The First Victory
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Seventy years ago this month, Lts. Alan Winslow and Douglas Campbell claimed the first official US victories in aerial combat. The First Victory MERICA'S fledgling air arm was The 94th Aero Squadron had de- Aready for a fight. The US had ployed to Gengoult Aerodrome near declared war on the Central Powers Toul, France, only days before. in 1917, but it would be another year Many of its pilots were American- before American aviators would go trained, but the squadron was also into battle on behalf of their own heavily leavened with French- country. The volunteers of the trained combat veterans including BY THEODORE HAMADY Lafayette Escadrille had set the the renowned Maj. Raoul Lufbery, 1988 stage for participation by American who had already achieved fifteen n pilots, and by early 1918, the Yanks victories while flying with the tto were operating over France offi- Lafayette Escadrille. k Woo cially. On April 7, the 94th had been des- Lt. Douglas Campbell and Lt. ignated an independent unit under C Fran Alan Winslow were on alert the the VIII French Army, and on April morning of Sunday, April 14. As 13, the "Hat-in-the-Ring" Squad- they began a hand of Russian bank ron, along with other US pursuit (a card game) in the ready tent near groups, had been made responsible the flight line, three aircraft lifted for the sector extending from St.- off from Gengoult Aerodrome on Mihiel in the west to the village of the first war patrol of the 94th Aero Pont a Mousson in the east. Squadron. Prior to its arrival at Gengoult, The early morning weather was the 94th had received an allotment poor. Visibility under the misty of twenty-two Nieuport 28 C.1 pur- overcast, however, was reasonably suit planes. The airplane was nim- good. Capt. David Peterson, the pa- ble, and it would prove to be more trol leader, considered the weather maneuverable than the German air- too bad for flying, and he quickly craft it would encounter in this sec- returned to the field. tor. With its quick-starting rotary Circling the aerodrome and think- engine and high climb rate, the ing Captain Peterson's airplane had Nieuport 28 could get into the air developed engine trouble, Lt. Eddie rapidly. More important, it was Rickenbacker and his wingman, Lt. what was available to the Aviation Reed Chambers, decided to con- Section of the US Army Signal tinue the mission. They soon be- Corps. came lost in the overcast and were The Nieuport 28 was burdened, fired on by German antiaircraft though, with several design defi- guns as they crossed over the en- ciencies, including a propensity for emy lines near Seicheprey. Both the upper wing to shed its fabric managed to return safely. covering when the airplane was 68 AIR FORCE Magazine April 1988 "He was diving at about pulled out of a high-speed dive and antiaircraft sector control centers at forty-five degrees, and frequent engine fires. Machine guns Commercy, Lironville, and Delourd was behind him and above him but behind were also in short supply. On that running west to east- along the his tail. a streak of first day of combat, the squadron's battlefront. flame came shooting out airplanes were fitted with only one At 8:45 a.m., Lieutenant Winslow of his fuselage near the Vickers machine gun that had been was called to the telephone and was motor. I. watched him • . crash in a plowed modified to .30-caliber. told by the squadron's information field." So said Lt. Doug- The 94th Aero Squadron's air- officer that the Lironville control las Campbell about his craft still retained standard French center had reported sighting two first and America's S9C- camouflage colors and insignia, but German aircraft fifteen miles away ond aerial victory. In this each of the Nieuport 28s was promi- flying in the direction of Gengoult painting, Campbell, in his Nieuport 28, is fol- nently emblazoned with the "Hat- Aerodrome. lowing his victim (a Pfalz in-the-Ring" emblem on the fuse- These aircraft had been dis- Dill) down. Meanwhile, lage. The device, symbolizing patched from Jasta 64, based at Lt. Alan Winslow, who America's throwing its hat into the Mars la Tour, to attack the aircraft just saw his foe crash, pulls up in a victory pass ring of World War I, had been sug- flown by Lieutenants Rickenbacker (at Campbell's left). See gested several weeks before by the and Chambers when they had the "ribbon chart" on squadron's medical officer. crossed German lines. The German pages 70 and 71, show- pilots themselves had become lost ing in detail the progress The Battle Begins in the weather. Lieutenants Wins- of the battle. The operations center at Gen- low and Campbell were scrambled goult Aerodrome was linked by tele- to meet the intruders. phone to the observation post at In his diary, Lieutenant Winslow nearby Mount St.-Michel. That for- described what happened next: ward station was, in turn, linked to " 'Doug' started ahead of me, as I AIR FORCE Magazine / April 1988 69 AIR FORCE Magazine Chart, by John Porter 1988 by Air Force Associafion III Campbell Pfalz D.III Winslow • Albatros D.Va. 70 AIR FORCE Magazine / April 1988 America's first World War I air battle took Campbell gets his first shots at the Ger- I. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Winslow's por- place over the 94th Aero Squadron's aero- man from below and to the left of the tion of the battle begins immediately after drome near Gengoult, France, on April 14, Pfalz. he takes off. He fires at an Albatros D.Va. 1918. Lt. Douglas Campbell and Lt. Alan 4. Campbell's Nieuport stalls and drops to The German pilot reverses and comes Winslow, flying in Nieuport 28 C.1s, downed within 100 feet of the ground near the ob- out firing at Winslow. two German planes in an engagement that servation post atop Mount St.-Michel. II. Winslow climbs, enters a right-hand lasted only ten minutes. Here's how the With power restored, Campbell climbs spiral, and comes down behind the Ger- action progressed: at a steep angle and begins firing at the man. Winslow opens fire and disables 1. Lieutenant Campbell takes off first and Pfalz. The German plane catches fire. the engine of the Albatros. The German waits for Lieutenant Winslow to take off 5. After Campbell fires about fifty rounds fighter goes into an uncontrolled dive. and assume lead of the formation. at the German, the Pfalz dives, and III. The Albatros pilot tries to regain control 2. Campbell banks right (in order to see Campbell — now behind his foe — near the ground, but cannot. He crashes Winslow, who has taken off and has al- follows him down. in a field across the road from the 94th's ready begun his engagement), when he 6. The Pfalz , now burning furiously, aerodrome. Winslow makes a victory is fired on by the pilot of a Pfalz crashes 100 yards behind the 94th's pass and then climbs to see if Lieutenant 3. Both pilots jockey for position, and hangars. Campbell needs any help. AIR FORCE Magazine / April 1988 71 was to meet him above a certain sharp turn by the wreck, to make titude when Winslow got into the point at 500 meters, and then take sure he was out of commission, then air. He was to lead, and when he the lead. I was at about 200 made a victorious sweep down over reached 200 meters, I was getting meters, when straight above and him, and climbed up again to see if into position behind him. It was ahead of me in the mist of the early 'Doug' needed any help with the quite misty. morning, and not more than a hun- other Hun—for I had caught a "All at once he turned, and I saw dred yards away, I saw a plane com- glimpse of their combat out of the him chase a plane that wasn't more ing toward me with huge black corner of my eye." than 300 meters high. It had black crosses on its wings and tail. I was Lieutenant Winslow's kill was an crosses on it!! heard him shoot, and so furious to see a Hun directly over Albatros D.Va, a fairly new aircraft they both went out of sight under my our aviation field, that I swore out type to the war. The aircraft, flown wings. I banked up ninety degrees loud and violently opened fire. by Unteroffizier Simon, had the red and turned, to get a view below so as "At the same time, to avoid my and black stripes of Jasta 64 on the to go help Winslow if necessary, and bullets, he slipped into a left-hand horizontal tail surfaces. it was lucky! did, for just as I turned I heard the pop-pop-pop of a ma- chine gun behind me, and there was another Boche shooting at me. "For some reason I thought his tail was turned toward me as he shot, and the thought, `Biplace [two-seater], keep under him,' flashed into my brain. He turned out afterward to be an Albatros [actual- ly a Pfalz D.III] monoplace, but I had guessed wrong, and instead of getting above him, which would have been easier, I kept below him, maneuvering so as to try to get un- der his tail without letting him point toward me, [i.e., a head-on pass] or get a shot at me from a broadside [i.e., from the rear-seat gunner.]" Near Disaster At this point, Lieutenant Camp- bell was to the left of the German aircraft while the enemy plane was Lt.