnessing the return of the American Escadrille--composed
+of Americans who have volunteered to fly for France for the duration
+of the war--to their station near Bar-le-Duc, twenty-five miles south
+of Verdun, from a flight over the battle front of the Meuse. They have
+barely had time to digest this knowledge when other dots appear in the
+sky, and one by one turn into airplanes as they wheel downward.
+Finally all six of the machines that have been aloft are back on the
+ground and the American Escadrille has one more sortie over the German
+lines to its credit.
+
+
+PERSONNEL OF THE ESCADRILLE
+
+Like all worth-while institutions, the American Escadrille, of which I
+have the honour of being a member, was of gradual growth. When the war
+began, it is doubtful whether anybody anywhere envisaged the
+possibility of an American entering the French aviation service. Yet,
+by the fall of 1915, scarcely more than a year later, there were six
+Americans serving as full-fledged pilots, and now, in the summer of
+1916, the list numbers fifteen or more, with twice that number
+training for their pilot's license in the military aviation schools.
+
+The pioneer of them all was William Thaw, of Pittsburg, who is to-day
+the only American holding a commission in the French flying corps.
+Lieutenant Thaw, a flyer of considerable reputation in America before
+the war, had enlisted in the Foreign Legion in August, 1914. With
+considerable difficulty he had himself transferred, in the early part
+of 1915, into aviation, and the autumn of that year found him piloting
+a Caudron biplane, and doing excellent observation work. At the same
+time, Sergeants Norman Prince, of Boston, and Elliot Cowdin, of New
+York--who were the first to enter the aviation service coming directly
+from the United States--were at the front on Voisin planes with a
+cannon mounted in the bow.
+
+Sergeant Bert Hall, who signs from the Lone Star State and had got
+himself shifted from the Foreign Legion to aviation soon after Thaw,
+was flying a Nieuport fighting machine, and, a little later,
+instructing less-advanced students of the air in the Avord Training
+School. His particular chum in the Foreign Legion, James Bach, who
+also had become an aviator, had the distressing distinction soon after
+he reached the front of becoming the first American to fall into the
+hands of the enemy. Going to the assistance of a companion who had
+broken down in landing a spy in the German lines, Bach smashed his
+machine against a tree. Both he and his French comrade were captured,
+and Bach was twice court-martialed by the Germans on suspicion of
+being an American _franc-tireur_--the penalty for which is death! He
+was acquitted but of course still languishes in a prison camp
+"somewhere in Germany." The sixth of the original sextet was Adjutant
+Didier Masson, who did exhibition flying in the States until--Carranza
+having grown ambitious in Mexico--he turned his talents to spotting
+_los Federales_ for General Obregon. When the real war broke out,
+Masson answered the call of his French blood and was soon flying and
+fighting for the land of his ancestors.
+
+Of the other members of the escadrille Sergeant Givas Lufbery,
+American citizen and soldier, but dweller in the world at large, was
+among the earliest to wear the French airman's wings. Exhibition work
+with a French pilot in the Far East prepared him efficiently for the
+task of patiently unloading explosives on to German military centres
+from a slow-moving Voisin which was his first mount. Upon the heels
+of Lufbery came two more graduates of the Foreign Legion--Kiffin
+Rockwell, of Asheville, N.C., who had been wounded at Carency; Victor
+Chapman, of New York, who after recovering from his wounds became an
+airplane bomb-dropper and so caught the craving to become a pilot. At
+about this time one Paul Pavelka, whose birthplace was Madison, Conn.,
+and who from the age of fifteen had sailed the seven seas, managed to
+slip out of the Foreign Legion into aviation and joined the other
+Americans at Pau.
+
+There seems to be a fascination to aviation, particularly when it is
+coupled with fighting. Perhaps it's because the game is new, but more
+probably because as a rule nobody knows anything about it. Whatever be
+the reason, adventurous young Americans were attracted by it in
+rapidly increasing numbers. Many of them, of course, never got
+fascinated beyond the stage of talking about joining. Among the chaps
+serving with the American ambulance field sections a good many
+imaginations were stirred, and a few actually did enlist, when, toward
+the end of the summer of 1915, the Ministry of War, finding that the
+original American pilots had made good, grew more liberal in
+considering applications.
+
+Chouteau Johnson, of New York; Lawrence Rumsey, of Buffalo; Dudley
+Hill, of Peekskill, N.Y.; and Clyde Balsley, of El Paso; one after
+another doffed the ambulance driver's khaki for the horizon-blue of
+the French flying corps. All of them had seen plenty of action,
+collecting the wounded under fire, but they were all tired of being
+non-combatant spectators. More or less the same feeling actuated me,
+I suppose. I had come over from Carthage, N.C., in January, 1915, and
+worked with an American ambulance section in the Bois-le-Pretre. All
+along I had been convinced that the United States ought to aid in the
+struggle against Germany. With that conviction, it was plainly up to
+me to do more than drive an ambulance. The more I saw the splendour of
+the fight the French were fighting, the more I felt like an
+_embusque_--what the British call a "shirker." So I made up my mind to
+go into aviation.
+
+A special channel had been created for the reception of applications
+from Americans, and my own was favourably replied to within a few
+days. It took four days more to pass through all the various
+departments, sign one's name to a few hundred papers, and undergo the
+physical examinations. Then I was sent to the aviation depot at Dijon
+and fitted out with a uniform and personal equipment. The next stop
+was the school at Pau, where I was to be taught to fly. My elation at
+arriving there was second only to my satisfaction at being a French
+soldier. It was a vast improvement, I thought, in the American
+Ambulance.
+
+Talk about forming an all-American flying unit, or escadrille, was
+rife while I was at Pau. What with the pilots already breveted, and
+the eleves, or pupils in the training-schools, there were quite enough
+of our compatriots to man the dozen airplanes in one escadrille. Every
+day somebody "had it absolutely straight" that we were to become a
+unit at the front, and every other day the report turned out to be
+untrue. But at last, in the month of February, our dream came true. We
+learned that a captain had actually been assigned to command an
+American escadrille and that the Americans at the front had been
+recalled and placed under his orders. Soon afterward we eleves got
+another delightful thrill.
+
+
+THREE TYPES OF FRENCH AIR SERVICE
+
+Thaw, Prince, Cowdin, and the other veterans were training on the
+Nieuport! That meant the American Escadrille was to fly the
+Nieuport--the best type of _avion de chasse_--and hence would be a
+fighting unit. It is necessary to explain parenthetically here that
+French military aviation, generally speaking, is divided into three
+groups--the _avions de chasse_ or airplanes of pursuit, which are used
+to hunt down enemy aircraft or to fight them off; _avions de
+bombardement_, big, unwieldy monsters for use in bombarding raids; and
+_avions de reglage_, cumbersome creatures designed to regulate
+artillery fire, take photographs, and do scout duty. The Nieuport is
+the smallest, fastest-rising, fastest-moving biplane in the French
+service. It can travel 110 miles an hour, and is a one-man apparatus
+with a machine gun mounted on its roof and fired by the pilot with one
+hand while with the other and his feet he operates his controls. The
+French call their Nieuport pilots the "aces" of the air. No wonder we
+were tickled to be included in that august brotherhood!
+
+Before the American Escadrille became an established fact, Thaw and
+Cowdin, who had mastered the Nieuport, managed to be sent to the
+Verdun front. While there Cowdin was credited with having brought down
+a German machine and was proposed for the _Medaille Militaire_, the
+highest decoration that can be awarded a non-commissioned officer or
+private.
+
+After completing his training, receiving his military pilot's brevet,
+and being perfected on the type of plane he is to use at the front, an
+aviator is ordered to the reserve headquarters near Paris to await his
+call. Kiffin Rockwell and Victor Chapman had been there for months,
+and I had just arrived, when on the 16th of April orders came for the
+Americans to join their escadrille at Luxeuil, in the Vosges.
+
+The rush was breathless! Never were flying clothes and fur coats drawn
+from the quartermaster, belongings packed, and red tape in the various
+administrative bureaux unfurled, with such headlong haste. In a few
+hours we were aboard the train, panting, but happy. Our party
+consisted of Sergeant Prince, and Rockwell, Chapman, and myself, who
+were only corporals at that time. We were joined at Luxeuil by
+Lieutenant Thaw and Sergeants Hall and Cowdin.
+
+For the veterans our arrival at the front was devoid of excitement;
+for the three neophytes--Rockwell, Chapman, and myself--it was the
+beginning of a new existence, the entry into an unknown world. Of
+course Rockwell and Chapman had seen plenty of warfare on the ground,
+but warfare in the air was as novel to them as to me. For us all it
+contained unlimited possibilities for initiative and service to
+France, and for them it must have meant, too, the restoration of
+personality lost during those months in the trenches with the Foreign
+Legion. Rockwell summed it up characteristically.
+
+"Well, we're off for the races," he remarked.
+
+
+PILOT LIFE AT THE FRONT
+
+There is a considerable change in the life of a pilot when he arrives
+on the front. During the training period he is subject to rules and
+regulations as stringent as those of the barracks. But once assigned
+to duty over the firing line he receives the treatment accorded an
+officer, no matter what his grade. Save when he is flying or on guard,
+his time is his own. There are no roll calls or other military
+frills, and in place of the bunk he slept upon as an eleve, he finds a
+regular bed in a room to himself, and the services of an orderly. Even
+men of higher rank who although connected with his escadrille are not
+pilots, treat him with respect. His two mechanicians are under his
+orders. Being volunteers, we Americans are shown more than the
+ordinary consideration by the ever-generous French Government, which
+sees to it that we have the best of everything.
+
+On our arrival at Luxeuil we were met by Captain Thenault, the French
+commander of the American Escadrille--officially known as No. 124, by
+the way--and motored to the aviation field in one of the staff cars
+assigned to us. I enjoyed that ride. Lolling back against the soft
+leather cushions, I recalled how in my apprenticeship days at Pau I
+had had to walk six miles for my laundry.
+
+The equipment awaiting us at the field was even more impressive than
+our automobile. Everything was brand new, from the fifteen Fiat trucks
+to the office, magazine, and rest tents. And the men attached to the
+escadrille! At first sight they seemed to outnumber the Nicaraguan
+army--mechanicians, chauffeurs, armourers, motorcyclists,
+telephonists, wireless operators, Red Cross stretcher bearers, clerks!
+Afterward I learned they totalled seventy-odd, and that all of them
+were glad to be connected with the American Escadrille.
+
+In their hangars stood our trim little Nieuports. I looked mine over
+with a new feeling of importance and gave orders to my mechanicians
+for the mere satisfaction of being able to. To find oneself the sole
+proprietor of a fighting airplane is quite a treat, let me tell you.
+One gets accustomed to it, though, after one has used up two or three
+of them--at the French Government's expense.
+
+Rooms were assigned to us in a villa adjoining the famous hot baths of
+Luxeuil, where Caesar's cohorts were wont to besport themselves. We
+messed with our officers, Captain Thenault and Lieutenant de Laage de
+Mieux, at the best hotel in town. An automobile was always on hand to
+carry us to the field. I began to wonder whether I was a summer
+resorter instead of a soldier.
+
+Among the pilots who had welcomed us with open arms, we discovered the
+famous Captain Happe, commander of the Luxeuil bombardment group. The
+doughty bomb-dispenser, upon whose head the Germans have set a price,
+was in his quarters. After we had been introduced, he pointed to eight
+little boxes arranged on a table.
+
+"They contain _Croix de Guerre_ for the families of the men I lost on
+my last trip," he explained, and he added: "It's a good thing you're
+here to go along with us for protection. There are lots of Boches in
+this sector."
+
+I thought of the luxury we were enjoying: our comfortable beds, baths,
+and motor cars, and then I recalled the ancient custom of giving a man
+selected for the sacrifice a royal time of it before the appointed
+day.
+
+To acquaint us with the few places where a safe landing was possible
+we were motored through the Vosges Mountains and on into Alsace. It
+was a delightful opportunity to see that glorious countryside, and we
+appreciated it the more because we knew its charm would be lost when
+we surveyed it from the sky. From the air the ground presents no
+scenic effects. The ravishing beauty of the Val d'Ajol, the steep
+mountain sides bristling with a solid mass of giant pines, the myriads
+of glittering cascades tumbling downward through fairylike avenues of
+verdure, the roaring, tossing torrent at the foot of the slope--all
+this loveliness, seen from an airplane at 12,000 feet, fades into flat
+splotches of green traced with a tiny ribbon of silver.
+
+The American Escadrille was sent to Luxeuil primarily to acquire the
+team work necessary to a flying unit. Then, too, the new pilots
+needed a taste of anti-aircraft artillery to familiarize them with the
+business of aviation over a battlefield. They shot well in that
+sector, too. Thaw's machine was hit at an altitude of 13,000 feet.
+
+
+THE ESCADRILLE'S FIRST SORTIE
+
+The memory of the first sortie we made as an escadrille will always
+remain fresh in my mind because it was also my first trip over the
+lines. We were to leave at six in the morning. Captain Thenault
+pointed out on his aerial map the route we were to follow. Never
+having flown over this region before, I was afraid of losing myself.
+Therefore, as it is easier to keep other airplanes in sight when one
+is above them, I began climbing as rapidly as possible, meaning to
+trail along in the wake of my companions. Unless one has had practice
+in flying in formation, however, it is hard to keep in contact. The
+diminutive _avions de chasse_ are the merest pinpoints against the
+great sweep of landscape below and the limitless heavens above. The
+air was misty and clouds were gathering. Ahead there seemed a barrier
+of them. Although as I looked down the ground showed plainly, in the
+distance everything was hazy. Forging up above the mist, at 7,000
+feet, I lost the others altogether. Even when they are not closely
+joined, the clouds, seen from immediately above, appear as a solid
+bank of white. The spaces between are indistinguishable. It is like
+being in an Arctic ice field.
+
+To the south I made out the Alps. Their glittering peaks projected up
+through the white sea about me like majestic icebergs. Not a single
+plane was visible anywhere, and I was growing very uncertain about my
+position. My splendid isolation had become oppressive, when, one by
+one, the others began bobbing up above the cloud level, and I had
+company again.
+
+We were over Belfort and headed for the trench lines. The cloud banks
+dropped behind, and below us we saw the smiling plain of Alsace
+stretching eastward to the Rhine. It was distinctly pleasurable,
+flying over this conquered land. Following the course of the canal
+that runs to the Rhine, I sighted, from a height of 13,000 feet over
+Dannemarie, a series of brown, woodworm-like tracings on the
+ground--the trenches!
+
+
+SHRAPNEL THAT COULDN'T BE HEARD
+
+My attention was drawn elsewhere almost immediately, however. Two
+balls of black smoke had suddenly appeared close to one of the
+machines ahead of me, and with the same disconcerting abruptness
+similar balls began to dot the sky above, below, and on all sides of
+us. We were being shot at with shrapnel. It was interesting to watch
+the flash of the bursting shells, and the attendant smoke
+puffs--black, white, or yellow, depending on the kind of shrapnel
+used. The roar of the motor drowned the noise of the explosions.
+Strangely enough, my feelings about it were wholly impersonal.
+
+We turned north after crossing the lines. Mulhouse seemed just below
+us, and I noted with a keen sense of satisfaction our invasion of real
+German territory. The Rhine, too, looked delightfully accessible. As
+we continued northward I distinguished the twin lakes of Gerardmer
+sparkling in their emerald setting. Where the lines crossed the
+Hartmannsweilerkopf there were little spurts of brown smoke as shells
+burst in the trenches. One could scarcely pick out the old city of
+Thann from among the numerous neighbouring villages, so tiny it seemed
+in the valley's mouth. I had never been higher than 7,000 feet and was
+unaccustomed to reading country from a great altitude. It was also
+bitterly cold, and even in my fur-lined combination I was shivering.
+I noticed, too, that I had to take long, deep breaths in the rarefied
+atmosphere. Looking downward at a certain angle, I saw what at first
+I took to be a round, shimmering pool of water. It was simply the
+effect of the sunlight on the congealing mist. We had been keeping an
+eye out for German machines since leaving our lines, but none had
+shown up. It wasn't surprising, for we were too many.
+
+Only four days later, however, Rockwell brought down the escadrille's
+first plane in his initial aerial combat. He was flying alone when,
+over Thann, he came upon a German on reconnaissance. He dived and the
+German turned toward his own lines, opening fire from a long distance.
+Rockwell kept straight after him. Then, closing to within thirty
+yards, he pressed on the release of his machine gun, and saw the enemy
+gunner fall backward and the pilot crumple up sideways in his seat.
+The plane flopped downward and crashed to earth just behind the German
+trenches. Swooping close to the ground Rockwell saw its debris burning
+away brightly. He had turned the trick with but four shots and only
+one German bullet had struck his Nieuport. An observation post
+telephoned the news before Rockwell's return, and he got a great
+welcome. All Luxeuil smiled upon him--particularly the girls. But he
+couldn't stay to enjoy his popularity. The escadrille was ordered to
+the sector of Verdun.
+
+While in a way we were sorry to leave Luxeuil, we naturally didn't
+regret the chance to take part in the aerial activity of the world's
+greatest battle. The night before our departure some German aircraft
+destroyed four of our tractors and killed six men with bombs, but even
+that caused little excitement compared with going to Verdun. We would
+get square with the Boches over Verdun, we thought--it is impossible
+to chase airplanes at night, so the raiders made a safe getaway.
+
+
+OFF TO VERDUN
+
+As soon as we pilots had left in our machines, the trucks and tractors
+set out in convoy, carrying the men and equipment. The Nieuports
+carried us to our new post in a little more than an hour. We stowed
+them away in the hangars and went to have a look at our sleeping
+quarters. A commodious villa half way between the town of Bar-le-Duc
+and the aviation field had been assigned to us, and comforts were as
+plentiful as at Luxeuil.
+
+Our really serious work had begun, however, and we knew it. Even as
+far behind the actual fighting as Bar-le-Duc one could sense one's
+proximity to a vast military operation. The endless convoys of motor
+trucks, the fast-flowing stream of troops, and the distressing number
+of ambulances brought realization of the near presence of a gigantic
+battle.
+
+Within a twenty-mile radius of the Verdun front aviation camps abound.
+Our escadrille was listed on the schedule with the other fighting
+units, each of which has its specified flying hours, rotating so there
+is always an _escadrille de chasse_ over the lines. A field wireless
+to enable us to keep track of the movements of enemy planes became
+part of our equipment.
+
+Lufbery joined us a few days after our arrival. He was followed by
+Johnson and Balsley, who had been on the air guard over Paris. Hill
+and Rumsey came next, and after them Masson and Pavelka. Nieuports
+were supplied them from the nearest depot, and as soon as they had
+mounted their instruments and machine guns, they were on the job with
+the rest of us. Fifteen Americans are or have been members of the
+American Escadrille, but there have never been so many as that on duty
+at any one time.
+
+
+BATTLES IN THE AIR
+
+Before we were fairly settled at Bar-le-Duc, Hall brought down a
+German observation craft and Thaw a Fokker. Fights occurred on almost
+every sortie. The Germans seldom cross into our territory, unless on a
+bombarding jaunt, and thus practically all the fighting takes place on
+their side of the line. Thaw dropped his Fokker in the morning, and on
+the afternoon of the same day there was a big combat far behind the
+German trenches. Thaw was wounded in the arm, and an explosive bullet
+detonating on Rockwell's wind-shield tore several gashes in his face.
+Despite the blood which was blinding him Rockwell managed to reach an
+aviation field and land. Thaw, whose wound bled profusely, landed in a
+dazed condition just within our lines. He was too weak to walk, and
+French soldiers carried him to a field dressing-station, whence he was
+sent to Paris for further treatment. Rockwell's wounds were less
+serious and he insisted on flying again almost immediately.
+
+A week or so later Chapman was wounded. Considering the number of
+fights he had been in and the courage with which he attacked it was a
+miracle he had not been hit before. He always fought against odds and
+far within the enemy's country. He flew more than any of us, never
+missing an opportunity to go up, and never coming down until his
+gasolene was giving out. His machine was a sieve of patched-up bullet
+holes. His nerve was almost superhuman and his devotion to the cause
+for which he fought sublime. The day he was wounded he attacked four
+machines. Swooping down from behind, one of them, a Fokker, riddled
+Chapman's plane. One bullet cut deep into his scalp, but Chapman, a
+master pilot, escaped from the trap, and fired several shots to show
+he was still safe. A stability control had been severed by a bullet.
+Chapman held the broken rod in one hand, managed his machine with the
+other, and succeeded in landing on a near-by aviation field. His wound
+was dressed, his machine repaired, and he immediately took the air in
+pursuit of some more enemies. He would take no rest, and with bandaged
+head continued to fly and fight.
+
+The escadrille's next serious encounter with the foe took place a few
+days later. Rockwell, Balsley, Prince, and Captain Thenault were
+surrounded by a large number of Germans, who, circling about them,
+commenced firing at long range. Realizing their numerical inferiority,
+the Americans and their commander sought the safest way out by
+attacking the enemy machines nearest the French lines. Rockwell,
+Prince, and the captain broke through successfully, but Balsley found
+himself hemmed in. He attacked the German nearest him, only to receive
+an explosive bullet in his thigh. In trying to get away by a vertical
+dive his machine went into a corkscrew and swung over on its back.
+Extra cartridge rollers dislodged from their case hit his arms. He was
+tumbling straight toward the trenches, but by a supreme effort he
+regained control, righted the plane, and landed without disaster in a
+meadow just behind the firing line.
+
+Soldiers carried him to the shelter of a near-by fort, and later he
+was taken to a field hospital, where he lingered for days between life
+and death. Ten fragments of the explosive bullet were removed from his
+stomach. He bore up bravely, and became the favourite of the wounded
+officers in whose ward he lay. When we flew over to see him they would
+say: _Il est un brave petit gars, l'aviateur americain_. [He's a brave
+little fellow, the American aviator.] On a shelf by his bed, done up
+in a handkerchief, he kept the pieces of bullet taken out of him, and
+under them some sheets of paper on which he was trying to write to his
+mother, back in El Paso.
+
+Balsley was awarded the _Medaille Militaire_ and the _Croix de
+Guerre_, but the honours scared him. He had seen them decorate
+officers in the ward before they died.
+
+
+CHAPMAN'S LAST FIGHT
+
+Then came Chapman's last fight. Before leaving, he had put two bags
+of oranges in his machine to take to Balsley, who liked to suck them
+to relieve his terrible thirst, after the day's flying was over. There
+was an aerial struggle against odds, far within the German lines, and
+Chapman, to divert their fire from his comrades, engaged several enemy
+airmen at once. He sent one tumbling to earth, and had forced the
+others off when two more swooped down upon him. Such a fight is a
+matter of seconds, and one cannot clearly see what passes. Lufbery and
+Prince, whom Chapman had defended so gallantly, regained the French
+lines. They told us of the combat, and we waited on the field for
+Chapman's return. He was always the last in, so we were not much
+worried. Then a pilot from another fighting escadrille telephoned us
+that he had seen a Nieuport falling. A little later the observer of a
+reconnaissance airplane called up and told us how he had witnessed
+Chapman's fall. The wings of the plane had buckled, and it had dropped
+like a stone he said.
+
+We talked in lowered voices after that; we could read the pain in one
+another's eyes. If only it could have been some one else, was what we
+all thought, I suppose. To lose Victor was not an irreparable loss to
+us merely, but to France, and to the world as well. I kept thinking of
+him lying over there, and of the oranges he was taking to Balsley. As
+I left the field I caught sight of Victor's mechanician leaning
+against the end of our hangar. He was looking northward into the sky
+where his _patron_ had vanished, and his face was very sad.
+
+
+PROMOTIONS AND DECORATIONS
+
+By this time Prince and Hall had been made adjutants, and we corporals
+transformed into sergeants. I frankly confess to a feeling of marked
+satisfaction at receiving that grade in the world's finest army. I was
+a far more important person, in my own estimation, than I had been as
+a second lieutenant in the militia at home. The next impressive event
+was the awarding of decorations. We had assisted at that ceremony for
+Cowdin at Luxeuil, but this time three of our messmates were to be
+honoured for the Germans they had brought down. Rockwell and Hall
+received the _Medaille Militaire_ and the _Croix de Guerre_, and Thaw,
+being a lieutenant, the _Legion d'honneur_ and another "palm" for the
+ribbon of the _Croix de Guerre_ he had won previously. Thaw, who came
+up from Paris specially for the presentation, still carried his arm in
+a sling.
+
+There were also decorations for Chapman, but poor Victor, who so often
+had been cited in the Orders of the Day, was not on hand to receive
+them.
+
+
+THE MORNING SORTIE
+
+Our daily routine goes on with little change. Whenever the weather
+permits--that is, when it isn't raining, and the clouds aren't too
+low--we fly over the Verdun battlefield at the hours dictated by
+General Headquarters. As a rule the most successful sorties are those
+in the early morning.
+
+We are called while it's still dark. Sleepily I try to reconcile the
+French orderly's muttered, _C'est l'heure, monsieur_, that rouses me
+from slumber, with the strictly American words and music of "When That
+Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam'" warbled by a particularly
+wide-awake pilot in the next room. A few minutes later, having
+swallowed some coffee, we motor to the field. The east is turning gray
+as the hangar curtains are drawn apart and our machines trundled out
+by the mechanicians. All the pilots whose planes are in
+commission--save those remaining behind on guard--prepare to leave.
+We average from four to six on a sortie, unless too many flights have
+been ordered for that day, in which case only two or three go out at a
+time.
+
+Now the east is pink, and overhead the sky has changed from gray to
+pale blue. It is light enough to fly. We don our fur-lined shoes and
+combinations and adjust the leather flying hoods and goggles. A good
+deal of conversation occurs--perhaps because, once aloft, there's
+nobody to talk to.
+
+"Eh, you," one pilot cries jokingly to another, "I hope some Boche
+just ruins you this morning, so I won't have to pay you the fifty
+francs you won from me last night!"
+
+This financial reference concerns a poker game.
+
+"You do, do you?" replies the other as he swings into his machine.
+"Well, I'd be glad to pass up the fifty to see you landed by the
+Boches. You'd make a fine sight walking down the street of some
+German town in those wooden shoes and pyjama pants. Why don't you
+dress yourself? Don't you know an aviator's supposed to look _chic?_"
+
+A sartorial eccentricity on the part of one of our colleagues is here
+referred to.
+
+
+GETTING UNDER WAY
+
+The raillery is silenced by a deafening roar as the motors are tested.
+Quiet is briefly restored, only to be broken by a series of rapid
+explosions incidental to the trying out of machine guns. You loudly
+inquire at what altitude we are to meet above the field.
+
+"Fifteen hundred metres--go ahead!" comes an answering yell.
+
+_Essence et gaz!_ [Oil and gas!] you call to your mechanician,
+adjusting your gasolene and air throttles while he grips the
+propeller.
+
+_Contact!_ he shrieks, and _Contact!_ you reply. You snap on the
+switch, he spins the propeller, and the motor takes. Drawing forward
+out of line, you put on full power, race across the grass and take the
+air. The ground drops as the hood slants up before you and you seem to
+be going more and more slowly as you rise. At a great height you
+hardly realize you are moving. You glance at the clock to note the
+time of your departure, and at the oil gauge to see its throb. The
+altimeter registers 650 feet. You turn and look back at the field
+below and see others leaving.
+
+In three minutes you are at about 4,000 feet. You have been making
+wide circles over the field and watching the other machines. At 4,500
+feet you throttle down and wait on that level for your companions to
+catch up. Soon the escadrille is bunched and off for the lines. You
+begin climbing again, gulping to clear your ears in the changing
+pressure. Surveying the other machines, you recognize the pilot of
+each by the marks on its side--or by the way he flies. The
+distinguishing marks of the Nieuports are various and sometimes
+amusing. Bert Hall, for instance, has BERT painted on the left side of
+his plane and the same word reversed (as if spelled backward with the
+left hand) on the right--so an aviator passing him on that side at
+great speed will be able to read the name without difficulty, he says!
+
+The country below has changed into a flat surface of varicoloured
+figures. Woods are irregular blocks of dark green, like daubs of ink
+spilled on a table; fields are geometrical designs of different shades
+of green and brown, forming in composite an ultra-cubist painting;
+roads are thin white lines, each with its distinctive windings and
+crossings--from which you determine your location. The higher you are
+the easier it is to read.
+
+In about ten minutes you see the Meuse sparkling in the morning light,
+and on either side the long line of sausage-shaped observation
+balloons far below you. Red-roofed Verdun springs into view just
+beyond. There are spots in it where no red shows and you know what has
+happened there. In the green pasture land bordering the town, round
+flecks of brown indicate the shell holes. You cross the Meuse.
+
+
+VERDUN, SEEN FROM THE SKY
+
+Immediately east and north of Verdun there lies a broad, brown band.
+From the Woevre plain it runs westward to the "S" bend in the Meuse,
+and on the left bank of that famous stream continues on into the
+Argonne Forest. Peaceful fields and farms and villages adorned that
+landscape a few months ago--when there was no Battle of Verdun. Now
+there is only that sinister brown belt, a strip of murdered Nature. It
+seems to belong to another world. Every sign of humanity has been
+swept away. The woods and roads have vanished like chalk wiped from a
+blackboard; of the villages nothing remains but gray smears where
+stone walls have tumbled together. The great forts of Douaumont and
+Vaux are outlined faintly, like the tracings of a finger in wet sand.
+One cannot distinguish any one shell crater, as one can on the
+pockmarked fields on either side. On the brown band the indentations
+are so closely interlocked that they blend into a confused mass of
+troubled earth. Of the trenches only broken, half-obliterated links
+are visible.
+
+Columns of muddy smoke spurt up continually as high explosives tear
+deeper into this ulcered area. During heavy bombardment and attacks I
+have seen shells falling like rain. The countless towers of smoke
+remind one of Gustave Dore's picture of the fiery tombs of the
+arch-heretics in Dante's "Hell." A smoky pall covers the sector under
+fire, rising so high that at a height of 1,000 feet one is enveloped
+in its mist-like fumes. Now and then monster projectiles hurtling
+through the air close by leave one's plane rocking violently in their
+wake. Airplanes have been cut in two by them.
+
+
+THE ROAR OF BATTLE--UNHEARD
+
+For us the battle passes in silence, the noise of one's motor
+deadening all other sounds. In the green patches behind the brown belt
+myriads of tiny flashes tell where the guns are hidden; and those
+flashes, and the smoke of bursting shells, are all we see of the
+fighting. It is a weird combination of stillness and havoc, the Verdun
+conflict viewed from the sky.
+
+Far below us, the observation and range-finding planes circle over the
+trenches like gliding gulls. At a feeble altitude they follow the
+attacking infantrymen and flash back wireless reports of the
+engagement. Only through them can communication be maintained when,
+under the barrier fire, wires from the front lines are cut. Sometimes
+it falls to our lot to guard these machines from Germans eager to
+swoop down on their backs. Sailing about high above a busy flock of
+them makes one feel like an old mother hen protecting her chicks.
+
+
+"NAVIGATING" IN A SEA OF CLOUDS
+
+The pilot of an _avion de chasse_ must not concern himself with the
+ground, which to him is useful only for learning his whereabouts.
+The earth is all-important to the men in the observation,
+artillery-regulating, and bombardment machines, but the fighting
+aviator has an entirely different sphere. His domain is the blue
+heavens, the glistening rolls of clouds below the fleecy banks
+towering above, the vague aerial horizon, and he must watch it as
+carefully as a navigator watches the storm-tossed sea.
+
+On days when the clouds form almost a solid flooring, one feels very
+much at sea, and wonders if one is in the navy instead of aviation.
+The diminutive Nieuports skirt the white expanse like torpedo boats in
+an arctic sea, and sometimes, far across the cloud-waves, one sights
+an enemy escadrille, moving as a fleet.
+
+Principally our work consists of keeping German airmen away from our
+lines, and in attacking them when opportunity offers. We traverse the
+brown band and enter enemy territory to the accompaniment of an
+antiaircraft cannonade. Most of the shots are wild, however, and we
+pay little attention to them. When the shrapnel comes uncomfortably
+close, one shifts position slightly to evade the range. One glances up
+to see if there is another machine higher than one's own. Low and far
+within the German lines are several enemy planes, a dull white in
+appearance, resembling sand flies against the mottled earth. High
+above them one glimpses the mosquito-like forms of two Fokkers. Away
+off to one side white shrapnel puffs are vaguely visible, perhaps
+directed against a German crossing the lines. We approach the enemy
+machines ahead, only to find them slanting at a rapid rate into their
+own country. High above them lurks a protection plane. The man doing
+the "ceiling work," as it is called, will look after him for us.
+
+
+TACTICS OF AN AIR BATTLE
+
+Getting started is the hardest part of an attack. Once you have begun
+diving you're all right. The pilot just ahead turns tail up like a
+trout dropping back to water, and swoops down in irregular curves and
+circles. You follow at an angle so steep your feet seem to be holding
+you back in your seat. Now the black Maltese crosses on the German's
+wings stand out clearly. You think of him as some sort of big bug.
+Then you hear the rapid tut-tut-tut of his machine gun. The man that
+dived ahead of you becomes mixed up with the topmost German. He is so
+close it looks as if he had hit the enemy machine. You hear the
+staccato barking of his mitrailleuse and see him pass from under the
+German's tail.
+
+The rattle of the gun that is aimed at you leaves you undisturbed.
+Only when the bullets pierce the wings a few feet off do you become
+uncomfortable. You see the gunner crouched down behind his weapon,
+but you aim at where the pilot ought to be--there are two men aboard
+the German craft--and press on the release hard. Your mitrailleuse
+hammers out a stream of bullets as you pass over and dive, nose down,
+to get out of range. Then, hopefully, you re-dress and look back at
+the foe. He ought to be dropping earthward at several miles a minute.
+As a matter of fact, however, he is sailing serenely on. They have an
+annoying habit of doing that, these Boches.
+
+Rockwell, who attacked so often that he has lost all count, and who
+shoves his machine gun fairly in the faces of the Germans, used to
+swear their planes were armoured. Lieutenant de Laage, whose list of
+combats is equally extensive, has brought down only one. Hall, with
+three machines to his credit, has had more luck. Lufbery, who
+evidently has evolved a secret formula, has dropped four, according to
+official statistics, since his arrival on the Verdun front. Four
+"palms"--the record for the escadrille, glitter upon the ribbon of the
+_Croix de Guerre_ accompanying his _Medaille Militaire_. [Footnote:
+This book was written in the fall of 1915. Since that time many
+additional machines have been credited to the American flyers.]
+
+A pilot seldom has the satisfaction of beholding the result of his
+bull's-eye bullet. Rarely--so difficult it is to follow the turnings
+and twistings of the dropping plane--does he see his fallen foe strike
+the ground. Lufbery's last direct hit was an exception, for he
+followed all that took place from a balcony seat. I myself was in the
+"nigger-heaven," so I know. We had set out on a sortie together just
+before noon, one August day, and for the first time on such an
+occasion had lost each other over the lines. Seeing no Germans, I
+passed my time hovering over the French observation machines. Lufbery
+found one, however, and promptly brought it down. Just then I chanced
+to make a southward turn, and caught sight of an airplane falling out
+of the sky into the German lines.
+
+As it turned over, it showed its white belly for an instant, then
+seemed to straighten out, and planed downward in big zigzags. The
+pilot must have gripped his controls even in death, for his craft did
+not tumble as most do. It passed between my line of vision and a wood,
+into which it disappeared. Just as I was going down to find out where
+it landed, I saw it again skimming across a field, and heading
+straight for the brown band beneath me. It was outlined against the
+shell-racked earth like a tiny insect, until just northwest of Fort
+Douaumont it crashed down upon the battlefield. A sheet of flame and
+smoke shot up from the tangled wreckage. For a moment or two I watched
+it burn; then I went back to the observation machines.
+
+I thought Lufbery would show up and point to where the German had
+fallen. He failed to appear, and I began to be afraid it was he whom I
+had seen come down, instead of an enemy. I spent a worried hour
+before my return homeward. After getting back I learned that Lufbery
+was quite safe, having hurried in after the fight to report the
+destruction of his adversary before somebody else claimed him, which
+is only too frequently the case. Observation posts, however,
+confirmed Lufbery's story, and he was of course very much delighted.
+Nevertheless, at luncheon, I heard him murmuring, half to himself:
+"Those poor fellows."
+
+The German machine gun operator, having probably escaped death in the
+air, must have had a hideous descent. Lufbery told us he had seen the
+whole thing, spiralling down after the German. He said he thought the
+German pilot must be a novice, judging from his manoeuvres. It
+occurred to me that he might have been making his first flight over
+the lines, doubtless full of enthusiasm about his career. Perhaps,
+dreaming of the Iron Cross and his Gretchen, he took a chance--and
+then swift death and a grave in the shell-strewn soil of Douaumont.
+
+Generally the escadrille is relieved by another fighting unit after
+two hours over the lines. We turn homeward, and soon the hangars of
+our field loom up in the distance. Sometimes I've been mighty glad to
+see them and not infrequently I've concluded the pleasantest part of
+flying is just after a good landing. Getting home after a sortie, we
+usually go into the rest tent, and talk over the morning's work. Then
+some of us lie down for a nap, while others play cards or read. After
+luncheon we go to the field again, and the man on guard gets his
+chance to eat. If the morning sortie has been an early one, we go up
+again about one o'clock in the afternoon. We are home again in two
+hours and after that two or three energetic pilots may make a third
+trip over the lines. The rest wait around ready to take the air if an
+enemy bombardment group ventures to visit our territory--as it has
+done more than once over Bar-le-Duc. False alarms are plentiful, and
+we spend many hours aloft squinting at an empty sky.
+
+
+PRINCE'S AERIAL FIREWORKS
+
+Now and then one of us will get ambitious to do something on his own
+account. Not long ago Norman Prince became obsessed with the idea of
+bringing down a German "sausage," as observation balloons are called.
+He had a special device mounted on his Nieuport for setting fire to
+the aerial frankfurters. Thus equipped he resembled an advance agent
+for Payne's fireworks more than an _aviateur de chasse_. Having
+carefully mapped the enemy "sausages," he would sally forth in hot
+pursuit whenever one was signalled at a respectable height. Poor
+Norman had a terrible time of it! Sometimes the reported "sausages"
+were not there when he arrived, and sometimes there was a
+super-abundancy of German airplanes on guard.
+
+He stuck to it, however, and finally his appetite for "sausage" was
+satisfied. He found one just where it ought to be, swooped down upon
+it, and let off his fireworks with all the gusto of an American boy on
+the Fourth of July. When he looked again, the balloon had vanished.
+Prince's performance isn't so easy as it sounds, by the way. If, after
+the long dive necessary to turn the trick successfully, his motor had
+failed to retake, he would have fallen into the hands of the Germans.
+
+After dark, when flying is over for the day, we go down to the villa
+for dinner. Usually we have two or three French officers dining with
+us besides our own captain and lieutenant, and so the table talk is a
+mixture of French and English. It's seldom we discuss the war in
+general. Mostly the conversation revolves about our own sphere, for
+just as in the navy the sea is the favourite topic, and in the army
+the trenches, so with us it is aviation. Our knowledge about the
+military operations is scant. We haven't the remotest idea as to what
+has taken place on the battlefield--even though we've been flying over
+it during an attack--until we read the papers; and they don't tell us
+much.
+
+Frequently pilots from other escadrilles will be our guests in passing
+through our sector, and through these visitations we keep in touch
+with the aerial news of the day, and with our friends along the front.
+Gradually we have come to know a great number of _pilotes de chasse_.
+We hear that so-&-so has been killed, that some one else has brought
+down a Boche and that still another is a prisoner.
+
+We don't always talk aviation, however. In the course of dinner almost
+any subject may be touched upon, and with our cosmopolitan crowd one
+can readily imagine the scope of the conversation. A Burton Holmes
+lecture is weak and watery compared to the travel stories we listen
+to. Were O. Henry alive, he could find material for a hundred new
+yarns, and William James numerous pointers for another work on
+psychology, while De Quincey might multiply his dreams _ad infinitum_.
+Doubtless alienists as well as fiction writers would find us worth
+studying. In France there's a saying that to be an aviator one must
+be a bit "off."
+
+After dinner the same scene invariably repeats itself, over the coffee
+in the "next room." At the big table several sportive souls start a
+poker game, while at a smaller one two sedate spirits wrap themselves
+in the intricacies of chess. Captain Thenault labours away at the
+messroom piano, or in lighter mood plays with Fram, his police dog. A
+phonograph grinds out the ancient query "Who Paid the Rent for Mrs.
+Rip Van Winkle?" or some other ragtime ditty. It is barely nine,
+however, when the movement in the direction of bed begins.
+
+A few of us remain behind a little while, and the talk becomes more
+personal and more sincere. Only on such intimate occasions, I think,
+have I ever heard death discussed. Certainly we are not indifferent to
+it. Not many nights ago one of the pilots remarked in a tired way:
+
+"Know what I want? Just six months of freedom to go where and do what
+I like. In that time I'd get everything I wanted out of life, and be
+perfectly willing to come back and be killed."
+
+Then another, who was about to receive 2,000 francs from the American
+committee that aids us, as a reward for his many citations, chimed in.
+
+"Well, I didn't care much before," he confessed, "but now with this
+money coming in I don't want to die until I've had the fun of spending
+it."
+
+So saying, he yawned and went up to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+VERDUN TO THE SOMME
+
+
+On the 12th of October, twenty small airplanes flying in a V
+formation, at such a height they resembled a flock of geese, crossed
+the river Rhine, where it skirts the plains of Alsace, and, turning
+north, headed for the famous Mauser works at Oberndorf. Following in
+their wake was an equal number of larger machines, and above these
+darted and circled swift fighting planes. The first group of aircraft
+was flown by British pilots, the second by French and three of the
+fighting planes by Americans in the French Aviation Division. It was a
+cosmopolitan collection that effected that successful raid.
+
+We American pilots, who are grouped into one escadrille, had been
+fighting above the battlefield of Verdun from the 20th of May until
+orders came the middle of September for us to leave our airplanes, for
+a unit that would replace us, and to report at Le Bourget, the great
+Paris aviation centre.
+
+The mechanics and the rest of the personnel left, as usual, in the
+escadrille's trucks with the material. For once the pilots did not
+take the aerial route but they boarded the Paris express at Bar-le-Duc
+with all the enthusiasm of schoolboys off for a vacation. They were
+to have a week in the capital! Where they were to go after that they
+did not know, but presumed it would be the Somme. As a matter of fact
+the escadrille was to be sent to Luxeuil in the Vosges to take part in
+the Mauser raid.
+
+Besides Captain Thenault and Lieutenant de Laage de Mieux, our French
+officers, the following American pilots were in the escadrille at this
+time: Lieutenant Thaw, who had returned to the front, even though his
+wounded arm had not entirely healed; Adjutants Norman Prince, Hall,
+Lufbery, and Masson; and Sergeants Kiffin Rockwell, Hill, Pavelka,
+Johnson, and Rumsey. I had been sent to a hospital at the end of
+August, because of a lame back resulting from a smash up in landing,
+and couldn't follow the escadrille until later.
+
+Every aviation unit boasts several mascots. Dogs of every description
+are to be seen around the camps, but the Americans managed, during
+their stay in Paris, to add to their menagerie by the acquisition of a
+lion cub named "Whiskey." The little chap had been born on a boat
+crossing from Africa and was advertised for sale in France. Some of
+the American pilots chipped in and bought him. He was a cute,
+bright-eyed baby lion who tried to roar in a most threatening manner
+but who was blissfully content the moment one gave him one's finger to
+suck. "Whiskey" got a good view of Paris during the few days he was
+there, for some one in the crowd was always borrowing him to take him
+some place. He, like most lions in captivity, became acquainted with
+bars, but the sort "Whiskey" saw were not for purposes of confinement.
+
+The orders came directing the escadrille to Luxeuil and bidding
+farewell to gay "Paree" the men boarded the Belfort train with bag and
+baggage--and the lion. Lions, it developed, were not allowed in
+passenger coaches. The conductor was assured that "Whiskey" was quite
+harmless and was going to overlook the rules when the cub began to
+roar and tried to get at the railwayman's finger. That settled it, so
+two of the men had to stay behind in order to crate up "Whiskey" and
+take him along the next day.
+
+The escadrille was joined in Paris by Robert Rockwell, of Cincinnati,
+who had finished his training as a pilot, and was waiting at the
+Reserve (Robert Rockwell had gone to France to work as a surgeon in
+one of the American war hospitals. He disliked remaining in the rear
+and eventually enlisted in aviation).
+
+The period of training for a pilot, especially for one who is to fly a
+fighting machine at the front, has been very much prolonged. It is no
+longer sufficient that he learns to fly and to master various types of
+machines. He now completes his training in schools where aerial
+shooting is taught, and in others where he practises combat, group
+manoeuvres, and acrobatic stunts such as looping the loop and the more
+difficult tricks. In all it requires from seven to nine months.
+
+Dennis Dowd, of Brooklyn, N.Y., is so far the only American volunteer
+aviator killed while in training. Dowd, who had joined the Foreign
+Legion, shortly after the war broke out, was painfully wounded during
+the offensive in Champagne. After his recovery he was transferred, at
+his request, into aviation. At the Buc school he stood at the head of
+the fifteen Americans who were learning to be aviators, and was
+considered one of the most promising pilots in the training camp. On
+August 11, 1916, while making a flight preliminary to his brevet, Dowd
+fell from a height of only 260 feet and was instantly killed. Either
+he had fainted or a control had broken.
+
+While a patient at the hospital Dowd had been sent packages by a young
+French girl of Neuilly. A correspondence ensued, and when Dowd went to
+Paris on convalescent leave he and the young lady became engaged. He
+was killed just before the time set for the wedding.
+
+When the escadrille arrived at Luxeuil it found a great surprise in
+the form of a large British aviation contingent. This detachment from
+the Royal Navy Flying Corps numbered more than fifty pilots and a
+thousand men. New hangars harboured their fleet of bombardment
+machines. Their own anti-aircraft batteries were in emplacements near
+the field. Though detached from the British forces and under French
+command this unit followed the rule of His Majesty's armies in France
+by receiving all of its food and supplies from England. It had its own
+transport service.
+
+Our escadrille had been in Luxeuil during the months of April and May.
+We had made many friends amongst the townspeople and the French pilots
+stationed there, so the older members of the American unit were
+welcomed with open arms and their new comrades made to feel at home in
+the quaint Vosges town. It wasn't long, however, before the Americans
+and the British got together. At first there was a feeling of reserve
+on both sides but once acquainted they became fast friends. The naval
+pilots were quite representative of the United Kingdom hailing as they
+did from England, Canada, New South Wales, South Africa, and other
+parts of the Empire. Most of them were soldiers by profession. All
+were officers, but they were as democratic as it is possible to be. As
+a result there was a continuous exchange of dinners. In a few days
+every one in this Anglo-American alliance was calling each other by
+some nickname and swearing lifelong friendship.
+
+"We didn't know what you Yanks would be like," remarked one of the
+Englishmen one day. "Thought you might be snobby on account of being
+volunteers, but I swear you're a bloody human lot." That, I will
+explain, is a very fine compliment.
+
+There was trouble getting new airplanes for every one in the
+escadrille. Only five arrived. They were the new model Nieuport
+fighting machine. Instead of having only 140 square feet of
+supporting surface, they had 160, and the forty-seven shot Lewis
+machine gun had been replaced by the Vickers, which fires five hundred
+rounds. This gun is mounted on the hood and by means of a timing gear
+shoots through the propeller. The 160 foot Nieuport mounts at a
+terrific rate, rising to 7,000 feet in six minutes. It will go to
+20,000 feet handled by a skillful pilot.
+
+It was some time before these airplanes arrived and every one was
+idle. There was nothing to do but loaf around the hotel, where the
+American pilots were quartered, visit the British in their barracks at
+the field, or go walking. It was about as much like war as a Bryan
+lecture. While I was in the hospital I received a letter written at
+this time from one of the boys. I opened it expecting to read of an
+air combat. It informed me that Thaw had caught a trout three feet
+long, and that Lufbery had picked two baskets of mushrooms.
+
+Day after day the British planes practised formation flying. The
+regularity with which the squadron's machines would leave the ground
+was remarkable. The twenty Sopwiths took the air at precise intervals,
+flew together in a V formation while executing difficult manoeuvres,
+and landed one after the other with the exactness of clockwork. The
+French pilots flew the Farman and Breguet bombardment machines
+whenever the weather permitted. Every one knew some big bombardment
+was ahead but when it would be made or what place was to be attacked
+was a secret.
+
+Considering the number of machines that were continually roaring above
+the field at Luxeuil it is remarkable that only two fatal accidents
+occurred. One was when a British pilot tried diving at a target, for
+machine-gun practice, and was unable to redress his airplane. Both he
+and his gunner were killed. In the second accident I lost a good
+friend--a young Frenchman. He took up his gunner in a two-seated
+Nieuport. A young Canadian pilot accompanied by a French officer
+followed in a Sopwith. When at about a thousand feet they began to
+manoeuvre about one another. In making a turn too close the tips of
+their wings touched. The Nieuport turned downward, its wings folded,
+and it fell like a stone. The Sopwith fluttered a second or two, then
+its wings buckled and it dropped in the wake of the Nieuport. The two
+men in each of the planes were killed outright.
+
+Next to falling in flames a drop in a wrecked machine is the worst
+death an aviator can meet. I know of no sound more horrible than that
+made by an airplane crashing to earth. Breathless one has watched the
+uncontrolled apparatus tumble through the air. The agony felt by the
+pilot and passenger seems to transmit itself to you. You are helpless
+to avert the certain death. You cannot even turn your eyes away at the
+moment of impact. In the dull, grinding crash there is the sound of
+breaking bones.
+
+Luxeuil was an excellent place to observe the difference that exists
+between the French, English, and American aviator, but when all is
+said and done there is but little difference. The Frenchman is the
+most natural pilot and the most adroit. Flying comes easier to him
+than to an Englishman or American, but once accustomed to an airplane
+and the air they all accomplish the same amount of work. A Frenchman
+goes about it with a little more dash than the others, and puts on a
+few extra frills, but the Englishman calmly carries out his mission
+and obtains the same results. An American is a combination of the
+two, but neither better nor worse. Though there is a large number of
+expert German airmen I do not believe the average Teuton makes as good
+a flier as a Frenchman, Englishman, or American.
+
+In spite of their bombardment of open towns and the use of explosive
+bullets in their aerial machine guns, the Boches have shown up in a
+better light in aviation than in any other arm. A few of the Hun
+pilots have evinced certain elements of honor and decency. I remember
+one chap that was the right sort.
+
+He was a young man but a pilot of long standing. An old infantry
+captain stationed near his aviation field at Etain, east of Verdun,
+prevailed upon this German pilot to take him on a flight. There was a
+new machine to test out and he told the captain to climb aboard.
+Foolishly he crossed the trench lines and, actuated by a desire to
+give his passenger an interesting trip, proceeded to fly over the
+French aviation headquarters. Unfortunately for him he encountered
+three French fighting planes which promptly opened fire. The German
+pilot was wounded in the leg and the gasoline tank of his airplane was
+pierced. Under him was an aviation field. He decided to land. The
+machine was captured before the Germans had time to burn it up.
+Explosive bullets were discovered in the machine gun. A French
+officer turned to the German captain and informed him that he would
+probably be shot for using explosive bullets. The captain did not
+understand.
+
+"Don't shoot him," said the pilot, using excellent French, "if you're
+going to shoot any one take me. The captain has nothing to do with the
+bullets. He doesn't even know how to work a machine gun. It's his
+first trip in an airplane."
+
+"Well, if you'll give us some good information, we won't shoot you,"
+said the French officer.
+
+"Information," replied the German, "I can't give you any. I come from
+Etain, and you know where that is as well as I do."
+
+"No, you must give us some worth-while information, or I'm afraid
+you'll be shot," insisted the Frenchman.
+
+"If I give you worth-while information," answered the pilot, "you'll
+go over and kill a lot of soldiers, and if I don't you'll only kill
+one--so go ahead."
+
+The last time I heard of the Boche he was being well taken care of.
+
+Kiffin Rockwell and Lufbery were the first to get their new machines
+ready and on the 23rd of September went out for the first flight since
+the escadrille had arrived at Luxeuil. They became separated in the
+air but each flew on alone, which was a dangerous thing to do in the
+Alsace sector. There is but little fighting in the trenches there, but
+great air activity. Due to the British and French squadrons at
+Luxeuil, and the threat their presence implied, the Germans had to
+oppose them by a large fleet of fighting machines. I believe there
+were more than forty Fokkers alone in the camps of Colmar and
+Habsheim. Observation machines protected by two or three fighting
+planes would venture far into our lines. It is something the Germans
+dare not do on any other part of the front. They had a special trick
+that consisted in sending a large, slow observation machine into our
+lines to invite attack. When a French plane would dive after it, two
+Fokkers, that had been hovering high overhead, would drop on the tail
+of the Frenchman and he stood but small chance if caught in the trap.
+
+Just before Kiffin Rockwell reached the lines he spied a German
+machine under him flying at 11,000 feet. I can imagine the
+satisfaction he felt in at last catching an enemy plane in our lines.
+Rockwell had fought more combats than the rest of us put together, and
+had shot down many German machines that had fallen in their lines, but
+this was the first time he had had an opportunity of bringing down a
+Boche in our territory.
+
+A captain, the commandant of an Alsatian village, watched the aerial
+battle through his field glasses. He said that Rockwell approached so
+close to the enemy that he thought there would be a collision. The
+German craft, which carried two machine guns, had opened a rapid fire
+when Rockwell started his dive. He plunged through the stream of lead
+and only when very close to his enemy did he begin shooting. For a
+second it looked as though the German was falling, so the captain
+said, but then he saw the French machine turn rapidly nose down, the
+wings of one side broke off and fluttered in the wake of the airplane,
+which hurtled earthward in a rapid drop. It crashed into the ground in
+a small field--a field of flowers--a few hundred yards back of the
+trenches. It was not more than two and a half miles from the spot
+where Rockwell, in the month of May, brought down his first enemy
+machine. The Germans immediately opened up on the wreck with
+artillery fire. In spite of the bursting shrapnel, gunners from a
+near-by battery rushed out and recovered poor Rockwell's broken body.
+There was a hideous wound in his breast where an explosive bullet had
+torn through. A surgeon who examined the body, testified that if it
+had been an ordinary bullet Rockwell would have had an even chance of
+landing with only a bad wound. As it was he was killed the instant the
+unlawful missile exploded.
+
+Lufbery engaged a German craft but before he could get to close range
+two Fokkers swooped down from behind and filled his aeroplane full of
+holes. Exhausting his ammunition he landed at Fontaine, an aviation
+field near the lines. There he learned of Rockwell's death and was
+told that two other French machines had been brought down within the
+hour. He ordered his gasoline tank filled, procured a full band of
+cartridges and soared up into the air to avenge his comrade. He sped
+up and down the lines, and made a wide detour to Habsheim where the
+Germans have an aviation field, but all to no avail. Not a Boche was
+in the air.
+
+The news of Rockwell's death was telephoned to the escadrille. The
+captain, lieutenant, and a couple of men jumped in a staff car and
+hastened to where he had fallen. On their return the American pilots
+were convened in a room of the hotel and the news was broken to them.
+With tears in his eyes the captain said: "The best and bravest of us
+all is no more."
+
+No greater blow could have befallen the escadrille. Kiffin was its
+soul. He was loved and looked up to by not only every man in our
+flying corps but by every one who knew him. Kiffin was imbued with the
+spirit of the cause for which he fought and gave his heart and soul to
+the performance of his duty. He said: "I pay my part for Lafayette
+and Rochambeau," and he gave the fullest measure. The old flame of
+chivalry burned brightly in this boy's fine and sensitive being. With
+his death France lost one of her most valuable pilots. When he was
+over the lines the Germans did not pass--and he was over them most of
+the time. He brought down four enemy planes that were credited to him
+officially, and Lieutenant de Laage, who was his fighting partner,
+says he is convinced that Rockwell accounted for many others which
+fell too far within the German lines to be observed. Rockwell had been
+given the Medaille Militaire and the Croix de Guerre, on the ribbon of
+which he wore four palms, representing the four magnificent citations
+he had received in the order of the army. As a further reward for his
+excellent work he had been proposed for promotion from the grade of
+sergeant to that of second lieutenant. Unfortunately the official
+order did not arrive until a few days following his death.
+
+The night before Rockwell was killed he had stated that if he were
+brought down he would like to be buried where he fell. It was
+impossible, however, to place him in a grave so near the trenches. His
+body was draped in a French flag and brought back to Luxeuil. He was
+given a funeral worthy of a general. His brother, Paul, who had
+fought in the Legion with him, and who had been rendered unfit for
+service by a wound, was granted permission to attend the obsequies.
+Pilots from all near-by camps flew over to render homage to Rockwell's
+remains. Every Frenchman in the aviation at Luxeuil marched behind
+the bier. The British pilots, followed by a detachment of five
+hundred of their men, were in line, and a battalion of French troops
+brought up the rear. As the slow moving procession of blue and
+khaki-clad men passed from the church to the graveyard, airplanes
+circled at a feeble height above and showered down myriads of flowers.
+
+Rockwell's death urged the rest of the men to greater action, and the
+few who had machines were constantly after the Boches. Prince brought
+one down. Lufbery, the most skillful and successful fighter in the
+escadrille, would venture far into the enemy's lines and spiral down
+over a German aviation camp, daring the pilots to venture forth. One
+day he stirred them up, but as he was short of fuel he had to make for
+home before they took to the air. Prince was out in search of a combat
+at this time. He got it. He ran into the crowd Lufbery had aroused.
+Bullets cut into his machine and one exploding on the front edge of a
+lower wing broke it. Another shattered a supporting mast. It was a
+miracle that the machine did not give way. As badly battered as it was
+Prince succeeded in bringing it back from over Mulhouse, where the
+fight occurred, to his field at Luxeuil.
+
+The same day that Prince was so nearly brought down Lufbery missed
+death by a very small margin. He had taken on more gasoline and made
+another sortie. When over the lines again he encountered a German with
+whom he had a fighting acquaintance. That is he and the Boche, who
+was an excellent pilot, had tried to kill each other on one or two
+occasions before. Each was too good for the other. Lufbery manoeuvred
+for position but, before he could shoot, the Teuton would evade him by
+a clever turn. They kept after one another, the Boche retreating into
+his lines. When they were nearing Habsheim, Lufbery glanced back and
+saw French shrapnel bursting over the trenches. It meant a German
+plane was over French territory and it was his duty to drive it off.
+Swooping down near his adversary he waved good-bye, the enemy pilot
+did likewise, and Lufbery whirred off to chase the other
+representative of Kultur. He caught up with him and dove to the
+attack, but he was surprised by a German he had not seen. Before he
+could escape three bullets entered his motor, two passed through the
+fur-lined combination he wore, another ripped open one of his woolen
+flying boots, his airplane was riddled from wing tip to wing tip, and
+other bullets cut the elevating plane. Had he not been an exceptional
+aviator he never would have brought safely to earth so badly damaged a
+machine. It was so thoroughly shot up that it was junked as being
+beyond repairs. Fortunately Lufbery was over French territory or his
+forced descent would have resulted in his being made prisoner.
+
+I know of only one other airplane that was safely landed after
+receiving as heavy punishment as did Lufbery's. It was a two-place
+Nieuport piloted by a young Frenchman named Fontaine with whom I
+trained. He and his gunner attacked a German over the Bois le Pretre
+who dove rapidly far into his lines. Fontaine followed and in turn was
+attacked by three other Boches. He dropped to escape, they plunged
+after him forcing him lower. He looked and saw a German aviation field
+under him. He was by this time only 2,000 feet above the ground.
+Fontaine saw the mechanics rush out to grasp him, thinking he would
+land. The attacking airplanes had stopped shooting. Fontaine pulled on
+full power and headed for the lines. The German planes dropped down on
+him and again opened fire. They were on his level, behind and on his
+sides. Bullets whistled by him in streams. The rapid-fire gun on
+Fontaine's machine had jammed and he was helpless. His gunner fell
+forward on him, dead. The trenches were just ahead, but as he was
+slanting downward to gain speed he had lost a good deal of height, and
+was at only six hundred feet when he crossed the lines, from which he
+received a ground fire. The Germans gave up the chase and Fontaine
+landed with his dead gunner. His wings were so full of holes that they
+barely supported the machine in the air.
+
+The uncertain wait at Luxeuil finally came to an end on the 12th of
+October. The afternoon of that day the British did not say: "Come on
+Yanks, let's call off the war and have tea," as was their wont, for
+the bombardment of Oberndorf was on. The British and French machines
+had been prepared. Just before climbing into their airplanes the
+pilots were given their orders. The English in their single-seated
+Sopwiths, which carried four bombs each, were the first to leave. The
+big French Brequets and Farmans then soared aloft with their tons of
+explosive destined for the Mauser works. The fighting machines, which
+were to convoy them as far as the Rhine, rapidly gained their height
+and circled above their charges. Four of the battleplanes were from
+the American escadrille. They were piloted respectively by Lieutenant
+de Laage, Lufbery, Norman Prince, and Masson.
+
+The Germans were taken by surprise and as a result few of their
+machines were in the air. The bombardment fleet was attacked, however,
+and six of its planes shot down, some of them falling in flames.
+Baron, the famous French night bombarder, lost his life in one of the
+Farmans. Two Germans were brought down by machines they attacked and
+the four pilots from the American escadrille accounted for one each.
+Lieutenant de Laage shot down his Boche as it was attacking another
+French machine and Masson did likewise. Explaining it afterward he
+said: "All of a sudden I saw a Boche come in between me and a Breguet
+I was following. I just began to shoot, and darned if he didn't fall."
+
+As the fuel capacity of a Nieuport allows but little more than two
+hours in the air the _avions de chasse_ were forced to return to their
+own lines to take on more gasoline, while the bombardment planes
+continued on into Germany. The Sopwiths arrived first at Oberndorf.
+Dropping low over the Mauser works they discharged their bombs and
+headed homeward. All arrived, save one, whose pilot lost his way and
+came to earth in Switzerland. When the big machines got to Oberndorf
+they saw only flames and smoke where once the rifle factory stood.
+They unloaded their explosives on the burning mass.
+
+The Nieuports having refilled their tanks went up to clear the air of
+Germans that might be hovering in wait for the returning raiders.
+Prince found one and promptly shot it down. Lufbery came upon three.
+He drove for one, making it drop below the others, then forcing a
+second to descend, attacked the one remaining above. The combat was
+short and at the end of it the German tumbled to earth. This made the
+fifth enemy machine which was officially credited to Lufbery. When a
+pilot has accounted for five Boches he is mentioned by name in the
+official communication, and is spoken of as an "Ace," which in French
+aerial slang means a super-pilot. Papers are allowed to call an "ace"
+by name, print his picture and give him a write-up. The successful
+aviator becomes a national hero. When Lufbery worked into this
+category the French papers made him a head liner. The American "Ace,"
+with his string of medals, then came in for the ennuis of a matinee
+idol. The choicest bit in the collection was a letter from
+Wallingford, Conn., his home town, thanking him for putting it on the
+map.
+
+Darkness was coming rapidly on but Prince and Lufbery remained in the
+air to protect the bombardment fleet. Just at nightfall Lufbery made
+for a small aviation field near the lines, known as Corcieux.
+Slow-moving machines, with great planing capacity, can be landed in
+the dark, but to try and feel for the ground in a Nieuport, which
+comes down at about a hundred miles an hour, is to court disaster. Ten
+minutes after Lufbery landed Prince decided to make for the field. He
+spiraled down through the night air and skimmed rapidly over the trees
+bordering the Corcieux field. In the dark he did not see a
+high-tension electric cable that was stretched just above the tree
+tops. The landing gear of his airplane struck it. The machine snapped
+forward and hit the ground on its nose. It turned over and over. The
+belt holding Prince broke and he was thrown far from the wrecked
+plane. Both of his legs were broken and he naturally suffered internal
+injuries. In spite of the terrific shock and his intense pain Prince
+did not lose consciousness. He even kept his presence of mind and
+gave orders to the men who had run to pick him up. Hearing the hum of
+a motor, and realizing a machine was in the air, Prince told them to
+light gasoline fires on the field. "You don't want another fellow to
+come down and break himself up the way I've done," he said.
+
+Lufbery went with Prince to the hospital in Gerardmer. As the
+ambulance rolled along Prince sang to keep up his spirits. He spoke of
+getting well soon and returning to service. It was like Norman. He
+was always energetic about his flying. Even when he passed through
+the harrowing experience of having a wing shattered, the first thing
+he did on landing was to busy himself about getting another fitted in
+place and the next morning he was in the air again.
+
+No one thought that Prince was mortally injured but the next day he
+went into a coma. A blood clot had formed on his brain. Captain Haff
+in command of the aviation groups of Luxeuil, accompanied by our
+officers, hastened to Gerardmer. Prince lying unconscious on his bed,
+was named a second lieutenant and decorated with the Legion of Honor.
+He already held the Medaille Militaire and Croix de Guerre. Norman
+Prince died on the 15th of October. He was brought back to Luxeuil and
+given a funeral similar to Rockwell's. It was hard to realize that
+poor old Norman had gone. He was the founder of the American
+escadrille and every one in it had come to rely on him. He never let
+his own spirits drop, and was always on hand with encouragement for
+the others. I do not think Prince minded going. He wanted to do his
+part before being killed, and he had more than done it. He had, day
+after day, freed the line of Germans, making it impossible for them to
+do their work, and three of them he had shot to earth.
+
+Two days after Prince's death the escadrille received orders to leave
+for the Somme. The night before the departure the British gave the
+American pilots a farewell banquet and toasted them as their "Guardian
+Angels." They keenly appreciated the fact that four men from the
+American escadrille had brought down four Germans, and had cleared the
+way for their squadron returning from Oberndorf. When the train pulled
+out the next day the station platform was packed by khaki-clad pilots
+waving good-bye to their friends the "Yanks."
+
+The escadrille passed through Paris on its way to the Somme front. The
+few members who had machines flew from Luxeuil to their new post. At
+Paris the pilots were reinforced by three other American boys who had
+completed their training. They were: Fred Prince, who ten months
+before had come over from Boston to serve in aviation with his brother
+Norman; Willis Haviland, of Chicago, who left the American Ambulance
+for the life of a birdman, and Bob Soubrian, of New York, who had been
+transferred from the Foreign Legion to the flying corps after being
+wounded in the Champagne offensive.
+
+Before its arrival in the Somme the escadrille had always been
+quartered in towns and the life of the pilots was all that could be
+desired in the way of comforts. We had, as a result, come to believe
+that we would wage only a de luxe war, and were unprepared for any
+other sort of campaign. The introduction to the Somme was a rude
+awakening. Instead of being quartered in a villa or hotel, the pilots
+were directed to a portable barracks newly erected in a sea of mud.
+
+It was set in a cluster of similar barns nine miles from the nearest
+town. A sieve was a watertight compartment in comparison with that
+elongated shed. The damp cold penetrated through every crack, chilling
+one to the bone. There were no blankets and until they were procured
+the pilots had to curl up in their flying clothes. There were no
+arrangements for cooking and the Americans depended on the other
+escadrilles for food. Eight fighting units were located at the same
+field and our ever-generous French comrades saw to it that no one went
+hungry. The thick mist, for which the Somme is famous, hung like a
+pall over the birdmen's nest dampening both the clothes and spirits of
+the men.
+
+Something had to be done, so Thaw and Masson, who is our _Chef de
+Popote_ (President of the Mess) obtained permission to go to Paris in
+one of our light trucks. They returned with cooking utensils, a stove,
+and other necessary things. All hands set to work and as a result life
+was made bearable. In fact I was surprised to find the quarters as
+good as they were when I rejoined the escadrille a couple of weeks
+after its arrival in the Somme. Outside of the cold, mud, and dampness
+it wasn't so bad. The barracks had been partitioned off into little
+rooms leaving a large space for a dining hall. The stove is set up
+there and all animate life from the lion cub to the pilots centre
+around its warming glow.
+
+The eight escadrilles of fighting machines form a rather interesting
+colony. The large canvas hangars are surrounded by the house tents of
+their respective escadrilles; wooden barracks for the men and pilots
+are in close proximity, and sandwiched in between the encampments of
+the various units are the tents where the commanding officers hold
+forth. In addition there is a bath house where one may go and freeze
+while a tiny stream of hot water trickles down one's shivering form.
+Another shack houses the power plant which generates electric light
+for the tents and barracks, and in one very popular canvas is located
+the community bar, the profits from which go to the Red Cross.
+
+We had never before been grouped with as many other fighting
+escadrilles, nor at a field so near the front. We sensed the war to
+better advantage than at Luxeuil or Bar-le-Duc. When there is
+activity on the lines the rumble of heavy artillery reaches us in a
+heavy volume of sound. From the field one can see the line of
+sausage-shaped observation balloons, which delineate the front, and
+beyond them the high-flying airplanes, darting like swallows in the
+shrapnel puffs of anti-air-craft fire. The roar of motors that are
+being tested, is punctuated by the staccato barking of machine guns,
+and at intervals the hollow whistling sound of a fast plane diving to
+earth is added to this symphony of war notes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+PERSONAL LETTERS FROM SERGEANT McCONNELL--AT THE FRONT
+
+
+We're still waiting for our machines. In the meantime the Boches sail
+gaily over and drop bombs. One of our drivers has been killed and five
+wounded so far but we'll put a stop to it soon. The machines have
+left and are due to-day.
+
+You ask me what my work will be and how my machine is armed. First of
+all I mount an _avion de chasse_ and am supposed to shoot down Boches
+or keep them away from over our lines. I do not do observation, or
+regulating of artillery fire. These are handled by escadrilles
+equipped with bigger machines. I mount at daybreak over the lines;
+stay at from 11,000 to 15,000 feet and wait for the sight of an enemy
+plane. It may be a bombardment machine, a regulator of fire, an
+observer, or an _avion de chasse_ looking for me. Whatever she is I
+make for her and manoeuvre for position. All the machines carry
+different gun positions and one seeks the blind side. Having obtained
+the proper position one turns down or up, whichever the case may be,
+and, when within fifty yards, opens up with the machine gun. That is
+on the upper plane and it is sighted by a series of holes and cross
+webs. As one is passing at a terrific rate there is not time for many
+shots, so, unless wounded or one's machine is injured by the first
+try--for the enemy plane shoots, too--one tries it again and again
+until there's nothing doing or the other fellow is dropped. Apart from
+work over the lines, which is comparatively calm, there is the job of
+convoying bombardment machines. That is the rotten task. The captain
+has called on us to act as guards on the next trip. You see we are
+like torpedo boats of the air with our swift machines.
+
+We have the honour of being attached to a bombardment squadron that is
+the most famous in the French Army. The captain of the unit once lost
+his whole escadrille, and on the last trip eight lost their lives. It
+was a wonderful fight. The squadron was attacked by thirty-three
+Boches. Two French planes crashed to earth--then two German; another
+German was set on fire and streaked down, followed by a streaming
+column of smoke. Another Frenchman fell; another German; and then a
+French lieutenant, mortally wounded and realizing that he was dying,
+plunged his airplane into a German below him and both fell to earth
+like stones.
+
+The tours of Alsace and the Vosges that we have made, to look over
+possible landing places, were wonderful. I've never seen such
+ravishing sights, and in regarding the beauty of the country I have
+missed noting the landing places. The valleys are marvellous. On each
+side the mountain slopes are a solid mass of giant pines and down
+these avenues of green tumble myriads of glittering cascades which
+form into sparkling streams beneath. It is a pleasant feeling to go
+into Alsace and realize that one is touring over country we have taken
+from the Germans. It's a treat to go by auto that way. In the air, you
+know, one feels detached from all below. It's a different world, that
+has no particular meaning, and besides, it all looks flat and of a
+weary pattern.
+
+
+THE FIRST TRIP
+
+Well, I've made my first trip over the lines and proved a few things
+to myself. First, I can stand high altitudes. I had never been higher
+than 7,000 feet before, nor had I flown more than an hour. On my trip
+to Germany I went to 14,000 feet and was in the air for two hours. I
+wore the fur head-to-foot combination they give one and paper gloves
+under the fur ones you sent me. I was not cold. In a way it seemed
+amusing to be going out knowing as little as I do. My mitrailleuse
+had been mounted the night before. I had never fired it, nor did I
+know the country at all even though I'd motored along our lines. I
+followed the others or I surely should have been lost. I shall have to
+make special trips to study the land and be able to make it out from
+my map which I carry on board. For one thing the weather was hazy and
+clouds obscured the view.
+
+We left en escadrille, at 30-second intervals, at 6:30 A.M. I'd been
+on guard since three, waiting for an enemy plane. I climbed to 3,500
+feet in four minutes and so started off higher than the rest. I lost
+them immediately but took a compass course in the direction we were
+headed. Clouds were below me and I could see the earth only in spots.
+Ahead was a great barrier of clouds and fog. It seemed like a
+limitless ocean. To the south the Alps jutted up through the clouds
+and glistened like icebergs in the morning sun. I began to feel
+completely lost. I was at 7,000 feet and that was all I knew. Suddenly
+I saw a little black speck pop out of a cloud to my left--then two
+others. They were our machines and from then on I never let them get
+out of my sight. I went to 14,000 in order to be able to keep them
+well in view below me. We went over Belfort which I recognized, and,
+turning, went toward the lines. The clouds had dispersed by this time.
+Alsace was below us and in the distance I could see the straight
+course of the Rhine. It looked very small. I looked down and saw the
+trenches and when I next looked for our machines I saw clusters of
+smoke puffs. We were being fired at. One machine just under me seemed
+to be in the centre of a lot of shrapnel. The puffs were white, or
+black, or green, depending on the size of the shell used. It struck me
+as more amusing than anything else to watch the explosions and smoke.
+I thought of what a lot of money we were making the Germans spend. It
+is not often that they hit. The day before one of our machines had a
+part of the tail shot away and the propeller nicked, but that's just
+bum luck. Two shells went off just at my height and in a way that led
+me to think that the third one would get me; but it didn't. It's hard
+even for the aviator to tell how far off they are. We went over
+Mulhouse and to the north. Then we sailed south and turned over the
+lines on the way home. I was very tired after the flight but it was
+because I was not used to it and it was a strain on me keeping a
+look-out for the others.
+
+
+AT VERDUN
+
+To-day the army moving picture outfit took pictures of us. We had a
+big show. Thirty bombardment planes went off like clock-work and we
+followed. We circled and swooped down by the camera. We were taken in
+groups, then individually, in flying togs, and God knows what-all.
+They will be shown in the States.
+
+If you happen to see them you will recognize my machine by the MAC,
+painted on the side.
+
+Seems quite an important thing to have one's own airplane with two
+mechanics to take care of it, to help one dress for flights, and to
+obey orders. A pilot of no matter what grade is like an officer in any
+other arm.
+
+We didn't see any Boche planes on our trip. We were too many. The only
+way to do is to sneak up on them.
+
+I do not get a chance to see much of the biggest battle in the world
+which is being fought here, for I'm on a fighting machine and the sky
+is my province. We fly so high that ground details are lacking. Where
+the battle has raged there is a broad, browned band. It is a great
+strip of murdered Nature. Trees, houses, and even roads have been
+blasted completely away. The shell holes are so numerous that they
+blend into one another and cannot be separately seen. It looks as if
+shells fell by the thousand every second. There are spurts of smoke at
+nearly every foot of the brown areas and a thick pall of mist covers
+it all. There are but holes where the trenches ran, and when one
+thinks of the poor devils crouching in their inadequate shelters under
+such a hurricane of flying metal, it increases one's respect for the
+staying powers of modern man. It's terrible to watch, and I feel sad
+every time I look down. The only shooting we hear is the tut-tut-tut
+of our own or enemy plane's machine guns when fighting is at close
+quarters. The Germans shoot explosive bullets from theirs. I must
+admit that they have an excellent air fleet even if they do not fight
+decently.
+
+I'm a sergeant now--_sergent_ in French--and I get about two francs
+more a day and wear a gold band on my cap, which makes old
+territorials think I'm an officer and occasions salutes which are some
+bother.
+
+
+A SORTIE
+
+We made a foolish sortie this morning. Only five of us went, the
+others remaining in bed thinking the weather was too bad. It was. When
+at only 3,000 feet we hit a solid layer of clouds, and when we had
+passed through, we couldn't see anything but a shimmering field of
+white. Above were the bright sun and the blue sky, but how we were in
+regard to the earth no one knew. Fortunately the clouds had a big
+hole in them at one point and the whole mass was moving toward the
+lines. By circling, climbing, and dropping we stayed above the hole,
+and, when over the trenches, worked into it, ready to fall on the
+Boches. It's a stunt they use, too. We finally found ourselves 20
+kilometres in the German lines. In coming back I steered by compass
+and then when I thought I was near the field I dived and found myself
+not so far off, having the field in view. In the clouds it shakes
+terribly and one feels as if one were in a canoe on a rough sea.
+
+
+VICTOR CHAPMAN
+
+I was mighty sorry to see old Victor Chapman go. He was one of the
+finest men I've ever known. He was _too_ brave if anything. He was
+exceptionally well educated, had a fine brain, and a heart as big as a
+house. Why, on the day of his fatal trip, he had put oranges in his
+machine to take to Balsley who was lying wounded with an explosive
+bullet. He was going to land near the hospital after the sortie.
+
+Received letter inclosing note from Chapman's father. I'm glad you
+wrote him. I feel sure that some of my letters never reach you. I
+never let more than a week go by without writing. Maybe I do not get
+all yours, either.
+
+
+A SMASH-UP
+
+Weather has been fine and we've been doing a lot of work. Our
+Lieutenant de Laage de Mieux, brought down a Boche. I had another
+beautiful smash-up. Prince and I had stayed too long over the lines.
+Important day as an attack was going on. It was getting dark and we
+could see the tiny balls of fire the infantry light to show the
+low-flying observation machines their new positions. On my return,
+when I was over another aviation field, my motor broke. I made for
+field. In the darkness I couldn't judge my distance well, and went too
+far. At the edge of the field there were trees, and beyond, a deep cut
+where a road ran. I was skimming ground at a hundred miles an hour and
+heading for the trees. I saw soldiers running to be in at the finish
+and I thought to myself that James's hash was cooked, but I went
+between two trees and ended up head on against the opposite bank of
+the road. My motor took the shock and my belt held me. As my tail went
+up it was cut in two by some very low 'phone wires. I wasn't even
+bruised. Took dinner with the officers there who gave me a car to go
+home in afterward.
+
+
+FIGHTING A BOCHE
+
+To-day I shared another chap's machine (Hill of Peekskill), and got it
+shot up for him. De Laage (our lieutenant) and I made a sortie at
+noon. When over the German lines, near _Cote_ 304, I saw two Boches
+under me. I picked out the rear chap and dived. Fired a few shots and
+then tried to get under his tail and hit him from there. I missed, and
+bobbed up alongside of him. Fine for the Boche, but rotten for me! I
+could see his gunner working the mitrailleuse for fair, and felt his
+bullets darn close. I dived, for I could not shoot from that
+position, and beat it. He kept plunking away and altogether put seven
+holes in my machine. One was only ten inches in from me. De Laage was
+too far off to get to the Boche and ruin him while I was amusing him.
+
+Yesterday I motored up to an aviation camp to see a Boche machine that
+had been forced to land and was captured. On the way up I passed a
+cantonment of Senegalese. About twenty of 'em jumped up from the bench
+they were sitting on and gave me the hell of a salute. Thought I was a
+general because I was riding in a car, I guess. They're the blackest
+niggers you ever saw. Good-looking soldiers. Can't stand shelling but
+they're good on the cold steel end of the game. The Boche machine was
+a beauty. Its motor is excellent and she carries a machine gun aft and
+one forward. Same kind of a machine I attacked to-day. The German
+pilots must be mighty cold-footed, for if the Frenchmen had airplanes
+like that they surely would raise the devil with the Boches.
+
+As it is the Boches keep well within their lines, save occasionally,
+and we have to go over and fight them there.
+
+
+KIFFIN ROCKWELL
+
+Poor Kiffin Rockwell has been killed. He was known and admired far
+and wide, and he was accorded extraordinary honours. Fifty English
+pilots and eight hundred aviation men from the British unit in the
+Vosges marched at his funeral. There was a regiment of Territorials
+and a battalion of Colonial troops in addition to the hundreds of
+French pilots and aviation men. Captain Thenault of the American
+Escadrille delivered an exceptionally eulogistic funeral oration. He
+spoke at length of Rockwell's ideals and his magnificent work. He told
+of his combats. "When Rockwell was on the lines," he said, "no German
+passed, but on the contrary was forced to seek a refuge on the
+ground."
+
+Rockwell made the _esprit_ of the escadrille, and the Captain voiced
+the sentiments of us all when, in announcing his death, he said: "The
+best and bravest of us all is no more."
+
+How does the war look to you--as regards duration? We are figuring on
+about ten more months, but then it may be ten more years. Of late
+things are much brighter and one can feel a certain elation in the
+air. Victory, before, was a sort of academic certainty; now, it's
+felt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+HOW FRANCE TRAINS PILOT AVIATORS
+
+
+France now has thousands of men training to become military aviators,
+and the flying schools, of which there is a very great number, are
+turning out pilots at an astounding rate.
+
+The process of training a man to be a pilot aviator naturally varies
+in accordance with the type of machine on which he takes his first
+instruction, and so the methods of the various schools depend on the
+apparatus upon which they teach an _eleve pilote_--as an embryonic
+aviator is called--to fly.
+
+In the case of the larger biplanes, a student goes up in a
+dual-control airplane, accompanied by an old pilot, who, after first
+taking him on many short trips, then allows him part, and later full,
+control, and who immediately corrects any false moves made by him.
+After that, short, straight line flights are made alone in a
+smaller-powered machine by the student, and, following that, the
+training goes on by degrees to the point where a certain mastery of
+the apparatus is attained. Then follows the prescribed "stunts" and
+voyages necessary to obtain the military brevet.
+
+
+TRAINING FOR PURSUIT AIRPLANES
+
+The method of training a pilot for a small, fast _avion de chasse_, as
+a fighting airplane is termed, is quite different, and as it is the
+most thorough and interesting I will take that course up in greater
+detail.
+
+The man who trains for one of these machines never has the advantage
+of going first into the air in a double-control airplane. He is alone
+when he first leaves the earth, and so the training preparatory to
+that stage is very carefully planned to teach a man the habit of
+control in such a way that all the essential movements will come
+naturally when he first finds himself face to face with the new
+problems the air has set for him. In this preparatory training a great
+deal of weeding out is effected, for a man's aptitude for the work
+shows up, and unless he is by nature especially well fitted he is
+transferred to the division which teaches one to fly the larger and
+safer machines.
+
+First of all, the student is put on what is called a roller. It is a
+low-powered machine with very small wings. It is strongly built to
+stand the rough wear it gets, and no matter how much one might try it
+could not leave the ground. The apparatus is jokingly and universally
+known as a Penguin, both because of its humorous resemblance to the
+quaint arctic birds and its inability in common with them to do any
+flying. A student makes a few trips up and down the field in a
+double-control Penguin, and learns how to steer with his feet. Then he
+gets into a single-seated one and, while the rapidly whirling
+propeller is pulling him along, tries to keep the Penguin in a
+straight line. The slightest mistake or delayed movement will send the
+machine skidding off to the right or left, and sometimes, if the motor
+is not stopped in time, over on its side or back. Something is always
+being broken on a Penguin, and so a reserve flock is kept at the side
+of the field in order that no time may be lost.
+
+After one is able to keep a fairly straight line, he is put on a
+Penguin that moves at a faster rate, and after being able to handle it
+successfully passes to a very speedy one, known as the "rapid." Here
+one learns to keep the tail of the machine at a proper angle by means
+of the elevating lever, and to make a perfectly straight line. When
+this has been accomplished and the monitor is thoroughly convinced
+that the student is absolutely certain of making no mistakes in
+guiding with his feet, the young aviator is passed on to the class
+which teaches him how to leave the ground. As one passes from one
+machine to another one finds that the foot movements must be made
+smaller and smaller. The increased speed makes the machine more and
+more responsive to the rudder, and as a result the foot movements
+become so gentle when one gets into the air that they must come
+instinctively.
+
+
+FIRST FLIGHTS ALONE
+
+The class where one will leave the ground has now been reached, and an
+outfit of leather clothes and casque is given to the would-be pilot.
+The machines used at this stage are low-powered monoplanes of the
+Bleriot type, which, though being capable of leaving the ground,
+cannot rise more than a few feet. They do not run when the wind is
+blowing or when there are any movements of air from the ground, for
+though a great deal of balancing is done by correcting with the
+rudder, the student knows nothing of maintaining the lateral
+stability, and if caught in the air by a bad movement would be apt to
+sustain a severe accident. He has now only to learn how to take the
+machine off the ground and hold it at a low line of flight for a few
+moments.
+
+For the first time one is strapped into the seat of the machine, and
+this continues to be the case from this point on. The motor is
+started, and one begins to roll swiftly along the ground. The tail is
+brought to an angle slightly above a straight line. Then one sits
+tight and waits. Suddenly the motion seems softer, the motor does not
+roar so loudly, and the ground is slipping away. The class standing at
+the end of the line looks far below; the individuals are very small,
+but though you imagine you are going too high, you must not push to go
+down more than the smallest fraction, or the machine will dive and
+smash. The small push has brought you down with a bump from a
+seemingly great height. In reality you have been but three feet off
+the ground. Little by little the student becomes accustomed to leaving
+the ground, for these short hop-skip-and-jump flights, and has learned
+how to steer in the air.
+
+If he has no bad smash-ups he is passed on to a class where he rises
+higher, and is taught the rudiments of landing. If, after a few days,
+that act is reasonably performed and the young pilot does not land too
+hard, he is passed to the class where he goes about sixty feet high,
+maintains his line of flight for five or six minutes and learns to
+make a good landing from that height. He must by this time be able to
+keep his machine on the line of flight without dipping and rising, and
+the landings must be uniformly good. The instructor takes a great deal
+of time showing the student the proper line of descent, for the
+landings must be perfect before he can pass on.
+
+Now comes the class where the pilot rises three or four hundred feet
+high and travels for more than two miles in a straight line. Here he
+is taught how to combat air movements and maintain lateral stability.
+All the flying up to this point has been done in a straight line, but
+now comes the class where one is taught to turn. Machines in this
+division are almost as high powered as a regular flying machine, and
+can easily climb to two thousand feet. The turn is at first very wide,
+and then, as the student becomes more confident, it is done more
+quickly, and while the machine leans at an angle that would frighten
+one if the training in turning had not been gradual. When the pilot
+can make reasonably close right and left turns, he is told to make
+figure eights. After doing this well he is sent to the real flying
+machines.
+
+There is nothing in the way of a radical step from the turns and
+figure eights to the real flying machines. It is a question of
+becoming at ease in the better and faster airplanes taking greater
+altitudes, making little trips, perfecting landings, and mastering all
+the movements of correction that one is forced to make. Finally one is
+taught how to shut off and start one's motor again in the air, and
+then to go to a certain height, shut off the motor, make a half-turn
+while dropping and start the motor again. After this, one climbs to
+about two thousand feet and, shutting off the motor, spirals down to
+within five hundred feet of the ground. When that has been practised
+sufficiently, a registering altitude meter is strapped to the pilot's
+back and he essays the official spiral, in which one must spiral all
+the way to earth with the motor off, and come to a stop within a few
+yards of a fixed point on the aviation grounds. After this, the
+student passes to the voyage machines, which are of almost twice the
+power of the machine used for the short trips and spirals.
+
+
+TESTS FOR THE MILITARY BREVET
+
+There are three voyages to make. Two consist in going to designated
+towns an hour or so distant and returning. The third voyage is a
+triangle. A landing is made at one point and the other two points are
+only necessary to cross. In addition, there are two altitudes of about
+seven thousand feet each that one has to attain either while on the
+voyages or afterward.
+
+The young pilot has not, up to this point, had any experience on
+trips, and there is always a sense of adventure in starting out over
+unknown country with only a roller map to guide one and the gauges and
+controls, which need constant attention, to distract one from the
+reading of the chart. Then, too, it is the first time that the student
+has flown free and at a great height over the earth, and his sense of
+exultation at navigating at will the boundless sky causes him to
+imagine he is a real pilot. True it is that when the voyages and
+altitudes are over, and his examinations in aeronautical sciences
+passed, the student becomes officially a _pilote-aviateur_, and he can
+wear two little gold-woven wings on his collar to designate his
+capacity, and carry a winged propeller emblem on his arm, but he is
+not ready for the difficult work of the front, and before he has time
+to enjoy more than a few days' rest he is sent to a school of
+_perfectionnement_. There the real, serious and thorough training
+begins.
+
+Schools where the pilots are trained on the modern machines--_ecoles
+de perfectionnement_ as they are called--are usually an annex to the
+centres where the soldiers are taught to fly, though there are one or
+two camps that are devoted exclusively to giving advanced instruction
+to aviators who are to fly the _avions de chasse_, or fighting
+machines. When the aviator enters one of these schools he is a
+breveted pilot, and he is allowed a little more freedom than he
+enjoyed during the time he was learning to fly.
+
+He now takes up the Morane monoplane. It is interesting to note that
+the German Fokker is practically a copy of this machine. After flying
+for a while on a low-powered Morane and having mastered the landing,
+the pilot is put on a new, higher-powered model of the same make. He
+has a good many hours of flying, but his trips are very short, for the
+whole idea is to familiarize one with the method of landing. The
+Bleriot has a landing gear that is elastic in action, and it is easy
+to bring to earth. The Nieuport and other makes of small, fast
+machines for which the pilot is training have a solid wheel base, and
+good landings are much more difficult to make. The Morane pilot has
+the same practices climbing to small altitudes around eight thousand
+feet and picking his landing from that height with motor off. When he
+becomes proficient in flying the single- and double-plane types he
+leaves the school for another, where shooting with machine guns is
+taught.
+
+This course in shooting familiarizes one with various makes of machine
+guns used on airplanes, and one learns to shoot at targets from the
+air. After two or three weeks the pilot is sent to another school of
+combat.
+
+
+TRICK FLYING AND DOING STUNTS
+
+These schools of combat are connected with the _ecoles de
+perfectionnement_ with which the pilot has finished. In the combat
+school he learns battle tactics, how to fight singly and in fleet
+formation, and how to extract himself from a too dangerous position.
+Trips are made in squadron formation and sham battles are effected
+with other escadrilles, as the smallest unit of an aerial fleet is
+called. For the first time the pilot is allowed to do fancy flying. He
+is taught how to loop the loop, slide on his wings or tail, go into
+corkscrews and, more important, to get out of them, and is encouraged
+to try new stunts.
+
+Finally the pilot is considered well enough trained to be sent to the
+reserve, where he waits his call to the front. At the reserve he flies
+to keep his hand in, practises on any new make of machine that happens
+to come out or that he may be put on in place of the Nieuport, and
+receives information regarding old and new makes of enemy airplanes.
+
+At last the pilot receives his call to the front, where he takes his
+place in some established or newly formed escadrille. He is given a
+new machine from the nearest airplane reserve centre, and he then
+begins his active service in the war, which, if he survives the
+course, is the best school of them all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+AGAINST ODDS
+
+
+Since the publication of previous editions of "Flying for France" we
+have obtained the following letters which add greatly to the interest
+and complete the record of McConnell's connection with the Lafayette
+Escadrille.
+
+
+
+_March 19, 1917._
+
+DEAR PAUL:
+
+We are passing through some very interesting times. The boches are in
+full retreat, offering very little resistance to the English and
+French advance. The boches have systematically destroyed all the towns
+and villages abandoned. Where they haven't burned a house, they have
+made holes through the roofs with pickaxes. All the cross-roads are
+blown up at the junctions, and when the trees bordering the roads
+haven't been cut down, barricading the roads, they have been cut half
+way through so that when the wind blows they keep falling on the
+passing convoys. The inhabitants left in these villages are wild with
+delight and are giving the troops an inspiring reception. In one town
+the boches raped all the women before leaving, then locked them down
+cellar, and carried off all the young girls with them.
+
+We have been flying low, and watching the cavalry overrunning the
+country. The boches are retreating to very strongly fortified
+positions, where the advance is going to come up against a stone wall.
+
+This morning Genet and McConnell flew well ahead of the advancing
+army, Mac leading. Genet saw two boche planes maneuvering to get
+above them, so he began to climb, too. Finally they got together; the
+boche was a biplane and had the edge on Genet. Almost the first shot
+got Genet in the cheek. Fortunately it was only a deep flesh wound,
+and another shot almost broke the stanchion, which supports the wings,
+in two. Genet stuck to the boche and opened fire on him. He knows he
+hit the machine and at one time he thought he saw the machine on fire,
+but nothing happened. At last the boche had Genet in a bad position,
+so he (Genet) piqued down about a thousand meters and got away from
+the boche. He looked around for Mac but couldn't find him, so he came
+home. Mac hasn't yet shown up and we are frightfully worried. Genet
+has a dim recollection that when he attacked the boche, the other
+boche piqued down in Mac's direction, and it looks as if the boche got
+Mac unawares. Late this afternoon we got a report that this morning a
+Nieuport was seen to land near Tergnier, which is unfortunately still
+in German hands. This must have been Mac's, in which case he is only
+wounded, or perhaps only his machine was badly damaged. There is a
+general feeling among us that Mac is all right. The French cavalry are
+within ten or fifteen kilometers of Tergnier now and perhaps they will
+take the place to-morrow, in which case we will certainly learn
+something. This afternoon Lieut. de Laage and Lufbery landed at Ham,
+where the advance infantry were, and made a lot of inquiries. It was
+near this place where the fight started. Nobody had seen any machine
+come down. You may be sure I will keep you informed of everything that
+turns up. Genet is going to write you in a day or so.
+
+Sincerely,
+
+WALTER (signed Walter Lovell).
+
+P. S. I apologize for the mistakes and the disconnectedness of this
+letter, but I wrote it in frightful haste in order to get it in the
+first post.
+
+
+
+_March 20, 1917._
+
+MY DEAR ROCKWELL:
+
+I do not know if any of the boys have written you about the
+disappearance of Jim, so perhaps you might know something about it
+when this letter reaches you.
+
+He left yesterday at 8:45 a.m. in his machine for the German lines,
+and has not returned yet. He and Genet were attacked by two Germans,
+the latter, who received a slight wound on the cheek, was so occupied
+he did not see what became of Jim, and returned without him.
+
+The combat took place between Ham and St. Quentin; the territory was
+still occupied by the enemy when the combat took place. The worst I
+hope has happened to our friend is that perhaps he was wounded and was
+forced to land in the enemy's lines and was made prisoner. Nothing
+definite is known. I shall write you immediately I get news.
+
+I am extremely worried. To lose my friend would be a severe blow. I
+can't and will not believe that anything serious has happened.
+
+Best wishes,
+
+Sincerely,
+
+E. A. MARSHALL.
+
+
+
+_Escadrille N. 124, Secteur Postal 182,_
+ _March 21, 1917._
+
+MY DEAR PAUL:
+
+Had I been feeling less distressed and miserable on Monday morning, or
+during yesterday, I would have written you then, but I told Lovell to
+tell you how I felt when he wrote on Monday and that I would try and
+write in a day or so. I am not feeling much better mentally but I'll
+try and write something, for I am the only one who was out with poor
+Mac on Monday morning and it just adds that much more to my distress.
+
+As you know, we have had a big advance here, due to the deliberate
+evacuation by the Germans, without much opposition, of the territory
+now in the hands of the French and English. The advance began last
+Thursday night and each day has brought the lines closer to Saint
+Quentin and the region north and south of it.
+
+On Monday morning Mac, Parsons, and myself went out at nine o'clock on
+the third patrol of the escadrille. We had orders to protect
+observation machines along the new lines around the region of Ham. Mac
+was leader. I came second and Parsons followed me. Before we had gone
+very far Parsons was forced to go back on account of motor trouble,
+which handicapped us greatly on account of what followed, but of
+course that cannot be remedied because Parsons was perfectly right in
+returning when his motor was not running well. We all do that one time
+or another.
+
+Mac and I kept on and up to ten o'clock were circling around the
+region of Ham, watching out for the heavier machines doing
+reconnoitring work below us. We went higher than a thousand meters
+during that time. About ten, for some reason or other of his own, Mac
+suddenly headed into the German lines toward Saint Quentin and I
+naturally followed close to his rear and above him. Perhaps he wanted
+to make observations around Saint Quentin. At any rate, we had gotten
+north of Ham and quite inside the hostile lines, when I saw two boche
+machines crossing towards us from the region of Saint Quentin at an
+altitude quite higher than ours. We were then about 1,600 meters. I
+supposed Mac saw them the same as I did. One boche was much farther
+ahead than the other, and was headed as if he would dive at any moment
+on Mac. I glanced ahead at Mac and saw what direction he was taking,
+and then pulled back to climb up as quickly as possible to gain an
+advantageous height over the nearest boche. It was cloudy and misty
+and I had to keep my eyes on him all the time, so naturally I couldn't
+watch Mac. The second boche was still much farther off than his mate.
+By this time I had gotten to 2,200, the boche was almost up to me and
+taking a diagonal course right in front. He started to circle and his
+gunner--it was a biplane, probably an Albatross, although the mist was
+too thick and dark for me to see much but the bare outline of his
+dirty, dark green body, with white and black crosses--opened fire
+before I did and his first volley did some damage. One bullet cut the
+left central support of my upper wing in half, an explosive bullet cut
+in half the left guiding rod of the left aileron, and I was
+momentarily stunned by part of it which dug a nasty gouge into my left
+cheek. I had already opened fire and was driving straight for the
+boche with teeth set and my hand gripping the triggers making a
+veritable stream of fire spitting out of my gun at him, as I had
+incendiary bullets, it being my job lately to chase after observation
+balloons, and on Saturday morning I had also been up after the
+reported Zeppelins. I had to keep turning toward the boche every
+second, as he was circling around towards me and I was on the inside
+of the circle, so his gunner had all the advantage over me. I thought
+I had him on fire for one instant as I saw--or supposed I did--flames
+on his fuselage. Everything passed in a few seconds and we swung past
+each other in opposite directions at scarcely twenty-five meters from
+each other--the boche beating off towards the north and I immediately
+dived down in the opposite direction wondering every second whether
+the broken wing support would hold together or not and feeling weak
+and stunned from the hole in my face. A battery opened a heavy fire on
+me as I went down, the shells breaking just behind me. I straightened
+out over Ham at a thousand meters, and began to circle around to look
+for Mac or the other boche, but saw absolutely nothing the entire
+fifteen minutes I stayed there. I was fearful every minute that my
+whole top wing would come off, and I thought that possibly Mac had
+gotten around toward the west over our lines, missed me, and was
+already on his way back to camp. So I finally turned back for our
+camp, having to fly very low and against a strong northern wind, on
+account of low clouds just forming. I got back at a quarter to eleven
+and my first question to my mechanic was: "Has McConnell returned?"
+
+He hadn't, Paul, and no news of any sort have we had of him yet,
+although we hoped and prayed every hour yesterday for some word to
+come in. The one hope that we have is that on account of this
+continued advance some news will be brought in of Mac through
+civilians who might have witnessed his flight over the lines north of
+Ham, while they were still in the hands of the enemy, for many of the
+civilians in the villages around there are being left by the Germans
+as they retire. We can likewise hope that Mac was merely forced to
+land inside the enemy lines on account of a badly damaged machine, or
+a bad wound, and is well but a prisoner. I wish to God, Paul, that I
+had been able to see Mac during his combat, or had been able to get
+down to him sooner and help him. The mists were thick, and
+consequently seeing far was difficult. I would have gone out that
+afternoon to look for him but my machine was so damaged it took until
+yesterday afternoon to be repaired. Lieut. de Laage and Lufbery did
+go out with their Spads and looked all around the region north of Ham
+towards Saint Quentin but saw nothing at all of a Nieuport on the
+ground, or anything else to give news of what had occurred.
+
+The French are still not far enough towards Saint Quentin to be on the
+territory where the chances are Mac landed, so we'll still have to
+wait for to-day's developments for any possibility of news. I got lots
+of hope, Paul, that Mac is at least alive although undoubtedly a
+prisoner. I know how badly the news has affected you. We're all
+feeling mighty blue over it and as for myself--I'm feeling utterly
+miserable over the whole affair. Just as soon as any definite news
+comes in I'll surely let you know at once. Meanwhile, keep cheered and
+hopeful. There's no use in losing hope yet. If a prisoner Mac may even
+be able to escape and return to our lines, on account of the very
+unsettled state of the retreating Germans. Others have done so under
+much less favorable conditions.
+
+I hope you are having a very enjoyable trip through the South. Walter
+showed me the postal you wrote him, which he received yesterday.
+Please give my very warm regards to your wife. Write as soon as you
+can, too.
+
+Very faithfully yours,
+
+EDMOND C. C. GENET.
+
+
+
+_March 22, 1917._
+
+MY DEAR ROCKWELL:
+
+Still no news about Jim. Last night the captain sent out a request to
+the military authorities to have our troops advancing in the direction
+of Saint Quentin report immediately any particulars about avion 2055.
+Even now I cannot reconcile myself concerning Jim's fate. I hope he
+has been made prisoner.
+
+Just a few words about myself. I am awaiting the results of my
+friends' actions in the States on my behalf. I am placed in a peculiar
+position in the escadrille. I have nothing to do here. Shall I take
+care of Jim's belongings?
+
+Best wishes,
+
+Sincerely,
+
+E. A. MARSHALL.
+
+
+
+_Escadrille N. 124, Secteur Postal 182,_
+ _March 23, 1917._
+
+DEAR PAUL:
+
+In my letter I promised to send you word as soon as any definite news
+came in concerning poor Mac. To-day word came in from a group of
+French cavalry that they witnessed our fight on Monday morning and
+that they saw Mac brought down inside the German lines towards Saint
+Quentin after being attacked by two boche machines and at the same
+time they saw me fighting a third one higher than Mac, and that just
+as I piqued down Mac fell so there were three boche machines instead
+of two, as I supposed, having missed seeing the third one on account
+of the heavy clouds and mist around us.
+
+There is still the hope that Mac wasn't killed but only wounded and a
+prisoner. If he is we'll learn of it later. The cavalrymen didn't say
+whether he came down normally or fell. Possibly he was too far off
+really to tell definitely about that. Certainly he had been already
+brought down before I could get down to help him after the boche I
+attacked beat it off. Had I known there were three boche machines I
+certainly would not have played around that boche at such a distance
+from Mac.
+
+When will Mrs. Weeks return to Paris from the States? Will you write
+and tell her about Mac? She'll be mighty well grieved to hear of it, I
+know, and you'll be the best one to break it to her.
+
+Write to me soon. Best regards to Mrs. Rockwell.
+
+E. GENET.
+
+
+
+_March 24th, a. m._
+ _C. Aeronatique, Noyon & D. C. 13._
+
+MY DEAR ROCKWELL:
+
+The targe element informs us that it has found, in the environs of the
+Bois l'Abbe, a Nieuport No. 2055. The aviator, a sergeant, has been
+dead since three days, in the opinion of the doctor. His pockets
+appear to have been searched, for no papers were found on him. The
+Bois l'Abbe is two kilometers south of Jussy. The above message
+received by us at ten o'clock last night. Jussy is on the main road
+between Saint Quentin and Chauny. I expect to go back to the infantry
+soon.
+
+Sincerely, E. A. MARSHALL.
+
+
+
+_Escadrille N. 124, Secteur Postal 182,_
+ _March 25, 1917._
+
+DEAR PAUL:
+
+The evening before last definite news was brought to us that a badly
+smashed Nieuport had been found by French troops, beside which was the
+body of a sergeant-pilot which had been there at least three days and
+had been stripped of all identification papers, flying clothes and
+even the boots. They got the number of the machine, which proved
+without further question that it was poor Mac. They gave the location
+as being at the little village of Petit Detroit, which is just south
+of Flavy-le-Martel, the latter place being about ten kilometers east
+of Ham on the railroad running from Ham to La Fere.
+
+After having made a flight over the lines yesterday morning, I went
+down around Petit Detroit to locate the machine. There was no decent
+place there on which to land so I circled around over it for a few
+minutes to see in which condition it (the Nieuport) was. The machine
+was scarcely distinguishable so badly had it smashed into the ground,
+and there is scarcely any doubt, Paul, that Mac was killed while
+having his fight in the air, as no pilot would have attempted to land
+a machine in the tiny rotten field--no more than a little orchard
+beside the road--voluntarily. It seems almost certain that he struck
+the ground with full motor on. Captain Thenault landed some distance
+from there that he might go over there in a car and see just what
+could be done about poor Mac's body. When he returned last night he
+told us the following:
+
+Mac, he said, was as badly mangled as the machine and had been
+relieved of his flying suit by the damned boches, also of his shoes
+and all papers. The machine had struck the ground so hard that it was
+half buried, the motor being totally in the earth and the rest,
+including even the machine gun, completely smashed. It was just beside
+the main road, in a small field containing apple trees cut down by the
+retreating boches, and just at the southern edge of the village.
+
+Mac has been buried right there beside the road, and we will see that
+the grave is decently marked with a cross, etc. The captain brought
+back a square piece of canvas cut from one of the wings, and we are
+going to get a good picture we have of Mac enlarged and placed on this
+with a frame. I suppose that Thaw or Johnson will attend to the
+belongings of Mac which he had written are to be sent to you to care
+for. In the letter which he had left for just such an occasion as this
+he concludes with the following words: "Good luck to the rest of you.
+God damn Germany and vive la France!"
+
+All honour to him, Paul. The world will look up to him, as well as
+France, for whom he died so gloriously, just as it is looking up to
+your fine brother and the rest of us who have given their lives so
+freely and gladly for this big cause.
+
+Warmest regards, etc.,
+
+Faithfully,
+
+EDMOND C. C. GENET.
+
+P. S. The captain has already put in a proposal for a citation for
+Mac, and also one for me. Mac surely deserved it, and lots more too.
+
+
+
+_Escadrille N. 124, S. P. 182,_
+ _March 27, 1917._
+
+DEAR PAUL:
+
+I got your postcard to-day and would have written you sooner about
+poor Jim but haven't been up to it, which I know you understand.
+
+It hit me pretty hard, Paul, for as you know we were in school and
+college together, and for the last four or five years have been very
+intimate, living in N.C. and New York together.
+
+It's hell, Paul, that all the good boys are being picked off. The
+damned Huns have raised hell with the old crowd, but I think we have
+given them more than we have received. The boys who have gone made
+the name for the escadrille and now it's up to us who are left
+(especially the old Verdun crowd) to keep her going and make the
+boches suffer.
+
+Like old Kiffin, Mac died gloriously and in full action. It was in a
+fight with three Germans in their lines. Genet took one Hun (and was
+wounded). The last he saw was a Hun on Mac's back. Later we learned
+from the cavalry that there were two on Mac and after a desperate
+fight Mac crashed to the ground. This was the 19th of March. Three
+days later we took the territory Mac fell in and they were unable to
+distinguish who he was. The swine Huns had taken every paper or piece
+of identification from him and also robbed him--even took his shoes.
+The captain went over and was able to identify him by the number of
+his machine and uniform. He had lain out there three days and was
+smashed so terribly that you couldn't recognize his face. He was
+buried where he fell in a coffin made from the door of a pillaged
+house. His last resting place (and where he fell) is "Petit Detroit,"
+which is a village southwest of Saint Quentin and north of Chauney. He
+is buried just at the southeast end of the village and in a hell of a
+small town.
+
+Jim left a letter of which I am copying the important parts:
+
+"In case of my death or made prisoner--which is worse--please send my
+canteen and what money I have on me, or coming to me [he had none on
+him as the Huns lifted that] to Mr. Paul A. Rockwell, 80 rue, etc.
+Shoes, tools, wearing apparel, etc., you can give away. The rest of my
+things, such as diary, photos, souvenirs, croix de guerre, best
+uniform [he had best uniform on and I think the croix de
+guerre--however, you may find the latter in his things, his other
+uniform can't be found], please put in canteen and ship along.
+
+"Kindly cable my sister, Mrs. Followsbee, 65 Bellevue Place, Chicago.
+It would be kind to follow same by a letter telling about my death
+[which I am doing].
+
+"I have a box trunk in Paris containing belongings I would like to
+send home. Paul R. knows about it and can attend to the shipping. I
+would appreciate it if the committee of the American Escad. would pay
+to Mr. Paul Rockwell the money needed to cover express.
+
+"My burial is of no import. Make it as easy as possible for
+yourselves. I have no religion and do not care for any service. If the
+omission would embarrass you I presume I could stand the performance.
+[Note Jim's keen sense of humour even to death instructions.]
+
+"Good luck to the rest of you. God damn Germany and vive la France.
+
+"Signed,
+
+"J. R. McCONNELL."
+
+Jim had on the day of his death been proposed for the Croix de Guerre
+with palm. When it comes I shall send it to you.
+
+Well, Paul, I have told you everything I can think of, but if there
+are any omissions or questions don't hesitate to ask.
+
+I think we are now beginning to see the beginning of the end. The
+devastation, destruction and misery the Huns have left is a
+disgraceful crime to civilization and is pitiful. It drives me so
+furious I can't talk about it.
+
+Best regards to you, old boy, and luck. All join in the above. I shall
+wind up the same as Jim.
+
+As always,
+
+CHOUT (Charles Chouteau Johnson).
+
+P. S. Steve Biglow is taking canteen to your place in Paris to-morrow,
+so you will find it there upon your return.
+
+C. C. J.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, FLYING FOR FRANCE ***
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Flying for France, by James R. McConnell
+
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+Title: Flying for France
+
+Author: James R. McConnell
+
+Release Date: November, 2004  [EBook #6977]
+[This file was first posted on February 19, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: iso-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, FLYING FOR FRANCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Paul Hollander, Juliet Sutherland, Linton Dawe, Charles Franks
+
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+FLYING FOR FRANCE
+
+With the American Escadrille at Verdun
+
+
+
+
+BY
+
+JAMES R. McCONNELL
+
+Sergeant-Pilot in the French Flying Corps
+
+
+
+
+Illustrated from photographs through the kindness
+of Mr. Paul Rockwell
+
+
+
+
+To
+
+MRS. ALICE S. WEEKS
+
+Who having lost a splendid son in the French Army has given to a great
+number of us other Americans in the war the tender sympathy and help
+of a mother.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+Introduction
+ By F. C. P.
+
+CHAPTER
+
+  I. Verdun
+ II. From Verdun to the Somme
+III. Personal Letters from Sergeant McConnell
+ IV. How France Trains Pilot Aviators
+  V. Against Odds
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+James R. McConnell _Frontispiece_
+
+Some of the Americans Who are Flying for France
+
+Two Members of the American Escadrille, of the French Flying Service,
+Who Were Killed Flying For France
+
+"Whiskey." The Lion and Mascot of the American Flying Squadron in
+France
+
+Kiffin Rockwell, of Asheville, N.C., Who Was Killed in an Air Duel
+Over Verdun
+
+Sergeant Lufbery in one of the New Nieuports in Which He Convoyed the
+Bombardment Fleet Which Attacked Oberndorf
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+One day in January, 1915, I saw Jim McConnell in front of the Court
+House at Carthage, North Carolina. "Well," he said, "I'm all fixed up
+and am leaving on Wednesday." "Where for?" I asked. "I've got a job to
+drive an ambulance in France," was his answer.
+
+And then he went on to tell me, first, that as he saw it the greatest
+event in history was going on right at hand and that he would be
+missing the opportunity of a lifetime if he did not see it. "These
+Sand Hills," he said "will be here forever, but the war won't; and so
+I'm going." Then, as an afterthought, he added: "And I'll be of some
+use, too, not just a sight-seer looking on; that wouldn't be fair."
+
+So he went. He joined the American ambulance service in the Vosges,
+was mentioned more than once in the orders of the day for conspicuous
+bravery in saving wounded under fire, and received the much-coveted
+Croix de Guerre.
+
+Meanwhile, he wrote interesting letters home. And his point of view
+changed, even as does the point of view of all Americans who visit
+Europe. From the attitude of an adventurous spirit anxious to see the
+excitement, his letters showed a new belief that any one who goes to
+France and is not able and willing to do more than his share--to give
+everything in him toward helping the wounded and suffering--has no
+business there.
+
+And as time went on, still a new note crept into his letters; the
+first admiration for France was strengthened and almost replaced by a
+new feeling--a profound conviction that France and the French people
+were fighting the fight of liberty against enormous odds. The new
+spirit of France--the spirit of the "Marseillaise," strengthened by a
+grim determination and absolute certainty of being right--pervades
+every line he writes. So he gave up the ambulance service and enlisted
+in the French flying corps along with an ever-increasing number of
+other Americans.
+
+The spirit which pervades them is something above the spirit of
+adventure that draws many to war; it is the spirit of a man who has
+found an inspiring duty toward the advancement of liberty and humanity
+and is glad and proud to contribute what he can.
+
+His last letters bring out a new point--the assurance of victory of a
+just cause. "Of late," he writes, "things are much brighter and one
+can feel a certain elation in the air. Victory, before, was a sort of
+academic certainty; now, it is felt."
+
+F. C. P.
+
+November 10, 1916.
+
+
+
+
+FLYING FOR FRANCE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+VERDUN
+
+
+Beneath the canvas of a huge hangar mechanicians are at work on the
+motor of an airplane. Outside, on the borders of an aviation field,
+others loiter awaiting their aërial charge's return from the sky. Near
+the hangar stands a hut-shaped tent. In front of it several
+short-winged biplanes are lined up; inside it three or four young men
+are lolling in wicker chairs.
+
+They wear the uniform of French army aviators. These uniforms, and the
+grim-looking machine guns mounted on the upper planes of the little
+aircraft, are the only warlike note in a pleasantly peaceful scene.
+The war seems very remote. It is hard to believe that the greatest of
+all battles--Verdun--rages only twenty-five miles to the north, and
+that the field and hangars and mechanicians and aviators and airplanes
+are all playing a part therein.
+
+Suddenly there is the distant hum of a motor. One of the pilots
+emerges from the tent and gazes fixedly up into the blue sky. He
+points, and one glimpses a black speck against the blue, high
+overhead. The sound of the motor ceases, and the speck grows larger.
+It moves earthward in steep dives and circles, and as it swoops
+closer, takes on the shape of an airplane. Now one can make out the
+red, white, and blue circles under the wings which mark a French
+war-plane, and the distinctive insignia of the pilot on its sides.
+
+"_Ton patron arrive!_" one mechanician cries to another. "Your boss is
+coming!"
+
+The machine dips sharply over the top of a hangar, straightens out
+again near the earth at a dizzy speed a few feet above it and, losing
+momentum in a surprisingly short time, hits the ground with tail and
+wheels. It bumps along a score of yards and then, its motor whirring
+again, turns, rolls toward the hangar, and stops. A human form,
+enveloped in a species of garment for all the world like a diver's
+suit, and further adorned with goggles and a leather hood, rises
+unsteadily in the cockpit, clambers awkwardly overboard and slides
+down to terra firma.
+
+A group of soldiers, enjoying a brief holiday from the trenches in a
+cantonment near the field, straggle forward and gather timidly about
+the airplane, listening open-mouthed for what its rider is about to
+say.
+
+"Hell!" mumbles that gentleman, as he starts divesting himself of his
+flying garb.
+
+"What's wrong now?" inquires one of the tenants of the tent.
+
+"Everything, or else I've gone nutty," is the indignant reply,
+delivered while disengaging a leg from its Teddy Bear trousering.
+"Why, I emptied my whole roller on a Boche this morning, point blank
+at not fifteen metres off. His machine gun quit firing and his
+propeller wasn't turning and yet the darn fool just hung up there as
+if he were tied to a cloud. Say, I was so sure I had him it made me
+sore--felt like running into him and yelling, 'Now, you fall, you
+bum!'"
+
+The eyes of the _poilus_ register surprise. Not a word of this
+dialogue, delivered in purest American, is intelligible to them. Why
+is an aviator in a French uniform speaking a foreign tongue, they
+mutually ask themselves. Finally one of them, a little chap in a
+uniform long since bleached of its horizon-blue colour by the mud of
+the firing line, whisperingly interrogates a mechanician as to the
+identity of these strange air folk.
+
+"But they are the Americans, my old one," the latter explains with
+noticeable condescension.
+
+Marvelling afresh, the infantrymen demand further details. They learn
+that they are witnessing the return of the American Escadrille--composed
+of Americans who have volunteered to fly for France for the duration
+of the war--to their station near Bar-le-Duc, twenty-five miles south
+of Verdun, from a flight over the battle front of the Meuse. They have
+barely had time to digest this knowledge when other dots appear in the
+sky, and one by one turn into airplanes as they wheel downward.
+Finally all six of the machines that have been aloft are back on the
+ground and the American Escadrille has one more sortie over the German
+lines to its credit.
+
+
+PERSONNEL OF THE ESCADRILLE
+
+Like all worth-while institutions, the American Escadrille, of which I
+have the honour of being a member, was of gradual growth. When the war
+began, it is doubtful whether anybody anywhere envisaged the
+possibility of an American entering the French aviation service. Yet,
+by the fall of 1915, scarcely more than a year later, there were six
+Americans serving as full-fledged pilots, and now, in the summer of
+1916, the list numbers fifteen or more, with twice that number
+training for their pilot's license in the military aviation schools.
+
+The pioneer of them all was William Thaw, of Pittsburg, who is to-day
+the only American holding a commission in the French flying corps.
+Lieutenant Thaw, a flyer of considerable reputation in America before
+the war, had enlisted in the Foreign Legion in August, 1914. With
+considerable difficulty he had himself transferred, in the early part
+of 1915, into aviation, and the autumn of that year found him piloting
+a Caudron biplane, and doing excellent observation work. At the same
+time, Sergeants Norman Prince, of Boston, and Elliot Cowdin, of New
+York--who were the first to enter the aviation service coming directly
+from the United States--were at the front on Voisin planes with a
+cannon mounted in the bow.
+
+Sergeant Bert Hall, who signs from the Lone Star State and had got
+himself shifted from the Foreign Legion to aviation soon after Thaw,
+was flying a Nieuport fighting machine, and, a little later,
+instructing less-advanced students of the air in the Avord Training
+School. His particular chum in the Foreign Legion, James Bach, who
+also had become an aviator, had the distressing distinction soon after
+he reached the front of becoming the first American to fall into the
+hands of the enemy. Going to the assistance of a companion who had
+broken down in landing a spy in the German lines, Bach smashed his
+machine against a tree. Both he and his French comrade were captured,
+and Bach was twice court-martialed by the Germans on suspicion of
+being an American _franc-tireur_--the penalty for which is death! He
+was acquitted but of course still languishes in a prison camp
+"somewhere in Germany." The sixth of the original sextet was Adjutant
+Didier Masson, who did exhibition flying in the States until--Carranza
+having grown ambitious in Mexico--he turned his talents to spotting
+_los Federales_ for General Obregon. When the real war broke out,
+Masson answered the call of his French blood and was soon flying and
+fighting for the land of his ancestors.
+
+Of the other members of the escadrille Sergeant Givas Lufbery,
+American citizen and soldier, but dweller in the world at large, was
+among the earliest to wear the French airman's wings. Exhibition work
+with a French pilot in the Far East prepared him efficiently for the
+task of patiently unloading explosives on to German military centres
+from a slow-moving Voisin which was his first mount. Upon the heels
+of Lufbery came two more graduates of the Foreign Legion--Kiffin
+Rockwell, of Asheville, N.C., who had been wounded at Carency; Victor
+Chapman, of New York, who after recovering from his wounds became an
+airplane bomb-dropper and so caught the craving to become a pilot. At
+about this time one Paul Pavelka, whose birthplace was Madison, Conn.,
+and who from the age of fifteen had sailed the seven seas, managed to
+slip out of the Foreign Legion into aviation and joined the other
+Americans at Pau.
+
+There seems to be a fascination to aviation, particularly when it is
+coupled with fighting. Perhaps it's because the game is new, but more
+probably because as a rule nobody knows anything about it. Whatever be
+the reason, adventurous young Americans were attracted by it in
+rapidly increasing numbers. Many of them, of course, never got
+fascinated beyond the stage of talking about joining. Among the chaps
+serving with the American ambulance field sections a good many
+imaginations were stirred, and a few actually did enlist, when, toward
+the end of the summer of 1915, the Ministry of War, finding that the
+original American pilots had made good, grew more liberal in
+considering applications.
+
+Chouteau Johnson, of New York; Lawrence Rumsey, of Buffalo; Dudley
+Hill, of Peekskill, N.Y.; and Clyde Balsley, of El Paso; one after
+another doffed the ambulance driver's khaki for the horizon-blue of
+the French flying corps. All of them had seen plenty of action,
+collecting the wounded under fire, but they were all tired of being
+non-combatant spectators. More or less the same feeling actuated me,
+I suppose. I had come over from Carthage, N.C., in January, 1915, and
+worked with an American ambulance section in the Bois-le-Prêtre. All
+along I had been convinced that the United States ought to aid in the
+struggle against Germany. With that conviction, it was plainly up to
+me to do more than drive an ambulance. The more I saw the splendour of
+the fight the French were fighting, the more I felt like an
+_embusqué_--what the British call a "shirker." So I made up my mind to
+go into aviation.
+
+A special channel had been created for the reception of applications
+from Americans, and my own was favourably replied to within a few
+days. It took four days more to pass through all the various
+departments, sign one's name to a few hundred papers, and undergo the
+physical examinations. Then I was sent to the aviation depot at Dijon
+and fitted out with a uniform and personal equipment. The next stop
+was the school at Pau, where I was to be taught to fly. My elation at
+arriving there was second only to my satisfaction at being a French
+soldier. It was a vast improvement, I thought, in the American
+Ambulance.
+
+Talk about forming an all-American flying unit, or escadrille, was
+rife while I was at Pau. What with the pilots already breveted, and
+the élèves, or pupils in the training-schools, there were quite enough
+of our compatriots to man the dozen airplanes in one escadrille. Every
+day somebody "had it absolutely straight" that we were to become a
+unit at the front, and every other day the report turned out to be
+untrue. But at last, in the month of February, our dream came true. We
+learned that a captain had actually been assigned to command an
+American escadrille and that the Americans at the front had been
+recalled and placed under his orders. Soon afterward we élèves got
+another delightful thrill.
+
+
+THREE TYPES OF FRENCH AIR SERVICE
+
+Thaw, Prince, Cowdin, and the other veterans were training on the
+Nieuport! That meant the American Escadrille was to fly the
+Nieuport--the best type of _avion de chasse_--and hence would be a
+fighting unit. It is necessary to explain parenthetically here that
+French military aviation, generally speaking, is divided into three
+groups--the _avions de chasse_ or airplanes of pursuit, which are used
+to hunt down enemy aircraft or to fight them off; _avions de
+bombardement_, big, unwieldy monsters for use in bombarding raids; and
+_avions de réglage_, cumbersome creatures designed to regulate
+artillery fire, take photographs, and do scout duty. The Nieuport is
+the smallest, fastest-rising, fastest-moving biplane in the French
+service. It can travel 110 miles an hour, and is a one-man apparatus
+with a machine gun mounted on its roof and fired by the pilot with one
+hand while with the other and his feet he operates his controls. The
+French call their Nieuport pilots the "aces" of the air. No wonder we
+were tickled to be included in that august brotherhood!
+
+Before the American Escadrille became an established fact, Thaw and
+Cowdin, who had mastered the Nieuport, managed to be sent to the
+Verdun front. While there Cowdin was credited with having brought down
+a German machine and was proposed for the _Médaille Militaire_, the
+highest decoration that can be awarded a non-commissioned officer or
+private.
+
+After completing his training, receiving his military pilot's brevet,
+and being perfected on the type of plane he is to use at the front, an
+aviator is ordered to the reserve headquarters near Paris to await his
+call. Kiffin Rockwell and Victor Chapman had been there for months,
+and I had just arrived, when on the 16th of April orders came for the
+Americans to join their escadrille at Luxeuil, in the Vosges.
+
+The rush was breathless! Never were flying clothes and fur coats drawn
+from the quartermaster, belongings packed, and red tape in the various
+administrative bureaux unfurled, with such headlong haste. In a few
+hours we were aboard the train, panting, but happy. Our party
+consisted of Sergeant Prince, and Rockwell, Chapman, and myself, who
+were only corporals at that time. We were joined at Luxeuil by
+Lieutenant Thaw and Sergeants Hall and Cowdin.
+
+For the veterans our arrival at the front was devoid of excitement;
+for the three neophytes--Rockwell, Chapman, and myself--it was the
+beginning of a new existence, the entry into an unknown world. Of
+course Rockwell and Chapman had seen plenty of warfare on the ground,
+but warfare in the air was as novel to them as to me. For us all it
+contained unlimited possibilities for initiative and service to
+France, and for them it must have meant, too, the restoration of
+personality lost during those months in the trenches with the Foreign
+Legion. Rockwell summed it up characteristically.
+
+"Well, we're off for the races," he remarked.
+
+
+PILOT LIFE AT THE FRONT
+
+There is a considerable change in the life of a pilot when he arrives
+on the front. During the training period he is subject to rules and
+regulations as stringent as those of the barracks. But once assigned
+to duty over the firing line he receives the treatment accorded an
+officer, no matter what his grade. Save when he is flying or on guard,
+his time is his own. There are no roll calls or other military
+frills, and in place of the bunk he slept upon as an élève, he finds a
+regular bed in a room to himself, and the services of an orderly. Even
+men of higher rank who although connected with his escadrille are not
+pilots, treat him with respect. His two mechanicians are under his
+orders. Being volunteers, we Americans are shown more than the
+ordinary consideration by the ever-generous French Government, which
+sees to it that we have the best of everything.
+
+On our arrival at Luxeuil we were met by Captain Thénault, the French
+commander of the American Escadrille--officially known as No. 124, by
+the way--and motored to the aviation field in one of the staff cars
+assigned to us. I enjoyed that ride. Lolling back against the soft
+leather cushions, I recalled how in my apprenticeship days at Pau I
+had had to walk six miles for my laundry.
+
+The equipment awaiting us at the field was even more impressive than
+our automobile. Everything was brand new, from the fifteen Fiat trucks
+to the office, magazine, and rest tents. And the men attached to the
+escadrille! At first sight they seemed to outnumber the Nicaraguan
+army--mechanicians, chauffeurs, armourers, motorcyclists,
+telephonists, wireless operators, Red Cross stretcher bearers, clerks!
+Afterward I learned they totalled seventy-odd, and that all of them
+were glad to be connected with the American Escadrille.
+
+In their hangars stood our trim little Nieuports. I looked mine over
+with a new feeling of importance and gave orders to my mechanicians
+for the mere satisfaction of being able to. To find oneself the sole
+proprietor of a fighting airplane is quite a treat, let me tell you.
+One gets accustomed to it, though, after one has used up two or three
+of them--at the French Government's expense.
+
+Rooms were assigned to us in a villa adjoining the famous hot baths of
+Luxeuil, where Cæsar's cohorts were wont to besport themselves. We
+messed with our officers, Captain Thénault and Lieutenant de Laage de
+Mieux, at the best hotel in town. An automobile was always on hand to
+carry us to the field. I began to wonder whether I was a summer
+resorter instead of a soldier.
+
+Among the pilots who had welcomed us with open arms, we discovered the
+famous Captain Happe, commander of the Luxeuil bombardment group. The
+doughty bomb-dispenser, upon whose head the Germans have set a price,
+was in his quarters. After we had been introduced, he pointed to eight
+little boxes arranged on a table.
+
+"They contain _Croix de Guerre_ for the families of the men I lost on
+my last trip," he explained, and he added: "It's a good thing you're
+here to go along with us for protection. There are lots of Boches in
+this sector."
+
+I thought of the luxury we were enjoying: our comfortable beds, baths,
+and motor cars, and then I recalled the ancient custom of giving a man
+selected for the sacrifice a royal time of it before the appointed
+day.
+
+To acquaint us with the few places where a safe landing was possible
+we were motored through the Vosges Mountains and on into Alsace. It
+was a delightful opportunity to see that glorious countryside, and we
+appreciated it the more because we knew its charm would be lost when
+we surveyed it from the sky. From the air the ground presents no
+scenic effects. The ravishing beauty of the Val d'Ajol, the steep
+mountain sides bristling with a solid mass of giant pines, the myriads
+of glittering cascades tumbling downward through fairylike avenues of
+verdure, the roaring, tossing torrent at the foot of the slope--all
+this loveliness, seen from an airplane at 12,000 feet, fades into flat
+splotches of green traced with a tiny ribbon of silver.
+
+The American Escadrille was sent to Luxeuil primarily to acquire the
+team work necessary to a flying unit. Then, too, the new pilots
+needed a taste of anti-aircraft artillery to familiarize them with the
+business of aviation over a battlefield. They shot well in that
+sector, too. Thaw's machine was hit at an altitude of 13,000 feet.
+
+
+THE ESCADRILLE'S FIRST SORTIE
+
+The memory of the first sortie we made as an escadrille will always
+remain fresh in my mind because it was also my first trip over the
+lines. We were to leave at six in the morning. Captain Thénault
+pointed out on his aërial map the route we were to follow. Never
+having flown over this region before, I was afraid of losing myself.
+Therefore, as it is easier to keep other airplanes in sight when one
+is above them, I began climbing as rapidly as possible, meaning to
+trail along in the wake of my companions. Unless one has had practice
+in flying in formation, however, it is hard to keep in contact. The
+diminutive _avions de chasse_ are the merest pinpoints against the
+great sweep of landscape below and the limitless heavens above. The
+air was misty and clouds were gathering. Ahead there seemed a barrier
+of them. Although as I looked down the ground showed plainly, in the
+distance everything was hazy. Forging up above the mist, at 7,000
+feet, I lost the others altogether. Even when they are not closely
+joined, the clouds, seen from immediately above, appear as a solid
+bank of white. The spaces between are indistinguishable. It is like
+being in an Arctic ice field.
+
+To the south I made out the Alps. Their glittering peaks projected up
+through the white sea about me like majestic icebergs. Not a single
+plane was visible anywhere, and I was growing very uncertain about my
+position. My splendid isolation had become oppressive, when, one by
+one, the others began bobbing up above the cloud level, and I had
+company again.
+
+We were over Belfort and headed for the trench lines. The cloud banks
+dropped behind, and below us we saw the smiling plain of Alsace
+stretching eastward to the Rhine. It was distinctly pleasurable,
+flying over this conquered land. Following the course of the canal
+that runs to the Rhine, I sighted, from a height of 13,000 feet over
+Dannemarie, a series of brown, woodworm-like tracings on the
+ground--the trenches!
+
+
+SHRAPNEL THAT COULDN'T BE HEARD
+
+My attention was drawn elsewhere almost immediately, however. Two
+balls of black smoke had suddenly appeared close to one of the
+machines ahead of me, and with the same disconcerting abruptness
+similar balls began to dot the sky above, below, and on all sides of
+us. We were being shot at with shrapnel. It was interesting to watch
+the flash of the bursting shells, and the attendant smoke
+puffs--black, white, or yellow, depending on the kind of shrapnel
+used. The roar of the motor drowned the noise of the explosions.
+Strangely enough, my feelings about it were wholly impersonal.
+
+We turned north after crossing the lines. Mulhouse seemed just below
+us, and I noted with a keen sense of satisfaction our invasion of real
+German territory. The Rhine, too, looked delightfully accessible. As
+we continued northward I distinguished the twin lakes of Gérardmer
+sparkling in their emerald setting. Where the lines crossed the
+Hartmannsweilerkopf there were little spurts of brown smoke as shells
+burst in the trenches. One could scarcely pick out the old city of
+Thann from among the numerous neighbouring villages, so tiny it seemed
+in the valley's mouth. I had never been higher than 7,000 feet and was
+unaccustomed to reading country from a great altitude. It was also
+bitterly cold, and even in my fur-lined combination I was shivering.
+I noticed, too, that I had to take long, deep breaths in the rarefied
+atmosphere. Looking downward at a certain angle, I saw what at first
+I took to be a round, shimmering pool of water. It was simply the
+effect of the sunlight on the congealing mist. We had been keeping an
+eye out for German machines since leaving our lines, but none had
+shown up. It wasn't surprising, for we were too many.
+
+Only four days later, however, Rockwell brought down the escadrille's
+first plane in his initial aërial combat. He was flying alone when,
+over Thann, he came upon a German on reconnaissance. He dived and the
+German turned toward his own lines, opening fire from a long distance.
+Rockwell kept straight after him. Then, closing to within thirty
+yards, he pressed on the release of his machine gun, and saw the enemy
+gunner fall backward and the pilot crumple up sideways in his seat.
+The plane flopped downward and crashed to earth just behind the German
+trenches. Swooping close to the ground Rockwell saw its débris burning
+away brightly. He had turned the trick with but four shots and only
+one German bullet had struck his Nieuport. An observation post
+telephoned the news before Rockwell's return, and he got a great
+welcome. All Luxeuil smiled upon him--particularly the girls. But he
+couldn't stay to enjoy his popularity. The escadrille was ordered to
+the sector of Verdun.
+
+While in a way we were sorry to leave Luxeuil, we naturally didn't
+regret the chance to take part in the aërial activity of the world's
+greatest battle. The night before our departure some German aircraft
+destroyed four of our tractors and killed six men with bombs, but even
+that caused little excitement compared with going to Verdun. We would
+get square with the Boches over Verdun, we thought--it is impossible
+to chase airplanes at night, so the raiders made a safe getaway.
+
+
+OFF TO VERDUN
+
+As soon as we pilots had left in our machines, the trucks and tractors
+set out in convoy, carrying the men and equipment. The Nieuports
+carried us to our new post in a little more than an hour. We stowed
+them away in the hangars and went to have a look at our sleeping
+quarters. A commodious villa half way between the town of Bar-le-Duc
+and the aviation field had been assigned to us, and comforts were as
+plentiful as at Luxeuil.
+
+Our really serious work had begun, however, and we knew it. Even as
+far behind the actual fighting as Bar-le-Duc one could sense one's
+proximity to a vast military operation. The endless convoys of motor
+trucks, the fast-flowing stream of troops, and the distressing number
+of ambulances brought realization of the near presence of a gigantic
+battle.
+
+Within a twenty-mile radius of the Verdun front aviation camps abound.
+Our escadrille was listed on the schedule with the other fighting
+units, each of which has its specified flying hours, rotating so there
+is always an _escadrille de chasse_ over the lines. A field wireless
+to enable us to keep track of the movements of enemy planes became
+part of our equipment.
+
+Lufbery joined us a few days after our arrival. He was followed by
+Johnson and Balsley, who had been on the air guard over Paris. Hill
+and Rumsey came next, and after them Masson and Pavelka. Nieuports
+were supplied them from the nearest depot, and as soon as they had
+mounted their instruments and machine guns, they were on the job with
+the rest of us. Fifteen Americans are or have been members of the
+American Escadrille, but there have never been so many as that on duty
+at any one time.
+
+
+BATTLES IN THE AIR
+
+Before we were fairly settled at Bar-le-Duc, Hall brought down a
+German observation craft and Thaw a Fokker. Fights occurred on almost
+every sortie. The Germans seldom cross into our territory, unless on a
+bombarding jaunt, and thus practically all the fighting takes place on
+their side of the line. Thaw dropped his Fokker in the morning, and on
+the afternoon of the same day there was a big combat far behind the
+German trenches. Thaw was wounded in the arm, and an explosive bullet
+detonating on Rockwell's wind-shield tore several gashes in his face.
+Despite the blood which was blinding him Rockwell managed to reach an
+aviation field and land. Thaw, whose wound bled profusely, landed in a
+dazed condition just within our lines. He was too weak to walk, and
+French soldiers carried him to a field dressing-station, whence he was
+sent to Paris for further treatment. Rockwell's wounds were less
+serious and he insisted on flying again almost immediately.
+
+A week or so later Chapman was wounded. Considering the number of
+fights he had been in and the courage with which he attacked it was a
+miracle he had not been hit before. He always fought against odds and
+far within the enemy's country. He flew more than any of us, never
+missing an opportunity to go up, and never coming down until his
+gasolene was giving out. His machine was a sieve of patched-up bullet
+holes. His nerve was almost superhuman and his devotion to the cause
+for which he fought sublime. The day he was wounded he attacked four
+machines. Swooping down from behind, one of them, a Fokker, riddled
+Chapman's plane. One bullet cut deep into his scalp, but Chapman, a
+master pilot, escaped from the trap, and fired several shots to show
+he was still safe. A stability control had been severed by a bullet.
+Chapman held the broken rod in one hand, managed his machine with the
+other, and succeeded in landing on a near-by aviation field. His wound
+was dressed, his machine repaired, and he immediately took the air in
+pursuit of some more enemies. He would take no rest, and with bandaged
+head continued to fly and fight.
+
+The escadrille's next serious encounter with the foe took place a few
+days later. Rockwell, Balsley, Prince, and Captain Thénault were
+surrounded by a large number of Germans, who, circling about them,
+commenced firing at long range. Realizing their numerical inferiority,
+the Americans and their commander sought the safest way out by
+attacking the enemy machines nearest the French lines. Rockwell,
+Prince, and the captain broke through successfully, but Balsley found
+himself hemmed in. He attacked the German nearest him, only to receive
+an explosive bullet in his thigh. In trying to get away by a vertical
+dive his machine went into a corkscrew and swung over on its back.
+Extra cartridge rollers dislodged from their case hit his arms. He was
+tumbling straight toward the trenches, but by a supreme effort he
+regained control, righted the plane, and landed without disaster in a
+meadow just behind the firing line.
+
+Soldiers carried him to the shelter of a near-by fort, and later he
+was taken to a field hospital, where he lingered for days between life
+and death. Ten fragments of the explosive bullet were removed from his
+stomach. He bore up bravely, and became the favourite of the wounded
+officers in whose ward he lay. When we flew over to see him they would
+say: _Il est un brave petit gars, l'aviateur américain_. [He's a brave
+little fellow, the American aviator.] On a shelf by his bed, done up
+in a handkerchief, he kept the pieces of bullet taken out of him, and
+under them some sheets of paper on which he was trying to write to his
+mother, back in El Paso.
+
+Balsley was awarded the _Médaille Militaire_ and the _Croix de
+Guerre_, but the honours scared him. He had seen them decorate
+officers in the ward before they died.
+
+
+CHAPMAN'S LAST FIGHT
+
+Then came Chapman's last fight. Before leaving, he had put two bags
+of oranges in his machine to take to Balsley, who liked to suck them
+to relieve his terrible thirst, after the day's flying was over. There
+was an aërial struggle against odds, far within the German lines, and
+Chapman, to divert their fire from his comrades, engaged several enemy
+airmen at once. He sent one tumbling to earth, and had forced the
+others off when two more swooped down upon him. Such a fight is a
+matter of seconds, and one cannot clearly see what passes. Lufbery and
+Prince, whom Chapman had defended so gallantly, regained the French
+lines. They told us of the combat, and we waited on the field for
+Chapman's return. He was always the last in, so we were not much
+worried. Then a pilot from another fighting escadrille telephoned us
+that he had seen a Nieuport falling. A little later the observer of a
+reconnaissance airplane called up and told us how he had witnessed
+Chapman's fall. The wings of the plane had buckled, and it had dropped
+like a stone he said.
+
+We talked in lowered voices after that; we could read the pain in one
+another's eyes. If only it could have been some one else, was what we
+all thought, I suppose. To lose Victor was not an irreparable loss to
+us merely, but to France, and to the world as well. I kept thinking of
+him lying over there, and of the oranges he was taking to Balsley. As
+I left the field I caught sight of Victor's mechanician leaning
+against the end of our hangar. He was looking northward into the sky
+where his _patron_ had vanished, and his face was very sad.
+
+
+PROMOTIONS AND DECORATIONS
+
+By this time Prince and Hall had been made adjutants, and we corporals
+transformed into sergeants. I frankly confess to a feeling of marked
+satisfaction at receiving that grade in the world's finest army. I was
+a far more important person, in my own estimation, than I had been as
+a second lieutenant in the militia at home. The next impressive event
+was the awarding of decorations. We had assisted at that ceremony for
+Cowdin at Luxeuil, but this time three of our messmates were to be
+honoured for the Germans they had brought down. Rockwell and Hall
+received the _Médaille Militaire_ and the _Croix de Guerre_, and Thaw,
+being a lieutenant, the _Légion d'honneur_ and another "palm" for the
+ribbon of the _Croix de Guerre_ he had won previously. Thaw, who came
+up from Paris specially for the presentation, still carried his arm in
+a sling.
+
+There were also decorations for Chapman, but poor Victor, who so often
+had been cited in the Orders of the Day, was not on hand to receive
+them.
+
+
+THE MORNING SORTIE
+
+Our daily routine goes on with little change. Whenever the weather
+permits--that is, when it isn't raining, and the clouds aren't too
+low--we fly over the Verdun battlefield at the hours dictated by
+General Headquarters. As a rule the most successful sorties are those
+in the early morning.
+
+We are called while it's still dark. Sleepily I try to reconcile the
+French orderly's muttered, _C'est l'heure, monsieur_, that rouses me
+from slumber, with the strictly American words and music of "When That
+Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam'" warbled by a particularly
+wide-awake pilot in the next room. A few minutes later, having
+swallowed some coffee, we motor to the field. The east is turning gray
+as the hangar curtains are drawn apart and our machines trundled out
+by the mechanicians. All the pilots whose planes are in
+commission--save those remaining behind on guard--prepare to leave.
+We average from four to six on a sortie, unless too many flights have
+been ordered for that day, in which case only two or three go out at a
+time.
+
+Now the east is pink, and overhead the sky has changed from gray to
+pale blue. It is light enough to fly. We don our fur-lined shoes and
+combinations and adjust the leather flying hoods and goggles. A good
+deal of conversation occurs--perhaps because, once aloft, there's
+nobody to talk to.
+
+"Eh, you," one pilot cries jokingly to another, "I hope some Boche
+just ruins you this morning, so I won't have to pay you the fifty
+francs you won from me last night!"
+
+This financial reference concerns a poker game.
+
+"You do, do you?" replies the other as he swings into his machine.
+"Well, I'd be glad to pass up the fifty to see you landed by the
+Boches. You'd make a fine sight walking down the street of some
+German town in those wooden shoes and pyjama pants. Why don't you
+dress yourself? Don't you know an aviator's supposed to look _chic?_"
+
+A sartorial eccentricity on the part of one of our colleagues is here
+referred to.
+
+
+GETTING UNDER WAY
+
+The raillery is silenced by a deafening roar as the motors are tested.
+Quiet is briefly restored, only to be broken by a series of rapid
+explosions incidental to the trying out of machine guns. You loudly
+inquire at what altitude we are to meet above the field.
+
+"Fifteen hundred metres--go ahead!" comes an answering yell.
+
+_Essence et gaz!_ [Oil and gas!] you call to your mechanician,
+adjusting your gasolene and air throttles while he grips the
+propeller.
+
+_Contact!_ he shrieks, and _Contact!_ you reply. You snap on the
+switch, he spins the propeller, and the motor takes. Drawing forward
+out of line, you put on full power, race across the grass and take the
+air. The ground drops as the hood slants up before you and you seem to
+be going more and more slowly as you rise. At a great height you
+hardly realize you are moving. You glance at the clock to note the
+time of your departure, and at the oil gauge to see its throb. The
+altimeter registers 650 feet. You turn and look back at the field
+below and see others leaving.
+
+In three minutes you are at about 4,000 feet. You have been making
+wide circles over the field and watching the other machines. At 4,500
+feet you throttle down and wait on that level for your companions to
+catch up. Soon the escadrille is bunched and off for the lines. You
+begin climbing again, gulping to clear your ears in the changing
+pressure. Surveying the other machines, you recognize the pilot of
+each by the marks on its side--or by the way he flies. The
+distinguishing marks of the Nieuports are various and sometimes
+amusing. Bert Hall, for instance, has BERT painted on the left side of
+his plane and the same word reversed (as if spelled backward with the
+left hand) on the right--so an aviator passing him on that side at
+great speed will be able to read the name without difficulty, he says!
+
+The country below has changed into a flat surface of varicoloured
+figures. Woods are irregular blocks of dark green, like daubs of ink
+spilled on a table; fields are geometrical designs of different shades
+of green and brown, forming in composite an ultra-cubist painting;
+roads are thin white lines, each with its distinctive windings and
+crossings--from which you determine your location. The higher you are
+the easier it is to read.
+
+In about ten minutes you see the Meuse sparkling in the morning light,
+and on either side the long line of sausage-shaped observation
+balloons far below you. Red-roofed Verdun springs into view just
+beyond. There are spots in it where no red shows and you know what has
+happened there. In the green pasture land bordering the town, round
+flecks of brown indicate the shell holes. You cross the Meuse.
+
+
+VERDUN, SEEN FROM THE SKY
+
+Immediately east and north of Verdun there lies a broad, brown band.
+From the Woevre plain it runs westward to the "S" bend in the Meuse,
+and on the left bank of that famous stream continues on into the
+Argonne Forest. Peaceful fields and farms and villages adorned that
+landscape a few months ago--when there was no Battle of Verdun. Now
+there is only that sinister brown belt, a strip of murdered Nature. It
+seems to belong to another world. Every sign of humanity has been
+swept away. The woods and roads have vanished like chalk wiped from a
+blackboard; of the villages nothing remains but gray smears where
+stone walls have tumbled together. The great forts of Douaumont and
+Vaux are outlined faintly, like the tracings of a finger in wet sand.
+One cannot distinguish any one shell crater, as one can on the
+pockmarked fields on either side. On the brown band the indentations
+are so closely interlocked that they blend into a confused mass of
+troubled earth. Of the trenches only broken, half-obliterated links
+are visible.
+
+Columns of muddy smoke spurt up continually as high explosives tear
+deeper into this ulcered area. During heavy bombardment and attacks I
+have seen shells falling like rain. The countless towers of smoke
+remind one of Gustave Doré's picture of the fiery tombs of the
+arch-heretics in Dante's "Hell." A smoky pall covers the sector under
+fire, rising so high that at a height of 1,000 feet one is enveloped
+in its mist-like fumes. Now and then monster projectiles hurtling
+through the air close by leave one's plane rocking violently in their
+wake. Airplanes have been cut in two by them.
+
+
+THE ROAR OF BATTLE--UNHEARD
+
+For us the battle passes in silence, the noise of one's motor
+deadening all other sounds. In the green patches behind the brown belt
+myriads of tiny flashes tell where the guns are hidden; and those
+flashes, and the smoke of bursting shells, are all we see of the
+fighting. It is a weird combination of stillness and havoc, the Verdun
+conflict viewed from the sky.
+
+Far below us, the observation and range-finding planes circle over the
+trenches like gliding gulls. At a feeble altitude they follow the
+attacking infantrymen and flash back wireless reports of the
+engagement. Only through them can communication be maintained when,
+under the barrier fire, wires from the front lines are cut. Sometimes
+it falls to our lot to guard these machines from Germans eager to
+swoop down on their backs. Sailing about high above a busy flock of
+them makes one feel like an old mother hen protecting her chicks.
+
+
+"NAVIGATING" IN A SEA OF CLOUDS
+
+The pilot of an _avion de chasse_ must not concern himself with the
+ground, which to him is useful only for learning his whereabouts.
+The earth is all-important to the men in the observation,
+artillery-regulating, and bombardment machines, but the fighting
+aviator has an entirely different sphere. His domain is the blue
+heavens, the glistening rolls of clouds below the fleecy banks
+towering above, the vague aërial horizon, and he must watch it as
+carefully as a navigator watches the storm-tossed sea.
+
+On days when the clouds form almost a solid flooring, one feels very
+much at sea, and wonders if one is in the navy instead of aviation.
+The diminutive Nieuports skirt the white expanse like torpedo boats in
+an arctic sea, and sometimes, far across the cloud-waves, one sights
+an enemy escadrille, moving as a fleet.
+
+Principally our work consists of keeping German airmen away from our
+lines, and in attacking them when opportunity offers. We traverse the
+brown band and enter enemy territory to the accompaniment of an
+antiaircraft cannonade. Most of the shots are wild, however, and we
+pay little attention to them. When the shrapnel comes uncomfortably
+close, one shifts position slightly to evade the range. One glances up
+to see if there is another machine higher than one's own. Low and far
+within the German lines are several enemy planes, a dull white in
+appearance, resembling sand flies against the mottled earth. High
+above them one glimpses the mosquito-like forms of two Fokkers. Away
+off to one side white shrapnel puffs are vaguely visible, perhaps
+directed against a German crossing the lines. We approach the enemy
+machines ahead, only to find them slanting at a rapid rate into their
+own country. High above them lurks a protection plane. The man doing
+the "ceiling work," as it is called, will look after him for us.
+
+
+TACTICS OF AN AIR BATTLE
+
+Getting started is the hardest part of an attack. Once you have begun
+diving you're all right. The pilot just ahead turns tail up like a
+trout dropping back to water, and swoops down in irregular curves and
+circles. You follow at an angle so steep your feet seem to be holding
+you back in your seat. Now the black Maltese crosses on the German's
+wings stand out clearly. You think of him as some sort of big bug.
+Then you hear the rapid tut-tut-tut of his machine gun. The man that
+dived ahead of you becomes mixed up with the topmost German. He is so
+close it looks as if he had hit the enemy machine. You hear the
+staccato barking of his mitrailleuse and see him pass from under the
+German's tail.
+
+The rattle of the gun that is aimed at you leaves you undisturbed.
+Only when the bullets pierce the wings a few feet off do you become
+uncomfortable. You see the gunner crouched down behind his weapon,
+but you aim at where the pilot ought to be--there are two men aboard
+the German craft--and press on the release hard. Your mitrailleuse
+hammers out a stream of bullets as you pass over and dive, nose down,
+to get out of range. Then, hopefully, you re-dress and look back at
+the foe. He ought to be dropping earthward at several miles a minute.
+As a matter of fact, however, he is sailing serenely on. They have an
+annoying habit of doing that, these Boches.
+
+Rockwell, who attacked so often that he has lost all count, and who
+shoves his machine gun fairly in the faces of the Germans, used to
+swear their planes were armoured. Lieutenant de Laage, whose list of
+combats is equally extensive, has brought down only one. Hall, with
+three machines to his credit, has had more luck. Lufbery, who
+evidently has evolved a secret formula, has dropped four, according to
+official statistics, since his arrival on the Verdun front. Four
+"palms"--the record for the escadrille, glitter upon the ribbon of the
+_Croix de Guerre_ accompanying his _Médaille Militaire_. [Footnote:
+This book was written in the fall of 1915. Since that time many
+additional machines have been credited to the American flyers.]
+
+A pilot seldom has the satisfaction of beholding the result of his
+bull's-eye bullet. Rarely--so difficult it is to follow the turnings
+and twistings of the dropping plane--does he see his fallen foe strike
+the ground. Lufbery's last direct hit was an exception, for he
+followed all that took place from a balcony seat. I myself was in the
+"nigger-heaven," so I know. We had set out on a sortie together just
+before noon, one August day, and for the first time on such an
+occasion had lost each other over the lines. Seeing no Germans, I
+passed my time hovering over the French observation machines. Lufbery
+found one, however, and promptly brought it down. Just then I chanced
+to make a southward turn, and caught sight of an airplane falling out
+of the sky into the German lines.
+
+As it turned over, it showed its white belly for an instant, then
+seemed to straighten out, and planed downward in big zigzags. The
+pilot must have gripped his controls even in death, for his craft did
+not tumble as most do. It passed between my line of vision and a wood,
+into which it disappeared. Just as I was going down to find out where
+it landed, I saw it again skimming across a field, and heading
+straight for the brown band beneath me. It was outlined against the
+shell-racked earth like a tiny insect, until just northwest of Fort
+Douaumont it crashed down upon the battlefield. A sheet of flame and
+smoke shot up from the tangled wreckage. For a moment or two I watched
+it burn; then I went back to the observation machines.
+
+I thought Lufbery would show up and point to where the German had
+fallen. He failed to appear, and I began to be afraid it was he whom I
+had seen come down, instead of an enemy. I spent a worried hour
+before my return homeward. After getting back I learned that Lufbery
+was quite safe, having hurried in after the fight to report the
+destruction of his adversary before somebody else claimed him, which
+is only too frequently the case. Observation posts, however,
+confirmed Lufbery's story, and he was of course very much delighted.
+Nevertheless, at luncheon, I heard him murmuring, half to himself:
+"Those poor fellows."
+
+The German machine gun operator, having probably escaped death in the
+air, must have had a hideous descent. Lufbery told us he had seen the
+whole thing, spiralling down after the German. He said he thought the
+German pilot must be a novice, judging from his manoeuvres. It
+occurred to me that he might have been making his first flight over
+the lines, doubtless full of enthusiasm about his career. Perhaps,
+dreaming of the Iron Cross and his Gretchen, he took a chance--and
+then swift death and a grave in the shell-strewn soil of Douaumont.
+
+Generally the escadrille is relieved by another fighting unit after
+two hours over the lines. We turn homeward, and soon the hangars of
+our field loom up in the distance. Sometimes I've been mighty glad to
+see them and not infrequently I've concluded the pleasantest part of
+flying is just after a good landing. Getting home after a sortie, we
+usually go into the rest tent, and talk over the morning's work. Then
+some of us lie down for a nap, while others play cards or read. After
+luncheon we go to the field again, and the man on guard gets his
+chance to eat. If the morning sortie has been an early one, we go up
+again about one o'clock in the afternoon. We are home again in two
+hours and after that two or three energetic pilots may make a third
+trip over the lines. The rest wait around ready to take the air if an
+enemy bombardment group ventures to visit our territory--as it has
+done more than once over Bar-le-Duc. False alarms are plentiful, and
+we spend many hours aloft squinting at an empty sky.
+
+
+PRINCE'S AËRIAL FIREWORKS
+
+Now and then one of us will get ambitious to do something on his own
+account. Not long ago Norman Prince became obsessed with the idea of
+bringing down a German "sausage," as observation balloons are called.
+He had a special device mounted on his Nieuport for setting fire to
+the aërial frankfurters. Thus equipped he resembled an advance agent
+for Payne's fireworks more than an _aviateur de chasse_. Having
+carefully mapped the enemy "sausages," he would sally forth in hot
+pursuit whenever one was signalled at a respectable height. Poor
+Norman had a terrible time of it! Sometimes the reported "sausages"
+were not there when he arrived, and sometimes there was a
+super-abundancy of German airplanes on guard.
+
+He stuck to it, however, and finally his appetite for "sausage" was
+satisfied. He found one just where it ought to be, swooped down upon
+it, and let off his fireworks with all the gusto of an American boy on
+the Fourth of July. When he looked again, the balloon had vanished.
+Prince's performance isn't so easy as it sounds, by the way. If, after
+the long dive necessary to turn the trick successfully, his motor had
+failed to retake, he would have fallen into the hands of the Germans.
+
+After dark, when flying is over for the day, we go down to the villa
+for dinner. Usually we have two or three French officers dining with
+us besides our own captain and lieutenant, and so the table talk is a
+mixture of French and English. It's seldom we discuss the war in
+general. Mostly the conversation revolves about our own sphere, for
+just as in the navy the sea is the favourite topic, and in the army
+the trenches, so with us it is aviation. Our knowledge about the
+military operations is scant. We haven't the remotest idea as to what
+has taken place on the battlefield--even though we've been flying over
+it during an attack--until we read the papers; and they don't tell us
+much.
+
+Frequently pilots from other escadrilles will be our guests in passing
+through our sector, and through these visitations we keep in touch
+with the aërial news of the day, and with our friends along the front.
+Gradually we have come to know a great number of _pilotes de chasse_.
+We hear that so-&-so has been killed, that some one else has brought
+down a Boche and that still another is a prisoner.
+
+We don't always talk aviation, however. In the course of dinner almost
+any subject may be touched upon, and with our cosmopolitan crowd one
+can readily imagine the scope of the conversation. A Burton Holmes
+lecture is weak and watery compared to the travel stories we listen
+to. Were O. Henry alive, he could find material for a hundred new
+yarns, and William James numerous pointers for another work on
+psychology, while De Quincey might multiply his dreams _ad infinitum_.
+Doubtless alienists as well as fiction writers would find us worth
+studying. In France there's a saying that to be an aviator one must
+be a bit "off."
+
+After dinner the same scene invariably repeats itself, over the coffee
+in the "next room." At the big table several sportive souls start a
+poker game, while at a smaller one two sedate spirits wrap themselves
+in the intricacies of chess. Captain Thénault labours away at the
+messroom piano, or in lighter mood plays with Fram, his police dog. A
+phonograph grinds out the ancient query "Who Paid the Rent for Mrs.
+Rip Van Winkle?" or some other ragtime ditty. It is barely nine,
+however, when the movement in the direction of bed begins.
+
+A few of us remain behind a little while, and the talk becomes more
+personal and more sincere. Only on such intimate occasions, I think,
+have I ever heard death discussed. Certainly we are not indifferent to
+it. Not many nights ago one of the pilots remarked in a tired way:
+
+"Know what I want? Just six months of freedom to go where and do what
+I like. In that time I'd get everything I wanted out of life, and be
+perfectly willing to come back and be killed."
+
+Then another, who was about to receive 2,000 francs from the American
+committee that aids us, as a reward for his many citations, chimed in.
+
+"Well, I didn't care much before," he confessed, "but now with this
+money coming in I don't want to die until I've had the fun of spending
+it."
+
+So saying, he yawned and went up to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+VERDUN TO THE SOMME
+
+
+On the 12th of October, twenty small airplanes flying in a V
+formation, at such a height they resembled a flock of geese, crossed
+the river Rhine, where it skirts the plains of Alsace, and, turning
+north, headed for the famous Mauser works at Oberndorf. Following in
+their wake was an equal number of larger machines, and above these
+darted and circled swift fighting planes. The first group of aircraft
+was flown by British pilots, the second by French and three of the
+fighting planes by Americans in the French Aviation Division. It was a
+cosmopolitan collection that effected that successful raid.
+
+We American pilots, who are grouped into one escadrille, had been
+fighting above the battlefield of Verdun from the 20th of May until
+orders came the middle of September for us to leave our airplanes, for
+a unit that would replace us, and to report at Le Bourget, the great
+Paris aviation centre.
+
+The mechanics and the rest of the personnel left, as usual, in the
+escadrille's trucks with the material. For once the pilots did not
+take the aërial route but they boarded the Paris express at Bar-le-Duc
+with all the enthusiasm of schoolboys off for a vacation. They were
+to have a week in the capital! Where they were to go after that they
+did not know, but presumed it would be the Somme. As a matter of fact
+the escadrille was to be sent to Luxeuil in the Vosges to take part in
+the Mauser raid.
+
+Besides Captain Thénault and Lieutenant de Laage de Mieux, our French
+officers, the following American pilots were in the escadrille at this
+time: Lieutenant Thaw, who had returned to the front, even though his
+wounded arm had not entirely healed; Adjutants Norman Prince, Hall,
+Lufbery, and Masson; and Sergeants Kiffin Rockwell, Hill, Pavelka,
+Johnson, and Rumsey. I had been sent to a hospital at the end of
+August, because of a lame back resulting from a smash up in landing,
+and couldn't follow the escadrille until later.
+
+Every aviation unit boasts several mascots. Dogs of every description
+are to be seen around the camps, but the Americans managed, during
+their stay in Paris, to add to their menagerie by the acquisition of a
+lion cub named "Whiskey." The little chap had been born on a boat
+crossing from Africa and was advertised for sale in France. Some of
+the American pilots chipped in and bought him. He was a cute,
+bright-eyed baby lion who tried to roar in a most threatening manner
+but who was blissfully content the moment one gave him one's finger to
+suck. "Whiskey" got a good view of Paris during the few days he was
+there, for some one in the crowd was always borrowing him to take him
+some place. He, like most lions in captivity, became acquainted with
+bars, but the sort "Whiskey" saw were not for purposes of confinement.
+
+The orders came directing the escadrille to Luxeuil and bidding
+farewell to gay "Paree" the men boarded the Belfort train with bag and
+baggage--and the lion. Lions, it developed, were not allowed in
+passenger coaches. The conductor was assured that "Whiskey" was quite
+harmless and was going to overlook the rules when the cub began to
+roar and tried to get at the railwayman's finger. That settled it, so
+two of the men had to stay behind in order to crate up "Whiskey" and
+take him along the next day.
+
+The escadrille was joined in Paris by Robert Rockwell, of Cincinnati,
+who had finished his training as a pilot, and was waiting at the
+Reserve (Robert Rockwell had gone to France to work as a surgeon in
+one of the American war hospitals. He disliked remaining in the rear
+and eventually enlisted in aviation).
+
+The period of training for a pilot, especially for one who is to fly a
+fighting machine at the front, has been very much prolonged. It is no
+longer sufficient that he learns to fly and to master various types of
+machines. He now completes his training in schools where aërial
+shooting is taught, and in others where he practises combat, group
+manoeuvres, and acrobatic stunts such as looping the loop and the more
+difficult tricks. In all it requires from seven to nine months.
+
+Dennis Dowd, of Brooklyn, N.Y., is so far the only American volunteer
+aviator killed while in training. Dowd, who had joined the Foreign
+Legion, shortly after the war broke out, was painfully wounded during
+the offensive in Champagne. After his recovery he was transferred, at
+his request, into aviation. At the Buc school he stood at the head of
+the fifteen Americans who were learning to be aviators, and was
+considered one of the most promising pilots in the training camp. On
+August 11, 1916, while making a flight preliminary to his brevet, Dowd
+fell from a height of only 260 feet and was instantly killed. Either
+he had fainted or a control had broken.
+
+While a patient at the hospital Dowd had been sent packages by a young
+French girl of Neuilly. A correspondence ensued, and when Dowd went to
+Paris on convalescent leave he and the young lady became engaged. He
+was killed just before the time set for the wedding.
+
+When the escadrille arrived at Luxeuil it found a great surprise in
+the form of a large British aviation contingent. This detachment from
+the Royal Navy Flying Corps numbered more than fifty pilots and a
+thousand men. New hangars harboured their fleet of bombardment
+machines. Their own anti-aircraft batteries were in emplacements near
+the field. Though detached from the British forces and under French
+command this unit followed the rule of His Majesty's armies in France
+by receiving all of its food and supplies from England. It had its own
+transport service.
+
+Our escadrille had been in Luxeuil during the months of April and May.
+We had made many friends amongst the townspeople and the French pilots
+stationed there, so the older members of the American unit were
+welcomed with open arms and their new comrades made to feel at home in
+the quaint Vosges town. It wasn't long, however, before the Americans
+and the British got together. At first there was a feeling of reserve
+on both sides but once acquainted they became fast friends. The naval
+pilots were quite representative of the United Kingdom hailing as they
+did from England, Canada, New South Wales, South Africa, and other
+parts of the Empire. Most of them were soldiers by profession. All
+were officers, but they were as democratic as it is possible to be. As
+a result there was a continuous exchange of dinners. In a few days
+every one in this Anglo-American alliance was calling each other by
+some nickname and swearing lifelong friendship.
+
+"We didn't know what you Yanks would be like," remarked one of the
+Englishmen one day. "Thought you might be snobby on account of being
+volunteers, but I swear you're a bloody human lot." That, I will
+explain, is a very fine compliment.
+
+There was trouble getting new airplanes for every one in the
+escadrille. Only five arrived. They were the new model Nieuport
+fighting machine. Instead of having only 140 square feet of
+supporting surface, they had 160, and the forty-seven shot Lewis
+machine gun had been replaced by the Vickers, which fires five hundred
+rounds. This gun is mounted on the hood and by means of a timing gear
+shoots through the propeller. The 160 foot Nieuport mounts at a
+terrific rate, rising to 7,000 feet in six minutes. It will go to
+20,000 feet handled by a skillful pilot.
+
+It was some time before these airplanes arrived and every one was
+idle. There was nothing to do but loaf around the hotel, where the
+American pilots were quartered, visit the British in their barracks at
+the field, or go walking. It was about as much like war as a Bryan
+lecture. While I was in the hospital I received a letter written at
+this time from one of the boys. I opened it expecting to read of an
+air combat. It informed me that Thaw had caught a trout three feet
+long, and that Lufbery had picked two baskets of mushrooms.
+
+Day after day the British planes practised formation flying. The
+regularity with which the squadron's machines would leave the ground
+was remarkable. The twenty Sopwiths took the air at precise intervals,
+flew together in a V formation while executing difficult manoeuvres,
+and landed one after the other with the exactness of clockwork. The
+French pilots flew the Farman and Breguet bombardment machines
+whenever the weather permitted. Every one knew some big bombardment
+was ahead but when it would be made or what place was to be attacked
+was a secret.
+
+Considering the number of machines that were continually roaring above
+the field at Luxeuil it is remarkable that only two fatal accidents
+occurred. One was when a British pilot tried diving at a target, for
+machine-gun practice, and was unable to redress his airplane. Both he
+and his gunner were killed. In the second accident I lost a good
+friend--a young Frenchman. He took up his gunner in a two-seated
+Nieuport. A young Canadian pilot accompanied by a French officer
+followed in a Sopwith. When at about a thousand feet they began to
+manoeuvre about one another. In making a turn too close the tips of
+their wings touched. The Nieuport turned downward, its wings folded,
+and it fell like a stone. The Sopwith fluttered a second or two, then
+its wings buckled and it dropped in the wake of the Nieuport. The two
+men in each of the planes were killed outright.
+
+Next to falling in flames a drop in a wrecked machine is the worst
+death an aviator can meet. I know of no sound more horrible than that
+made by an airplane crashing to earth. Breathless one has watched the
+uncontrolled apparatus tumble through the air. The agony felt by the
+pilot and passenger seems to transmit itself to you. You are helpless
+to avert the certain death. You cannot even turn your eyes away at the
+moment of impact. In the dull, grinding crash there is the sound of
+breaking bones.
+
+Luxeuil was an excellent place to observe the difference that exists
+between the French, English, and American aviator, but when all is
+said and done there is but little difference. The Frenchman is the
+most natural pilot and the most adroit. Flying comes easier to him
+than to an Englishman or American, but once accustomed to an airplane
+and the air they all accomplish the same amount of work. A Frenchman
+goes about it with a little more dash than the others, and puts on a
+few extra frills, but the Englishman calmly carries out his mission
+and obtains the same results. An American is a combination of the
+two, but neither better nor worse. Though there is a large number of
+expert German airmen I do not believe the average Teuton makes as good
+a flier as a Frenchman, Englishman, or American.
+
+In spite of their bombardment of open towns and the use of explosive
+bullets in their aërial machine guns, the Boches have shown up in a
+better light in aviation than in any other arm. A few of the Hun
+pilots have evinced certain elements of honor and decency. I remember
+one chap that was the right sort.
+
+He was a young man but a pilot of long standing. An old infantry
+captain stationed near his aviation field at Etain, east of Verdun,
+prevailed upon this German pilot to take him on a flight. There was a
+new machine to test out and he told the captain to climb aboard.
+Foolishly he crossed the trench lines and, actuated by a desire to
+give his passenger an interesting trip, proceeded to fly over the
+French aviation headquarters. Unfortunately for him he encountered
+three French fighting planes which promptly opened fire. The German
+pilot was wounded in the leg and the gasoline tank of his airplane was
+pierced. Under him was an aviation field. He decided to land. The
+machine was captured before the Germans had time to burn it up.
+Explosive bullets were discovered in the machine gun. A French
+officer turned to the German captain and informed him that he would
+probably be shot for using explosive bullets. The captain did not
+understand.
+
+"Don't shoot him," said the pilot, using excellent French, "if you're
+going to shoot any one take me. The captain has nothing to do with the
+bullets. He doesn't even know how to work a machine gun. It's his
+first trip in an airplane."
+
+"Well, if you'll give us some good information, we won't shoot you,"
+said the French officer.
+
+"Information," replied the German, "I can't give you any. I come from
+Etain, and you know where that is as well as I do."
+
+"No, you must give us some worth-while information, or I'm afraid
+you'll be shot," insisted the Frenchman.
+
+"If I give you worth-while information," answered the pilot, "you'll
+go over and kill a lot of soldiers, and if I don't you'll only kill
+one--so go ahead."
+
+The last time I heard of the Boche he was being well taken care of.
+
+Kiffin Rockwell and Lufbery were the first to get their new machines
+ready and on the 23rd of September went out for the first flight since
+the escadrille had arrived at Luxeuil. They became separated in the
+air but each flew on alone, which was a dangerous thing to do in the
+Alsace sector. There is but little fighting in the trenches there, but
+great air activity. Due to the British and French squadrons at
+Luxeuil, and the threat their presence implied, the Germans had to
+oppose them by a large fleet of fighting machines. I believe there
+were more than forty Fokkers alone in the camps of Colmar and
+Habsheim. Observation machines protected by two or three fighting
+planes would venture far into our lines. It is something the Germans
+dare not do on any other part of the front. They had a special trick
+that consisted in sending a large, slow observation machine into our
+lines to invite attack. When a French plane would dive after it, two
+Fokkers, that had been hovering high overhead, would drop on the tail
+of the Frenchman and he stood but small chance if caught in the trap.
+
+Just before Kiffin Rockwell reached the lines he spied a German
+machine under him flying at 11,000 feet. I can imagine the
+satisfaction he felt in at last catching an enemy plane in our lines.
+Rockwell had fought more combats than the rest of us put together, and
+had shot down many German machines that had fallen in their lines, but
+this was the first time he had had an opportunity of bringing down a
+Boche in our territory.
+
+A captain, the commandant of an Alsatian village, watched the aërial
+battle through his field glasses. He said that Rockwell approached so
+close to the enemy that he thought there would be a collision. The
+German craft, which carried two machine guns, had opened a rapid fire
+when Rockwell started his dive. He plunged through the stream of lead
+and only when very close to his enemy did he begin shooting. For a
+second it looked as though the German was falling, so the captain
+said, but then he saw the French machine turn rapidly nose down, the
+wings of one side broke off and fluttered in the wake of the airplane,
+which hurtled earthward in a rapid drop. It crashed into the ground in
+a small field--a field of flowers--a few hundred yards back of the
+trenches. It was not more than two and a half miles from the spot
+where Rockwell, in the month of May, brought down his first enemy
+machine. The Germans immediately opened up on the wreck with
+artillery fire. In spite of the bursting shrapnel, gunners from a
+near-by battery rushed out and recovered poor Rockwell's broken body.
+There was a hideous wound in his breast where an explosive bullet had
+torn through. A surgeon who examined the body, testified that if it
+had been an ordinary bullet Rockwell would have had an even chance of
+landing with only a bad wound. As it was he was killed the instant the
+unlawful missile exploded.
+
+Lufbery engaged a German craft but before he could get to close range
+two Fokkers swooped down from behind and filled his aeroplane full of
+holes. Exhausting his ammunition he landed at Fontaine, an aviation
+field near the lines. There he learned of Rockwell's death and was
+told that two other French machines had been brought down within the
+hour. He ordered his gasoline tank filled, procured a full band of
+cartridges and soared up into the air to avenge his comrade. He sped
+up and down the lines, and made a wide détour to Habsheim where the
+Germans have an aviation field, but all to no avail. Not a Boche was
+in the air.
+
+The news of Rockwell's death was telephoned to the escadrille. The
+captain, lieutenant, and a couple of men jumped in a staff car and
+hastened to where he had fallen. On their return the American pilots
+were convened in a room of the hotel and the news was broken to them.
+With tears in his eyes the captain said: "The best and bravest of us
+all is no more."
+
+No greater blow could have befallen the escadrille. Kiffin was its
+soul. He was loved and looked up to by not only every man in our
+flying corps but by every one who knew him. Kiffin was imbued with the
+spirit of the cause for which he fought and gave his heart and soul to
+the performance of his duty. He said: "I pay my part for Lafayette
+and Rochambeau," and he gave the fullest measure. The old flame of
+chivalry burned brightly in this boy's fine and sensitive being. With
+his death France lost one of her most valuable pilots. When he was
+over the lines the Germans did not pass--and he was over them most of
+the time. He brought down four enemy planes that were credited to him
+officially, and Lieutenant de Laage, who was his fighting partner,
+says he is convinced that Rockwell accounted for many others which
+fell too far within the German lines to be observed. Rockwell had been
+given the Médaille Militaire and the Croix de Guerre, on the ribbon of
+which he wore four palms, representing the four magnificent citations
+he had received in the order of the army. As a further reward for his
+excellent work he had been proposed for promotion from the grade of
+sergeant to that of second lieutenant. Unfortunately the official
+order did not arrive until a few days following his death.
+
+The night before Rockwell was killed he had stated that if he were
+brought down he would like to be buried where he fell. It was
+impossible, however, to place him in a grave so near the trenches. His
+body was draped in a French flag and brought back to Luxeuil. He was
+given a funeral worthy of a general. His brother, Paul, who had
+fought in the Legion with him, and who had been rendered unfit for
+service by a wound, was granted permission to attend the obsequies.
+Pilots from all near-by camps flew over to render homage to Rockwell's
+remains. Every Frenchman in the aviation at Luxeuil marched behind
+the bier. The British pilots, followed by a detachment of five
+hundred of their men, were in line, and a battalion of French troops
+brought up the rear. As the slow moving procession of blue and
+khaki-clad men passed from the church to the graveyard, airplanes
+circled at a feeble height above and showered down myriads of flowers.
+
+Rockwell's death urged the rest of the men to greater action, and the
+few who had machines were constantly after the Boches. Prince brought
+one down. Lufbery, the most skillful and successful fighter in the
+escadrille, would venture far into the enemy's lines and spiral down
+over a German aviation camp, daring the pilots to venture forth. One
+day he stirred them up, but as he was short of fuel he had to make for
+home before they took to the air. Prince was out in search of a combat
+at this time. He got it. He ran into the crowd Lufbery had aroused.
+Bullets cut into his machine and one exploding on the front edge of a
+lower wing broke it. Another shattered a supporting mast. It was a
+miracle that the machine did not give way. As badly battered as it was
+Prince succeeded in bringing it back from over Mulhouse, where the
+fight occurred, to his field at Luxeuil.
+
+The same day that Prince was so nearly brought down Lufbery missed
+death by a very small margin. He had taken on more gasoline and made
+another sortie. When over the lines again he encountered a German with
+whom he had a fighting acquaintance. That is he and the Boche, who
+was an excellent pilot, had tried to kill each other on one or two
+occasions before. Each was too good for the other. Lufbery manoeuvred
+for position but, before he could shoot, the Teuton would evade him by
+a clever turn. They kept after one another, the Boche retreating into
+his lines. When they were nearing Habsheim, Lufbery glanced back and
+saw French shrapnel bursting over the trenches. It meant a German
+plane was over French territory and it was his duty to drive it off.
+Swooping down near his adversary he waved good-bye, the enemy pilot
+did likewise, and Lufbery whirred off to chase the other
+representative of Kultur. He caught up with him and dove to the
+attack, but he was surprised by a German he had not seen. Before he
+could escape three bullets entered his motor, two passed through the
+fur-lined combination he wore, another ripped open one of his woolen
+flying boots, his airplane was riddled from wing tip to wing tip, and
+other bullets cut the elevating plane. Had he not been an exceptional
+aviator he never would have brought safely to earth so badly damaged a
+machine. It was so thoroughly shot up that it was junked as being
+beyond repairs. Fortunately Lufbery was over French territory or his
+forced descent would have resulted in his being made prisoner.
+
+I know of only one other airplane that was safely landed after
+receiving as heavy punishment as did Lufbery's. It was a two-place
+Nieuport piloted by a young Frenchman named Fontaine with whom I
+trained. He and his gunner attacked a German over the Bois le Pretre
+who dove rapidly far into his lines. Fontaine followed and in turn was
+attacked by three other Boches. He dropped to escape, they plunged
+after him forcing him lower. He looked and saw a German aviation field
+under him. He was by this time only 2,000 feet above the ground.
+Fontaine saw the mechanics rush out to grasp him, thinking he would
+land. The attacking airplanes had stopped shooting. Fontaine pulled on
+full power and headed for the lines. The German planes dropped down on
+him and again opened fire. They were on his level, behind and on his
+sides. Bullets whistled by him in streams. The rapid-fire gun on
+Fontaine's machine had jammed and he was helpless. His gunner fell
+forward on him, dead. The trenches were just ahead, but as he was
+slanting downward to gain speed he had lost a good deal of height, and
+was at only six hundred feet when he crossed the lines, from which he
+received a ground fire. The Germans gave up the chase and Fontaine
+landed with his dead gunner. His wings were so full of holes that they
+barely supported the machine in the air.
+
+The uncertain wait at Luxeuil finally came to an end on the 12th of
+October. The afternoon of that day the British did not say: "Come on
+Yanks, let's call off the war and have tea," as was their wont, for
+the bombardment of Oberndorf was on. The British and French machines
+had been prepared. Just before climbing into their airplanes the
+pilots were given their orders. The English in their single-seated
+Sopwiths, which carried four bombs each, were the first to leave. The
+big French Brequets and Farmans then soared aloft with their tons of
+explosive destined for the Mauser works. The fighting machines, which
+were to convoy them as far as the Rhine, rapidly gained their height
+and circled above their charges. Four of the battleplanes were from
+the American escadrille. They were piloted respectively by Lieutenant
+de Laage, Lufbery, Norman Prince, and Masson.
+
+The Germans were taken by surprise and as a result few of their
+machines were in the air. The bombardment fleet was attacked, however,
+and six of its planes shot down, some of them falling in flames.
+Baron, the famous French night bombarder, lost his life in one of the
+Farmans. Two Germans were brought down by machines they attacked and
+the four pilots from the American escadrille accounted for one each.
+Lieutenant de Laage shot down his Boche as it was attacking another
+French machine and Masson did likewise. Explaining it afterward he
+said: "All of a sudden I saw a Boche come in between me and a Breguet
+I was following. I just began to shoot, and darned if he didn't fall."
+
+As the fuel capacity of a Nieuport allows but little more than two
+hours in the air the _avions de chasse_ were forced to return to their
+own lines to take on more gasoline, while the bombardment planes
+continued on into Germany. The Sopwiths arrived first at Oberndorf.
+Dropping low over the Mauser works they discharged their bombs and
+headed homeward. All arrived, save one, whose pilot lost his way and
+came to earth in Switzerland. When the big machines got to Oberndorf
+they saw only flames and smoke where once the rifle factory stood.
+They unloaded their explosives on the burning mass.
+
+The Nieuports having refilled their tanks went up to clear the air of
+Germans that might be hovering in wait for the returning raiders.
+Prince found one and promptly shot it down. Lufbery came upon three.
+He drove for one, making it drop below the others, then forcing a
+second to descend, attacked the one remaining above. The combat was
+short and at the end of it the German tumbled to earth. This made the
+fifth enemy machine which was officially credited to Lufbery. When a
+pilot has accounted for five Boches he is mentioned by name in the
+official communication, and is spoken of as an "Ace," which in French
+aërial slang means a super-pilot. Papers are allowed to call an "ace"
+by name, print his picture and give him a write-up. The successful
+aviator becomes a national hero. When Lufbery worked into this
+category the French papers made him a head liner. The American "Ace,"
+with his string of medals, then came in for the ennuis of a matinee
+idol. The choicest bit in the collection was a letter from
+Wallingford, Conn., his home town, thanking him for putting it on the
+map.
+
+Darkness was coming rapidly on but Prince and Lufbery remained in the
+air to protect the bombardment fleet. Just at nightfall Lufbery made
+for a small aviation field near the lines, known as Corcieux.
+Slow-moving machines, with great planing capacity, can be landed in
+the dark, but to try and feel for the ground in a Nieuport, which
+comes down at about a hundred miles an hour, is to court disaster. Ten
+minutes after Lufbery landed Prince decided to make for the field. He
+spiraled down through the night air and skimmed rapidly over the trees
+bordering the Corcieux field. In the dark he did not see a
+high-tension electric cable that was stretched just above the tree
+tops. The landing gear of his airplane struck it. The machine snapped
+forward and hit the ground on its nose. It turned over and over. The
+belt holding Prince broke and he was thrown far from the wrecked
+plane. Both of his legs were broken and he naturally suffered internal
+injuries. In spite of the terrific shock and his intense pain Prince
+did not lose consciousness. He even kept his presence of mind and
+gave orders to the men who had run to pick him up. Hearing the hum of
+a motor, and realizing a machine was in the air, Prince told them to
+light gasoline fires on the field. "You don't want another fellow to
+come down and break himself up the way I've done," he said.
+
+Lufbery went with Prince to the hospital in Gerardmer. As the
+ambulance rolled along Prince sang to keep up his spirits. He spoke of
+getting well soon and returning to service. It was like Norman. He
+was always energetic about his flying. Even when he passed through
+the harrowing experience of having a wing shattered, the first thing
+he did on landing was to busy himself about getting another fitted in
+place and the next morning he was in the air again.
+
+No one thought that Prince was mortally injured but the next day he
+went into a coma. A blood clot had formed on his brain. Captain Haff
+in command of the aviation groups of Luxeuil, accompanied by our
+officers, hastened to Gerardmer. Prince lying unconscious on his bed,
+was named a second lieutenant and decorated with the Legion of Honor.
+He already held the Médaille Militaire and Croix de Guerre. Norman
+Prince died on the 15th of October. He was brought back to Luxeuil and
+given a funeral similar to Rockwell's. It was hard to realize that
+poor old Norman had gone. He was the founder of the American
+escadrille and every one in it had come to rely on him. He never let
+his own spirits drop, and was always on hand with encouragement for
+the others. I do not think Prince minded going. He wanted to do his
+part before being killed, and he had more than done it. He had, day
+after day, freed the line of Germans, making it impossible for them to
+do their work, and three of them he had shot to earth.
+
+Two days after Prince's death the escadrille received orders to leave
+for the Somme. The night before the departure the British gave the
+American pilots a farewell banquet and toasted them as their "Guardian
+Angels." They keenly appreciated the fact that four men from the
+American escadrille had brought down four Germans, and had cleared the
+way for their squadron returning from Oberndorf. When the train pulled
+out the next day the station platform was packed by khaki-clad pilots
+waving good-bye to their friends the "Yanks."
+
+The escadrille passed through Paris on its way to the Somme front. The
+few members who had machines flew from Luxeuil to their new post. At
+Paris the pilots were reënforced by three other American boys who had
+completed their training. They were: Fred Prince, who ten months
+before had come over from Boston to serve in aviation with his brother
+Norman; Willis Haviland, of Chicago, who left the American Ambulance
+for the life of a birdman, and Bob Soubrian, of New York, who had been
+transferred from the Foreign Legion to the flying corps after being
+wounded in the Champagne offensive.
+
+Before its arrival in the Somme the escadrille had always been
+quartered in towns and the life of the pilots was all that could be
+desired in the way of comforts. We had, as a result, come to believe
+that we would wage only a de luxe war, and were unprepared for any
+other sort of campaign. The introduction to the Somme was a rude
+awakening. Instead of being quartered in a villa or hotel, the pilots
+were directed to a portable barracks newly erected in a sea of mud.
+
+It was set in a cluster of similar barns nine miles from the nearest
+town. A sieve was a watertight compartment in comparison with that
+elongated shed. The damp cold penetrated through every crack, chilling
+one to the bone. There were no blankets and until they were procured
+the pilots had to curl up in their flying clothes. There were no
+arrangements for cooking and the Americans depended on the other
+escadrilles for food. Eight fighting units were located at the same
+field and our ever-generous French comrades saw to it that no one went
+hungry. The thick mist, for which the Somme is famous, hung like a
+pall over the birdmen's nest dampening both the clothes and spirits of
+the men.
+
+Something had to be done, so Thaw and Masson, who is our _Chef de
+Popote_ (President of the Mess) obtained permission to go to Paris in
+one of our light trucks. They returned with cooking utensils, a stove,
+and other necessary things. All hands set to work and as a result life
+was made bearable. In fact I was surprised to find the quarters as
+good as they were when I rejoined the escadrille a couple of weeks
+after its arrival in the Somme. Outside of the cold, mud, and dampness
+it wasn't so bad. The barracks had been partitioned off into little
+rooms leaving a large space for a dining hall. The stove is set up
+there and all animate life from the lion cub to the pilots centre
+around its warming glow.
+
+The eight escadrilles of fighting machines form a rather interesting
+colony. The large canvas hangars are surrounded by the house tents of
+their respective escadrilles; wooden barracks for the men and pilots
+are in close proximity, and sandwiched in between the encampments of
+the various units are the tents where the commanding officers hold
+forth. In addition there is a bath house where one may go and freeze
+while a tiny stream of hot water trickles down one's shivering form.
+Another shack houses the power plant which generates electric light
+for the tents and barracks, and in one very popular canvas is located
+the community bar, the profits from which go to the Red Cross.
+
+We had never before been grouped with as many other fighting
+escadrilles, nor at a field so near the front. We sensed the war to
+better advantage than at Luxeuil or Bar-le-Duc. When there is
+activity on the lines the rumble of heavy artillery reaches us in a
+heavy volume of sound. From the field one can see the line of
+sausage-shaped observation balloons, which delineate the front, and
+beyond them the high-flying airplanes, darting like swallows in the
+shrapnel puffs of anti-air-craft fire. The roar of motors that are
+being tested, is punctuated by the staccato barking of machine guns,
+and at intervals the hollow whistling sound of a fast plane diving to
+earth is added to this symphony of war notes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+PERSONAL LETTERS FROM SERGEANT McCONNELL--AT THE FRONT
+
+
+We're still waiting for our machines. In the meantime the Boches sail
+gaily over and drop bombs. One of our drivers has been killed and five
+wounded so far but we'll put a stop to it soon. The machines have
+left and are due to-day.
+
+You ask me what my work will be and how my machine is armed. First of
+all I mount an _avion de chasse_ and am supposed to shoot down Boches
+or keep them away from over our lines. I do not do observation, or
+regulating of artillery fire. These are handled by escadrilles
+equipped with bigger machines. I mount at daybreak over the lines;
+stay at from 11,000 to 15,000 feet and wait for the sight of an enemy
+plane. It may be a bombardment machine, a regulator of fire, an
+observer, or an _avion de chasse_ looking for me. Whatever she is I
+make for her and manoeuvre for position. All the machines carry
+different gun positions and one seeks the blind side. Having obtained
+the proper position one turns down or up, whichever the case may be,
+and, when within fifty yards, opens up with the machine gun. That is
+on the upper plane and it is sighted by a series of holes and cross
+webs. As one is passing at a terrific rate there is not time for many
+shots, so, unless wounded or one's machine is injured by the first
+try--for the enemy plane shoots, too--one tries it again and again
+until there's nothing doing or the other fellow is dropped. Apart from
+work over the lines, which is comparatively calm, there is the job of
+convoying bombardment machines. That is the rotten task. The captain
+has called on us to act as guards on the next trip. You see we are
+like torpedo boats of the air with our swift machines.
+
+We have the honour of being attached to a bombardment squadron that is
+the most famous in the French Army. The captain of the unit once lost
+his whole escadrille, and on the last trip eight lost their lives. It
+was a wonderful fight. The squadron was attacked by thirty-three
+Boches. Two French planes crashed to earth--then two German; another
+German was set on fire and streaked down, followed by a streaming
+column of smoke. Another Frenchman fell; another German; and then a
+French lieutenant, mortally wounded and realizing that he was dying,
+plunged his airplane into a German below him and both fell to earth
+like stones.
+
+The tours of Alsace and the Vosges that we have made, to look over
+possible landing places, were wonderful. I've never seen such
+ravishing sights, and in regarding the beauty of the country I have
+missed noting the landing places. The valleys are marvellous. On each
+side the mountain slopes are a solid mass of giant pines and down
+these avenues of green tumble myriads of glittering cascades which
+form into sparkling streams beneath. It is a pleasant feeling to go
+into Alsace and realize that one is touring over country we have taken
+from the Germans. It's a treat to go by auto that way. In the air, you
+know, one feels detached from all below. It's a different world, that
+has no particular meaning, and besides, it all looks flat and of a
+weary pattern.
+
+
+THE FIRST TRIP
+
+Well, I've made my first trip over the lines and proved a few things
+to myself. First, I can stand high altitudes. I had never been higher
+than 7,000 feet before, nor had I flown more than an hour. On my trip
+to Germany I went to 14,000 feet and was in the air for two hours. I
+wore the fur head-to-foot combination they give one and paper gloves
+under the fur ones you sent me. I was not cold. In a way it seemed
+amusing to be going out knowing as little as I do. My mitrailleuse
+had been mounted the night before. I had never fired it, nor did I
+know the country at all even though I'd motored along our lines. I
+followed the others or I surely should have been lost. I shall have to
+make special trips to study the land and be able to make it out from
+my map which I carry on board. For one thing the weather was hazy and
+clouds obscured the view.
+
+We left en escadrille, at 30-second intervals, at 6:30 A.M. I'd been
+on guard since three, waiting for an enemy plane. I climbed to 3,500
+feet in four minutes and so started off higher than the rest. I lost
+them immediately but took a compass course in the direction we were
+headed. Clouds were below me and I could see the earth only in spots.
+Ahead was a great barrier of clouds and fog. It seemed like a
+limitless ocean. To the south the Alps jutted up through the clouds
+and glistened like icebergs in the morning sun. I began to feel
+completely lost. I was at 7,000 feet and that was all I knew. Suddenly
+I saw a little black speck pop out of a cloud to my left--then two
+others. They were our machines and from then on I never let them get
+out of my sight. I went to 14,000 in order to be able to keep them
+well in view below me. We went over Belfort which I recognized, and,
+turning, went toward the lines. The clouds had dispersed by this time.
+Alsace was below us and in the distance I could see the straight
+course of the Rhine. It looked very small. I looked down and saw the
+trenches and when I next looked for our machines I saw clusters of
+smoke puffs. We were being fired at. One machine just under me seemed
+to be in the centre of a lot of shrapnel. The puffs were white, or
+black, or green, depending on the size of the shell used. It struck me
+as more amusing than anything else to watch the explosions and smoke.
+I thought of what a lot of money we were making the Germans spend. It
+is not often that they hit. The day before one of our machines had a
+part of the tail shot away and the propeller nicked, but that's just
+bum luck. Two shells went off just at my height and in a way that led
+me to think that the third one would get me; but it didn't. It's hard
+even for the aviator to tell how far off they are. We went over
+Mulhouse and to the north. Then we sailed south and turned over the
+lines on the way home. I was very tired after the flight but it was
+because I was not used to it and it was a strain on me keeping a
+look-out for the others.
+
+
+AT VERDUN
+
+To-day the army moving picture outfit took pictures of us. We had a
+big show. Thirty bombardment planes went off like clock-work and we
+followed. We circled and swooped down by the camera. We were taken in
+groups, then individually, in flying togs, and God knows what-all.
+They will be shown in the States.
+
+If you happen to see them you will recognize my machine by the MAC,
+painted on the side.
+
+Seems quite an important thing to have one's own airplane with two
+mechanics to take care of it, to help one dress for flights, and to
+obey orders. A pilot of no matter what grade is like an officer in any
+other arm.
+
+We didn't see any Boche planes on our trip. We were too many. The only
+way to do is to sneak up on them.
+
+I do not get a chance to see much of the biggest battle in the world
+which is being fought here, for I'm on a fighting machine and the sky
+is my province. We fly so high that ground details are lacking. Where
+the battle has raged there is a broad, browned band. It is a great
+strip of murdered Nature. Trees, houses, and even roads have been
+blasted completely away. The shell holes are so numerous that they
+blend into one another and cannot be separately seen. It looks as if
+shells fell by the thousand every second. There are spurts of smoke at
+nearly every foot of the brown areas and a thick pall of mist covers
+it all. There are but holes where the trenches ran, and when one
+thinks of the poor devils crouching in their inadequate shelters under
+such a hurricane of flying metal, it increases one's respect for the
+staying powers of modern man. It's terrible to watch, and I feel sad
+every time I look down. The only shooting we hear is the tut-tut-tut
+of our own or enemy plane's machine guns when fighting is at close
+quarters. The Germans shoot explosive bullets from theirs. I must
+admit that they have an excellent air fleet even if they do not fight
+decently.
+
+I'm a sergeant now--_sergent_ in French--and I get about two francs
+more a day and wear a gold band on my cap, which makes old
+territorials think I'm an officer and occasions salutes which are some
+bother.
+
+
+A SORTIE
+
+We made a foolish sortie this morning. Only five of us went, the
+others remaining in bed thinking the weather was too bad. It was. When
+at only 3,000 feet we hit a solid layer of clouds, and when we had
+passed through, we couldn't see anything but a shimmering field of
+white. Above were the bright sun and the blue sky, but how we were in
+regard to the earth no one knew. Fortunately the clouds had a big
+hole in them at one point and the whole mass was moving toward the
+lines. By circling, climbing, and dropping we stayed above the hole,
+and, when over the trenches, worked into it, ready to fall on the
+Boches. It's a stunt they use, too. We finally found ourselves 20
+kilometres in the German lines. In coming back I steered by compass
+and then when I thought I was near the field I dived and found myself
+not so far off, having the field in view. In the clouds it shakes
+terribly and one feels as if one were in a canoe on a rough sea.
+
+
+VICTOR CHAPMAN
+
+I was mighty sorry to see old Victor Chapman go. He was one of the
+finest men I've ever known. He was _too_ brave if anything. He was
+exceptionally well educated, had a fine brain, and a heart as big as a
+house. Why, on the day of his fatal trip, he had put oranges in his
+machine to take to Balsley who was lying wounded with an explosive
+bullet. He was going to land near the hospital after the sortie.
+
+Received letter inclosing note from Chapman's father. I'm glad you
+wrote him. I feel sure that some of my letters never reach you. I
+never let more than a week go by without writing. Maybe I do not get
+all yours, either.
+
+
+A SMASH-UP
+
+Weather has been fine and we've been doing a lot of work. Our
+Lieutenant de Laage de Mieux, brought down a Boche. I had another
+beautiful smash-up. Prince and I had stayed too long over the lines.
+Important day as an attack was going on. It was getting dark and we
+could see the tiny balls of fire the infantry light to show the
+low-flying observation machines their new positions. On my return,
+when I was over another aviation field, my motor broke. I made for
+field. In the darkness I couldn't judge my distance well, and went too
+far. At the edge of the field there were trees, and beyond, a deep cut
+where a road ran. I was skimming ground at a hundred miles an hour and
+heading for the trees. I saw soldiers running to be in at the finish
+and I thought to myself that James's hash was cooked, but I went
+between two trees and ended up head on against the opposite bank of
+the road. My motor took the shock and my belt held me. As my tail went
+up it was cut in two by some very low 'phone wires. I wasn't even
+bruised. Took dinner with the officers there who gave me a car to go
+home in afterward.
+
+
+FIGHTING A BOCHE
+
+To-day I shared another chap's machine (Hill of Peekskill), and got it
+shot up for him. De Laage (our lieutenant) and I made a sortie at
+noon. When over the German lines, near _Côte_ 304, I saw two Boches
+under me. I picked out the rear chap and dived. Fired a few shots and
+then tried to get under his tail and hit him from there. I missed, and
+bobbed up alongside of him. Fine for the Boche, but rotten for me! I
+could see his gunner working the mitrailleuse for fair, and felt his
+bullets darn close. I dived, for I could not shoot from that
+position, and beat it. He kept plunking away and altogether put seven
+holes in my machine. One was only ten inches in from me. De Laage was
+too far off to get to the Boche and ruin him while I was amusing him.
+
+Yesterday I motored up to an aviation camp to see a Boche machine that
+had been forced to land and was captured. On the way up I passed a
+cantonment of Senegalese. About twenty of 'em jumped up from the bench
+they were sitting on and gave me the hell of a salute. Thought I was a
+general because I was riding in a car, I guess. They're the blackest
+niggers you ever saw. Good-looking soldiers. Can't stand shelling but
+they're good on the cold steel end of the game. The Boche machine was
+a beauty. Its motor is excellent and she carries a machine gun aft and
+one forward. Same kind of a machine I attacked to-day. The German
+pilots must be mighty cold-footed, for if the Frenchmen had airplanes
+like that they surely would raise the devil with the Boches.
+
+As it is the Boches keep well within their lines, save occasionally,
+and we have to go over and fight them there.
+
+
+KIFFIN ROCKWELL
+
+Poor Kiffin Rockwell has been killed. He was known and admired far
+and wide, and he was accorded extraordinary honours. Fifty English
+pilots and eight hundred aviation men from the British unit in the
+Vosges marched at his funeral. There was a regiment of Territorials
+and a battalion of Colonial troops in addition to the hundreds of
+French pilots and aviation men. Captain Thénault of the American
+Escadrille delivered an exceptionally eulogistic funeral oration. He
+spoke at length of Rockwell's ideals and his magnificent work. He told
+of his combats. "When Rockwell was on the lines," he said, "no German
+passed, but on the contrary was forced to seek a refuge on the
+ground."
+
+Rockwell made the _esprit_ of the escadrille, and the Captain voiced
+the sentiments of us all when, in announcing his death, he said: "The
+best and bravest of us all is no more."
+
+How does the war look to you--as regards duration? We are figuring on
+about ten more months, but then it may be ten more years. Of late
+things are much brighter and one can feel a certain elation in the
+air. Victory, before, was a sort of academic certainty; now, it's
+felt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+HOW FRANCE TRAINS PILOT AVIATORS
+
+
+France now has thousands of men training to become military aviators,
+and the flying schools, of which there is a very great number, are
+turning out pilots at an astounding rate.
+
+The process of training a man to be a pilot aviator naturally varies
+in accordance with the type of machine on which he takes his first
+instruction, and so the methods of the various schools depend on the
+apparatus upon which they teach an _élève pilote_--as an embryonic
+aviator is called--to fly.
+
+In the case of the larger biplanes, a student goes up in a
+dual-control airplane, accompanied by an old pilot, who, after first
+taking him on many short trips, then allows him part, and later full,
+control, and who immediately corrects any false moves made by him.
+After that, short, straight line flights are made alone in a
+smaller-powered machine by the student, and, following that, the
+training goes on by degrees to the point where a certain mastery of
+the apparatus is attained. Then follows the prescribed "stunts" and
+voyages necessary to obtain the military brevet.
+
+
+TRAINING FOR PURSUIT AIRPLANES
+
+The method of training a pilot for a small, fast _avion de chasse_, as
+a fighting airplane is termed, is quite different, and as it is the
+most thorough and interesting I will take that course up in greater
+detail.
+
+The man who trains for one of these machines never has the advantage
+of going first into the air in a double-control airplane. He is alone
+when he first leaves the earth, and so the training preparatory to
+that stage is very carefully planned to teach a man the habit of
+control in such a way that all the essential movements will come
+naturally when he first finds himself face to face with the new
+problems the air has set for him. In this preparatory training a great
+deal of weeding out is effected, for a man's aptitude for the work
+shows up, and unless he is by nature especially well fitted he is
+transferred to the division which teaches one to fly the larger and
+safer machines.
+
+First of all, the student is put on what is called a roller. It is a
+low-powered machine with very small wings. It is strongly built to
+stand the rough wear it gets, and no matter how much one might try it
+could not leave the ground. The apparatus is jokingly and universally
+known as a Penguin, both because of its humorous resemblance to the
+quaint arctic birds and its inability in common with them to do any
+flying. A student makes a few trips up and down the field in a
+double-control Penguin, and learns how to steer with his feet. Then he
+gets into a single-seated one and, while the rapidly whirling
+propeller is pulling him along, tries to keep the Penguin in a
+straight line. The slightest mistake or delayed movement will send the
+machine skidding off to the right or left, and sometimes, if the motor
+is not stopped in time, over on its side or back. Something is always
+being broken on a Penguin, and so a reserve flock is kept at the side
+of the field in order that no time may be lost.
+
+After one is able to keep a fairly straight line, he is put on a
+Penguin that moves at a faster rate, and after being able to handle it
+successfully passes to a very speedy one, known as the "rapid." Here
+one learns to keep the tail of the machine at a proper angle by means
+of the elevating lever, and to make a perfectly straight line. When
+this has been accomplished and the monitor is thoroughly convinced
+that the student is absolutely certain of making no mistakes in
+guiding with his feet, the young aviator is passed on to the class
+which teaches him how to leave the ground. As one passes from one
+machine to another one finds that the foot movements must be made
+smaller and smaller. The increased speed makes the machine more and
+more responsive to the rudder, and as a result the foot movements
+become so gentle when one gets into the air that they must come
+instinctively.
+
+
+FIRST FLIGHTS ALONE
+
+The class where one will leave the ground has now been reached, and an
+outfit of leather clothes and casque is given to the would-be pilot.
+The machines used at this stage are low-powered monoplanes of the
+Blériot type, which, though being capable of leaving the ground,
+cannot rise more than a few feet. They do not run when the wind is
+blowing or when there are any movements of air from the ground, for
+though a great deal of balancing is done by correcting with the
+rudder, the student knows nothing of maintaining the lateral
+stability, and if caught in the air by a bad movement would be apt to
+sustain a severe accident. He has now only to learn how to take the
+machine off the ground and hold it at a low line of flight for a few
+moments.
+
+For the first time one is strapped into the seat of the machine, and
+this continues to be the case from this point on. The motor is
+started, and one begins to roll swiftly along the ground. The tail is
+brought to an angle slightly above a straight line. Then one sits
+tight and waits. Suddenly the motion seems softer, the motor does not
+roar so loudly, and the ground is slipping away. The class standing at
+the end of the line looks far below; the individuals are very small,
+but though you imagine you are going too high, you must not push to go
+down more than the smallest fraction, or the machine will dive and
+smash. The small push has brought you down with a bump from a
+seemingly great height. In reality you have been but three feet off
+the ground. Little by little the student becomes accustomed to leaving
+the ground, for these short hop-skip-and-jump flights, and has learned
+how to steer in the air.
+
+If he has no bad smash-ups he is passed on to a class where he rises
+higher, and is taught the rudiments of landing. If, after a few days,
+that act is reasonably performed and the young pilot does not land too
+hard, he is passed to the class where he goes about sixty feet high,
+maintains his line of flight for five or six minutes and learns to
+make a good landing from that height. He must by this time be able to
+keep his machine on the line of flight without dipping and rising, and
+the landings must be uniformly good. The instructor takes a great deal
+of time showing the student the proper line of descent, for the
+landings must be perfect before he can pass on.
+
+Now comes the class where the pilot rises three or four hundred feet
+high and travels for more than two miles in a straight line. Here he
+is taught how to combat air movements and maintain lateral stability.
+All the flying up to this point has been done in a straight line, but
+now comes the class where one is taught to turn. Machines in this
+division are almost as high powered as a regular flying machine, and
+can easily climb to two thousand feet. The turn is at first very wide,
+and then, as the student becomes more confident, it is done more
+quickly, and while the machine leans at an angle that would frighten
+one if the training in turning had not been gradual. When the pilot
+can make reasonably close right and left turns, he is told to make
+figure eights. After doing this well he is sent to the real flying
+machines.
+
+There is nothing in the way of a radical step from the turns and
+figure eights to the real flying machines. It is a question of
+becoming at ease in the better and faster airplanes taking greater
+altitudes, making little trips, perfecting landings, and mastering all
+the movements of correction that one is forced to make. Finally one is
+taught how to shut off and start one's motor again in the air, and
+then to go to a certain height, shut off the motor, make a half-turn
+while dropping and start the motor again. After this, one climbs to
+about two thousand feet and, shutting off the motor, spirals down to
+within five hundred feet of the ground. When that has been practised
+sufficiently, a registering altitude meter is strapped to the pilot's
+back and he essays the official spiral, in which one must spiral all
+the way to earth with the motor off, and come to a stop within a few
+yards of a fixed point on the aviation grounds. After this, the
+student passes to the voyage machines, which are of almost twice the
+power of the machine used for the short trips and spirals.
+
+
+TESTS FOR THE MILITARY BREVET
+
+There are three voyages to make. Two consist in going to designated
+towns an hour or so distant and returning. The third voyage is a
+triangle. A landing is made at one point and the other two points are
+only necessary to cross. In addition, there are two altitudes of about
+seven thousand feet each that one has to attain either while on the
+voyages or afterward.
+
+The young pilot has not, up to this point, had any experience on
+trips, and there is always a sense of adventure in starting out over
+unknown country with only a roller map to guide one and the gauges and
+controls, which need constant attention, to distract one from the
+reading of the chart. Then, too, it is the first time that the student
+has flown free and at a great height over the earth, and his sense of
+exultation at navigating at will the boundless sky causes him to
+imagine he is a real pilot. True it is that when the voyages and
+altitudes are over, and his examinations in aeronautical sciences
+passed, the student becomes officially a _pilote-aviateur_, and he can
+wear two little gold-woven wings on his collar to designate his
+capacity, and carry a winged propeller emblem on his arm, but he is
+not ready for the difficult work of the front, and before he has time
+to enjoy more than a few days' rest he is sent to a school of
+_perfectionnement_. There the real, serious and thorough training
+begins.
+
+Schools where the pilots are trained on the modern machines--_écoles
+de perfectionnement_ as they are called--are usually an annex to the
+centres where the soldiers are taught to fly, though there are one or
+two camps that are devoted exclusively to giving advanced instruction
+to aviators who are to fly the _avions de chasse_, or fighting
+machines. When the aviator enters one of these schools he is a
+breveted pilot, and he is allowed a little more freedom than he
+enjoyed during the time he was learning to fly.
+
+He now takes up the Morane monoplane. It is interesting to note that
+the German Fokker is practically a copy of this machine. After flying
+for a while on a low-powered Morane and having mastered the landing,
+the pilot is put on a new, higher-powered model of the same make. He
+has a good many hours of flying, but his trips are very short, for the
+whole idea is to familiarize one with the method of landing. The
+Blériot has a landing gear that is elastic in action, and it is easy
+to bring to earth. The Nieuport and other makes of small, fast
+machines for which the pilot is training have a solid wheel base, and
+good landings are much more difficult to make. The Morane pilot has
+the same practices climbing to small altitudes around eight thousand
+feet and picking his landing from that height with motor off. When he
+becomes proficient in flying the single- and double-plane types he
+leaves the school for another, where shooting with machine guns is
+taught.
+
+This course in shooting familiarizes one with various makes of machine
+guns used on airplanes, and one learns to shoot at targets from the
+air. After two or three weeks the pilot is sent to another school of
+combat.
+
+
+TRICK FLYING AND DOING STUNTS
+
+These schools of combat are connected with the _écoles de
+perfectionnement_ with which the pilot has finished. In the combat
+school he learns battle tactics, how to fight singly and in fleet
+formation, and how to extract himself from a too dangerous position.
+Trips are made in squadron formation and sham battles are effected
+with other escadrilles, as the smallest unit of an aërial fleet is
+called. For the first time the pilot is allowed to do fancy flying. He
+is taught how to loop the loop, slide on his wings or tail, go into
+corkscrews and, more important, to get out of them, and is encouraged
+to try new stunts.
+
+Finally the pilot is considered well enough trained to be sent to the
+reserve, where he waits his call to the front. At the reserve he flies
+to keep his hand in, practises on any new make of machine that happens
+to come out or that he may be put on in place of the Nieuport, and
+receives information regarding old and new makes of enemy airplanes.
+
+At last the pilot receives his call to the front, where he takes his
+place in some established or newly formed escadrille. He is given a
+new machine from the nearest airplane reserve centre, and he then
+begins his active service in the war, which, if he survives the
+course, is the best school of them all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+AGAINST ODDS
+
+
+Since the publication of previous editions of "Flying for France" we
+have obtained the following letters which add greatly to the interest
+and complete the record of McConnell's connection with the Lafayette
+Escadrille.
+
+
+
+_March 19, 1917._
+
+DEAR PAUL:
+
+We are passing through some very interesting times. The boches are in
+full retreat, offering very little resistance to the English and
+French advance. The boches have systematically destroyed all the towns
+and villages abandoned. Where they haven't burned a house, they have
+made holes through the roofs with pickaxes. All the cross-roads are
+blown up at the junctions, and when the trees bordering the roads
+haven't been cut down, barricading the roads, they have been cut half
+way through so that when the wind blows they keep falling on the
+passing convoys. The inhabitants left in these villages are wild with
+delight and are giving the troops an inspiring reception. In one town
+the boches raped all the women before leaving, then locked them down
+cellar, and carried off all the young girls with them.
+
+We have been flying low, and watching the cavalry overrunning the
+country. The boches are retreating to very strongly fortified
+positions, where the advance is going to come up against a stone wall.
+
+This morning Genet and McConnell flew well ahead of the advancing
+army, Mac leading. Genet saw two boche planes maneuvering to get
+above them, so he began to climb, too. Finally they got together; the
+boche was a biplane and had the edge on Genet. Almost the first shot
+got Genet in the cheek. Fortunately it was only a deep flesh wound,
+and another shot almost broke the stanchion, which supports the wings,
+in two. Genet stuck to the boche and opened fire on him. He knows he
+hit the machine and at one time he thought he saw the machine on fire,
+but nothing happened. At last the boche had Genet in a bad position,
+so he (Genet) piqued down about a thousand meters and got away from
+the boche. He looked around for Mac but couldn't find him, so he came
+home. Mac hasn't yet shown up and we are frightfully worried. Genet
+has a dim recollection that when he attacked the boche, the other
+boche piqued down in Mac's direction, and it looks as if the boche got
+Mac unawares. Late this afternoon we got a report that this morning a
+Nieuport was seen to land near Tergnier, which is unfortunately still
+in German hands. This must have been Mac's, in which case he is only
+wounded, or perhaps only his machine was badly damaged. There is a
+general feeling among us that Mac is all right. The French cavalry are
+within ten or fifteen kilometers of Tergnier now and perhaps they will
+take the place to-morrow, in which case we will certainly learn
+something. This afternoon Lieut. de Laage and Lufbery landed at Ham,
+where the advance infantry were, and made a lot of inquiries. It was
+near this place where the fight started. Nobody had seen any machine
+come down. You may be sure I will keep you informed of everything that
+turns up. Genet is going to write you in a day or so.
+
+Sincerely,
+
+WALTER (signed Walter Lovell).
+
+P. S. I apologize for the mistakes and the disconnectedness of this
+letter, but I wrote it in frightful haste in order to get it in the
+first post.
+
+
+
+_March 20, 1917._
+
+MY DEAR ROCKWELL:
+
+I do not know if any of the boys have written you about the
+disappearance of Jim, so perhaps you might know something about it
+when this letter reaches you.
+
+He left yesterday at 8:45 a.m. in his machine for the German lines,
+and has not returned yet. He and Genet were attacked by two Germans,
+the latter, who received a slight wound on the cheek, was so occupied
+he did not see what became of Jim, and returned without him.
+
+The combat took place between Ham and St. Quentin; the territory was
+still occupied by the enemy when the combat took place. The worst I
+hope has happened to our friend is that perhaps he was wounded and was
+forced to land in the enemy's lines and was made prisoner. Nothing
+definite is known. I shall write you immediately I get news.
+
+I am extremely worried. To lose my friend would be a severe blow. I
+can't and will not believe that anything serious has happened.
+
+Best wishes,
+
+Sincerely,
+
+E. A. MARSHALL.
+
+
+
+_Escadrille N. 124, Secteur Postal 182,_
+ _March 21, 1917._
+
+MY DEAR PAUL:
+
+Had I been feeling less distressed and miserable on Monday morning, or
+during yesterday, I would have written you then, but I told Lovell to
+tell you how I felt when he wrote on Monday and that I would try and
+write in a day or so. I am not feeling much better mentally but I'll
+try and write something, for I am the only one who was out with poor
+Mac on Monday morning and it just adds that much more to my distress.
+
+As you know, we have had a big advance here, due to the deliberate
+evacuation by the Germans, without much opposition, of the territory
+now in the hands of the French and English. The advance began last
+Thursday night and each day has brought the lines closer to Saint
+Quentin and the region north and south of it.
+
+On Monday morning Mac, Parsons, and myself went out at nine o'clock on
+the third patrol of the escadrille. We had orders to protect
+observation machines along the new lines around the region of Ham. Mac
+was leader. I came second and Parsons followed me. Before we had gone
+very far Parsons was forced to go back on account of motor trouble,
+which handicapped us greatly on account of what followed, but of
+course that cannot be remedied because Parsons was perfectly right in
+returning when his motor was not running well. We all do that one time
+or another.
+
+Mac and I kept on and up to ten o'clock were circling around the
+region of Ham, watching out for the heavier machines doing
+reconnoitring work below us. We went higher than a thousand meters
+during that time. About ten, for some reason or other of his own, Mac
+suddenly headed into the German lines toward Saint Quentin and I
+naturally followed close to his rear and above him. Perhaps he wanted
+to make observations around Saint Quentin. At any rate, we had gotten
+north of Ham and quite inside the hostile lines, when I saw two boche
+machines crossing towards us from the region of Saint Quentin at an
+altitude quite higher than ours. We were then about 1,600 meters. I
+supposed Mac saw them the same as I did. One boche was much farther
+ahead than the other, and was headed as if he would dive at any moment
+on Mac. I glanced ahead at Mac and saw what direction he was taking,
+and then pulled back to climb up as quickly as possible to gain an
+advantageous height over the nearest boche. It was cloudy and misty
+and I had to keep my eyes on him all the time, so naturally I couldn't
+watch Mac. The second boche was still much farther off than his mate.
+By this time I had gotten to 2,200, the boche was almost up to me and
+taking a diagonal course right in front. He started to circle and his
+gunner--it was a biplane, probably an Albatross, although the mist was
+too thick and dark for me to see much but the bare outline of his
+dirty, dark green body, with white and black crosses--opened fire
+before I did and his first volley did some damage. One bullet cut the
+left central support of my upper wing in half, an explosive bullet cut
+in half the left guiding rod of the left aileron, and I was
+momentarily stunned by part of it which dug a nasty gouge into my left
+cheek. I had already opened fire and was driving straight for the
+boche with teeth set and my hand gripping the triggers making a
+veritable stream of fire spitting out of my gun at him, as I had
+incendiary bullets, it being my job lately to chase after observation
+balloons, and on Saturday morning I had also been up after the
+reported Zeppelins. I had to keep turning toward the boche every
+second, as he was circling around towards me and I was on the inside
+of the circle, so his gunner had all the advantage over me. I thought
+I had him on fire for one instant as I saw--or supposed I did--flames
+on his fuselage. Everything passed in a few seconds and we swung past
+each other in opposite directions at scarcely twenty-five meters from
+each other--the boche beating off towards the north and I immediately
+dived down in the opposite direction wondering every second whether
+the broken wing support would hold together or not and feeling weak
+and stunned from the hole in my face. A battery opened a heavy fire on
+me as I went down, the shells breaking just behind me. I straightened
+out over Ham at a thousand meters, and began to circle around to look
+for Mac or the other boche, but saw absolutely nothing the entire
+fifteen minutes I stayed there. I was fearful every minute that my
+whole top wing would come off, and I thought that possibly Mac had
+gotten around toward the west over our lines, missed me, and was
+already on his way back to camp. So I finally turned back for our
+camp, having to fly very low and against a strong northern wind, on
+account of low clouds just forming. I got back at a quarter to eleven
+and my first question to my mechanic was: "Has McConnell returned?"
+
+He hadn't, Paul, and no news of any sort have we had of him yet,
+although we hoped and prayed every hour yesterday for some word to
+come in. The one hope that we have is that on account of this
+continued advance some news will be brought in of Mac through
+civilians who might have witnessed his flight over the lines north of
+Ham, while they were still in the hands of the enemy, for many of the
+civilians in the villages around there are being left by the Germans
+as they retire. We can likewise hope that Mac was merely forced to
+land inside the enemy lines on account of a badly damaged machine, or
+a bad wound, and is well but a prisoner. I wish to God, Paul, that I
+had been able to see Mac during his combat, or had been able to get
+down to him sooner and help him. The mists were thick, and
+consequently seeing far was difficult. I would have gone out that
+afternoon to look for him but my machine was so damaged it took until
+yesterday afternoon to be repaired. Lieut. de Laage and Lufbery did
+go out with their Spads and looked all around the region north of Ham
+towards Saint Quentin but saw nothing at all of a Nieuport on the
+ground, or anything else to give news of what had occurred.
+
+The French are still not far enough towards Saint Quentin to be on the
+territory where the chances are Mac landed, so we'll still have to
+wait for to-day's developments for any possibility of news. I got lots
+of hope, Paul, that Mac is at least alive although undoubtedly a
+prisoner. I know how badly the news has affected you. We're all
+feeling mighty blue over it and as for myself--I'm feeling utterly
+miserable over the whole affair. Just as soon as any definite news
+comes in I'll surely let you know at once. Meanwhile, keep cheered and
+hopeful. There's no use in losing hope yet. If a prisoner Mac may even
+be able to escape and return to our lines, on account of the very
+unsettled state of the retreating Germans. Others have done so under
+much less favorable conditions.
+
+I hope you are having a very enjoyable trip through the South. Walter
+showed me the postal you wrote him, which he received yesterday.
+Please give my very warm regards to your wife. Write as soon as you
+can, too.
+
+Very faithfully yours,
+
+EDMOND C. C. GENET.
+
+
+
+_March 22, 1917._
+
+MY DEAR ROCKWELL:
+
+Still no news about Jim. Last night the captain sent out a request to
+the military authorities to have our troops advancing in the direction
+of Saint Quentin report immediately any particulars about avion 2055.
+Even now I cannot reconcile myself concerning Jim's fate. I hope he
+has been made prisoner.
+
+Just a few words about myself. I am awaiting the results of my
+friends' actions in the States on my behalf. I am placed in a peculiar
+position in the escadrille. I have nothing to do here. Shall I take
+care of Jim's belongings?
+
+Best wishes,
+
+Sincerely,
+
+E. A. MARSHALL.
+
+
+
+_Escadrille N. 124, Secteur Postal 182,_
+ _March 23, 1917._
+
+DEAR PAUL:
+
+In my letter I promised to send you word as soon as any definite news
+came in concerning poor Mac. To-day word came in from a group of
+French cavalry that they witnessed our fight on Monday morning and
+that they saw Mac brought down inside the German lines towards Saint
+Quentin after being attacked by two boche machines and at the same
+time they saw me fighting a third one higher than Mac, and that just
+as I piqued down Mac fell so there were three boche machines instead
+of two, as I supposed, having missed seeing the third one on account
+of the heavy clouds and mist around us.
+
+There is still the hope that Mac wasn't killed but only wounded and a
+prisoner. If he is we'll learn of it later. The cavalrymen didn't say
+whether he came down normally or fell. Possibly he was too far off
+really to tell definitely about that. Certainly he had been already
+brought down before I could get down to help him after the boche I
+attacked beat it off. Had I known there were three boche machines I
+certainly would not have played around that boche at such a distance
+from Mac.
+
+When will Mrs. Weeks return to Paris from the States? Will you write
+and tell her about Mac? She'll be mighty well grieved to hear of it, I
+know, and you'll be the best one to break it to her.
+
+Write to me soon. Best regards to Mrs. Rockwell.
+
+E. GENET.
+
+
+
+_March 24th, a. m._
+ _C. Aeronatique, Noyon & D. C. 13._
+
+MY DEAR ROCKWELL:
+
+The targe element informs us that it has found, in the environs of the
+Bois l'Abbe, a Nieuport No. 2055. The aviator, a sergeant, has been
+dead since three days, in the opinion of the doctor. His pockets
+appear to have been searched, for no papers were found on him. The
+Bois l'Abbe is two kilometers south of Jussy. The above message
+received by us at ten o'clock last night. Jussy is on the main road
+between Saint Quentin and Chauny. I expect to go back to the infantry
+soon.
+
+Sincerely, E. A. MARSHALL.
+
+
+
+_Escadrille N. 124, Secteur Postal 182,_
+ _March 25, 1917._
+
+DEAR PAUL:
+
+The evening before last definite news was brought to us that a badly
+smashed Nieuport had been found by French troops, beside which was the
+body of a sergeant-pilot which had been there at least three days and
+had been stripped of all identification papers, flying clothes and
+even the boots. They got the number of the machine, which proved
+without further question that it was poor Mac. They gave the location
+as being at the little village of Petit Detroit, which is just south
+of Flavy-le-Martel, the latter place being about ten kilometers east
+of Ham on the railroad running from Ham to La Fere.
+
+After having made a flight over the lines yesterday morning, I went
+down around Petit Detroit to locate the machine. There was no decent
+place there on which to land so I circled around over it for a few
+minutes to see in which condition it (the Nieuport) was. The machine
+was scarcely distinguishable so badly had it smashed into the ground,
+and there is scarcely any doubt, Paul, that Mac was killed while
+having his fight in the air, as no pilot would have attempted to land
+a machine in the tiny rotten field--no more than a little orchard
+beside the road--voluntarily. It seems almost certain that he struck
+the ground with full motor on. Captain Thénault landed some distance
+from there that he might go over there in a car and see just what
+could be done about poor Mac's body. When he returned last night he
+told us the following:
+
+Mac, he said, was as badly mangled as the machine and had been
+relieved of his flying suit by the damned boches, also of his shoes
+and all papers. The machine had struck the ground so hard that it was
+half buried, the motor being totally in the earth and the rest,
+including even the machine gun, completely smashed. It was just beside
+the main road, in a small field containing apple trees cut down by the
+retreating boches, and just at the southern edge of the village.
+
+Mac has been buried right there beside the road, and we will see that
+the grave is decently marked with a cross, etc. The captain brought
+back a square piece of canvas cut from one of the wings, and we are
+going to get a good picture we have of Mac enlarged and placed on this
+with a frame. I suppose that Thaw or Johnson will attend to the
+belongings of Mac which he had written are to be sent to you to care
+for. In the letter which he had left for just such an occasion as this
+he concludes with the following words: "Good luck to the rest of you.
+God damn Germany and vive la France!"
+
+All honour to him, Paul. The world will look up to him, as well as
+France, for whom he died so gloriously, just as it is looking up to
+your fine brother and the rest of us who have given their lives so
+freely and gladly for this big cause.
+
+Warmest regards, etc.,
+
+Faithfully,
+
+EDMOND C. C. GENET.
+
+P. S. The captain has already put in a proposal for a citation for
+Mac, and also one for me. Mac surely deserved it, and lots more too.
+
+
+
+_Escadrille N. 124, S. P. 182,_
+ _March 27, 1917._
+
+DEAR PAUL:
+
+I got your postcard to-day and would have written you sooner about
+poor Jim but haven't been up to it, which I know you understand.
+
+It hit me pretty hard, Paul, for as you know we were in school and
+college together, and for the last four or five years have been very
+intimate, living in N.C. and New York together.
+
+It's hell, Paul, that all the good boys are being picked off. The
+damned Huns have raised hell with the old crowd, but I think we have
+given them more than we have received. The boys who have gone made
+the name for the escadrille and now it's up to us who are left
+(especially the old Verdun crowd) to keep her going and make the
+boches suffer.
+
+Like old Kiffin, Mac died gloriously and in full action. It was in a
+fight with three Germans in their lines. Genet took one Hun (and was
+wounded). The last he saw was a Hun on Mac's back. Later we learned
+from the cavalry that there were two on Mac and after a desperate
+fight Mac crashed to the ground. This was the 19th of March. Three
+days later we took the territory Mac fell in and they were unable to
+distinguish who he was. The swine Huns had taken every paper or piece
+of identification from him and also robbed him--even took his shoes.
+The captain went over and was able to identify him by the number of
+his machine and uniform. He had lain out there three days and was
+smashed so terribly that you couldn't recognize his face. He was
+buried where he fell in a coffin made from the door of a pillaged
+house. His last resting place (and where he fell) is "Petit Detroit,"
+which is a village southwest of Saint Quentin and north of Chauney. He
+is buried just at the southeast end of the village and in a hell of a
+small town.
+
+Jim left a letter of which I am copying the important parts:
+
+"In case of my death or made prisoner--which is worse--please send my
+canteen and what money I have on me, or coming to me [he had none on
+him as the Huns lifted that] to Mr. Paul A. Rockwell, 80 rue, etc.
+Shoes, tools, wearing apparel, etc., you can give away. The rest of my
+things, such as diary, photos, souvenirs, croix de guerre, best
+uniform [he had best uniform on and I think the croix de
+guerre--however, you may find the latter in his things, his other
+uniform can't be found], please put in canteen and ship along.
+
+"Kindly cable my sister, Mrs. Followsbee, 65 Bellevue Place, Chicago.
+It would be kind to follow same by a letter telling about my death
+[which I am doing].
+
+"I have a box trunk in Paris containing belongings I would like to
+send home. Paul R. knows about it and can attend to the shipping. I
+would appreciate it if the committee of the American Escad. would pay
+to Mr. Paul Rockwell the money needed to cover express.
+
+"My burial is of no import. Make it as easy as possible for
+yourselves. I have no religion and do not care for any service. If the
+omission would embarrass you I presume I could stand the performance.
+[Note Jim's keen sense of humour even to death instructions.]
+
+"Good luck to the rest of you. God damn Germany and vive la France.
+
+"Signed,
+
+"J. R. McCONNELL."
+
+Jim had on the day of his death been proposed for the Croix de Guerre
+with palm. When it comes I shall send it to you.
+
+Well, Paul, I have told you everything I can think of, but if there
+are any omissions or questions don't hesitate to ask.
+
+I think we are now beginning to see the beginning of the end. The
+devastation, destruction and misery the Huns have left is a
+disgraceful crime to civilization and is pitiful. It drives me so
+furious I can't talk about it.
+
+Best regards to you, old boy, and luck. All join in the above. I shall
+wind up the same as Jim.
+
+As always,
+
+CHOUT (Charles Chouteau Johnson).
+
+P. S. Steve Biglow is taking canteen to your place in Paris to-morrow,
+so you will find it there upon your return.
+
+C. C. J.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, FLYING FOR FRANCE ***
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+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
+<html>
+<head>
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Flying for France, by James
+R. McConnell</title>
+<meta http-equiv="content-Type" content=
+"text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+</head>
+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Flying for France, by James R.
+McConnell</h1>
+
+<pre>
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
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+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: Flying for France
+
+Author: James R. McConnell
+
+Release Date: November, 2004  [EBook #6977]
+[This file was first posted on February 19, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: iso-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, FLYING FOR FRANCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Paul Hollander, Juliet Sutherland, Linton Dawe, Charles Franks
+
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> </p>
+
+<h2>FLYING FOR FRANCE</h2>
+
+<h3><i>With the American Escadrille at Verdun</i></h3>
+
+<p> <br>
+ </p>
+
+<h4>BY</h4>
+
+<h3>JAMES R. McCONNELL</h3>
+
+<h4><i>Sergeant-Pilot in the French Flying Corps</i></h4>
+
+<p><a name="photo1"> <br>
+  </a></p>
+
+<p><a href="photo1.htm"><img alt="photo1t.png" src="photo1t.png"></a></p>
+
+<p>James R. McConnell</p>
+
+<p> <br>
+ </p>
+
+<h4>ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS<br>
+THROUGH THE KINDNESS OF MR. PAUL ROCKWELL</h4>
+
+<p> <br>
+ </p>
+
+<h4>To<br>
+MRS. ALICE S. WEEKS</h4>
+</div>
+
+<p>Who having lost a splendid son in the French Army has given to
+a great number of us other Americans in the war the tender
+sympathy and help of a mother.</p>
+
+<p> <br>
+ </p>
+
+<table summary="verdun" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="5">
+<tr>
+<td align="center"><b>CONTENTS</b> </td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>Introduction<br>
+   By F. C. P.</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td valign="bottom"><font size="-2"><b>CHAPTER</b></font> </td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<table summary="verdun" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="5">
+<tr>
+<td align="right">I.</td>
+<td><a href="#verdun">Verdun</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">II.</td>
+<td><a href="#somme">From Verdun to the Somme</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">III.</td>
+<td><a href="#letters">Personal Letters from Sergeant
+McConnell</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">IV.</td>
+<td><a href="#train">How France Trains Pilot Aviators</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">V.</td>
+<td><a href="#odds">Against Odds</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>
+<p> <br>
+ </p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="center"><b>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</b> </td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#photo1">James R. McConnell</a> <i>Frontispiece</i>
+</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#photo2">Some of the Americans Who are Flying for
+France</a> </td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#photo3">Two Members of the American Escadrille</a>,
+of the French Flying Service, Who Were Killed Flying For
+France</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#photo4">"Whiskey."</a> The Lion and Mascot of the
+American Flying Squadron in France</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#photo5">Kiffin Rockwell</a>, of Asheville, N.C.,
+Who Was Killed in an Air Duel Over Verdun</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#photo6">Sergeant Lufbery in one of the New
+Nieuports</a> in Which He Convoyed the Bombardment Fleet Which
+Attacked Oberndorf</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+ 
+
+<p> <br>
+ </p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<h4>INTRODUCTION<br>
+ </h4>
+</div>
+
+<p>One day in January, 1915, I saw Jim McConnell in front of the
+Court House at Carthage, North Carolina. "Well," he said, "I'm
+all fixed up and am leaving on Wednesday." "Where for?" I asked.
+"I've got a job to drive an ambulance in France," was his
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>And then he went on to tell me, first, that as he saw it the
+greatest event in history was going on right at hand and that he
+would be missing the opportunity of a lifetime if he did not see
+it. "These Sand Hills," he said "will be here forever, but the
+war won't; and so I'm going." Then, as an afterthought, he added:
+"And I'll be of some use, too, not just a sight-seer looking on;
+that wouldn't be fair."</p>
+
+<p>So he went. He joined the American ambulance service in the
+Vosges, was mentioned more than once in the orders of the day for
+conspicuous bravery in saving wounded under fire, and received
+the much-coveted Croix de Guerre.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, he wrote interesting letters home. And his point of
+view changed, even as does the point of view of all Americans who
+visit Europe. From the attitude of an adventurous spirit anxious
+to see the excitement, his letters showed a new belief that any
+one who goes to France and is not able and willing to do more
+than his share--to give everything in him toward helping the
+wounded and suffering--has no business there.</p>
+
+<p>And as time went on, still a new note crept into his letters;
+the first admiration for France was strengthened and almost
+replaced by a new feeling--a profound conviction that France and
+the French people were fighting the fight of liberty against
+enormous odds. The new spirit of France--the spirit of the
+"Marseillaise," strengthened by a grim determination and absolute
+certainty of being right--pervades every line he writes. So he
+gave up the ambulance service and enlisted in the French flying
+corps along with an ever-increasing number of other
+Americans.</p>
+
+<p>The spirit which pervades them is something above the spirit
+of adventure that draws many to war; it is the spirit of a man
+who has found an inspiring duty toward the advancement of liberty
+and humanity and is glad and proud to contribute what he can.</p>
+
+<p>His last letters bring out a new point--the assurance of
+victory of a just cause. "Of late," he writes, "things are much
+brighter and one can feel a certain elation in the air. Victory,
+before, was a sort of academic certainty; now, it is felt."</p>
+
+<div align="right">
+<p>F. C. P.     <br>
+November 10, 1916.     </p>
+</div>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+ </p>
+
+<h2>FLYING FOR FRANCE</h2>
+
+<p> <br>
+  <a name="verdun"></a></p>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER I</h3>
+
+<h4>VERDUN<br>
+ </h4>
+</div>
+
+<p>Beneath the canvas of a huge hangar mechanicians are at work
+on the motor of an airplane. Outside, on the borders of an
+aviation field, others loiter awaiting their a&euml;rial charge's
+return from the sky. Near the hangar stands a hut-shaped tent. In
+front of it several short-winged biplanes are lined up; inside it
+three or four young men are lolling in wicker chairs.</p>
+
+<p>They wear the uniform of French army aviators. These uniforms,
+and the grim-looking machine guns mounted on the upper planes of
+the little aircraft, are the only warlike note in a pleasantly
+peaceful scene. The war seems very remote. It is hard to believe
+that the greatest of all battles--Verdun--rages only twenty-five
+miles to the north, and that the field and hangars and
+mechanicians and aviators and airplanes are all playing a part
+therein.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly there is the distant hum of a motor. One of the
+pilots emerges from the tent and gazes fixedly up into the blue
+sky. He points, and one glimpses a black speck against the blue,
+high overhead. The sound of the motor ceases, and the speck grows
+larger. It moves earthward in steep dives and circles, and as it
+swoops closer, takes on the shape of an airplane. Now one can
+make out the red, white, and blue circles under the wings which
+mark a French war-plane, and the distinctive insignia of the
+pilot on its sides.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Ton patron arrive!"</i> one mechanician cries to another.
+"Your boss is coming!"</p>
+
+<p>The machine dips sharply over the top of a hangar, straightens
+out again near the earth at a dizzy speed a few feet above it
+and, losing momentum in a surprisingly short time, hits the
+ground with tail and wheels. It bumps along a score of yards and
+then, its motor whirring again, turns, rolls toward the hangar,
+and stops. A human form, enveloped in a species of garment for
+all the world like a diver's suit, and further adorned with
+goggles and a leather hood, rises unsteadily in the cockpit,
+clambers awkwardly overboard and slides down to terra firma.</p>
+
+<p>A group of soldiers, enjoying a brief holiday from the
+trenches in a cantonment near the field, straggle forward and
+gather timidly about the airplane, listening open-mouthed for
+what its rider is about to say.</p>
+
+<p>"Hell!" mumbles that gentleman, as he starts divesting himself
+of his flying garb.</p>
+
+<p>"What's wrong now?" inquires one of the tenants of the
+tent.</p>
+
+<p>"Everything, or else I've gone nutty," is the indignant reply,
+delivered while disengaging a leg from its Teddy Bear trousering.
+"Why, I emptied my whole roller on a Boche this morning, point
+blank at not fifteen metres off. His machine gun quit firing and
+his propeller wasn't turning and yet the darn fool just hung up
+there as if he were tied to a cloud. Say, I was so sure I had him
+it made me sore--felt like running into him and yelling, 'Now,
+you fall, you bum!'"</p>
+
+<p>The eyes of the <i>poilus</i> register surprise. Not a word of
+this dialogue, delivered in purest American, is intelligible to
+them. Why is an aviator in a French uniform speaking a foreign
+tongue, they mutually ask themselves. Finally one of them, a
+little chap in a uniform long since bleached of its horizon-blue
+colour by the mud of the firing line, whisperingly interrogates a
+mechanician as to the identity of these strange air folk.</p>
+
+<p>"But they are the Americans, my old one," the latter explains
+with noticeable condescension.</p>
+
+<p>Marvelling afresh, the infantrymen demand further details.
+They learn that they are witnessing the return of the American
+Escadrille--composed of Americans who have volunteered to fly for
+France for the duration of the war--to their station near
+Bar-le-Duc, twenty-five miles south of Verdun, from a flight over
+the battle front of the Meuse. They have barely had time to
+digest this knowledge when other dots appear in the sky, and one
+by one turn into airplanes as they wheel downward. Finally all
+six of the machines that have been aloft are back on the ground
+and the American Escadrille has one more sortie over the German
+lines to its credit.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+PERSONNEL OF THE ESCADRILLE</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Like all worth-while institutions, the American Escadrille, of
+which I have the honour of being a member, was of gradual growth.
+When the war began, it is doubtful whether anybody anywhere
+envisaged the possibility of an American entering the French
+aviation service. Yet, by the fall of 1915, scarcely more than a
+year later, there were six Americans serving as full-fledged
+pilots, and now, in the summer of 1916, the list numbers fifteen
+or more, with twice that number training for their pilot's
+license in the military aviation schools.</p>
+
+<p>The pioneer of them all was William Thaw, of Pittsburg, who is
+to-day the only American holding a commission in the French
+flying corps. Lieutenant Thaw, a flyer of considerable reputation
+in America before the war, had enlisted in the Foreign Legion in
+August, 1914. With considerable difficulty he had himself
+transferred, in the early part of 1915, into aviation, and the
+autumn of that year found him piloting a Caudron biplane, and
+doing excellent observation work. At the same time, Sergeants
+Norman Prince, of Boston, and Elliot Cowdin, of New York--who
+were the first to enter the aviation service coming directly from
+the United States--were at the front on Voisin planes with a
+cannon mounted in the bow.</p>
+
+<p>Sergeant Bert Hall, who signs from the Lone Star State and had
+got himself shifted from the Foreign Legion to aviation soon
+after Thaw, was flying a Nieuport fighting machine, and, a little
+later, instructing less-advanced students of the air in the Avord
+Training School. His particular chum in the Foreign Legion, James
+Bach, who also had become an aviator, had the distressing
+distinction soon after he reached the front of becoming the first
+American to fall into the hands of the enemy. Going to the
+assistance of a companion who had broken down in landing a spy in
+the German lines, Bach smashed his machine against a tree. Both
+he and his French comrade were captured, and Bach was twice
+court-martialed by the Germans on suspicion of being an American
+<i>franc-tireur</i>--the penalty for which is death! He was
+acquitted but of course still languishes in a prison camp
+"somewhere in Germany." The sixth of the original sextet was
+Adjutant Didier Masson, who did exhibition flying in the States
+until--Carranza having grown ambitious in Mexico--he turned his
+talents to spotting <i>los Federales</i> for General Obregon.
+When the real war broke out, Masson answered the call of his
+French blood and was soon flying and fighting for the land of his
+ancestors.</p>
+
+<p>Of the other members of the escadrille Sergeant Givas Lufbery,
+American citizen and soldier, but dweller in the world at large,
+was among the earliest to wear the French airman's wings.
+Exhibition work with a French pilot in the Far East prepared him
+efficiently for the task of patiently unloading explosives on to
+German military centres from a slow-moving Voisin which was his
+first mount. Upon the heels of Lufbery came two more graduates of
+the Foreign Legion--Kiffin Rockwell, of Asheville, N.C., who had
+been wounded at Carency; Victor Chapman, of New York, who after
+recovering from his wounds became an airplane bomb-dropper and so
+caught the craving to become a pilot. At about this time one Paul
+Pavelka, whose birthplace was Madison, Conn., and who from the
+age of fifteen had sailed the seven seas, managed to slip out of
+the Foreign Legion into aviation and joined the other Americans
+at Pau.</p>
+
+<p>There seems to be a fascination to aviation, particularly when
+it is coupled with fighting. Perhaps it's because the game is
+new, but more probably because as a rule nobody knows anything
+about it. Whatever be the reason, adventurous young Americans
+were attracted by it in rapidly increasing numbers. Many of them,
+of course, never got fascinated beyond the stage of talking about
+joining. Among the chaps serving with the American ambulance
+field sections a good many imaginations were stirred, and a few
+actually did enlist, when, toward the end of the summer of 1915,
+the Ministry of War, finding that the original American pilots
+had made good, grew more liberal in considering applications.</p>
+
+<p>Chouteau Johnson, of New York; Lawrence Rumsey, of Buffalo;
+Dudley Hill, of Peekskill, N.Y.; and Clyde Balsley, of El Paso;
+one after another doffed the ambulance driver's khaki for the
+horizon-blue of the French flying corps. All of them had seen
+plenty of action, collecting the wounded under fire, but they
+were all tired of being non-combatant spectators. More or less
+the same feeling actuated me, I suppose. I had come over from
+Carthage, N.C., in January, 1915, and worked with an American
+ambulance section in the Bois-le-Pr&ecirc;tre. All along I had
+been convinced that the United States ought to aid in the
+struggle against Germany. With that conviction, it was plainly up
+to me to do more than drive an ambulance. The more I saw the
+splendour of the fight the French were fighting, the more I felt
+like an <i>embusqu&eacute;</i>--what the British call a
+"shirker." So I made up my mind to go into aviation.</p>
+
+<p>A special channel had been created for the reception of
+applications from Americans, and my own was favourably replied to
+within a few days. It took four days more to pass through all the
+various departments, sign one's name to a few hundred papers, and
+undergo the physical examinations. Then I was sent to the
+aviation depot at Dijon and fitted out with a uniform and
+personal equipment. The next stop was the school at Pau, where I
+was to be taught to fly. My elation at arriving there was second
+only to my satisfaction at being a French soldier. It was a vast
+improvement, I thought, in the American Ambulance.</p>
+
+<p>Talk about forming an all-American flying unit, or escadrille,
+was rife while I was at Pau. What with the pilots already
+breveted, and the &eacute;l&egrave;ves, or pupils in the
+training-schools, there were quite enough of our compatriots to
+man the dozen airplanes in one escadrille. Every day somebody
+"had it absolutely straight" that we were to become a unit at the
+front, and every other day the report turned out to be untrue.
+But at last, in the month of February, our dream came true. We
+learned that a captain had actually been assigned to command an
+American escadrille and that the Americans at the front had been
+recalled and placed under his orders. Soon afterward we
+&eacute;l&egrave;ves got another delightful thrill.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+THREE TYPES OF FRENCH AIR SERVICE</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Thaw, Prince, Cowdin, and the other veterans were training on
+the Nieuport! That meant the American Escadrille was to fly the
+Nieuport--the best type of <i>avion de chasse</i>--and hence
+would be a fighting unit. It is necessary to explain
+parenthetically here that French military aviation, generally
+speaking, is divided into three groups--the <i>avions de
+chasse</i> or airplanes of pursuit, which are used to hunt down
+enemy aircraft or to fight them off; <i>avions de
+bombardement,</i> big, unwieldy monsters for use in bombarding
+raids; and <i>avions de r&eacute;glage,</i> cumbersome creatures
+designed to regulate artillery fire, take photographs, and do
+scout duty. The Nieuport is the smallest, fastest-rising,
+fastest-moving biplane in the French service. It can travel 110
+miles an hour, and is a one-man apparatus with a machine gun
+mounted on its roof and fired by the pilot with one hand while
+with the other and his feet he operates his controls. The French
+call their Nieuport pilots the "aces" of the air. No wonder we
+were tickled to be included in that august brotherhood!</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<a name="photo2"></a>
+<a href="photo2.htm"></a>
+<img alt="photo2t.png" src="photo2t.png">
+
+
+<p>Americans Who are Flying for France</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Before the American Escadrille became an established fact,
+Thaw and Cowdin, who had mastered the Nieuport, managed to be
+sent to the Verdun front. While there Cowdin was credited with
+having brought down a German machine and was proposed for the
+<i>M&eacute;daille Militaire,</i> the highest decoration that can
+be awarded a non-commissioned officer or private.</p>
+
+<p>After completing his training, receiving his military pilot's
+brevet, and being perfected on the type of plane he is to use at
+the front, an aviator is ordered to the reserve headquarters near
+Paris to await his call. Kiffin Rockwell and Victor Chapman had
+been there for months, and I had just arrived, when on the 16th
+of April orders came for the Americans to join their escadrille
+at Luxeuil, in the Vosges.</p>
+
+<p>The rush was breathless! Never were flying clothes and fur
+coats drawn from the quartermaster, belongings packed, and red
+tape in the various administrative bureaux unfurled, with such
+headlong haste. In a few hours we were aboard the train, panting,
+but happy. Our party consisted of Sergeant Prince, and Rockwell,
+Chapman, and myself, who were only corporals at that time. We
+were joined at Luxeuil by Lieutenant Thaw and Sergeants Hall and
+Cowdin.</p>
+
+<p>For the veterans our arrival at the front was devoid of
+excitement; for the three neophytes--Rockwell, Chapman, and
+myself--it was the beginning of a new existence, the entry into
+an unknown world. Of course Rockwell and Chapman had seen plenty
+of warfare on the ground, but warfare in the air was as novel to
+them as to me. For us all it contained unlimited possibilities
+for initiative and service to France, and for them it must have
+meant, too, the restoration of personality lost during those
+months in the trenches with the Foreign Legion. Rockwell summed
+it up characteristically.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we're off for the races," he remarked.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+PILOT LIFE AT THE FRONT</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>There is a considerable change in the life of a pilot when he
+arrives on the front. During the training period he is subject to
+rules and regulations as stringent as those of the barracks. But
+once assigned to duty over the firing line he receives the
+treatment accorded an officer, no matter what his grade. Save
+when he is flying or on guard, his time is his own. There are no
+roll calls or other military frills, and in place of the bunk he
+slept upon as an &eacute;l&egrave;ve, he finds a regular bed in a
+room to himself, and the services of an orderly. Even men of
+higher rank who although connected with his escadrille are not
+pilots, treat him with respect. His two mechanicians are under
+his orders. Being volunteers, we Americans are shown more than
+the ordinary consideration by the ever-generous French
+Government, which sees to it that we have the best of
+everything.</p>
+
+<p>On our arrival at Luxeuil we were met by Captain
+Th&eacute;nault, the French commander of the American
+Escadrille--officially known as No. 124, by the way--and motored
+to the aviation field in one of the staff cars assigned to us. I
+enjoyed that ride. Lolling back against the soft leather
+cushions, I recalled how in my apprenticeship days at Pau I had
+had to walk six miles for my laundry.</p>
+
+<p>The equipment awaiting us at the field was even more
+impressive than our automobile. Everything was brand new, from
+the fifteen Fiat trucks to the office, magazine, and rest tents.
+And the men attached to the escadrille! At first sight they
+seemed to outnumber the Nicaraguan army--mechanicians,
+chauffeurs, armourers, motorcyclists, telephonists, wireless
+operators, Red Cross stretcher bearers, clerks! Afterward I
+learned they totalled seventy-odd, and that all of them were glad
+to be connected with the American Escadrille.</p>
+
+<p>In their hangars stood our trim little Nieuports. I looked
+mine over with a new feeling of importance and gave orders to my
+mechanicians for the mere satisfaction of being able to. To find
+oneself the sole proprietor of a fighting airplane is quite a
+treat, let me tell you. One gets accustomed to it, though, after
+one has used up two or three of them--at the French Government's
+expense.</p>
+
+<p>Rooms were assigned to us in a villa adjoining the famous hot
+baths of Luxeuil, where C&aelig;sar's cohorts were wont to
+besport themselves. We messed with our officers, Captain
+Th&eacute;nault and Lieutenant de Laage de Mieux, at the best
+hotel in town. An automobile was always on hand to carry us to
+the field. I began to wonder whether I was a summer resorter
+instead of a soldier.</p>
+
+<p>Among the pilots who had welcomed us with open arms, we
+discovered the famous Captain Happe, commander of the Luxeuil
+bombardment group. The doughty bomb-dispenser, upon whose head
+the Germans have set a price, was in his quarters. After we had
+been introduced, he pointed to eight little boxes arranged on a
+table.</p>
+
+<p>"They contain <i>Croix de Guerre</i> for the families of the
+men I lost on my last trip," he explained, and he added: "It's a
+good thing you're here to go along with us for protection. There
+are lots of Boches in this sector."</p>
+
+<p>I thought of the luxury we were enjoying: our comfortable
+beds, baths, and motor cars, and then I recalled the ancient
+custom of giving a man selected for the sacrifice a royal time of
+it before the appointed day.</p>
+
+<p>To acquaint us with the few places where a safe landing was
+possible we were motored through the Vosges Mountains and on into
+Alsace. It was a delightful opportunity to see that glorious
+countryside, and we appreciated it the more because we knew its
+charm would be lost when we surveyed it from the sky. From the
+air the ground presents no scenic effects. The ravishing beauty
+of the Val d'Ajol, the steep mountain sides bristling with a
+solid mass of giant pines, the myriads of glittering cascades
+tumbling downward through fairylike avenues of verdure, the
+roaring, tossing torrent at the foot of the slope--all this
+loveliness, seen from an airplane at 12,000 feet, fades into flat
+splotches of green traced with a tiny ribbon of silver.</p>
+
+<p>The American Escadrille was sent to Luxeuil primarily to
+acquire the team work necessary to a flying unit. Then, too, the
+new pilots needed a taste of anti-aircraft artillery to
+familiarize them with the business of aviation over a
+battlefield. They shot well in that sector, too. Thaw's machine
+was hit at an altitude of 13,000 feet.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+THE ESCADRILLE'S FIRST SORTIE</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The memory of the first sortie we made as an escadrille will
+always remain fresh in my mind because it was also my first trip
+over the lines. We were to leave at six in the morning. Captain
+Th&eacute;nault pointed out on his a&euml;rial map the route we
+were to follow. Never having flown over this region before, I was
+afraid of losing myself. Therefore, as it is easier to keep other
+airplanes in sight when one is above them, I began climbing as
+rapidly as possible, meaning to trail along in the wake of my
+companions. Unless one has had practice in flying in formation,
+however, it is hard to keep in contact. The diminutive <i>avions
+de chasse</i> are the merest pinpoints against the great sweep of
+landscape below and the limitless heavens above. The air was
+misty and clouds were gathering. Ahead there seemed a barrier of
+them. Although as I looked down the ground showed plainly, in the
+distance everything was hazy. Forging up above the mist, at 7,000
+feet, I lost the others altogether. Even when they are not
+closely joined, the clouds, seen from immediately above, appear
+as a solid bank of white. The spaces between are
+indistinguishable. It is like being in an Arctic ice field.</p>
+
+<p>To the south I made out the Alps. Their glittering peaks
+projected up through the white sea about me like majestic
+icebergs. Not a single plane was visible anywhere, and I was
+growing very uncertain about my position. My splendid isolation
+had become oppressive, when, one by one, the others began bobbing
+up above the cloud level, and I had company again.</p>
+
+<p>We were over Belfort and headed for the trench lines. The
+cloud banks dropped behind, and below us we saw the smiling plain
+of Alsace stretching eastward to the Rhine. It was distinctly
+pleasurable, flying over this conquered land. Following the
+course of the canal that runs to the Rhine, I sighted, from a
+height of 13,000 feet over Dannemarie, a series of brown,
+woodworm-like tracings on the ground--the trenches!</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+SHRAPNEL THAT COULDN'T BE HEARD</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>My attention was drawn elsewhere almost immediately, however.
+Two balls of black smoke had suddenly appeared close to one of
+the machines ahead of me, and with the same disconcerting
+abruptness similar balls began to dot the sky above, below, and
+on all sides of us. We were being shot at with shrapnel. It was
+interesting to watch the flash of the bursting shells, and the
+attendant smoke puffs--black, white, or yellow, depending on the
+kind of shrapnel used. The roar of the motor drowned the noise of
+the explosions. Strangely enough, my feelings about it were
+wholly impersonal.</p>
+
+<p>We turned north after crossing the lines. Mulhouse seemed just
+below us, and I noted with a keen sense of satisfaction our
+invasion of real German territory. The Rhine, too, looked
+delightfully accessible. As we continued northward I
+distinguished the twin lakes of G&eacute;rardmer sparkling in
+their emerald setting. Where the lines crossed the
+Hartmannsweilerkopf there were little spurts of brown smoke as
+shells burst in the trenches. One could scarcely pick out the old
+city of Thann from among the numerous neighbouring villages, so
+tiny it seemed in the valley's mouth. I had never been higher
+than 7,000 feet and was unaccustomed to reading country from a
+great altitude. It was also bitterly cold, and even in my
+fur-lined combination I was shivering. I noticed, too, that I had
+to take long, deep breaths in the rarefied atmosphere. Looking
+downward at a certain angle, I saw what at first I took to be a
+round, shimmering pool of water. It was simply the effect of the
+sunlight on the congealing mist. We had been keeping an eye out
+for German machines since leaving our lines, but none had shown
+up. It wasn't surprising, for we were too many.</p>
+
+<p>Only four days later, however, Rockwell brought down the
+escadrille's first plane in his initial a&euml;rial combat. He
+was flying alone when, over Thann, he came upon a German on
+reconnaissance. He dived and the German turned toward his own
+lines, opening fire from a long distance. Rockwell kept straight
+after him. Then, closing to within thirty yards, he pressed on
+the release of his machine gun, and saw the enemy gunner fall
+backward and the pilot crumple up sideways in his seat. The plane
+flopped downward and crashed to earth just behind the German
+trenches. Swooping close to the ground Rockwell saw its
+d&eacute;bris burning away brightly. He had turned the trick with
+but four shots and only one German bullet had struck his
+Nieuport. An observation post telephoned the news before
+Rockwell's return, and he got a great welcome. All Luxeuil smiled
+upon him--particularly the girls. But he couldn't stay to enjoy
+his popularity. The escadrille was ordered to the sector of
+Verdun.</p>
+
+<p>While in a way we were sorry to leave Luxeuil, we naturally
+didn't regret the chance to take part in the a&euml;rial activity
+of the world's greatest battle. The night before our departure
+some German aircraft destroyed four of our tractors and killed
+six men with bombs, but even that caused little excitement
+compared with going to Verdun. We would get square with the
+Boches over Verdun, we thought--it is impossible to chase
+airplanes at night, so the raiders made a safe getaway.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+OFF TO VERDUN</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>As soon as we pilots had left in our machines, the trucks and
+tractors set out in convoy, carrying the men and equipment. The
+Nieuports carried us to our new post in a little more than an
+hour. We stowed them away in the hangars and went to have a look
+at our sleeping quarters. A commodious villa half way between the
+town of Bar-le-Duc and the aviation field had been assigned to
+us, and comforts were as plentiful as at Luxeuil.</p>
+
+<p>Our really serious work had begun, however, and we knew it.
+Even as far behind the actual fighting as Bar-le-Duc one could
+sense one's proximity to a vast military operation. The endless
+convoys of motor trucks, the fast-flowing stream of troops, and
+the distressing number of ambulances brought realization of the
+near presence of a gigantic battle.</p>
+
+<p>Within a twenty-mile radius of the Verdun front aviation camps
+abound. Our escadrille was listed on the schedule with the other
+fighting units, each of which has its specified flying hours,
+rotating so there is always an <i>escadrille de chasse</i> over
+the lines. A field wireless to enable us to keep track of the
+movements of enemy planes became part of our equipment.</p>
+
+<p>Lufbery joined us a few days after our arrival. He was
+followed by Johnson and Balsley, who had been on the air guard
+over Paris. Hill and Rumsey came next, and after them Masson and
+Pavelka. Nieuports were supplied them from the nearest depot, and
+as soon as they had mounted their instruments and machine guns,
+they were on the job with the rest of us. Fifteen Americans are
+or have been members of the American Escadrille, but there have
+never been so many as that on duty at any one time.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+BATTLES IN THE AIR</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Before we were fairly settled at Bar-le-Duc, Hall brought down
+a German observation craft and Thaw a Fokker. Fights occurred on
+almost every sortie. The Germans seldom cross into our territory,
+unless on a bombarding jaunt, and thus practically all the
+fighting takes place on their side of the line. Thaw dropped his
+Fokker in the morning, and on the afternoon of the same day there
+was a big combat far behind the German trenches. Thaw was wounded
+in the arm, and an explosive bullet detonating on Rockwell's
+wind-shield tore several gashes in his face. Despite the blood
+which was blinding him Rockwell managed to reach an aviation
+field and land. Thaw, whose wound bled profusely, landed in a
+dazed condition just within our lines. He was too weak to walk,
+and French soldiers carried him to a field dressing-station,
+whence he was sent to Paris for further treatment. Rockwell's
+wounds were less serious and he insisted on flying again almost
+immediately.</p>
+
+<p>A week or so later Chapman was wounded. Considering the number
+of fights he had been in and the courage with which he attacked
+it was a miracle he had not been hit before. He always fought
+against odds and far within the enemy's country. He flew more
+than any of us, never missing an opportunity to go up, and never
+coming down until his gasolene was giving out. His machine was a
+sieve of patched-up bullet holes. His nerve was almost superhuman
+and his devotion to the cause for which he fought sublime. The
+day he was wounded he attacked four machines. Swooping down from
+behind, one of them, a Fokker, riddled Chapman's plane. One
+bullet cut deep into his scalp, but Chapman, a master pilot,
+escaped from the trap, and fired several shots to show he was
+still safe. A stability control had been severed by a bullet.
+Chapman held the broken rod in one hand, managed his machine with
+the other, and succeeded in landing on a near-by aviation field.
+His wound was dressed, his machine repaired, and he immediately
+took the air in pursuit of some more enemies. He would take no
+rest, and with bandaged head continued to fly and fight.</p>
+
+<p>The escadrille's next serious encounter with the foe took
+place a few days later. Rockwell, Balsley, Prince, and Captain
+Th&eacute;nault were surrounded by a large number of Germans,
+who, circling about them, commenced firing at long range.
+Realizing their numerical inferiority, the Americans and their
+commander sought the safest way out by attacking the enemy
+machines nearest the French lines. Rockwell, Prince, and the
+captain broke through successfully, but Balsley found himself
+hemmed in. He attacked the German nearest him, only to receive an
+explosive bullet in his thigh. In trying to get away by a
+vertical dive his machine went into a corkscrew and swung over on
+its back. Extra cartridge rollers dislodged from their case hit
+his arms. He was tumbling straight toward the trenches, but by a
+supreme effort he regained control, righted the plane, and landed
+without disaster in a meadow just behind the firing line.</p>
+
+<p>Soldiers carried him to the shelter of a near-by fort, and
+later he was taken to a field hospital, where he lingered for
+days between life and death. Ten fragments of the explosive
+bullet were removed from his stomach. He bore up bravely, and
+became the favourite of the wounded officers in whose ward he
+lay. When we flew over to see him they would say: <i>Il est un
+brave petit gars, l'aviateur am&eacute;ricain,</i> [He's a brave
+little fellow, the American aviator.] On a shelf by his bed, done
+up in a handkerchief, he kept the pieces of bullet taken out of
+him, and under them some sheets of paper on which he was trying
+to write to his mother, back in El Paso.</p>
+
+<p>Balsley was awarded the <i>M&eacute;daille Militaire</i> and
+the <i>Croix de Guerre,</i> but the honours scared him. He had
+seen them decorate officers in the ward before they died.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+CHAPMAN'S LAST FIGHT</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Then came Chapman's last fight. Before leaving, he had put two
+bags of oranges in his machine to take to Balsley, who liked to
+suck them to relieve his terrible thirst, after the day's flying
+was over. There was an a&euml;rial struggle against odds, far
+within the German lines, and Chapman, to divert their fire from
+his comrades, engaged several enemy airmen at once. He sent one
+tumbling to earth, and had forced the others off when two more
+swooped down upon him. Such a fight is a matter of seconds, and
+one cannot clearly see what passes. Lufbery and Prince, whom
+Chapman had defended so gallantly, regained the French lines.
+They told us of the combat, and we waited on the field for
+Chapman's return. He was always the last in, so we were not much
+worried. Then a pilot from another fighting escadrille telephoned
+us that he had seen a Nieuport falling. A little later the
+observer of a reconnaissance airplane called up and told us how
+he had witnessed Chapman's fall. The wings of the plane had
+buckled, and it had dropped like a stone he said.</p>
+
+<p>We talked in lowered voices after that; we could read the pain
+in one another's eyes. If only it could have been some one else,
+was what we all thought, I suppose. To lose Victor was not an
+irreparable loss to us merely, but to France, and to the world as
+well. I kept thinking of him lying over there, and of the oranges
+he was taking to Balsley. As I left the field I caught sight of
+Victor's mechanician leaning against the end of our hangar. He
+was looking northward into the sky where his <i>patron</i> had
+vanished, and his face was very sad.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+PROMOTIONS AND DECORATIONS</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>By this time Prince and Hall had been made adjutants, and we
+corporals transformed into sergeants. I frankly confess to a
+feeling of marked satisfaction at receiving that grade in the
+world's finest army. I was a far more important person, in my own
+estimation, than I had been as a second lieutenant in the militia
+at home. The next impressive event was the awarding of
+decorations. We had assisted at that ceremony for Cowdin at
+Luxeuil, but this time three of our messmates were to be honoured
+for the Germans they had brought down. Rockwell and Hall received
+the <i>M&eacute;daille Militaire</i> and the <i>Croix de
+Guerre,</i> and Thaw, being a lieutenant, the <i>L&eacute;gion
+d'honneur</i> and another "palm" for the ribbon of the <i>Croix
+de Guerre</i> he had won previously. Thaw, who came up from Paris
+specially for the presentation, still carried his arm in a
+sling.</p>
+
+<p>There were also decorations for Chapman, but poor Victor, who
+so often had been cited in the Orders of the Day, was not on hand
+to receive them.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+THE MORNING SORTIE</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Our daily routine goes on with little change. Whenever the
+weather permits--that is, when it isn't raining, and the clouds
+aren't too low--we fly over the Verdun battlefield at the hours
+dictated by General Headquarters. As a rule the most successful
+sorties are those in the early morning.</p>
+
+<p>We are called while it's still dark. Sleepily I try to
+reconcile the French orderly's muttered, <i>C'est l'heure,
+monsieur,</i> that rouses me from slumber, with the strictly
+American words and music of "When That Midnight Choo Choo Leaves
+for Alabam'" warbled by a particularly wide-awake pilot in the
+next room. A few minutes later, having swallowed some coffee, we
+motor to the field. The east is turning gray as the hangar
+curtains are drawn apart and our machines trundled out by the
+mechanicians. All the pilots whose planes are in commission--save
+those remaining behind on guard--prepare to leave. We average
+from four to six on a sortie, unless too many flights have been
+ordered for that day, in which case only two or three go out at a
+time.</p>
+
+<p>Now the east is pink, and overhead the sky has changed from
+gray to pale blue. It is light enough to fly. We don our
+fur-lined shoes and combinations and adjust the leather flying
+hoods and goggles. A good deal of conversation occurs--perhaps
+because, once aloft, there's nobody to talk to.</p>
+
+<p>"Eh, you," one pilot cries jokingly to another, "I hope some
+Boche just ruins you this morning, so I won't have to pay you the
+fifty francs you won from me last night!"</p>
+
+<p>This financial reference concerns a poker game.</p>
+
+<p>"You do, do you?" replies the other as he swings into his
+machine. "Well, I'd be glad to pass up the fifty to see you
+landed by the Boches. You'd make a fine sight walking down the
+street of some German town in those wooden shoes and pyjama
+pants. Why don't you dress yourself? Don't you know an aviator's
+supposed to look <i>chic?"</i></p>
+
+<p>A sartorial eccentricity on the part of one of our colleagues
+is here referred to.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+GETTING UNDER WAY</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The raillery is silenced by a deafening roar as the motors are
+tested. Quiet is briefly restored, only to be broken by a series
+of rapid explosions incidental to the trying out of machine guns.
+You loudly inquire at what altitude we are to meet above the
+field.</p>
+
+<p>"Fifteen hundred metres--go ahead!" comes an answering
+yell.</p>
+
+<p><i>Essence et gaz!</i> [Oil and gas!] you call to your
+mechanician, adjusting your gasolene and air throttles while he
+grips the propeller.</p>
+
+<p><i>Contact!</i> he shrieks, and <i>Contact!</i> you reply. You
+snap on the switch, he spins the propeller, and the motor takes.
+Drawing forward out of line, you put on full power, race across
+the grass and take the air. The ground drops as the hood slants
+up before you and you seem to be going more and more slowly as
+you rise. At a great height you hardly realize you are moving.
+You glance at the clock to note the time of your departure, and
+at the oil gauge to see its throb. The altimeter registers 650
+feet. You turn and look back at the field below and see others
+leaving.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<a name="photo3"></a> 
+<a href="photo3.htm"></a>
+<img alt="photo3t.png" src="photo3t.png">
+
+
+<p>Two Members of the American Escadrille.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In three minutes you are at about 4,000 feet. You have been
+making wide circles over the field and watching the other
+machines. At 4,500 feet you throttle down and wait on that level
+for your companions to catch up. Soon the escadrille is bunched
+and off for the lines. You begin climbing again, gulping to clear
+your ears in the changing pressure. Surveying the other machines,
+you recognize the pilot of each by the marks on its side--or by
+the way he flies. The distinguishing marks of the Nieuports are
+various and sometimes amusing. Bert Hall, for instance, has BERT
+painted on the left side of his plane and the same word reversed
+(as if spelled backward with the left hand) on the right--so an
+aviator passing him on that side at great speed will be able to
+read the name without difficulty, he says!</p>
+
+<p>The country below has changed into a flat surface of
+varicoloured figures. Woods are irregular blocks of dark green,
+like daubs of ink spilled on a table; fields are geometrical
+designs of different shades of green and brown, forming in
+composite an ultra-cubist painting; roads are thin white lines,
+each with its distinctive windings and crossings--from which you
+determine your location. The higher you are the easier it is to
+read.</p>
+
+<p>In about ten minutes you see the Meuse sparkling in the
+morning light, and on either side the long line of sausage-shaped
+observation balloons far below you. Red-roofed Verdun springs
+into view just beyond. There are spots in it where no red shows
+and you know what has happened there. In the green pasture land
+bordering the town, round flecks of brown indicate the shell
+holes. You cross the Meuse.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+VERDUN, SEEN FROM THE SKY</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Immediately east and north of Verdun there lies a broad, brown
+band. From the Woevre plain it runs westward to the "S" bend in
+the Meuse, and on the left bank of that famous stream continues
+on into the Argonne Forest. Peaceful fields and farms and
+villages adorned that landscape a few months ago--when there was
+no Battle of Verdun. Now there is only that sinister brown belt,
+a strip of murdered Nature. It seems to belong to another world.
+Every sign of humanity has been swept away. The woods and roads
+have vanished like chalk wiped from a blackboard; of the villages
+nothing remains but gray smears where stone walls have tumbled
+together. The great forts of Douaumont and Vaux are outlined
+faintly, like the tracings of a finger in wet sand. One cannot
+distinguish any one shell crater, as one can on the pockmarked
+fields on either side. On the brown band the indentations are so
+closely interlocked that they blend into a confused mass of
+troubled earth. Of the trenches only broken, half-obliterated
+links are visible.</p>
+
+<p>Columns of muddy smoke spurt up continually as high explosives
+tear deeper into this ulcered area. During heavy bombardment and
+attacks I have seen shells falling like rain. The countless
+towers of smoke remind one of Gustave Dor&eacute;'s picture of
+the fiery tombs of the arch-heretics in Dante's "Hell." A smoky
+pall covers the sector under fire, rising so high that at a
+height of 1,000 feet one is enveloped in its mist-like fumes. Now
+and then monster projectiles hurtling through the air close by
+leave one's plane rocking violently in their wake. Airplanes have
+been cut in two by them.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+THE ROAR OF BATTLE--UNHEARD</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>For us the battle passes in silence, the noise of one's motor
+deadening all other sounds. In the green patches behind the brown
+belt myriads of tiny flashes tell where the guns are hidden; and
+those flashes, and the smoke of bursting shells, are all we see
+of the fighting. It is a weird combination of stillness and
+havoc, the Verdun conflict viewed from the sky.</p>
+
+<p>Far below us, the observation and range-finding planes circle
+over the trenches like gliding gulls. At a feeble altitude they
+follow the attacking infantrymen and flash back wireless reports
+of the engagement. Only through them can communication be
+maintained when, under the barrier fire, wires from the front
+lines are cut. Sometimes it falls to our lot to guard these
+machines from Germans eager to swoop down on their backs. Sailing
+about high above a busy flock of them makes one feel like an old
+mother hen protecting her chicks.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+"NAVIGATING" IN A SEA OF CLOUDS</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The pilot of an <i>avion de chasse</i> must not concern
+himself with the ground, which to him is useful only for learning
+his whereabouts. The earth is all-important to the men in the
+observation, artillery-regulating, and bombardment machines, but
+the fighting aviator has an entirely different sphere. His domain
+is the blue heavens, the glistening rolls of clouds below the
+fleecy banks towering above, the vague a&euml;rial horizon, and
+he must watch it as carefully as a navigator watches the
+storm-tossed sea.</p>
+
+<p>On days when the clouds form almost a solid flooring, one
+feels very much at sea, and wonders if one is in the navy instead
+of aviation. The diminutive Nieuports skirt the white expanse
+like torpedo boats in an arctic sea, and sometimes, far across
+the cloud-waves, one sights an enemy escadrille, moving as a
+fleet.</p>
+
+<p>Principally our work consists of keeping German airmen away
+from our lines, and in attacking them when opportunity offers. We
+traverse the brown band and enter enemy territory to the
+accompaniment of an antiaircraft cannonade. Most of the shots are
+wild, however, and we pay little attention to them. When the
+shrapnel comes uncomfortably close, one shifts position slightly
+to evade the range. One glances up to see if there is another
+machine higher than one's own. Low and far within the German
+lines are several enemy planes, a dull white in appearance,
+resembling sand flies against the mottled earth. High above them
+one glimpses the mosquito-like forms of two Fokkers. Away off to
+one side white shrapnel puffs are vaguely visible, perhaps
+directed against a German crossing the lines. We approach the
+enemy machines ahead, only to find them slanting at a rapid rate
+into their own country. High above them lurks a protection plane.
+The man doing the "ceiling work," as it is called, will look
+after him for us.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+TACTICS OF AN AIR BATTLE</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Getting started is the hardest part of an attack. Once you
+have begun diving you're all right. The pilot just ahead turns
+tail up like a trout dropping back to water, and swoops down in
+irregular curves and circles. You follow at an angle so steep
+your feet seem to be holding you back in your seat. Now the black
+Maltese crosses on the German's wings stand out clearly. You
+think of him as some sort of big bug. Then you hear the rapid
+tut-tut-tut of his machine gun. The man that dived ahead of you
+becomes mixed up with the topmost German. He is so close it looks
+as if he had hit the enemy machine. You hear the staccato barking
+of his mitrailleuse and see him pass from under the German's
+tail.</p>
+
+<p>The rattle of the gun that is aimed at you leaves you
+undisturbed. Only when the bullets pierce the wings a few feet
+off do you become uncomfortable. You see the gunner crouched down
+behind his weapon, but you aim at where the pilot ought to
+be--there are two men aboard the German craft--and press on the
+release hard. Your mitrailleuse hammers out a stream of bullets
+as you pass over and dive, nose down, to get out of range. Then,
+hopefully, you re-dress and look back at the foe. He ought to be
+dropping earthward at several miles a minute. As a matter of
+fact, however, he is sailing serenely on. They have an annoying
+habit of doing that, these Boches.</p>
+
+<p>Rockwell, who attacked so often that he has lost all count,
+and who shoves his machine gun fairly in the faces of the
+Germans, used to swear their planes were armoured. Lieutenant de
+Laage, whose list of combats is equally extensive, has brought
+down only one. Hall, with three machines to his credit, has had
+more luck. Lufbery, who evidently has evolved a secret formula,
+has dropped four, according to official statistics, since his
+arrival on the Verdun front. Four "palms"--the record for the
+escadrille, glitter upon the ribbon of the <i>Croix de Guerre</i>
+accompanying his <i>M&eacute;daille Militaire.</i> [Footnote:
+This book was written in the fall of 1915. Since that time many
+additional machines have been credited to the American
+flyers.]</p>
+
+<p>A pilot seldom has the satisfaction of beholding the result of
+his bull's-eye bullet. Rarely--so difficult it is to follow the
+turnings and twistings of the dropping plane--does he see his
+fallen foe strike the ground. Lufbery's last direct hit was an
+exception, for he followed all that took place from a balcony
+seat. I myself was in the "nigger-heaven," so I know. We had set
+out on a sortie together just before noon, one August day, and
+for the first time on such an occasion had lost each other over
+the lines. Seeing no Germans, I passed my time hovering over the
+French observation machines. Lufbery found one, however, and
+promptly brought it down. Just then I chanced to make a southward
+turn, and caught sight of an airplane falling out of the sky into
+the German lines.</p>
+
+<p>As it turned over, it showed its white belly for an instant,
+then seemed to straighten out, and planed downward in big
+zigzags. The pilot must have gripped his controls even in death,
+for his craft did not tumble as most do. It passed between my
+line of vision and a wood, into which it disappeared. Just as I
+was going down to find out where it landed, I saw it again
+skimming across a field, and heading straight for the brown band
+beneath me. It was outlined against the shell-racked earth like a
+tiny insect, until just northwest of Fort Douaumont it crashed
+down upon the battlefield. A sheet of flame and smoke shot up
+from the tangled wreckage. For a moment or two I watched it burn;
+then I went back to the observation machines.</p>
+
+<p>I thought Lufbery would show up and point to where the German
+had fallen. He failed to appear, and I began to be afraid it was
+he whom I had seen come down, instead of an enemy. I spent a
+worried hour before my return homeward. After getting back I
+learned that Lufbery was quite safe, having hurried in after the
+fight to report the destruction of his adversary before somebody
+else claimed him, which is only too frequently the case.
+Observation posts, however, confirmed Lufbery's story, and he was
+of course very much delighted. Nevertheless, at luncheon, I heard
+him murmuring, half to himself: "Those poor fellows."</p>
+
+<p>The German machine gun operator, having probably escaped death
+in the air, must have had a hideous descent. Lufbery told us he
+had seen the whole thing, spiralling down after the German. He
+said he thought the German pilot must be a novice, judging from
+his manoeuvres. It occurred to me that he might have been making
+his first flight over the lines, doubtless full of enthusiasm
+about his career. Perhaps, dreaming of the Iron Cross and his
+Gretchen, he took a chance--and then swift death and a grave in
+the shell-strewn soil of Douaumont.</p>
+
+<p>Generally the escadrille is relieved by another fighting unit
+after two hours over the lines. We turn homeward, and soon the
+hangars of our field loom up in the distance. Sometimes I've been
+mighty glad to see them and not infrequently I've concluded the
+pleasantest part of flying is just after a good landing. Getting
+home after a sortie, we usually go into the rest tent, and talk
+over the morning's work. Then some of us lie down for a nap,
+while others play cards or read. After luncheon we go to the
+field again, and the man on guard gets his chance to eat. If the
+morning sortie has been an early one, we go up again about one
+o'clock in the afternoon. We are home again in two hours and
+after that two or three energetic pilots may make a third trip
+over the lines. The rest wait around ready to take the air if an
+enemy bombardment group ventures to visit our territory--as it
+has done more than once over Bar-le-Duc. False alarms are
+plentiful, and we spend many hours aloft squinting at an empty
+sky.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+PRINCE'S A&Euml;RIAL FIREWORKS</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Now and then one of us will get ambitious to do something on
+his own account. Not long ago Norman Prince became obsessed with
+the idea of bringing down a German "sausage," as observation
+balloons are called. He had a special device mounted on his
+Nieuport for setting fire to the a&euml;rial frankfurters. Thus
+equipped he resembled an advance agent for Payne's fireworks more
+than an <i>aviateur de chasse.</i> Having carefully mapped the
+enemy "sausages," he would sally forth in hot pursuit whenever
+one was signalled at a respectable height. Poor Norman had a
+terrible time of it! Sometimes the reported "sausages" were not
+there when he arrived, and sometimes there was a super-abundancy
+of German airplanes on guard.</p>
+
+<p>He stuck to it, however, and finally his appetite for
+"sausage" was satisfied. He found one just where it ought to be,
+swooped down upon it, and let off his fireworks with all the
+gusto of an American boy on the Fourth of July. When he looked
+again, the balloon had vanished. Prince's performance isn't so
+easy as it sounds, by the way. If, after the long dive necessary
+to turn the trick successfully, his motor had failed to retake,
+he would have fallen into the hands of the Germans.</p>
+
+<p>After dark, when flying is over for the day, we go down to the
+villa for dinner. Usually we have two or three French officers
+dining with us besides our own captain and lieutenant, and so the
+table talk is a mixture of French and English. It's seldom we
+discuss the war in general. Mostly the conversation revolves
+about our own sphere, for just as in the navy the sea is the
+favourite topic, and in the army the trenches, so with us it is
+aviation. Our knowledge about the military operations is scant.
+We haven't the remotest idea as to what has taken place on the
+battlefield--even though we've been flying over it during an
+attack--until we read the papers; and they don't tell us
+much.</p>
+
+<p>Frequently pilots from other escadrilles will be our guests in
+passing through our sector, and through these visitations we keep
+in touch with the a&euml;rial news of the day, and with our
+friends along the front. Gradually we have come to know a great
+number of <i>pilotes de chasse.</i> We hear that so-&amp;-so has been
+killed, that some one else has brought down a Boche and that
+still another is a prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>We don't always talk aviation, however. In the course of
+dinner almost any subject may be touched upon, and with our
+cosmopolitan crowd one can readily imagine the scope of the
+conversation. A Burton Holmes lecture is weak and watery compared
+to the travel stories we listen to. Were O. Henry alive, he could
+find material for a hundred new yarns, and William James numerous
+pointers for another work on psychology, while De Quincey might
+multiply his dreams <i>ad infinitum.</i> Doubtless alienists as
+well as fiction writers would find us worth studying. In France
+there's a saying that to be an aviator one must be a bit
+"off."</p>
+
+<p>After dinner the same scene invariably repeats itself, over
+the coffee in the "next room." At the big table several sportive
+souls start a poker game, while at a smaller one two sedate
+spirits wrap themselves in the intricacies of chess. Captain
+Th&eacute;nault labours away at the messroom piano, or in lighter
+mood plays with Fram, his police dog. A phonograph grinds out the
+ancient query "Who Paid the Rent for Mrs. Rip Van Winkle?" or
+some other ragtime ditty. It is barely nine, however, when the
+movement in the direction of bed begins.</p>
+
+<p>A few of us remain behind a little while, and the talk becomes
+more personal and more sincere. Only on such intimate occasions,
+I think, have I ever heard death discussed. Certainly we are not
+indifferent to it. Not many nights ago one of the pilots remarked
+in a tired way:</p>
+
+<p>"Know what I want? Just six months of freedom to go where and
+do what I like. In that time I'd get everything I wanted out of
+life, and be perfectly willing to come back and be killed."</p>
+
+<p>Then another, who was about to receive 2,000 francs from the
+American committee that aids us, as a reward for his many
+citations, chimed in.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I didn't care much before," he confessed, "but now with
+this money coming in I don't want to die until I've had the fun
+of spending it."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he yawned and went up to bed.</p>
+
+<p> <br>
+  <a name="somme"></a></p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<h3>CHAPTER II</h3>
+
+<h4>VERDUN TO THE SOMME<br>
+ </h4>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the 12th of October, twenty small airplanes flying in a V
+formation, at such a height they resembled a flock of geese,
+crossed the river Rhine, where it skirts the plains of Alsace,
+and, turning north, headed for the famous Mauser works at
+Oberndorf. Following in their wake was an equal number of larger
+machines, and above these darted and circled swift fighting
+planes. The first group of aircraft was flown by British pilots,
+the second by French and three of the fighting planes by
+Americans in the French Aviation Division. It was a cosmopolitan
+collection that effected that successful raid.</p>
+
+<p>We American pilots, who are grouped into one escadrille, had
+been fighting above the battlefield of Verdun from the 20th of
+May until orders came the middle of September for us to leave our
+airplanes, for a unit that would replace us, and to report at Le
+Bourget, the great Paris aviation centre.</p>
+
+<p>The mechanics and the rest of the personnel left, as usual, in
+the escadrille's trucks with the material. For once the pilots
+did not take the a&euml;rial route but they boarded the Paris
+express at Bar-le-Duc with all the enthusiasm of schoolboys off
+for a vacation. They were to have a week in the capital! Where
+they were to go after that they did not know, but presumed it
+would be the Somme. As a matter of fact the escadrille was to be
+sent to Luxeuil in the Vosges to take part in the Mauser
+raid.</p>
+
+<p>Besides Captain Th&eacute;nault and Lieutenant de Laage de
+Mieux, our French officers, the following American pilots were in
+the escadrille at this time: Lieutenant Thaw, who had returned to
+the front, even though his wounded arm had not entirely healed;
+Adjutants Norman Prince, Hall, Lufbery, and Masson; and Sergeants
+Kiffin Rockwell, Hill, Pavelka, Johnson, and Rumsey. I had been
+sent to a hospital at the end of August, because of a lame back
+resulting from a smash up in landing, and couldn't follow the
+escadrille until later.</p>
+
+<p>Every aviation unit boasts several mascots. Dogs of every
+description are to be seen around the camps, but the Americans
+managed, during their stay in Paris, to add to their menagerie by
+the acquisition of a lion cub named "Whiskey." The little chap
+had been born on a boat crossing from Africa and was advertised
+for sale in France. Some of the American pilots chipped in and
+bought him. He was a cute, bright-eyed baby lion who tried to
+roar in a most threatening manner but who was blissfully content
+the moment one gave him one's finger to suck. "Whiskey" got a
+good view of Paris during the few days he was there, for some one
+in the crowd was always borrowing him to take him some place. He,
+like most lions in captivity, became acquainted with bars, but
+the sort "Whiskey" saw were not for purposes of confinement.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<a name="photo4"></a>
+<a href="photo4.htm"><img alt="photo4t.png" src="photo4t.png"></a>
+
+<p>"Whiskey."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The orders came directing the escadrille to Luxeuil and
+bidding farewell to gay "Paree" the men boarded the Belfort train
+with bag and baggage--and the lion. Lions, it developed, were not
+allowed in passenger coaches. The conductor was assured that
+"Whiskey" was quite harmless and was going to overlook the rules
+when the cub began to roar and tried to get at the railwayman's
+finger. That settled it, so two of the men had to stay behind in
+order to crate up "Whiskey" and take him along the next day.</p>
+
+<p>The escadrille was joined in Paris by Robert Rockwell, of
+Cincinnati, who had finished his training as a pilot, and was
+waiting at the Reserve (Robert Rockwell had gone to France to
+work as a surgeon in one of the American war hospitals. He
+disliked remaining in the rear and eventually enlisted in
+aviation).</p>
+
+<p>The period of training for a pilot, especially for one who is
+to fly a fighting machine at the front, has been very much
+prolonged. It is no longer sufficient that he learns to fly and
+to master various types of machines. He now completes his
+training in schools where a&euml;rial shooting is taught, and in
+others where he practises combat, group manoeuvres, and acrobatic
+stunts such as looping the loop and the more difficult tricks. In
+all it requires from seven to nine months.</p>
+
+<p>Dennis Dowd, of Brooklyn, N.Y., is so far the only American
+volunteer aviator killed while in training. Dowd, who had joined
+the Foreign Legion, shortly after the war broke out, was
+painfully wounded during the offensive in Champagne. After his
+recovery he was transferred, at his request, into aviation. At
+the Buc school he stood at the head of the fifteen Americans who
+were learning to be aviators, and was considered one of the most
+promising pilots in the training camp. On August 11, 1916, while
+making a flight preliminary to his brevet, Dowd fell from a
+height of only 260 feet and was instantly killed. Either he had
+fainted or a control had broken.</p>
+
+<p>While a patient at the hospital Dowd had been sent packages by
+a young French girl of Neuilly. A correspondence ensued, and when
+Dowd went to Paris on convalescent leave he and the young lady
+became engaged. He was killed just before the time set for the
+wedding.</p>
+
+<p>When the escadrille arrived at Luxeuil it found a great
+surprise in the form of a large British aviation contingent. This
+detachment from the Royal Navy Flying Corps numbered more than
+fifty pilots and a thousand men. New hangars harboured their
+fleet of bombardment machines. Their own anti-aircraft batteries
+were in emplacements near the field. Though detached from the
+British forces and under French command this unit followed the
+rule of His Majesty's armies in France by receiving all of its
+food and supplies from England. It had its own transport
+service.</p>
+
+<p>Our escadrille had been in Luxeuil during the months of April
+and May. We had made many friends amongst the townspeople and the
+French pilots stationed there, so the older members of the
+American unit were welcomed with open arms and their new comrades
+made to feel at home in the quaint Vosges town. It wasn't long,
+however, before the Americans and the British got together. At
+first there was a feeling of reserve on both sides but once
+acquainted they became fast friends. The naval pilots were quite
+representative of the United Kingdom hailing as they did from
+England, Canada, New South Wales, South Africa, and other parts
+of the Empire. Most of them were soldiers by profession. All were
+officers, but they were as democratic as it is possible to be. As
+a result there was a continuous exchange of dinners. In a few
+days every one in this Anglo-American alliance was calling each
+other by some nickname and swearing lifelong friendship.</p>
+
+<p>"We didn't know what you Yanks would be like," remarked one of
+the Englishmen one day. "Thought you might be snobby on account
+of being volunteers, but I swear you're a bloody human lot."
+That, I will explain, is a very fine compliment.</p>
+
+<p>There was trouble getting new airplanes for every one in the
+escadrille. Only five arrived. They were the new model Nieuport
+fighting machine. Instead of having only 140 square feet of
+supporting surface, they had 160, and the forty-seven shot Lewis
+machine gun had been replaced by the Vickers, which fires five
+hundred rounds. This gun is mounted on the hood and by means of a
+timing gear shoots through the propeller. The 160 foot Nieuport
+mounts at a terrific rate, rising to 7,000 feet in six minutes.
+It will go to 20,000 feet handled by a skillful pilot.</p>
+
+<p>It was some time before these airplanes arrived and every one
+was idle. There was nothing to do but loaf around the hotel,
+where the American pilots were quartered, visit the British in
+their barracks at the field, or go walking. It was about as much
+like war as a Bryan lecture. While I was in the hospital I
+received a letter written at this time from one of the boys. I
+opened it expecting to read of an air combat. It informed me that
+Thaw had caught a trout three feet long, and that Lufbery had
+picked two baskets of mushrooms.</p>
+
+<p>Day after day the British planes practised formation flying.
+The regularity with which the squadron's machines would leave the
+ground was remarkable. The twenty Sopwiths took the air at
+precise intervals, flew together in a V formation while executing
+difficult manoeuvres, and landed one after the other with the
+exactness of clockwork. The French pilots flew the Farman and
+Breguet bombardment machines whenever the weather permitted.
+Every one knew some big bombardment was ahead but when it would
+be made or what place was to be attacked was a secret.</p>
+
+<p>Considering the number of machines that were continually
+roaring above the field at Luxeuil it is remarkable that only two
+fatal accidents occurred. One was when a British pilot tried
+diving at a target, for machine-gun practice, and was unable to
+redress his airplane. Both he and his gunner were killed. In the
+second accident I lost a good friend--a young Frenchman. He took
+up his gunner in a two-seated Nieuport. A young Canadian pilot
+accompanied by a French officer followed in a Sopwith. When at
+about a thousand feet they began to manoeuvre about one another.
+In making a turn too close the tips of their wings touched. The
+Nieuport turned downward, its wings folded, and it fell like a
+stone. The Sopwith fluttered a second or two, then its wings
+buckled and it dropped in the wake of the Nieuport. The two men
+in each of the planes were killed outright.</p>
+
+<p>Next to falling in flames a drop in a wrecked machine is the
+worst death an aviator can meet. I know of no sound more horrible
+than that made by an airplane crashing to earth. Breathless one
+has watched the uncontrolled apparatus tumble through the air.
+The agony felt by the pilot and passenger seems to transmit
+itself to you. You are helpless to avert the certain death. You
+cannot even turn your eyes away at the moment of impact. In the
+dull, grinding crash there is the sound of breaking bones.</p>
+
+<p>Luxeuil was an excellent place to observe the difference that
+exists between the French, English, and American aviator, but
+when all is said and done there is but little difference. The
+Frenchman is the most natural pilot and the most adroit. Flying
+comes easier to him than to an Englishman or American, but once
+accustomed to an airplane and the air they all accomplish the
+same amount of work. A Frenchman goes about it with a little more
+dash than the others, and puts on a few extra frills, but the
+Englishman calmly carries out his mission and obtains the same
+results. An American is a combination of the two, but neither
+better nor worse. Though there is a large number of expert German
+airmen I do not believe the average Teuton makes as good a flier
+as a Frenchman, Englishman, or American.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of their bombardment of open towns and the use of
+explosive bullets in their a&euml;rial machine guns, the Boches
+have shown up in a better light in aviation than in any other
+arm. A few of the Hun pilots have evinced certain elements of
+honor and decency. I remember one chap that was the right
+sort.</p>
+
+<p>He was a young man but a pilot of long standing. An old
+infantry captain stationed near his aviation field at Etain, east
+of Verdun, prevailed upon this German pilot to take him on a
+flight. There was a new machine to test out and he told the
+captain to climb aboard. Foolishly he crossed the trench lines
+and, actuated by a desire to give his passenger an interesting
+trip, proceeded to fly over the French aviation headquarters.
+Unfortunately for him he encountered three French fighting planes
+which promptly opened fire. The German pilot was wounded in the
+leg and the gasoline tank of his airplane was pierced. Under him
+was an aviation field. He decided to land. The machine was
+captured before the Germans had time to burn it up. Explosive
+bullets were discovered in the machine gun. A French officer
+turned to the German captain and informed him that he would
+probably be shot for using explosive bullets. The captain did not
+understand.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't shoot him," said the pilot, using excellent French, "if
+you're going to shoot any one take me. The captain has nothing to
+do with the bullets. He doesn't even know how to work a machine
+gun. It's his first trip in an airplane."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you'll give us some good information, we won't shoot
+you," said the French officer.</p>
+
+<p>"Information," replied the German, "I can't give you any. I
+come from Etain, and you know where that is as well as I do."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you must give us some worth-while information, or I'm
+afraid you'll be shot," insisted the Frenchman.</p>
+
+<p>"If I give you worth-while information," answered the pilot,
+"you'll go over and kill a lot of soldiers, and if I don't you'll
+only kill one--so go ahead."</p>
+
+<p>The last time I heard of the Boche he was being well taken
+care of.</p>
+
+<p>Kiffin Rockwell and Lufbery were the first to get their new
+machines ready and on the 23rd of September went out for the
+first flight since the escadrille had arrived at Luxeuil. They
+became separated in the air but each flew on alone, which was a
+dangerous thing to do in the Alsace sector. There is but little
+fighting in the trenches there, but great air activity. Due to
+the British and French squadrons at Luxeuil, and the threat their
+presence implied, the Germans had to oppose them by a large fleet
+of fighting machines. I believe there were more than forty
+Fokkers alone in the camps of Colmar and Habsheim. Observation
+machines protected by two or three fighting planes would venture
+far into our lines. It is something the Germans dare not do on
+any other part of the front. They had a special trick that
+consisted in sending a large, slow observation machine into our
+lines to invite attack. When a French plane would dive after it,
+two Fokkers, that had been hovering high overhead, would drop on
+the tail of the Frenchman and he stood but small chance if caught
+in the trap.</p>
+
+<p>Just before Kiffin Rockwell reached the lines he spied a
+German machine under him flying at 11,000 feet. I can imagine the
+satisfaction he felt in at last catching an enemy plane in our
+lines. Rockwell had fought more combats than the rest of us put
+together, and had shot down many German machines that had fallen
+in their lines, but this was the first time he had had an
+opportunity of bringing down a Boche in our territory.</p>
+
+<p>A captain, the commandant of an Alsatian village, watched the
+a&euml;rial battle through his field glasses. He said that
+Rockwell approached so close to the enemy that he thought there
+would be a collision. The German craft, which carried two machine
+guns, had opened a rapid fire when Rockwell started his dive. He
+plunged through the stream of lead and only when very close to
+his enemy did he begin shooting. For a second it looked as though
+the German was falling, so the captain said, but then he saw the
+French machine turn rapidly nose down, the wings of one side
+broke off and fluttered in the wake of the airplane, which
+hurtled earthward in a rapid drop. It crashed into the ground in
+a small field--a field of flowers--a few hundred yards back of
+the trenches. It was not more than two and a half miles from the
+spot where Rockwell, in the month of May, brought down his first
+enemy machine. The Germans immediately opened up on the wreck
+with artillery fire. In spite of the bursting shrapnel, gunners
+from a near-by battery rushed out and recovered poor Rockwell's
+broken body. There was a hideous wound in his breast where an
+explosive bullet had torn through. A surgeon who examined the
+body, testified that if it had been an ordinary bullet Rockwell
+would have had an even chance of landing with only a bad wound.
+As it was he was killed the instant the unlawful missile
+exploded.</p>
+
+<p>Lufbery engaged a German craft but before he could get to
+close range two Fokkers swooped down from behind and filled his
+aeroplane full of holes. Exhausting his ammunition he landed at
+Fontaine, an aviation field near the lines. There he learned of
+Rockwell's death and was told that two other French machines had
+been brought down within the hour. He ordered his gasoline tank
+filled, procured a full band of cartridges and soared up into the
+air to avenge his comrade. He sped up and down the lines, and
+made a wide d&eacute;tour to Habsheim where the Germans have an
+aviation field, but all to no avail. Not a Boche was in the
+air.</p>
+
+<p>The news of Rockwell's death was telephoned to the escadrille.
+The captain, lieutenant, and a couple of men jumped in a staff
+car and hastened to where he had fallen. On their return the
+American pilots were convened in a room of the hotel and the news
+was broken to them. With tears in his eyes the captain said: "The
+best and bravest of us all is no more."</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p><a name="photo5" href="photo5.htm"><img alt="photo5t.png" src="photo5t.png">
+</a></p>
+
+<p>Kiffin Rockwell.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>No greater blow could have befallen the escadrille. Kiffin was
+its soul. He was loved and looked up to by not only every man in
+our flying corps but by every one who knew him. Kiffin was imbued
+with the spirit of the cause for which he fought and gave his
+heart and soul to the performance of his duty. He said: "I pay my
+part for Lafayette and Rochambeau," and he gave the fullest
+measure. The old flame of chivalry burned brightly in this boy's
+fine and sensitive being. With his death France lost one of her
+most valuable pilots. When he was over the lines the Germans did
+not pass--and he was over them most of the time. He brought down
+four enemy planes that were credited to him officially, and
+Lieutenant de Laage, who was his fighting partner, says he is
+convinced that Rockwell accounted for many others which fell too
+far within the German lines to be observed. Rockwell had been
+given the M&eacute;daille Militaire and the Croix de Guerre, on
+the ribbon of which he wore four palms, representing the four
+magnificent citations he had received in the order of the army.
+As a further reward for his excellent work he had been proposed
+for promotion from the grade of sergeant to that of second
+lieutenant. Unfortunately the official order did not arrive until
+a few days following his death.</p>
+
+<p>The night before Rockwell was killed he had stated that if he
+were brought down he would like to be buried where he fell. It
+was impossible, however, to place him in a grave so near the
+trenches. His body was draped in a French flag and brought back
+to Luxeuil. He was given a funeral worthy of a general. His
+brother, Paul, who had fought in the Legion with him, and who had
+been rendered unfit for service by a wound, was granted
+permission to attend the obsequies. Pilots from all near-by camps
+flew over to render homage to Rockwell's remains. Every Frenchman
+in the aviation at Luxeuil marched behind the bier. The British
+pilots, followed by a detachment of five hundred of their men,
+were in line, and a battalion of French troops brought up the
+rear. As the slow moving procession of blue and khaki-clad men
+passed from the church to the graveyard, airplanes circled at a
+feeble height above and showered down myriads of flowers.</p>
+
+<p>Rockwell's death urged the rest of the men to greater action,
+and the few who had machines were constantly after the Boches.
+Prince brought one down. Lufbery, the most skillful and
+successful fighter in the escadrille, would venture far into the
+enemy's lines and spiral down over a German aviation camp, daring
+the pilots to venture forth. One day he stirred them up, but as
+he was short of fuel he had to make for home before they took to
+the air. Prince was out in search of a combat at this time. He
+got it. He ran into the crowd Lufbery had aroused. Bullets cut
+into his machine and one exploding on the front edge of a lower
+wing broke it. Another shattered a supporting mast. It was a
+miracle that the machine did not give way. As badly battered as
+it was Prince succeeded in bringing it back from over Mulhouse,
+where the fight occurred, to his field at Luxeuil.</p>
+
+<p>The same day that Prince was so nearly brought down Lufbery
+missed death by a very small margin. He had taken on more
+gasoline and made another sortie. When over the lines again he
+encountered a German with whom he had a fighting acquaintance.
+That is he and the Boche, who was an excellent pilot, had tried
+to kill each other on one or two occasions before. Each was too
+good for the other. Lufbery manoeuvred for position but, before
+he could shoot, the Teuton would evade him by a clever turn. They
+kept after one another, the Boche retreating into his lines. When
+they were nearing Habsheim, Lufbery glanced back and saw French
+shrapnel bursting over the trenches. It meant a German plane was
+over French territory and it was his duty to drive it off.
+Swooping down near his adversary he waved good-bye, the enemy
+pilot did likewise, and Lufbery whirred off to chase the other
+representative of Kultur. He caught up with him and dove to the
+attack, but he was surprised by a German he had not seen. Before
+he could escape three bullets entered his motor, two passed
+through the fur-lined combination he wore, another ripped open
+one of his woolen flying boots, his airplane was riddled from
+wing tip to wing tip, and other bullets cut the elevating plane.
+Had he not been an exceptional aviator he never would have
+brought safely to earth so badly damaged a machine. It was so
+thoroughly shot up that it was junked as being beyond repairs.
+Fortunately Lufbery was over French territory or his forced
+descent would have resulted in his being made prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>I know of only one other airplane that was safely landed after
+receiving as heavy punishment as did Lufbery's. It was a
+two-place Nieuport piloted by a young Frenchman named Fontaine
+with whom I trained. He and his gunner attacked a German over the
+Bois le Pretre who dove rapidly far into his lines. Fontaine
+followed and in turn was attacked by three other Boches. He
+dropped to escape, they plunged after him forcing him lower. He
+looked and saw a German aviation field under him. He was by this
+time only 2,000 feet above the ground. Fontaine saw the mechanics
+rush out to grasp him, thinking he would land. The attacking
+airplanes had stopped shooting. Fontaine pulled on full power and
+headed for the lines. The German planes dropped down on him and
+again opened fire. They were on his level, behind and on his
+sides. Bullets whistled by him in streams. The rapid-fire gun on
+Fontaine's machine had jammed and he was helpless. His gunner
+fell forward on him, dead. The trenches were just ahead, but as
+he was slanting downward to gain speed he had lost a good deal of
+height, and was at only six hundred feet when he crossed the
+lines, from which he received a ground fire. The Germans gave up
+the chase and Fontaine landed with his dead gunner. His wings
+were so full of holes that they barely supported the machine in
+the air.</p>
+
+<p>The uncertain wait at Luxeuil finally came to an end on the
+12th of October. The afternoon of that day the British did not
+say: "Come on Yanks, let's call off the war and have tea," as was
+their wont, for the bombardment of Oberndorf was on. The British
+and French machines had been prepared. Just before climbing into
+their airplanes the pilots were given their orders. The English
+in their single-seated Sopwiths, which carried four bombs each,
+were the first to leave. The big French Brequets and Farmans then
+soared aloft with their tons of explosive destined for the Mauser
+works. The fighting machines, which were to convoy them as far as
+the Rhine, rapidly gained their height and circled above their
+charges. Four of the battleplanes were from the American
+escadrille. They were piloted respectively by Lieutenant de
+Laage, Lufbery, Norman Prince, and Masson.</p>
+
+<p>The Germans were taken by surprise and as a result few of
+their machines were in the air. The bombardment fleet was
+attacked, however, and six of its planes shot down, some of them
+falling in flames. Baron, the famous French night bombarder, lost
+his life in one of the Farmans. Two Germans were brought down by
+machines they attacked and the four pilots from the American
+escadrille accounted for one each. Lieutenant de Laage shot down
+his Boche as it was attacking another French machine and Masson
+did likewise. Explaining it afterward he said: "All of a sudden I
+saw a Boche come in between me and a Breguet I was following. I
+just began to shoot, and darned if he didn't fall."</p>
+
+<p>As the fuel capacity of a Nieuport allows but little more than
+two hours in the air the <i>avions de chasse</i> were forced to
+return to their own lines to take on more gasoline, while the
+bombardment planes continued on into Germany. The Sopwiths
+arrived first at Oberndorf. Dropping low over the Mauser works
+they discharged their bombs and headed homeward. All arrived,
+save one, whose pilot lost his way and came to earth in
+Switzerland. When the big machines got to Oberndorf they saw only
+flames and smoke where once the rifle factory stood. They
+unloaded their explosives on the burning mass.</p>
+
+<p>The Nieuports having refilled their tanks went up to clear the
+air of Germans that might be hovering in wait for the returning
+raiders. Prince found one and promptly shot it down. Lufbery came
+upon three. He drove for one, making it drop below the others,
+then forcing a second to descend, attacked the one remaining
+above. The combat was short and at the end of it the German
+tumbled to earth. This made the fifth enemy machine which was
+officially credited to Lufbery. When a pilot has accounted for
+five Boches he is mentioned by name in the official
+communication, and is spoken of as an "Ace," which in French
+a&euml;rial slang means a super-pilot. Papers are allowed to call
+an "ace" by name, print his picture and give him a write-up. The
+successful aviator becomes a national hero. When Lufbery worked
+into this category the French papers made him a head liner. The
+American "Ace," with his string of medals, then came in for the
+ennuis of a matinee idol. The choicest bit in the collection was
+a letter from Wallingford, Conn., his home town, thanking him for
+putting it on the map.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<a name="photo6"></a>
+<a href="photo6.htm"><img alt="photo6t.png" src="photo6t.png"></a>
+
+<p>Sergeant Lufbery in One of the New Nieuports.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Darkness was coming rapidly on but Prince and Lufbery remained
+in the air to protect the bombardment fleet. Just at nightfall
+Lufbery made for a small aviation field near the lines, known as
+Corcieux. Slow-moving machines, with great planing capacity, can
+be landed in the dark, but to try and feel for the ground in a
+Nieuport, which comes down at about a hundred miles an hour, is
+to court disaster. Ten minutes after Lufbery landed Prince
+decided to make for the field. He spiraled down through the night
+air and skimmed rapidly over the trees bordering the Corcieux
+field. In the dark he did not see a high-tension electric cable
+that was stretched just above the tree tops. The landing gear of
+his airplane struck it. The machine snapped forward and hit the
+ground on its nose. It turned over and over. The belt holding
+Prince broke and he was thrown far from the wrecked plane. Both
+of his legs were broken and he naturally suffered internal
+injuries. In spite of the terrific shock and his intense pain
+Prince did not lose consciousness. He even kept his presence of
+mind and gave orders to the men who had run to pick him up.
+Hearing the hum of a motor, and realizing a machine was in the
+air, Prince told them to light gasoline fires on the field. "You
+don't want another fellow to come down and break himself up the
+way I've done," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Lufbery went with Prince to the hospital in Gerardmer. As the
+ambulance rolled along Prince sang to keep up his spirits. He
+spoke of getting well soon and returning to service. It was like
+Norman. He was always energetic about his flying. Even when he
+passed through the harrowing experience of having a wing
+shattered, the first thing he did on landing was to busy himself
+about getting another fitted in place and the next morning he was
+in the air again.</p>
+
+<p>No one thought that Prince was mortally injured but the next
+day he went into a coma. A blood clot had formed on his brain.
+Captain Haff in command of the aviation groups of Luxeuil,
+accompanied by our officers, hastened to Gerardmer. Prince lying
+unconscious on his bed, was named a second lieutenant and
+decorated with the Legion of Honor. He already held the
+M&eacute;daille Militaire and Croix de Guerre. Norman Prince died
+on the 15th of October. He was brought back to Luxeuil and given
+a funeral similar to Rockwell's. It was hard to realize that poor
+old Norman had gone. He was the founder of the American
+escadrille and every one in it had come to rely on him. He never
+let his own spirits drop, and was always on hand with
+encouragement for the others. I do not think Prince minded going.
+He wanted to do his part before being killed, and he had more
+than done it. He had, day after day, freed the line of Germans,
+making it impossible for them to do their work, and three of them
+he had shot to earth.</p>
+
+<p>Two days after Prince's death the escadrille received orders
+to leave for the Somme. The night before the departure the
+British gave the American pilots a farewell banquet and toasted
+them as their "Guardian Angels." They keenly appreciated the fact
+that four men from the American escadrille had brought down four
+Germans, and had cleared the way for their squadron returning
+from Oberndorf. When the train pulled out the next day the
+station platform was packed by khaki-clad pilots waving good-bye
+to their friends the "Yanks."</p>
+
+<p>The escadrille passed through Paris on its way to the Somme
+front. The few members who had machines flew from Luxeuil to
+their new post. At Paris the pilots were re&euml;nforced by three
+other American boys who had completed their training. They were:
+Fred Prince, who ten months before had come over from Boston to
+serve in aviation with his brother Norman; Willis Haviland, of
+Chicago, who left the American Ambulance for the life of a
+birdman, and Bob Soubrian, of New York, who had been transferred
+from the Foreign Legion to the flying corps after being wounded
+in the Champagne offensive.</p>
+
+<p>Before its arrival in the Somme the escadrille had always been
+quartered in towns and the life of the pilots was all that could
+be desired in the way of comforts. We had, as a result, come to
+believe that we would wage only a de luxe war, and were
+unprepared for any other sort of campaign. The introduction to
+the Somme was a rude awakening. Instead of being quartered in a
+villa or hotel, the pilots were directed to a portable barracks
+newly erected in a sea of mud.</p>
+
+<p>It was set in a cluster of similar barns nine miles from the
+nearest town. A sieve was a watertight compartment in comparison
+with that elongated shed. The damp cold penetrated through every
+crack, chilling one to the bone. There were no blankets and until
+they were procured the pilots had to curl up in their flying
+clothes. There were no arrangements for cooking and the Americans
+depended on the other escadrilles for food. Eight fighting units
+were located at the same field and our ever-generous French
+comrades saw to it that no one went hungry. The thick mist, for
+which the Somme is famous, hung like a pall over the birdmen's
+nest dampening both the clothes and spirits of the men.</p>
+
+<p>Something had to be done, so Thaw and Masson, who is our
+<i>Chef de Popote</i> (President of the Mess) obtained permission
+to go to Paris in one of our light trucks. They returned with
+cooking utensils, a stove, and other necessary things. All hands
+set to work and as a result life was made bearable. In fact I was
+surprised to find the quarters as good as they were when I
+rejoined the escadrille a couple of weeks after its arrival in
+the Somme. Outside of the cold, mud, and dampness it wasn't so
+bad. The barracks had been partitioned off into little rooms
+leaving a large space for a dining hall. The stove is set up
+there and all animate life from the lion cub to the pilots centre
+around its warming glow.</p>
+
+<p>The eight escadrilles of fighting machines form a rather
+interesting colony. The large canvas hangars are surrounded by
+the house tents of their respective escadrilles; wooden barracks
+for the men and pilots are in close proximity, and sandwiched in
+between the encampments of the various units are the tents where
+the commanding officers hold forth. In addition there is a bath
+house where one may go and freeze while a tiny stream of hot
+water trickles down one's shivering form. Another shack houses
+the power plant which generates electric light for the tents and
+barracks, and in one very popular canvas is located the community
+bar, the profits from which go to the Red Cross.</p>
+
+<p>We had never before been grouped with as many other fighting
+escadrilles, nor at a field so near the front. We sensed the war
+to better advantage than at Luxeuil or Bar-le-Duc. When there is
+activity on the lines the rumble of heavy artillery reaches us in
+a heavy volume of sound. From the field one can see the line of
+sausage-shaped observation balloons, which delineate the front,
+and beyond them the high-flying airplanes, darting like swallows
+in the shrapnel puffs of anti-air-craft fire. The roar of motors
+that are being tested, is punctuated by the staccato barking of
+machine guns, and at intervals the hollow whistling sound of a
+fast plane diving to earth is added to this symphony of war
+notes.</p>
+
+<p> <br>
+  <a name="letters"></a></p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<h3>CHAPTER III</h3>
+
+<h4>PERSONAL LETTERS FROM SERGEANT McCONNELL--AT THE FRONT<br>
+ </h4>
+</div>
+
+<p>We're still waiting for our machines. In the meantime the
+Boches sail gaily over and drop bombs. One of our drivers has
+been killed and five wounded so far but we'll put a stop to it
+soon. The machines have left and are due to-day.</p>
+
+<p>You ask me what my work will be and how my machine is armed.
+First of all I mount an <i>avion de chasse</i> and am supposed to
+shoot down Boches or keep them away from over our lines. I do not
+do observation, or regulating of artillery fire. These are
+handled by escadrilles equipped with bigger machines. I mount at
+daybreak over the lines; stay at from 11,000 to 15,000 feet and
+wait for the sight of an enemy plane. It may be a bombardment
+machine, a regulator of fire, an observer, or an <i>avion de
+chasse</i> looking for me. Whatever she is I make for her and
+manoeuvre for position. All the machines carry different gun
+positions and one seeks the blind side. Having obtained the
+proper position one turns down or up, whichever the case may be,
+and, when within fifty yards, opens up with the machine gun. That
+is on the upper plane and it is sighted by a series of holes and
+cross webs. As one is passing at a terrific rate there is not
+time for many shots, so, unless wounded or one's machine is
+injured by the first try--for the enemy plane shoots, too--one
+tries it again and again until there's nothing doing or the other
+fellow is dropped. Apart from work over the lines, which is
+comparatively calm, there is the job of convoying bombardment
+machines. That is the rotten task. The captain has called on us
+to act as guards on the next trip. You see we are like torpedo
+boats of the air with our swift machines.</p>
+
+<p>We have the honour of being attached to a bombardment squadron
+that is the most famous in the French Army. The captain of the
+unit once lost his whole escadrille, and on the last trip eight
+lost their lives. It was a wonderful fight. The squadron was
+attacked by thirty-three Boches. Two French planes crashed to
+earth--then two German; another German was set on fire and
+streaked down, followed by a streaming column of smoke. Another
+Frenchman fell; another German; and then a French lieutenant,
+mortally wounded and realizing that he was dying, plunged his
+airplane into a German below him and both fell to earth like
+stones.</p>
+
+<p>The tours of Alsace and the Vosges that we have made, to look
+over possible landing places, were wonderful. I've never seen
+such ravishing sights, and in regarding the beauty of the country
+I have missed noting the landing places. The valleys are
+marvellous. On each side the mountain slopes are a solid mass of
+giant pines and down these avenues of green tumble myriads of
+glittering cascades which form into sparkling streams beneath. It
+is a pleasant feeling to go into Alsace and realize that one is
+touring over country we have taken from the Germans. It's a treat
+to go by auto that way. In the air, you know, one feels detached
+from all below. It's a different world, that has no particular
+meaning, and besides, it all looks flat and of a weary
+pattern.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+THE FIRST TRIP</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Well, I've made my first trip over the lines and proved a few
+things to myself. First, I can stand high altitudes. I had never
+been higher than 7,000 feet before, nor had I flown more than an
+hour. On my trip to Germany I went to 14,000 feet and was in the
+air for two hours. I wore the fur head-to-foot combination they
+give one and paper gloves under the fur ones you sent me. I was
+not cold. In a way it seemed amusing to be going out knowing as
+little as I do. My mitrailleuse had been mounted the night
+before. I had never fired it, nor did I know the country at all
+even though I'd motored along our lines. I followed the others or
+I surely should have been lost. I shall have to make special
+trips to study the land and be able to make it out from my map
+which I carry on board. For one thing the weather was hazy and
+clouds obscured the view.</p>
+
+<p>We left en escadrille, at 30-second intervals, at 6:30 A.M.
+I'd been on guard since three, waiting for an enemy plane. I
+climbed to 3,500 feet in four minutes and so started off higher
+than the rest. I lost them immediately but took a compass course
+in the direction we were headed. Clouds were below me and I could
+see the earth only in spots. Ahead was a great barrier of clouds
+and fog. It seemed like a limitless ocean. To the south the Alps
+jutted up through the clouds and glistened like icebergs in the
+morning sun. I began to feel completely lost. I was at 7,000 feet
+and that was all I knew. Suddenly I saw a little black speck pop
+out of a cloud to my left--then two others. They were our
+machines and from then on I never let them get out of my sight. I
+went to 14,000 in order to be able to keep them well in view
+below me. We went over Belfort which I recognized, and, turning,
+went toward the lines. The clouds had dispersed by this time.
+Alsace was below us and in the distance I could see the straight
+course of the Rhine. It looked very small. I looked down and saw
+the trenches and when I next looked for our machines I saw
+clusters of smoke puffs. We were being fired at. One machine just
+under me seemed to be in the centre of a lot of shrapnel. The
+puffs were white, or black, or green, depending on the size of
+the shell used. It struck me as more amusing than anything else
+to watch the explosions and smoke. I thought of what a lot of
+money we were making the Germans spend. It is not often that they
+hit. The day before one of our machines had a part of the tail
+shot away and the propeller nicked, but that's just bum luck. Two
+shells went off just at my height and in a way that led me to
+think that the third one would get me; but it didn't. It's hard
+even for the aviator to tell how far off they are. We went over
+Mulhouse and to the north. Then we sailed south and turned over
+the lines on the way home. I was very tired after the flight but
+it was because I was not used to it and it was a strain on me
+keeping a look-out for the others.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+AT VERDUN</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>To-day the army moving picture outfit took pictures of us. We
+had a big show. Thirty bombardment planes went off like
+clock-work and we followed. We circled and swooped down by the
+camera. We were taken in groups, then individually, in flying
+togs, and God knows what-all. They will be shown in the
+States.</p>
+
+<p>If you happen to see them you will recognize my machine by the
+MAC, painted on the side.</p>
+
+<p>Seems quite an important thing to have one's own airplane with
+two mechanics to take care of it, to help one dress for flights,
+and to obey orders. A pilot of no matter what grade is like an
+officer in any other arm.</p>
+
+<p>We didn't see any Boche planes on our trip. We were too many.
+The only way to do is to sneak up on them.</p>
+
+<p>I do not get a chance to see much of the biggest battle in the
+world which is being fought here, for I'm on a fighting machine
+and the sky is my province. We fly so high that ground details
+are lacking. Where the battle has raged there is a broad, browned
+band. It is a great strip of murdered Nature. Trees, houses, and
+even roads have been blasted completely away. The shell holes are
+so numerous that they blend into one another and cannot be
+separately seen. It looks as if shells fell by the thousand every
+second. There are spurts of smoke at nearly every foot of the
+brown areas and a thick pall of mist covers it all. There are but
+holes where the trenches ran, and when one thinks of the poor
+devils crouching in their inadequate shelters under such a
+hurricane of flying metal, it increases one's respect for the
+staying powers of modern man. It's terrible to watch, and I feel
+sad every time I look down. The only shooting we hear is the
+tut-tut-tut of our own or enemy plane's machine guns when
+fighting is at close quarters. The Germans shoot explosive
+bullets from theirs. I must admit that they have an excellent air
+fleet even if they do not fight decently.</p>
+
+<p>I'm a sergeant now--<i>sergent</i> in French--and I get about
+two francs more a day and wear a gold band on my cap, which makes
+old territorials think I'm an officer and occasions salutes which
+are some bother.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+A SORTIE</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>We made a foolish sortie this morning. Only five of us went,
+the others remaining in bed thinking the weather was too bad. It
+was. When at only 3,000 feet we hit a solid layer of clouds, and
+when we had passed through, we couldn't see anything but a
+shimmering field of white. Above were the bright sun and the blue
+sky, but how we were in regard to the earth no one knew.
+Fortunately the clouds had a big hole in them at one point and
+the whole mass was moving toward the lines. By circling,
+climbing, and dropping we stayed above the hole, and, when over
+the trenches, worked into it, ready to fall on the Boches. It's a
+stunt they use, too. We finally found ourselves 20 kilometres in
+the German lines. In coming back I steered by compass and then
+when I thought I was near the field I dived and found myself not
+so far off, having the field in view. In the clouds it shakes
+terribly and one feels as if one were in a canoe on a rough
+sea.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+VICTOR CHAPMAN</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>I was mighty sorry to see old Victor Chapman go. He was one of
+the finest men I've ever known. He was <i>too</i> brave if
+anything. He was exceptionally well educated, had a fine brain,
+and a heart as big as a house. Why, on the day of his fatal trip,
+he had put oranges in his machine to take to Balsley who was
+lying wounded with an explosive bullet. He was going to land near
+the hospital after the sortie.</p>
+
+<p>Received letter inclosing note from Chapman's father. I'm glad
+you wrote him. I feel sure that some of my letters never reach
+you. I never let more than a week go by without writing. Maybe I
+do not get all yours, either.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+A SMASH-UP</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Weather has been fine and we've been doing a lot of work. Our
+Lieutenant de Laage de Mieux, brought down a Boche. I had another
+beautiful smash-up. Prince and I had stayed too long over the
+lines. Important day as an attack was going on. It was getting
+dark and we could see the tiny balls of fire the infantry light
+to show the low-flying observation machines their new positions.
+On my return, when I was over another aviation field, my motor
+broke. I made for field. In the darkness I couldn't judge my
+distance well, and went too far. At the edge of the field there
+were trees, and beyond, a deep cut where a road ran. I was
+skimming ground at a hundred miles an hour and heading for the
+trees. I saw soldiers running to be in at the finish and I
+thought to myself that James's hash was cooked, but I went
+between two trees and ended up head on against the opposite bank
+of the road. My motor took the shock and my belt held me. As my
+tail went up it was cut in two by some very low 'phone wires. I
+wasn't even bruised. Took dinner with the officers there who gave
+me a car to go home in afterward.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+FIGHTING A BOCHE</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>To-day I shared another chap's machine (Hill of Peekskill),
+and got it shot up for him. De Laage (our lieutenant) and I made
+a sortie at noon. When over the German lines, near
+<i>C&ocirc;te</i> 304, I saw two Boches under me. I picked out
+the rear chap and dived. Fired a few shots and then tried to get
+under his tail and hit him from there. I missed, and bobbed up
+alongside of him. Fine for the Boche, but rotten for me! I could
+see his gunner working the mitrailleuse for fair, and felt his
+bullets darn close. I dived, for I could not shoot from that
+position, and beat it. He kept plunking away and altogether put
+seven holes in my machine. One was only ten inches in from me. De
+Laage was too far off to get to the Boche and ruin him while I
+was amusing him.</p>
+
+<p>Yesterday I motored up to an aviation camp to see a Boche
+machine that had been forced to land and was captured. On the way
+up I passed a cantonment of Senegalese. About twenty of 'em
+jumped up from the bench they were sitting on and gave me the
+hell of a salute. Thought I was a general because I was riding in
+a car, I guess. They're the blackest niggers you ever saw.
+Good-looking soldiers. Can't stand shelling but they're good on
+the cold steel end of the game. The Boche machine was a beauty.
+Its motor is excellent and she carries a machine gun aft and one
+forward. Same kind of a machine I attacked to-day. The German
+pilots must be mighty cold-footed, for if the Frenchmen had
+airplanes like that they surely would raise the devil with the
+Boches.</p>
+
+<p>As it is the Boches keep well within their lines, save
+occasionally, and we have to go over and fight them there.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+KIFFIN ROCKWELL</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Poor Kiffin Rockwell has been killed. He was known and admired
+far and wide, and he was accorded extraordinary honours. Fifty
+English pilots and eight hundred aviation men from the British
+unit in the Vosges marched at his funeral. There was a regiment
+of Territorials and a battalion of Colonial troops in addition to
+the hundreds of French pilots and aviation men. Captain
+Th&eacute;nault of the American Escadrille delivered an
+exceptionally eulogistic funeral oration. He spoke at length of
+Rockwell's ideals and his magnificent work. He told of his
+combats. "When Rockwell was on the lines," he said, "no German
+passed, but on the contrary was forced to seek a refuge on the
+ground."</p>
+
+<p>Rockwell made the <i>esprit</i> of the escadrille, and the
+Captain voiced the sentiments of us all when, in announcing his
+death, he said: "The best and bravest of us all is no more."</p>
+
+<p>How does the war look to you--as regards duration? We are
+figuring on about ten more months, but then it may be ten more
+years. Of late things are much brighter and one can feel a
+certain elation in the air. Victory, before, was a sort of
+academic certainty; now, it's felt.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+  <a name="train"></a></p>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3>
+
+<h4>HOW FRANCE TRAINS PILOT AVIATORS<br>
+ </h4>
+</div>
+
+<p>France now has thousands of men training to become military
+aviators, and the flying schools, of which there is a very great
+number, are turning out pilots at an astounding rate.</p>
+
+<p>The process of training a man to be a pilot aviator naturally
+varies in accordance with the type of machine on which he takes
+his first instruction, and so the methods of the various schools
+depend on the apparatus upon which they teach an
+<i>&eacute;l&egrave;ve pilote</i>--as an embryonic aviator is
+called--to fly.</p>
+
+<p>In the case of the larger biplanes, a student goes up in a
+dual-control airplane, accompanied by an old pilot, who, after
+first taking him on many short trips, then allows him part, and
+later full, control, and who immediately corrects any false moves
+made by him. After that, short, straight line flights are made
+alone in a smaller-powered machine by the student, and, following
+that, the training goes on by degrees to the point where a
+certain mastery of the apparatus is attained. Then follows the
+prescribed "stunts" and voyages necessary to obtain the military
+brevet.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+TRAINING FOR PURSUIT AIRPLANES</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The method of training a pilot for a small, fast <i>avion de
+chasse,</i> as a fighting airplane is termed, is quite different,
+and as it is the most thorough and interesting I will take that
+course up in greater detail.</p>
+
+<p>The man who trains for one of these machines never has the
+advantage of going first into the air in a double-control
+airplane. He is alone when he first leaves the earth, and so the
+training preparatory to that stage is very carefully planned to
+teach a man the habit of control in such a way that all the
+essential movements will come naturally when he first finds
+himself face to face with the new problems the air has set for
+him. In this preparatory training a great deal of weeding out is
+effected, for a man's aptitude for the work shows up, and unless
+he is by nature especially well fitted he is transferred to the
+division which teaches one to fly the larger and safer
+machines.</p>
+
+<p>First of all, the student is put on what is called a roller.
+It is a low-powered machine with very small wings. It is strongly
+built to stand the rough wear it gets, and no matter how much one
+might try it could not leave the ground. The apparatus is
+jokingly and universally known as a Penguin, both because of its
+humorous resemblance to the quaint arctic birds and its inability
+in common with them to do any flying. A student makes a few trips
+up and down the field in a double-control Penguin, and learns how
+to steer with his feet. Then he gets into a single-seated one
+and, while the rapidly whirling propeller is pulling him along,
+tries to keep the Penguin in a straight line. The slightest
+mistake or delayed movement will send the machine skidding off to
+the right or left, and sometimes, if the motor is not stopped in
+time, over on its side or back. Something is always being broken
+on a Penguin, and so a reserve flock is kept at the side of the
+field in order that no time may be lost.</p>
+
+<p>After one is able to keep a fairly straight line, he is put on
+a Penguin that moves at a faster rate, and after being able to
+handle it successfully passes to a very speedy one, known as the
+"rapid." Here one learns to keep the tail of the machine at a
+proper angle by means of the elevating lever, and to make a
+perfectly straight line. When this has been accomplished and the
+monitor is thoroughly convinced that the student is absolutely
+certain of making no mistakes in guiding with his feet, the young
+aviator is passed on to the class which teaches him how to leave
+the ground. As one passes from one machine to another one finds
+that the foot movements must be made smaller and smaller. The
+increased speed makes the machine more and more responsive to the
+rudder, and as a result the foot movements become so gentle when
+one gets into the air that they must come instinctively.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+FIRST FLIGHTS ALONE</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The class where one will leave the ground has now been
+reached, and an outfit of leather clothes and casque is given to
+the would-be pilot. The machines used at this stage are
+low-powered monoplanes of the Bl&eacute;riot type, which, though
+being capable of leaving the ground, cannot rise more than a few
+feet. They do not run when the wind is blowing or when there are
+any movements of air from the ground, for though a great deal of
+balancing is done by correcting with the rudder, the student
+knows nothing of maintaining the lateral stability, and if caught
+in the air by a bad movement would be apt to sustain a severe
+accident. He has now only to learn how to take the machine off
+the ground and hold it at a low line of flight for a few
+moments.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time one is strapped into the seat of the
+machine, and this continues to be the case from this point on.
+The motor is started, and one begins to roll swiftly along the
+ground. The tail is brought to an angle slightly above a straight
+line. Then one sits tight and waits. Suddenly the motion seems
+softer, the motor does not roar so loudly, and the ground is
+slipping away. The class standing at the end of the line looks
+far below; the individuals are very small, but though you imagine
+you are going too high, you must not push to go down more than
+the smallest fraction, or the machine will dive and smash. The
+small push has brought you down with a bump from a seemingly
+great height. In reality you have been but three feet off the
+ground. Little by little the student becomes accustomed to
+leaving the ground, for these short hop-skip-and-jump flights,
+and has learned how to steer in the air.</p>
+
+<p>If he has no bad smash-ups he is passed on to a class where he
+rises higher, and is taught the rudiments of landing. If, after a
+few days, that act is reasonably performed and the young pilot
+does not land too hard, he is passed to the class where he goes
+about sixty feet high, maintains his line of flight for five or
+six minutes and learns to make a good landing from that height.
+He must by this time be able to keep his machine on the line of
+flight without dipping and rising, and the landings must be
+uniformly good. The instructor takes a great deal of time showing
+the student the proper line of descent, for the landings must be
+perfect before he can pass on.</p>
+
+<p>Now comes the class where the pilot rises three or four
+hundred feet high and travels for more than two miles in a
+straight line. Here he is taught how to combat air movements and
+maintain lateral stability. All the flying up to this point has
+been done in a straight line, but now comes the class where one
+is taught to turn. Machines in this division are almost as high
+powered as a regular flying machine, and can easily climb to two
+thousand feet. The turn is at first very wide, and then, as the
+student becomes more confident, it is done more quickly, and
+while the machine leans at an angle that would frighten one if
+the training in turning had not been gradual. When the pilot can
+make reasonably close right and left turns, he is told to make
+figure eights. After doing this well he is sent to the real
+flying machines.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing in the way of a radical step from the turns
+and figure eights to the real flying machines. It is a question
+of becoming at ease in the better and faster airplanes taking
+greater altitudes, making little trips, perfecting landings, and
+mastering all the movements of correction that one is forced to
+make. Finally one is taught how to shut off and start one's motor
+again in the air, and then to go to a certain height, shut off
+the motor, make a half-turn while dropping and start the motor
+again. After this, one climbs to about two thousand feet and,
+shutting off the motor, spirals down to within five hundred feet
+of the ground. When that has been practised sufficiently, a
+registering altitude meter is strapped to the pilot's back and he
+essays the official spiral, in which one must spiral all the way
+to earth with the motor off, and come to a stop within a few
+yards of a fixed point on the aviation grounds. After this, the
+student passes to the voyage machines, which are of almost twice
+the power of the machine used for the short trips and
+spirals.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+TESTS FOR THE MILITARY BREVET</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>There are three voyages to make. Two consist in going to
+designated towns an hour or so distant and returning. The third
+voyage is a triangle. A landing is made at one point and the
+other two points are only necessary to cross. In addition, there
+are two altitudes of about seven thousand feet each that one has
+to attain either while on the voyages or afterward.</p>
+
+<p>The young pilot has not, up to this point, had any experience
+on trips, and there is always a sense of adventure in starting
+out over unknown country with only a roller map to guide one and
+the gauges and controls, which need constant attention, to
+distract one from the reading of the chart. Then, too, it is the
+first time that the student has flown free and at a great height
+over the earth, and his sense of exultation at navigating at will
+the boundless sky causes him to imagine he is a real pilot. True
+it is that when the voyages and altitudes are over, and his
+examinations in aeronautical sciences passed, the student becomes
+officially a <i>pilote-aviateur,</i> and he can wear two little
+gold-woven wings on his collar to designate his capacity, and
+carry a winged propeller emblem on his arm, but he is not ready
+for the difficult work of the front, and before he has time to
+enjoy more than a few days' rest he is sent to a school of
+<i>perfectionnement.</i> There the real, serious and thorough
+training begins.</p>
+
+<p>Schools where the pilots are trained on the modern
+machines--<i>&eacute;coles de perfectionnement</i> as they are
+called--are usually an annex to the centres where the soldiers
+are taught to fly, though there are one or two camps that are
+devoted exclusively to giving advanced instruction to aviators
+who are to fly the <i>avions de chasse,</i> or fighting machines.
+When the aviator enters one of these schools he is a breveted
+pilot, and he is allowed a little more freedom than he enjoyed
+during the time he was learning to fly.</p>
+
+<p>He now takes up the Morane monoplane. It is interesting to
+note that the German Fokker is practically a copy of this
+machine. After flying for a while on a low-powered Morane and
+having mastered the landing, the pilot is put on a new,
+higher-powered model of the same make. He has a good many hours
+of flying, but his trips are very short, for the whole idea is to
+familiarize one with the method of landing. The Bl&eacute;riot
+has a landing gear that is elastic in action, and it is easy to
+bring to earth. The Nieuport and other makes of small, fast
+machines for which the pilot is training have a solid wheel base,
+and good landings are much more difficult to make. The Morane
+pilot has the same practices climbing to small altitudes around
+eight thousand feet and picking his landing from that height with
+motor off. When he becomes proficient in flying the single- and
+double-plane types he leaves the school for another, where
+shooting with machine guns is taught.</p>
+
+<p>This course in shooting familiarizes one with various makes of
+machine guns used on airplanes, and one learns to shoot at
+targets from the air. After two or three weeks the pilot is sent
+to another school of combat.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+TRICK FLYING AND DOING STUNTS</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>These schools of combat are connected with the
+<i>&eacute;coles de perfectionnement</i> with which the pilot has
+finished. In the combat school he learns battle tactics, how to
+fight singly and in fleet formation, and how to extract himself
+from a too dangerous position. Trips are made in squadron
+formation and sham battles are effected with other escadrilles,
+as the smallest unit of an a&euml;rial fleet is called. For the
+first time the pilot is allowed to do fancy flying. He is taught
+how to loop the loop, slide on his wings or tail, go into
+corkscrews and, more important, to get out of them, and is
+encouraged to try new stunts.</p>
+
+<p>Finally the pilot is considered well enough trained to be sent
+to the reserve, where he waits his call to the front. At the
+reserve he flies to keep his hand in, practises on any new make
+of machine that happens to come out or that he may be put on in
+place of the Nieuport, and receives information regarding old and
+new makes of enemy airplanes.</p>
+
+<p>At last the pilot receives his call to the front, where he
+takes his place in some established or newly formed escadrille.
+He is given a new machine from the nearest airplane reserve
+centre, and he then begins his active service in the war, which,
+if he survives the course, is the best school of them all.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+  <a name="odds"></a></p>
+
+<h3>AGAINST ODDS<br>
+ </h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Since the publication of previous editions of "Flying for
+France" we have obtained the following letters which add greatly
+to the interest and complete the record of McConnell's connection
+with the Lafayette Escadrille.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p> <br>
+ </p>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER V<br>
+ </h3>
+</div>
+
+<div align="right">
+<p><i>March 19, 1917.     </i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>DEAR PAUL:</p>
+
+<p>We are passing through some very interesting times. The boches
+are in full retreat, offering very little resistance to the
+English and French advance. The boches have systematically
+destroyed all the towns and villages abandoned. Where they
+haven't burned a house, they have made holes through the roofs
+with pickaxes. All the cross-roads are blown up at the junctions,
+and when the trees bordering the roads haven't been cut down,
+barricading the roads, they have been cut half way through so
+that when the wind blows they keep falling on the passing
+convoys. The inhabitants left in these villages are wild with
+delight and are giving the troops an inspiring reception. In one
+town the boches raped all the women before leaving, then locked
+them down cellar, and carried off all the young girls with
+them.</p>
+
+<p>We have been flying low, and watching the cavalry overrunning
+the country. The boches are retreating to very strongly fortified
+positions, where the advance is going to come up against a stone
+wall.</p>
+
+<p>This morning Genet and McConnell flew well ahead of the
+advancing army, Mac leading. Genet saw two boche planes
+maneuvering to get above them, so he began to climb, too. Finally
+they got together; the boche was a biplane and had the edge on
+Genet. Almost the first shot got Genet in the cheek. Fortunately
+it was only a deep flesh wound, and another shot almost broke the
+stanchion, which supports the wings, in two. Genet stuck to the
+boche and opened fire on him. He knows he hit the machine and at
+one time he thought he saw the machine on fire, but nothing
+happened. At last the boche had Genet in a bad position, so he
+(Genet) piqued down about a thousand meters and got away from the
+boche. He looked around for Mac but couldn't find him, so he came
+home. Mac hasn't yet shown up and we are frightfully worried.
+Genet has a dim recollection that when he attacked the boche, the
+other boche piqued down in Mac's direction, and it looks as if
+the boche got Mac unawares. Late this afternoon we got a report
+that this morning a Nieuport was seen to land near Tergnier,
+which is unfortunately still in German hands. This must have been
+Mac's, in which case he is only wounded, or perhaps only his
+machine was badly damaged. There is a general feeling among us
+that Mac is all right. The French cavalry are within ten or
+fifteen kilometers of Tergnier now and perhaps they will take the
+place to-morrow, in which case we will certainly learn something.
+This afternoon Lieut. de Laage and Lufbery landed at Ham, where
+the advance infantry were, and made a lot of inquiries. It was
+near this place where the fight started. Nobody had seen any
+machine come down. You may be sure I will keep you informed of
+everything that turns up. Genet is going to write you in a day or
+so.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p>Sincerely,</p>
+
+<p>WALTER (signed Walter Lovell).</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>P. S. I apologize for the mistakes and the disconnectedness of
+this letter, but I wrote it in frightful haste in order to get it
+in the first post.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<div align="right">
+<p><i>March 20, 1917.     </i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>MY DEAR ROCKWELL:</p>
+
+<p>I do not know if any of the boys have written you about the
+disappearance of Jim, so perhaps you might know something about
+it when this letter reaches you.</p>
+
+<p>He left yesterday at 8:45 a.m. in his machine for the German
+lines, and has not returned yet. He and Genet were attacked by
+two Germans, the latter, who received a slight wound on the
+cheek, was so occupied he did not see what became of Jim, and
+returned without him.</p>
+
+<p>The combat took place between Ham and St. Quentin; the
+territory was still occupied by the enemy when the combat took
+place. The worst I hope has happened to our friend is that
+perhaps he was wounded and was forced to land in the enemy's
+lines and was made prisoner. Nothing definite is known. I shall
+write you immediately I get news.</p>
+
+<p>I am extremely worried. To lose my friend would be a severe
+blow. I can't and will not believe that anything serious has
+happened.</p>
+
+<p>Best wishes,</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p>Sincerely,</p>
+
+<p>E. A. MARSHALL.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<div align="right">
+<p><i>Escadrille N. 124, Secteur Postal 182,     <br>
+ March 21, 1917.     </i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>MY DEAR PAUL:</p>
+
+<p>Had I been feeling less distressed and miserable on Monday
+morning, or during yesterday, I would have written you then, but
+I told Lovell to tell you how I felt when he wrote on Monday and
+that I would try and write in a day or so. I am not feeling much
+better mentally but I'll try and write something, for I am the
+only one who was out with poor Mac on Monday morning and it just
+adds that much more to my distress.</p>
+
+<p>As you know, we have had a big advance here, due to the
+deliberate evacuation by the Germans, without much opposition, of
+the territory now in the hands of the French and English. The
+advance began last Thursday night and each day has brought the
+lines closer to Saint Quentin and the region north and south of
+it.</p>
+
+<p>On Monday morning Mac, Parsons, and myself went out at nine
+o'clock on the third patrol of the escadrille. We had orders to
+protect observation machines along the new lines around the
+region of Ham. Mac was leader. I came second and Parsons followed
+me. Before we had gone very far Parsons was forced to go back on
+account of motor trouble, which handicapped us greatly on account
+of what followed, but of course that cannot be remedied because
+Parsons was perfectly right in returning when his motor was not
+running well. We all do that one time or another.</p>
+
+<p>Mac and I kept on and up to ten o'clock were circling around
+the region of Ham, watching out for the heavier machines doing
+reconnoitring work below us. We went higher than a thousand
+meters during that time. About ten, for some reason or other of
+his own, Mac suddenly headed into the German lines toward Saint
+Quentin and I naturally followed close to his rear and above him.
+Perhaps he wanted to make observations around Saint Quentin. At
+any rate, we had gotten north of Ham and quite inside the hostile
+lines, when I saw two boche machines crossing towards us from the
+region of Saint Quentin at an altitude quite higher than ours. We
+were then about 1,600 meters. I supposed Mac saw them the same as
+I did. One boche was much farther ahead than the other, and was
+headed as if he would dive at any moment on Mac. I glanced ahead
+at Mac and saw what direction he was taking, and then pulled back
+to climb up as quickly as possible to gain an advantageous height
+over the nearest boche. It was cloudy and misty and I had to keep
+my eyes on him all the time, so naturally I couldn't watch Mac.
+The second boche was still much farther off than his mate. By
+this time I had gotten to 2,200, the boche was almost up to me
+and taking a diagonal course right in front. He started to circle
+and his gunner--it was a biplane, probably an Albatross, although
+the mist was too thick and dark for me to see much but the bare
+outline of his dirty, dark green body, with white and black
+crosses--opened fire before I did and his first volley did some
+damage. One bullet cut the left central support of my upper wing
+in half, an explosive bullet cut in half the left guiding rod of
+the left aileron, and I was momentarily stunned by part of it
+which dug a nasty gouge into my left cheek. I had already opened
+fire and was driving straight for the boche with teeth set and my
+hand gripping the triggers making a veritable stream of fire
+spitting out of my gun at him, as I had incendiary bullets, it
+being my job lately to chase after observation balloons, and on
+Saturday morning I had also been up after the reported Zeppelins.
+I had to keep turning toward the boche every second, as he was
+circling around towards me and I was on the inside of the circle,
+so his gunner had all the advantage over me. I thought I had him
+on fire for one instant as I saw--or supposed I did--flames on
+his fuselage. Everything passed in a few seconds and we swung
+past each other in opposite directions at scarcely twenty-five
+meters from each other--the boche beating off towards the north
+and I immediately dived down in the opposite direction wondering
+every second whether the broken wing support would hold together
+or not and feeling weak and stunned from the hole in my face. A
+battery opened a heavy fire on me as I went down, the shells
+breaking just behind me. I straightened out over Ham at a
+thousand meters, and began to circle around to look for Mac or
+the other boche, but saw absolutely nothing the entire fifteen
+minutes I stayed there. I was fearful every minute that my whole
+top wing would come off, and I thought that possibly Mac had
+gotten around toward the west over our lines, missed me, and was
+already on his way back to camp. So I finally turned back for our
+camp, having to fly very low and against a strong northern wind,
+on account of low clouds just forming. I got back at a quarter to
+eleven and my first question to my mechanic was: "Has McConnell
+returned?"</p>
+
+<p>He hadn't, Paul, and no news of any sort have we had of him
+yet, although we hoped and prayed every hour yesterday for some
+word to come in. The one hope that we have is that on account of
+this continued advance some news will be brought in of Mac
+through civilians who might have witnessed his flight over the
+lines north of Ham, while they were still in the hands of the
+enemy, for many of the civilians in the villages around there are
+being left by the Germans as they retire. We can likewise hope
+that Mac was merely forced to land inside the enemy lines on
+account of a badly damaged machine, or a bad wound, and is well
+but a prisoner. I wish to God, Paul, that I had been able to see
+Mac during his combat, or had been able to get down to him sooner
+and help him. The mists were thick, and consequently seeing far
+was difficult. I would have gone out that afternoon to look for
+him but my machine was so damaged it took until yesterday
+afternoon to be repaired. Lieut. de Laage and Lufbery did go out
+with their Spads and looked all around the region north of Ham
+towards Saint Quentin but saw nothing at all of a Nieuport on the
+ground, or anything else to give news of what had occurred.</p>
+
+<p>The French are still not far enough towards Saint Quentin to
+be on the territory where the chances are Mac landed, so we'll
+still have to wait for to-day's developments for any possibility
+of news. I got lots of hope, Paul, that Mac is at least alive
+although undoubtedly a prisoner. I know how badly the news has
+affected you. We're all feeling mighty blue over it and as for
+myself--I'm feeling utterly miserable over the whole affair. Just
+as soon as any definite news comes in I'll surely let you know at
+once. Meanwhile, keep cheered and hopeful. There's no use in
+losing hope yet. If a prisoner Mac may even be able to escape and
+return to our lines, on account of the very unsettled state of
+the retreating Germans. Others have done so under much less
+favorable conditions.</p>
+
+<p>I hope you are having a very enjoyable trip through the South.
+Walter showed me the postal you wrote him, which he received
+yesterday. Please give my very warm regards to your wife. Write
+as soon as you can, too.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p>Very faithfully yours,</p>
+
+<p>EDMOND C. C. GENET.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<div align="right">
+<p><i>March 22, 1917.     </i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>MY DEAR ROCKWELL:</p>
+
+<p>Still no news about Jim. Last night the captain sent out a
+request to the military authorities to have our troops advancing
+in the direction of Saint Quentin report immediately any
+particulars about avion 2055. Even now I cannot reconcile myself
+concerning Jim's fate. I hope he has been made prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>Just a few words about myself. I am awaiting the results of my
+friends' actions in the States on my behalf. I am placed in a
+peculiar position in the escadrille. I have nothing to do here.
+Shall I take care of Jim's belongings?</p>
+
+<p>Best wishes,</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p>Sincerely,</p>
+
+<p>E. A. MARSHALL.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<div align="right">
+<p><i>Escadrille N. 124, Secteur Postal 182,     <br>
+ March 23, 1917.     </i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>DEAR PAUL:</p>
+
+<p>In my letter I promised to send you word as soon as any
+definite news came in concerning poor Mac. To-day word came in
+from a group of French cavalry that they witnessed our fight on
+Monday morning and that they saw Mac brought down inside the
+German lines towards Saint Quentin after being attacked by two
+boche machines and at the same time they saw me fighting a third
+one higher than Mac, and that just as I piqued down Mac fell so
+there were three boche machines instead of two, as I supposed,
+having missed seeing the third one on account of the heavy clouds
+and mist around us.</p>
+
+<p>There is still the hope that Mac wasn't killed but only
+wounded and a prisoner. If he is we'll learn of it later. The
+cavalrymen didn't say whether he came down normally or fell.
+Possibly he was too far off really to tell definitely about that.
+Certainly he had been already brought down before I could get
+down to help him after the boche I attacked beat it off. Had I
+known there were three boche machines I certainly would not have
+played around that boche at such a distance from Mac.</p>
+
+<p>When will Mrs. Weeks return to Paris from the States? Will you
+write and tell her about Mac? She'll be mighty well grieved to
+hear of it, I know, and you'll be the best one to break it to
+her.</p>
+
+<p>Write to me soon. Best regards to Mrs. Rockwell.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p>E. GENET.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<div align="right">
+<p><i>March 24th, a. m.     <br>
+ C. Aeronatique, Noyon &amp; D. C. 13.     </i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>MY DEAR ROCKWELL:</p>
+
+<p>The targe element informs us that it has found, in the
+environs of the Bois l'Abbe, a Nieuport No. 2055. The aviator, a
+sergeant, has been dead since three days, in the opinion of the
+doctor. His pockets appear to have been searched, for no papers
+were found on him. The Bois l'Abbe is two kilometers south of
+Jussy. The above message received by us at ten o'clock last
+night. Jussy is on the main road between Saint Quentin and
+Chauny. I expect to go back to the infantry soon.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p>Sincerely, E. A. MARSHALL.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<div align="right">
+<p><i>Escadrille N. 124, Secteur Postal 182,     <br>
+ March 25, 1917.     </i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>DEAR PAUL:</p>
+
+<p>The evening before last definite news was brought to us that a
+badly smashed Nieuport had been found by French troops, beside
+which was the body of a sergeant-pilot which had been there at
+least three days and had been stripped of all identification
+papers, flying clothes and even the boots. They got the number of
+the machine, which proved without further question that it was
+poor Mac. They gave the location as being at the little village
+of Petit Detroit, which is just south of Flavy-le-Martel, the
+latter place being about ten kilometers east of Ham on the
+railroad running from Ham to La Fere.</p>
+
+<p>After having made a flight over the lines yesterday morning, I
+went down around Petit Detroit to locate the machine. There was
+no decent place there on which to land so I circled around over
+it for a few minutes to see in which condition it (the Nieuport)
+was. The machine was scarcely distinguishable so badly had it
+smashed into the ground, and there is scarcely any doubt, Paul,
+that Mac was killed while having his fight in the air, as no
+pilot would have attempted to land a machine in the tiny rotten
+field--no more than a little orchard beside the
+road--voluntarily. It seems almost certain that he struck the
+ground with full motor on. Captain Th&eacute;nault landed some
+distance from there that he might go over there in a car and see
+just what could be done about poor Mac's body. When he returned
+last night he told us the following:</p>
+
+<p>Mac, he said, was as badly mangled as the machine and had been
+relieved of his flying suit by the damned boches, also of his
+shoes and all papers. The machine had struck the ground so hard
+that it was half buried, the motor being totally in the earth and
+the rest, including even the machine gun, completely smashed. It
+was just beside the main road, in a small field containing apple
+trees cut down by the retreating boches, and just at the southern
+edge of the village.</p>
+
+<p>Mac has been buried right there beside the road, and we will
+see that the grave is decently marked with a cross, etc. The
+captain brought back a square piece of canvas cut from one of the
+wings, and we are going to get a good picture we have of Mac
+enlarged and placed on this with a frame. I suppose that Thaw or
+Johnson will attend to the belongings of Mac which he had written
+are to be sent to you to care for. In the letter which he had
+left for just such an occasion as this he concludes with the
+following words: "Good luck to the rest of you. God damn Germany
+and vive la France!"</p>
+
+<p>All honour to him, Paul. The world will look up to him, as
+well as France, for whom he died so gloriously, just as it is
+looking up to your fine brother and the rest of us who have given
+their lives so freely and gladly for this big cause.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p>Warmest regards, etc.,</p>
+
+<p>Faithfully,</p>
+
+<p>EDMOND C. C. GENET.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>P. S. The captain has already put in a proposal for a citation
+for Mac, and also one for me. Mac surely deserved it, and lots
+more too.</p>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<div align="right">
+<p><i>Escadrille N. 124, S. P. 182,     <br>
+ March 27, 1917.     </i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>DEAR PAUL:</p>
+
+<p>I got your postcard to-day and would have written you sooner
+about poor Jim but haven't been up to it, which I know you
+understand.</p>
+
+<p>It hit me pretty hard, Paul, for as you know we were in school
+and college together, and for the last four or five years have
+been very intimate, living in N.C. and New York together.</p>
+
+<p>It's hell, Paul, that all the good boys are being picked off.
+The damned Huns have raised hell with the old crowd, but I think
+we have given them more than we have received. The boys who have
+gone made the name for the escadrille and now it's up to us who
+are left (especially the old Verdun crowd) to keep her going and
+make the boches suffer.</p>
+
+<p>Like old Kiffin, Mac died gloriously and in full action. It
+was in a fight with three Germans in their lines. Genet took one
+Hun (and was wounded). The last he saw was a Hun on Mac's back.
+Later we learned from the cavalry that there were two on Mac and
+after a desperate fight Mac crashed to the ground. This was the
+19th of March. Three days later we took the territory Mac fell in
+and they were unable to distinguish who he was. The swine Huns
+had taken every paper or piece of identification from him and
+also robbed him--even took his shoes. The captain went over and
+was able to identify him by the number of his machine and
+uniform. He had lain out there three days and was smashed so
+terribly that you couldn't recognize his face. He was buried
+where he fell in a coffin made from the door of a pillaged house.
+His last resting place (and where he fell) is "Petit Detroit,"
+which is a village southwest of Saint Quentin and north of
+Chauney. He is buried just at the southeast end of the village
+and in a hell of a small town.</p>
+
+<p>Jim left a letter of which I am copying the important
+parts:</p>
+
+<p>"In case of my death or made prisoner--which is worse--please
+send my canteen and what money I have on me, or coming to me [he
+had none on him as the Huns lifted that] to Mr. Paul A. Rockwell,
+80 rue, etc. Shoes, tools, wearing apparel, etc., you can give
+away. The rest of my things, such as diary, photos, souvenirs,
+croix de guerre, best uniform [he had best uniform on and I think
+the croix de guerre--however, you may find the latter in his
+things, his other uniform can't be found], please put in canteen
+and ship along.</p>
+
+<p>"Kindly cable my sister, Mrs. Followsbee, 65 Bellevue Place,
+Chicago. It would be kind to follow same by a letter telling
+about my death [which I am doing].</p>
+
+<p>"I have a box trunk in Paris containing belongings I would
+like to send home. Paul R. knows about it and can attend to the
+shipping. I would appreciate it if the committee of the American
+Escad. would pay to Mr. Paul Rockwell the money needed to cover
+express.</p>
+
+<p>"My burial is of no import. Make it as easy as possible for
+yourselves. I have no religion and do not care for any service.
+If the omission would embarrass you I presume I could stand the
+performance. [Note Jim's keen sense of humour even to death
+instructions.]</p>
+
+<p>"Good luck to the rest of you. God damn Germany and vive la
+France.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p>"Signed,</p>
+
+<p>"J. R. McCONNELL."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Jim had on the day of his death been proposed for the Croix de
+Guerre with palm. When it comes I shall send it to you.</p>
+
+<p>Well, Paul, I have told you everything I can think of, but if
+there are any omissions or questions don't hesitate to ask.</p>
+
+<p>I think we are now beginning to see the beginning of the end.
+The devastation, destruction and misery the Huns have left is a
+disgraceful crime to civilization and is pitiful. It drives me so
+furious I can't talk about it.</p>
+
+<p>Best regards to you, old boy, and luck. All join in the above.
+I shall wind up the same as Jim.</p>
+
+<div align="center">
+<p>As always,</p>
+
+<p>CHOUT (Charles Chouteau Johnson).</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>P. S. Steve Biglow is taking canteen to your place in Paris
+to-morrow, so you will find it there upon your return.</p>
+
+<div align="right">
+<p>C. C. J.     </p>
+</div>
+
+<p> <br>
+ </p>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<pre>
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