Heroes of Aviation (1918)

IRLF AURENCE LATOURETTE DEIGGS HEROES OF AVIATION Copyright, International Film Service, Inc MAJOR RAOUL LUFBERY "Greatest of American flyers, who was kilbd May 19, 191S, with an official score of 18. HEROES OF AVIATION BY LAURENCE LA TOURETTE DRIGGS ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1919 Copyright, 1918, BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. All rights reserved NorfcoooU Set up and electrotyped by J. S Gushing Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A ) TO OUR HEROES OF AVIATION THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED 441077 PREFACE THE author is deeply indebted to M. Jacques Mor- tane and La Guerre Aerienne of Paris for portions of the material used herein relating to the French Air Fighters. M. Mortane, himself an airman and the devoted friend of all fliers, has done more for the cause of Aviation in France than any other living man. His researches in war-aviation will for the years to come form a most valuable history of the birth and growth of the Fourth Arm in Warfare. I desire to here express my further obligations to the London periodicals, Flight, Flying, Aeroplane and Aeronautics, for many of the incidents relating to the British pilots. The inborn reluctance of the British youth to speak of his own heroic deeds prevents the world from esti- mating the marvelous part he has played in sweeping Germany from the skies. The Hun pilots flood the world with the information of their victories. It was not until I visited England as the guest of the British Government in the fall of 1918 that I discovered that twenty British airmen have exceeded by over one hundred the number of victories claimed by the best twenty Aces of the Huns. And the great majority of these British airmen are still silently carrying on, while but five of the twenty Huns survive I LAUKENCE LA TOURETTE DRIGGS. September 24, 1918. vii CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE vii INTRODUCTION. THE FOURTH ARM IN WARFARE . xiii CHAPTEB I THE ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 1 II EARLY FRENCH HEROES 31 III ROLAND GARROS, THE FIRST AIR FIGHTER . 49 IV THE CIGOGNES 67 V GEORGES GUYNEMER THE MIRACULOUS ... 82 VI RAOUL LUFBERY 101 VII THE BRITISH ACES 122 VIII RENEFONCK 166 IX OTHER FRENCH ACES 185 X BALLOON OBSERVERS 223 XI THE BOMBERS 233 XII EXTRAORDINARY EXPLOITS IN AIR .... 244 XIII THE BELGIAN AND ITALIAN ACES .... 256 XIV THE AMERICAN ACES 272 APPENDIX. ACES OF ALL NATIONS . 290 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Major Raoul Lufbery Frontispiece First Group of American Aviators in France Facing page 2 Roland Garros 50 Captain Georges Guynemer, with his Father ... 84 Captain Albert Ball . ... .126 Colonel William A. Bishop 134 Lieutenant Rene Fonck 170 Lieutenant Charles Nungesser 196 Lieutenant Rene Dorme 218 Captain Albert Heurteaux 218 Captain de Beauchamp ....... 252 Lieutenant Thieffry 258 Major Baracca 262 Lieutenant Douglas Campbell 272 Lieutenant Frank L. Baylies 276 Lieutenant David E. Putnam 280 Captain James Norman Hall 284 Adjutant Edwin C. Parsons 284 INTRODUCTION THE FOURTH ARM IN WARFARE THOSE venerable old campaigners, infantry, cavalry, and artillery, have held for centuries the highest pinnacles of achievement in warfare. The three arms have stood united, exclusive, unchallenged, and un- afraid. To-day enters a fourth arm whose coming prostrates these old soldiers and whose future dazzles the imagination of the world. So valuable are the "eyes of the army" that suprem- acy of the air is now a first requisite to successful offense or defense. This vital discovery was made by the Allies in the first week of the war, when their aeroplane scouts brought in the information that not thousands but millions of German troops were pouring through Luxemburg into France. Had this intelligence been wanting, it is likely that the decisive battle of this war would have been fought then, and the over- whelming German forces would have occupied France and advanced upon England within the month. From that hour began the tremendous struggle for mastery of the air. Germany had the advantage. Before the war began she had produced an aeroplane engine that had won world records in duration and altitude flights. With customary foresightedness, she xiv INTRODUCTION had on hand more machines and had trained more pilots than other nations. She had established aerial routes across the land, had experimented with night landing-grounds, with aeroplane guns, bombs, and bomb carriers. t The writer witnessed the daily sortie over Paris of the celebrated German pilot Lieutenant Immelman early in the month of September, 1914. German troops were then but twenty-five miles from Paris. French aeroplanes were all in service at the front, and the city was left undefended from air attack. Regularly at five o'clock in the afternoon Lieutenant Immelman appeared circling over Paris. It was a daily program that afforded excitement, if not amuse- ment, to the citizens below. So inadequate were the defenses of Paris at that time that the fearless scout scorned to fly above rifle range. The whir of his propeller could be plainly heard, and the aeroplane could be discerned several miles away. Terror-stricken people ran for the nearest doorways and cellars, and reappeared only after the noise of exploded bombs announced that he had passed. Then, with furious gestures, they would gaze up into the sky from the center of the streets after their disappearing enemy. In certain open parks, on certain bridges, and at other vantage points great crowds gathered every afternoon to witness the approach of the daring raider. Interest, and not alarm, actuated . such persons. Oblivious of the fact that what goes up must come down, that thousands of guns were shooting up at the flying enemy, and that a score of bombs INTRODUCTION xv would doubtless be dropped into Paris, these crowds stood with "nose in full ah-", rapt in wonder, and, I believe, with much sneaking respect for the pluck and audacity of the airman. One could hear the Leavy booming of the big guns from the outlying fortifications. A rattle of pro- miscuous rule firing grew in intensity as the aeroplane approached over the center of the city. Several regiments stationed along the river quays aimed upon the wards and fired in volleys ; the machine guns Eiffel Tower, a short distance up the Seine, could be heard pop pop popping fiercely. Taxicab driv- ers and their fares produced revolvers and blazed away. Literally millions of bullets were speeding up after this one solitary human being in the sky. The awful odds he was taking in this storm of lead produced some feelings of pity, if not admiration for his sports- manship. Among his daily shower of small bombs there in- variably appeared a laconic note, dropped within a bag of sand, addressed to the people of Paris, which was regularly published in the papers the following morning, couched in this style : People of Paris ! Surrender ! The Germans are at your gates ! To-morrow you will be ours ! LIEUTENANT IMMELMAN, Air Scout. While but slight damage resulted from the light bombs he tossed over the side, it has always remained a mystery to me why many injuries did not result xvi INTRODUCTION from the bullets falling upon the streets of Paris. Not one casualty was ever reported from this cause. Paris to-day is efficiently protected from raids by either aeroplanes or Zeppelins. Besides the anti- aircraft land defenses, including field guns, observation towers, listening towers, and searchlights encircling the city, the aeroplane patrol above Paris is continued day and night, not by one but by three aeroplanes at three different altitudes, approximately at one thousand feet, six thousand feet, and ten thousand feet elevation. Air raids, or "stunts", as they are called in Europe, and the home defense against such attacks are of secondary importance from the military point of view. To-day at the front the smallest movements of the the air scouts lines of enemy are watched by ; com- munication far in the rear are photographed, hidden artillery discovered, mobilization of cavalry bombed and stampeded, and threatened attacks of infantry foreseen. Each morning before daylight the air squadrons are assembled and given their instructions. Most vital of all is the return of the trained observers to the commanding officer with their reports. Consequently all preparations are made to this end. First there is despatched a fast-climbing patrol. He attains a height of eighteen or twenty thousand feet before the others leave the ground. He surveys the front and watches for anti-aircraft movements. Soon he observes his command rising up with spiral climbs in squadron formation. There are twelve or INTRODUCTION xvii fourteen tractors, each armed with a machine gun fastened to the left-hand side of the fuselage, weighing less than eighteen pounds and capable of firing five hundred shots per minute. A synchronizing device is attached to the trigger of the gun and connected with the propeller shaft, which permits firing only when the blades of the propeller are out of the way of the stream of bullets. As these propellers are making at least nine hundred revolutions per minute, the four blades are passing the muzzle of the gun at the rate of thirty-six hundred per minute ! Three of the aeroplanes carry pilot and observer. The others are "single-seaters", and, being lighter, are faster and quicker to maneuver. Their duty is to advance and receive the attack of enemy aeroplanes, to cover the retreat of their own observers, and, if opportunity arises, to prevent the crossing of their front by enemy scouts. A minute study of the enemy front must be made. The squadron has to inspect an area of fifty miles front and twenty-five miles deep.

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