France. Armée. Escadrille Lafayette. - First to fly: the story of the Lafayette Escadrille, the American heroes who flew for France in World War I

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The Story of the Lafayette Escadrille,
the American Heroes
Who Flew for France in World War I

Atlantic Monthly Press

New York

Copyright 2015 by Charles Bracelen Flood

Jacket design by Marc Cohen/mjcdesign

Jacket photograph: Nieuport 28s of the 95th, 1918,
courtesy of the U.S. federal government

Author photograph by Jean-Claude Lemaire

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Published simultaneously in Canada

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 978-0-8021-2365-7

eISBN 978-0-8021-9138-0

Atlantic Monthly Press

an imprint of Grove Atlantic

154 West 14th Street

New York, NY 10011

Distributed by Publishers Group West

groveatlantic.com

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth,

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward Ive climbed and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split cloudsand done a hundred thing s

You have not dreamed ofwheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence.

Hovring there

Ive chased the shouting wind along and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air...

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue

Ive topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or even eagle flew

And, while with silent, lifting mind Ive trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

High Flight by pilot John Gillespie Magee Jr.,
killed at age nineteen

We Americans who had enjoyed the hospitality of France, and had learned to love the country and the people, simply had to fight. Our consciences demanded it.

An American volunteer pilot, about his

determination to fight for France

Dramatis Personae

JULES JAMES JIMMY BACH , aerodynamics expert from New Orleans who became one of the first Americans to join the French Foreign Legion

CLYDE BALSLEY , American fighter pilot from Texas

OSWALD BOELCKE , Baron Manfred von Richthofens mentor and tutor

ARISTIDE BRIAND , prime minister of France

EUGENE BULLARD , first black fighter pilot

VICTOR CHAPMAN , beloved fighter pilot from New York

CHER AMI , heroic messenger pigeon that saved the remnants of the Lost Battalion

ELLIOT COWDIN , polo player from Long Island who lobbied the French government for the creation of an American squadron

YVONNE DACREE , young Frenchwoman and Bert Halls love interest

EDMOND GENET , youngest Escadrille pilot; deserter from the United States Navy; brave, gifted, and in effect an American spy within the French Air Service

HERMANN GOERING , German ace, future number two Nazi and reichsmarschall in command of the Luftwaffe in World War Two

DR. EDMUND GROS , originally from San Francisco, prominent expatriate who helped raise funds to create the Lafayette Escadrille

JAMES NORMAN HALL , f uture author of Mutiny on the Bounty

WESTON BERT HALL , the Escadrilles controversial man of mystery

MATA HARI , Dutch exotic dancer and German spy; executed by the French

MYRON T. HERRICK , American ambassador to France

RAOUL LUFBERY , Escadrilles leading ace

KENNETH MARR , gifted pilot and adventurer from California

CHARLES NUNGESSER , most colorful of the great French aces, twice attached to fly with the Escadrille

EDWIN NED PARSONS , future ace and author of Escadrille memoirs, from Holyoke, Massachusetts

PAUL PAVELKA , adventurer and repeated volunteer who fought around the world

GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING , commander of the American Expeditionary Force

NORMAN PRINCE , rich, bilingual, well-connected young pilot from Massachusetts, instrumental in creating the Escadrille

BARON MANFRED VON RICHTHOFEN , The Red Baron, commander of the Flying Circus and the wars leading ace, with eighty Allied planes shot down

EDDIE RICKENBACKER , leading ace of the United States Army pilots after America came into the war

KIFFIN AND PAUL ROCKWELL , brothers from North Carolina who enlisted in the French Foreign Legion before the Escadrille

BILL THAW , the Escadrilles de facto American leader

GEORGES THENAULT , French commander of the Lafayette Escadrille

ERNST UDET , famous German ace

ALICE WEEKS , rich American who devoted herself to taking care of American military men in Paris, including Escadrille pilots

HAROLD WILLIS , ex-Harvard football player and valuable Escadrille pilot from Boston

WHISKEY AND SODA , Escadrilles lion cub mascots

Chronology

The First World War,
Interspersed with Important
Lafayette EscadrilleRelated Dates

1914

August 2. Germany invades France.

August 4. United Kingdom declares war on Germany.

**August 21. Paul and Kiffin Rockwell from North Carolina join the French Foreign Legion in Paris. Kiffin goes on to be an Escadrille pilot.

September 5. First Battle of the Marne begins.

October 19. Battle of Ypres begins.

1915

February 19. Dardanelles Campaign begins.

April 22. Second Battle of Ypres begins.

April 25. The Battle of Gallipoli begins.

**September 23. Pilot Jimmy Bach flies spy mission, is captured, and becomes the Germans first American prisoner of war.

**December 23. Pilots William Thaw, Norman Prince, and Eliot Cowdin arrive in Manhattan for a Christmas leave that proves to be a propaganda victory for the French cause.

1916

February 21. Battle of Verdun begins.

**April 20. First members of the Escadrille Americaine (American Squadron) arrive at the airfield at Luxueil-les-Bains. They are commanded by Captain Georges Thenault of the French Army.

**May 18. Kiffin Rockwell becomes first volunteer American pilot to shoot down a German plane.