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The Lafayette
Escadrille—Americans Prepare to Enter
the Air War
The Insignia of The
Lafayette Escadrille
American fliers had wanted to see action in the war
from the very first and, as fliers, they were
not likely to be content
with only reading about the exploits of their
European colleagues. Ever
since American mercenary fliers
flew for the rebels in Mexico in 1913, Americans
could be counted on to go
wherever their flying services
were needed. At the outbreak of World War I,
Americans petitioned to be
allowed to volunteer for service with the
Allies, and permission was
granted after a year.
Victor Chapman
after being wounded in the head, June 17, 1916, six days
before he would lose his life near Verdun, becoming the
first Escadille Americaine pilot to die while engaging the
enemy.
The corps of
American fliers was formed in April 1916, at first
under the name the
Escadrille Americaine (AEF), but
after the German ambassador complained about so
partisan an involvement, the name was changed to the
Lafayette Escadrille, after the French
naval hero who fought with
Washington. The group did not have
a great impact on the war effort,
but it did cement the relationship between the
Americans and the Allied aviators, particularly the
French, who still remembered the impression the
Wrights and Glenn Curtiss had made
just a few years earlier.
Kiffin
Rockwell scored the first victory by a member of the
Escadille Americaine when he shot down a German
reconnaissance airplane.
The
French also liked the free-wheeling and generous
nature of the Americans
and were welcoming of one in particular, Raoul
Lufbery, an American of French lineage who
had served in China and the
French Foreign Legion before
coming to Europe. In 1914 Lufbery was
servicing airplanes for the
Stork Squadron and taking flight training on the side.
A portrait of Lafayette
Squadron members
The Lafayette Escadrille did not form until two
Harvard graduates—Norman Prince, a student
pilot who came to Paris for
the express purpose of forming the volunteer squadron, and
Victor Chapman, doing graduate
work in Paris when the war began—and William Thaw,
a Legion volunteer from a
wealthy Pittsburgh family, teamed
up with an influential American in Paris, Dr.
Edmund Gros, a leader of the volunteer American
medical and ambulance corps serving in
France. Together, the four
allayed the French fears about spies in the American
group and convinced them to
supply planes for combat and
reconnaissance.
Raoul Lufbery of the
Escadrille Americaine
All through 1916 and 1917, Prince
and Chapman did aerial combat with
Germany’s best fliers, and they and
the rest of the corps
accumulated some respectable kill
totals. Prince downed five planes before being shot
down in 1916; Chapman was
praised by the French for his
bravery, but was killed fighting
Fokkers that same year, as was
Thaw. The only ace to come out of the Lafayette
Escadrille was Lufbery, who
had seventeen confirmed victories, as both volunteer and
then as part of the AEF.
In 1918, Billy Mitchell led a
multi-national force with 1,481 airplanes at St. Mihiel,
resulting in German defeat and recovery of St. Mihiel by the
Allies for the first time since 1914. This Salmson 2A2 of
the 91st Aero Squadron had its lower wing heavily damaged by
enemy anti-aircraft fire, September 14, 1918.
In the AEF, Lufbery commanded the
94th Air Squadron, which included
Eddie Rickenbacker, America’s top
ace in the war. The
“Hat-in-the-Ring” squadron, as it was
called (after its insignia)
became the elite American air
fighting unit under Lufbery’s command and allowed
Billy Mitchell,
commander of the entire American air forces in
Europe, to contemplate and then launch aerial
assaults that would
determine the outcome of battles. Lufbery
died in combat in June 1918, in
full view of Mitchell, who
was observing on the ground. In
all, some two hundred fliers flew in the
Lafayette Escadrille.
In 1918, Americans were flying
around the clock and. as the action continued, learning to
fly new planes, SPAD XIIIs.
They supported tank movements and protected certain targets
that they believed held special
psychological significance, such as the great cathedral at
Reims, a frequent
target of the German bombers.
Camped in their barracks at Chaudun, the Americans
were famous for keeping two lion cubs, Whiskey and
Soda, and were looked upon hopefully as
an advance guard for the
entry of the Yanks into the field of battle.
The Nieuport
28 was the first fighter airplane flown in combat by pilots
of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I.
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