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diff --git a/6977-h/6977-h.htm b/6977-h/6977-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..956642e --- /dev/null +++ b/6977-h/6977-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3405 @@ +<!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> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Flying for France, by James R. McConnell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Flying for France + +Author: James R. McConnell + +Posting Date: September 11, 2012 [EBook #6977] +Release Date: November, 2004 +First Posted: February 19, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS 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="images/photo1.png"><img alt="photo1t.png" src="images/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 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.</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-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 <i>embusqué</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 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.</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 réglage,</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="images/photo2.png"> +<img alt="photo2t.png" src="images/photo2t.png"></a> + + +<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>Médaille 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 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.</p> + +<p>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.</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 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.</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 +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 <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 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</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 +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.</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 américain,</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>Médaille 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 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.</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>Médaille Militaire</i> and the <i>Croix de +Guerre,</i> and Thaw, being a lieutenant, the <i>Légion +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="images/photo3.png"> +<img alt="photo3t.png" src="images/photo3t.png"></a> + + +<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 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.</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 aërial 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>Médaille 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 AËRIAL 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 aërial 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 aërial 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-&-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 +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.</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 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.</p> + +<p>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.</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="images/photo4.png"><img alt="photo4t.png" src="images/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 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.</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 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.</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 +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.</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 détour 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="images/photo5.png"><img alt="photo5t.png" src="images/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 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.</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 +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.</p> + +<div align="center"> +<a name="photo6"></a> +<a href="images/photo6.png"><img alt="photo6t.png" src="images/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 +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.</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 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.</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>Côte</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 +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."</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>élève 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 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.</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>écoles 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 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.</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>écoles 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 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.</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 & 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 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:</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> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Flying for France, by James R. 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