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 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
"I therefore stood there with my posies like some June bride, 
 looking as self-conscious as I felt." [Page 245.] 
 
THE 
 WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 BY 
 
 MAJOR CHARLES J. BIDDLE 
 
 n. 73; 103d aero squadron (escadrille lafayette) 
 13th aero squadron; 4th pursuit group 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 1919 
 
3% s 
 
 OOPTBIQBT, 1919, BT 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNKRS SONS 
 
 l'ubllshod Juno, 1919 
 
 
fffl 
 
 OLIVER MOULTON CHADWICK 
 KILLED IN ACTION, AUGUST 14, 1917 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 In order that any one who may chance to read this 
 book of letters may better understand the detailed 
 descriptions of fights in the air which it contains, cer- 
 tain fundamental facts of a more or less technical 
 nature should be at all times kept clearly in mind. 
 
 As every one knows, there are many different types 
 of aeroplanes specially adapted to as many different 
 uses. Among these there are three distinct classes 
 which cannot be confused without resulting in an 
 almost complete failure to appreciate the tactics of 
 air fighting. 
 
 These three classes are: first, the small single-seater 
 fighting plane known to the French as an "avion de 
 chasse," to the English as a "scout," and to the 
 American Air Service as a "pursuit machine." Next 
 comes the larger type used for the taking of photo- 
 graphs and gathering of information, the regulation of 
 artillery fire, liaison work with the infantry, and the 
 dropping of bombs from high altitudes during the 
 daytime. This type usually carries two, sometimes 
 three, men. Finally we have the great multi-motored 
 bomber equipped with two, three or four engines and 
 carrying a crew of from two to eight men. 
 
 The pursuit plane is the smallest and fastest of all 
 flying machines and has almost always carried but one 
 man. Typical of this type are the French Spad and 
 Nieuport, the English S. E. 5 and Sopwith Camel, and 
 for the Germans the Albatross, the Pfalz, and the 
 Fokker. The United States produced no machines of 
 this type and our pursuit squadrons were entirely 
 
viii FOREWORD 
 
 equipped with French Spads and Nieuports. The 
 speed of these machines varies from 100 to almost 
 135 miles per hour. Their function is purely to fight 
 and by lighting to create an area in which it will be 
 reasonably safe for their own larger machines to work 
 and by attacking the larger machines of the enemy, 
 to prevent them from accomplishing their missions. 
 They are also used for attacking roads, etc., from a 
 low altitude with small bombs and machine-gun fire, 
 known in the Air Service as "strafing." 
 
 Speaking generally the pursuit machine is armed with 
 one or two machine guns which are bolted fast in front 
 of the pilot above the motor and which cannot be moved 
 in any direction. The guns fire only straight ahead 
 through the revolving blades of the propeller and the 
 machine is totally unprotected in the rear, relying for 
 its safety upon its speed and ability to manoeuvre 
 quickly. Above the guns is mounted a sight which 
 is lined up with them and then bolted fast. To shoot 
 it is therefore necessary for the pilot to aim his whole 
 plane by manoeuvring it with his controls and when he 
 has in this way brought his sights to bear upon his 
 enemy, he fires by pressing triggers which are attached 
 to his control stick and connected with the guns by 
 means of wires. 
 
 There is no mystery about a machine gun firing 
 through a propeller without hitting the blades. Nearly 
 every one understands the principle by which the 
 valves of a gasoline motor are timed so as to open and 
 close at a given point in the revolution of the engine. 
 In the same way a machine gun may be timed to shoot. 
 On the end of the cam shaft of the motor is placed an 
 additional cam. Next to this is a rod connected with 
 
FOREWORD ix 
 
 the breech block of the gun. When the gun is not being 
 fired the rod is held away from the cam by a spring. 
 Pressing the trigger brings the two into contact and 
 each time that the cam revolves it strikes the rod which 
 in turn trips the hammer of the gun and causes it to 
 fire. The cam is regulated so that it comes in contact 
 with the rod just as each blade has passed the muzzle 
 of the gun which can therefore fire at this time only. 
 The engine revolves at least 1000 turns per minute and 
 as there are two chances for the gun to fire for each 
 revolution, this would allow the gun to fire 2000 
 shots per minute. The rate of fire of a machine gun 
 varies from about 400 to 1000 shots per minute accord- 
 ing to the type of gun and the way in which it is rigged. 
 The gun therefore has many more opportunities to 
 fire between the blades of the propeller than its rate 
 of fire will permit it to make use of. Consequently 
 the gun can work at full speed regardless of ordinary 
 variations in the number of revolutions of the engine. 
 The second type of plane is nearly always a two- 
 seater although some three-seaters were also used for 
 this work. Their purpose is to gain information, take 
 pictures and so forth but not to fight unless attacked 
 and forced to defend themselves. Examples of the 
 two-seater type are the English De Havilands and R. E. 
 8, the French Breguet and Salmson, the American 
 Liberty, which is a copy of the English De Haviland 4, 
 and the German Rumpler and Halberstadt. In this 
 class of machine the pilot has one or two fixed guns 
 shooting straight ahead as in the single-seater. In ad- 
 dition to this, however, the observer, who sits in a cock- 
 pit behind the pilot, is armed with one or two movable 
 machine guns mounted on a swivel. He can fire these 
 
x FOREWORD 
 
 guns in any direction except in those angles which are 
 blinded by the wings, body, and tail portions of his 
 own machine. The two-seater, called a "biplace" 
 by the French, being larger and slower than the single- 
 seater and therefore incapable of being so quickly 
 handled, would be at the latter's mercy were it not for 
 the protection afforded by its movable guns. The 
 pilot of a two-seater has comparatively little oppor- 
 tunity to use his guns and they can be rather easily 
 avoided by the single-seater. It is the fire from the 
 observer's guns which the pursuit machine must guard 
 against in attacking a two-seater. This he usually 
 does by approaching either from the front or by seek- 
 ing to get into a position behind and below so as to 
 shield himself by keeping behind the body and tail 
 planes of his enemy. The observer cannot of course 
 shoot through his own machine without risk of bringing 
 himself down. 
 
 The third class is much the largest and slowest of all, 
 constructed with a view to carrying great weights. It 
 is protected both fore and aft by movable machine 
 guns, but its size, slow speed, and inability to climb 
 to high altitudes, make it very vulnerable to attack 
 both by anti-aircraft fire from the ground and by 
 enemy pursuit machines. It was therefore used, at 
 least on the western front, almost exclusively for night 
 bombing. Examples of this type are the English 
 Handley-Page, the Italian Caproni and the German 
 Gotha. The United States at the end of the war had 
 not gotten any night bombers on the front. 
 
 The distances at which fighting is carried on in the 
 air is not nearly so great as is generally supposed. Al- 
 most all successful combats were fought at ranges less 
 
FOREWORD xi 
 
 than 300 feet and again the majority of these at between 
 200 feet and 30 feet. There were of course many in- 
 stances of planes being brought down at longer ranges 
 but these were the exception. The speed of machines 
 is so great and the angles so changeable as to be al- 
 most impossible to calculate with anything approaching 
 accuracy. The only sure shot is that at almost point- 
 blank range where the question of how far one must 
 shoot ahead of a moving mark in order to hit it is 
 greatly simplified. 
 
 This difficulty in shooting explains why so much air 
 fighting is often carried on with so little result. In 
 addition to this, although an aeroplane seems to pre- 
 sent a large target, the vital spots which must be hit 
 in order to bring it down are in reality very small. 
 The men and the vitals of the machinery take up but 
 a small fraction of the machine and the parts where 
 they are not may be riddled without apparent effect. 
 
 These letters were written to members of the author's 
 family without thought of publication and the author 
 is still very much in doubt as to whether they should 
 be published. They have been printed almost exactly 
 as they were written except for the omission of some 
 personal names and of the more private matters. In ad- 
 dition to this, accounts of a number of combats have 
 been omitted which, owing to their similarity to other 
 fights described, it was feared might become tedious. 
 A few descriptions and criticisms have been inserted 
 which the author would have written at the same time 
 as the rest of the letters had it not been for lack of 
 time and the censorship regulations. Names of places 
 have also been added. 
 
 CHAELES J. BlDDLE. 
 Philadelphia, Pa., March 25, 1919. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAOB 
 
 In the Schools 3 
 
 Escadbille N. 73 41 
 
 E8CADRILLE LAFAYETTE 145 
 
 L3th Abbo Squadron, A. B. P 217 
 
 4th Pursuit Group, A. E. F 285 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 "I UiWiforo hUxkI Mien- wil-li rn.y ponicH like 101116 .Juri«; l>ri<l<!, 
 
 looking ai lalf-oonfoioui ai I felt" FronUepiece 
 
 The pin of ^ French Military Pilol /'«</« 2 
 
 "Atterriieage eur le dof " Facing page \*\ 
 
 AuUio/'.! Bleriot monoplane training plane after forced land 
 
 in^, June 2, i*>17 Facing page M 
 
 Nieuport training-plane on ite note " " 20 
 
 [ntignia of Etcadrille N. 73 Page 40 
 
 Captain Oeorgee Ghiynemer Facing page 42 
 
 A bad imath " " 62 
 
 Bpad planee of Etcadrille N. 73 " " - r j2 
 
 King Albert of Belgium decorating aviaton . . " " 66 
 
 Queen Elizabeth of Belgium getting out of French plane 
 
 /•'in mi/ page 66 
 
 ( laptain Ghiynemer about to itart on the laet flight from which 
 
 he ever returned Facing page 7-1 
 
 The latt flight " " 102 
 
 The oar of a French night bomber, Vol; in type " " 132 
 
 [ntignia of Etcadrille Lafayette (103d Aero Squadron, A. E. F.) 
 
 Page J -14 
 
 He ranaine of two Bpad planef of the Etcadrille Lafayette 
 
 Facing page LOO 
 
 XV 
 
xvi ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 "In Flanders fields the poppies blow" .... Facing page 190 
 
 A portion of the Ypres sector " " 190 
 
 Lieutenant Rene" Fonok, the nee of aces, in front of his Spad 
 
 Facing page 206 
 
 "Dentli the Greal Reaper"; the insignia of 13th Aero Squad- 
 ron, A. E. F Page 216 
 
 Bun-hunting with the camera Facing page 228 
 
 German Rumpler two-seater " " 242 
 
 Observer's cockpit and machine-gun of machine shown facing 
 
 page 242 Facing page 252 
 
 A direct hit " " 2S0 
 
 The end of a famous American ace " " 2S0 
 
 Insignia of U. S. Military Pilot Page 284 
 
IN THE SCHOOLS 
 
Tl\o ptn of .i 
 I Pilot 
 
AtOI , April l. r >, 1017. 
 
 My application for permission to enli it in the French 
 Foreign Legion, Aviation Section, went in on • 
 24th. H takes several ireel for 1 1 j i . to go through 
 however and if, was not until last Tuesday that \>r. 
 
 X notified m<; that f bad been accepted. The 
 
 day i went to a dingy recruiting office near the 
 [nvalides and was examined by the French da 
 The office reminded me v<-ry much of an old print of 
 an ancient police station from Dickens. A dark little 
 place with barred windows adorned with numerous 
 cobwebs, on each side of the main room a rough 
 bench, and in the corner a huge old fashioned barrel 
 : fcove. 'J he examination iras not severe, none of that 
 businei of shooting pistols ofl unexpectedly that ire 
 used to bear iras part of an aviator's prelmiinary ex- 
 amination. There were a number of men being ex- 
 amined for the infantry of the Foreign Legion at the 
 same time. We all stripped to our bare skin 
 Frenchmen, another American and myself, and 
 gentlemen at whose nationality one could only g 
 One of Hie latter who spoke a little Engli 1j was much 
 perturbed because he forgot and signed his real name. 
 Jl<: had -'«.II his papers made up in an alias and then got 
 excited at the last minute. The officer in charge 
 noticed the mistake but laughed and passed it over. 
 They ar< u ed to such thingi in the Lemon. Of© 
 the Aviation Division of "La Legion Etrangere" is en- 
 tirely separate from the Infantry so far ai our seeing 
 anything of the latter is concerned. On Thursday J 
 a 
 
4 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 went to the [nvalides, enlisted, and reoeived my oi> 
 den, wiiich were to prooeed b> the aviation school nt. 
 Avon! i he following morning. This I did, arriving here 
 Friday afternoon and here I am. 
 
 This school is a most extremely interesting plaoe 
 and more enormous than anything one who had not 
 seen i< could possibly imagine. The aviation fields 
 and hangars literally stretch for miles and I can hardly 
 guess how many machines there arc here. 1 should 
 say about six hundred. Ai the Curtiss school at New- 
 port News there were about fifteen. This is (he largest 
 school in Pranoe, but there are many oilier very largo 
 ones scattered all over the country. Any morning ov 
 afternoon when the weather permits, (he machines 
 
 look like the crows (lying home (o roost from (he 
 
 marshes on the Delaware. 
 
 l started work on Saturday morning in the beginners 1 
 The machines are known as "Penguins" ami 
 
 are Bleriot monoplanes with small engines and (heir 
 wingS OUt down so that (hey cannot fly, They are 
 
 rather ditlicult to handle and are designed to teach (he 
 
 men tO Steer straight. At first you go sideways and 
 twist around in every direction except the one in which 
 you wish to go. After yon catch on to them however 
 you gO tripping along oxer the ground at some 35 Of 
 10 miles an hour. When you graduate from this 
 class you go (o another called " lvouleurs." These are 
 Bleriots which will fly but the pupils are not allowed 
 (o take them o(\ the ground. I will write you all 
 about the various steps as I go along. At all events it 
 will probably be from one (o two months before 1 get 
 off the ground and six before 1 get to the front, so there 
 is nothing to worry about just yet. In this school a 
 
IN THE SCHOOLS 5 
 
 pupil is so thoroughly trained is the rudiments that 
 by the time he is ready to fly he is capable <>r doing BO 
 with the least possible danger. The Frenoh machines 
 are beautifully made, nothing that we have so far in 
 America can compare with them. 
 
 You would laugh to see your rule little son dri 
 up in the blue uniform of a French poilu. The govern- 
 ment gives us everything from the skin out and the 
 committee for the Franco-American Flying Corps pro- 
 vides us with a really good uniform. I have just 
 ordered mine from the tailor, r am going to take i ome 
 pictures with my kodak and will send them to you as 
 soon as they are finished. We live in a barracks, 
 about twenty men in a mom, and eat in a great mess 
 shack. There are about three thousand men in the 
 camp counting mechanics and quantities of Annamites. 
 These latter act as servants, make roads and do the 
 dirty work generally. They come from [ndo-China, and 
 look much like* Chinese. They all shellac their teeth 
 until they arc coal black which gives their faces a most 
 
 extraordinary expression. 
 
 The food is wholesome enough although extremely 
 rough, nothing like as good as the U. S. Army gets. 
 
 There are canteens when; we buy tilings to help out 
 and we receive 200 francs a month from the Franco- 
 American Committee for this purpose. I am therefore 
 
 not exactly living in luxury but am getting so fat and 
 healthy you won't know me when I come home. 
 
 P. S. I enclose two notes, one for one franc and the 
 
 other for 50 centimes. They are part of my first pay 
 
 as a soldier of France and I thought, thai you or mother 
 might care to keep them. We get one franc 25 cen- 
 times per day which is 5 times what the infantry gets. 
 
G THE WAY 01' THE EAGLE 
 
 Avonn, May 3, 1917. 
 On May 1 a new schedule went into effect here and 
 Ave now get up at 4 a. M., work until 9 a. m., lunch at 
 10, supper at 5 p. m., back to work at 5.30 and do not 
 quit until dark which is about 9 P. m. Remember that 
 under our daylight saving plan the clocks are all one 
 hour ahead, so this really means getting up at 3 A. M. 
 Vim can Bee that this does not leave much time for 
 sleep, but as we are off all during the heat of the day, 
 we make it up then. The reason for these peculiar 
 hours is of course because during the heat of the day 
 the air becomes full of holes or "remous" as the 
 French call them, which are very unpleasant affairs 
 for an "edeve pilotc."* Although we have been hav- 
 ing beautiful weather for the past ten days, only about 
 half of them have been good for flying, owing to too 
 much wind. May is however supposed to be the best 
 month of the year here for our work, so we should make 
 good progress. I have just been promoted with the 
 rest o{ my class from the Penguins to the "Rouleurs," 
 and shall probably remain in this class for three weeks. 
 The object of the Rouleurs is to teach the pupil to 
 steer a straight course and to get a correct "ligne de 
 vol."t The machine will fly but we are not allowed to 
 Leave the ground. It will therefore be some time yet 
 before I begin to do any actual flying. 
 
 Avord, May 15th, 1917. 
 Since my last letter I have passed through the "Rou- 
 leur" class and am now in the "De'colleur." Tn the 
 latter class we use the same machine as in the "Rou- 
 
 •Student pilot, fl^wo* Bight. 
 
IN THE SCHOOLS 7 
 
 leur" but are allowed to fly it a little. We start by 
 going up three feet, flying along a short distance and 
 then shutting off the motor and allowing the machine 
 to settle back on the ground. By degrees we take the 
 machine higher and higher in straight flights up and 
 down a big field. After a while we will be sent on to 
 another class where we fly a little higher and make 
 regular sure enough landings. All these flights are 
 straight, the machine being brought to the ground at 
 each end of the field and turned by hand. In this way 
 the pupil in a sense teaches himself to fly and the in- 
 structor merely stands on the ground with the rest of 
 the class and tells you what to do before you start. 
 The monitor does not go up with the pupil as a general 
 rule until after he has obtained his military license on 
 the Bleriot machine and begins to learn to drive a 
 Nieuport. The training for the pilots of the large 
 machines such as Caudrons and Farmans is somewhat 
 different but I hope not to have anything to do with 
 these types. The schooling for a pilot of the small 
 fast scout or "chasse" machines as the French call them 
 is usually the training on the Bleriot monoplanes. 
 The chasse machines are more difficult to drive than 
 the bigger planes, and if a man proves inapt in the 
 Bleriot School he is "radiated" to a Caudron or a 
 Farman and after completing his training on these 
 types is sent to the front as a pilot of one of the larger 
 planes which do such work as picture taking, the regu- 
 lation of artillery fire and bomb dropping. This is of 
 course very interesting work but I should much pre- 
 fer to be in the chasse, which appeals to me more than 
 the other. 
 As I said before I am now in the D6colleur class and 
 
8 THE WAV OF THE EAGLE 
 
 am jus! beginning to fly. So Par I have not been higher 
 than the remarkable altitude of six feet. 
 
 Au.kp, May 24th, 1017. 
 
 The last page of this letter ha* been written on the 
 above date and at Avord, l came back Last Saturday 
 tin* L9th, ami have really not had a moment to do any- 
 thing but work, eat and Bleep since that time. About. 
 a week ago, almost, the whole school dosed up duo to a 
 lack oi oil ami everyone went away on permission. 
 My particular class had gone away the week before 
 ami si> when our one week's permission was up we had 
 to come bark although there was but little prospect 
 o( our being able to work, it so happens, however, 
 that there is enough oil for the few men who are here 
 to work with, and as there an 1 plenty o( machines 
 and monitors l have boon able io fly to my heart's con- 
 tent. No standing around waiting for some one else 
 to get through. Since last Saturday 1 have had twice 
 as much time living as in all the rest o( my sojourn here 
 put together, and it is now real flying. Yesterday 1 was 
 Up for two hours and a half and an hour and a half 
 this morning. 'The flying is all by yourself of course 
 under this system. This morning I got up a little over 
 two hundred metres. * The country is beautiful in its 
 spring plumage and with the ranges oi hills on the 
 horizon, presents a wonderful picture from the air. 
 You get no feeling o( di.-.'.iness and one is so thor- 
 oughly familiarised with the machines before being 
 allowed to leave the ground that when one does go 
 up one feels capable oi handling one's plane. Kven 
 after we are allowed to tlv we are kept making straight 
 
 * A mot re is, roughly speaking, a yard, mare exaotly 39 end * inches. 
 
IN THE SCHOOLS 9 
 
 lines up and down B big field at low altitudes for 
 
 several days before we do any cruising about the 
 country. Since Saturday 1 have passed through four 
 jrou can see that we are moving right along. 
 If, Koch without saying that this is infinitely better Mian 
 the first of the training and I certainly am enjoying it. 
 
 There IS nothing scary about it SO far and the work is; 
 very interesting and no end of sport. I would, how- 
 ever, rather shoot ducks! ! ! ! 
 
 Avokd, May 30th, 1017. 
 Since writing to mother last week I have finished up 
 all the work preliminary to the tests for my military 
 
 brevet and have started in on the latter. The last 
 two things the clove does before beginning his final I e I , 
 are a serpentine and a spiral from seven or eight hun- 
 dred metres with motor shut off, to a given landing 
 place. These manoeuvres are simply what their name 
 implies and an; methods of losing height without gain- 
 ing distance, i- e., to land on a spot under you. Yester- 
 day morning I did the first of the tests for my brevet, 
 consisting of two short trips to a nearby village, a 
 landing then; and return. This is very easy, the round 
 
 trip being only about sixty kilometres. The first time 
 I flew at a height of 1000 metres. From this height 
 you can see for miles and if is quite easy to follow a 
 map, as streams, roads, woods, and other landmarks 
 stand out very clearly. By the time I made my second 
 trip a good many low clouds had come up. I had just 
 about reached the top of diem at 800 metres when my 
 motor commenced to go badly so that I could not climb 
 any higher. As I had still about twenty-five minutes 
 to stay up in order to fill in the necessary hour, which 
 
10 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 one must remain In the Air »m these trips, 1 bad to 
 .spend it dodging about among the clouds. They an 
 wry unpleasant things to get in In :t Bleriot and when 
 we go through them at all we piok a hole. Yesterday 
 there was plenty of room in between them bo that it 
 was easy t»» see the ground} but when you looked off 
 in tln> distance they seemed solid and resemble a huge 
 snow field more than anything else. It is quite a novel 
 experience flying around above the clouds but 1 do not 
 
 think it will take long to get used to it. The trouble 
 
 with them is that they shut out the view and the going 
 around the edges is very rough and bumpy. 
 
 One thing that bothers me a little is that the machine 
 gun instruction and pr.u-t ioo has been much reduced. 
 
 The reason for this seems to be in order io save time iu 
 
 turning out pilots, hut to my mind it is very poor econ- 
 omy, I knOW enough about Bhooting to know how 
 hard it is to hit a mo\ big mark. Many of the men here 
 know nothing about shooting and think that all you 
 have to do is to shoot straight at what you want to 
 hit. which is of course the surest way to miss it. There 
 is a machine gun school near Bordeaux where the men 
 used to go, A friend o( mine named Chadwick who 
 
 has just finished here and gone to this school, got there 
 by putting in a special request on the ground that he 
 
 did UOt know one end o( the gun from another. 1 have 
 had no black marks here so far and if I go through 
 without any. 1 am going to put in a similar request. In 
 this business it seems to me it is as important to know 
 how to shoot as to fly, 
 
 A\eui\ June tth, 1917, 
 To supplement my last letter to father and tell you 
 what I have been doing lately in the flying line, I 
 
in Tin; SCHOOLS Ji 
 
 have been very busy taking my testa for my military 
 brevet which I completed successfully on June 2. 
 They consisted of two triangles of 22."> kilometres 
 
 each. The route lay from Avon] to two other towns 
 the names of which I shall not give in order not to 
 irritate our friend the Cen or.* A landing \g required 
 
 at each of these towns, where you have your papers 
 
 signed and take on gasoline and oil. We are furnished 
 
 witli a/i excellent map and there is really no difficulty 
 
 at all in following one's route 1 . The country lie: be- 
 fore you like a reproduction of your map and from 1200 
 
 metres you can make out with ease such landmarks as 
 
 rivers, canals, wood:;, ponds and roads, and cities show 
 Up while you are still miles away from them. I found 
 1200 or 1300 metres a very satisfactory height as you 
 
 are then high enough to get a good comprehensive 
 
 view (jf the country and to have time in which to pick 
 out a suitable landing place; in case anything goes 
 
 wron^ with your motor and you have to land. At the 
 
 same time you are low enough to he able to distinguish 
 
 the detail of things below you and thus to better identify 
 places OS your map. Another thing we must do is 
 
 to ascend to an altitude of 2000 metres and remain 
 
 above that height for .an hour, and 1 have already 
 written to father about the "petit voyage" t< I . 
 On June first I started off on my first triangle and as 
 
 the weather was good and my motor ran wdl, I had 
 
 no trouble at all. On the last leg of the trip 1 thought 
 I would work in my altitude so let her climb right 
 
 on up. P>y the time I reached the camp I was up 
 
 2000 metres, but to be on the safe side went on up to 
 2400 which is about as high as a Bleriot of the kind I 
 
 * Ghateauroux and Romorantm. 
 
12 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 had will go, without forcing the motor too much. It 
 took me 45 minutes to reach 2000 metres and this is 
 very good for the type of machine I had. The new 
 Spad biplanes in use at the front will do the same thing 
 in six or seven minutes. It is not so very different at 
 this height than at a thousand metres, except that the 
 details begin to fade a little and the country looks even 
 more like a map. June first was warm on the ground 
 but at 2400 metres your breath looked like a lot of 
 smoke and it was quite cold. 
 
 After I had been up there cruising around for almost 
 an hour over the camp and had only ten more minutes to 
 stay, my motor suddenly stopped as though it had 
 run out of gasoline. There was nothing for it but to 
 start down and I was very much disgusted as it meant 
 I should have to do the altitude over again. As soon 
 as I started for the ground I began regulating my 
 gas, etc., to try and find out what was wrong and as 
 luck would have it, got the motor going again by the 
 time I reached 2200 metres. After that she went all 
 right until I finally came down, but the next day she 
 quit on me completely when I was half way through 
 my second triangle. That day the clouds and mist 
 were so low that you could not fly, at the particular 
 time that I had my trouble, at an altitude of more than 
 450 metres. This is entirely too low to be comfortable 
 as it gives you little time to pick out a landing place if 
 you are forced to come down, and makes it necessary 
 to fly around woods and country where a landing can- 
 not be made. When my motor started to go bad I 
 picked out a fine field, but when I reached 300 metres 
 the engine improved and I thought it was going to 
 come to life again as it had the day before. I there- 
 
IN THE SCHOOLS 13 
 
 fore decided to go on for a few minutes and when I had 
 gotten just far enough to miss the good field, she died 
 suddenly and irretrievably. On one side of me was a 
 large woods and on the other a small stream and coun- 
 try so cut up with hills, hedges and trees that it was 
 impossible to land. In the middle was what appeared 
 to be a very good narrow field full of wild flowers, 
 but I was suspicious of it on account of the stream 
 along the edge. However, a marsh is better than a 
 woods any day and there was nothing else to do but 
 take a try at it. When I got low to the ground I saw 
 that it was soft and fully expected to turn over when 
 my wheels hit the mud. The only chance in such a 
 situation is to put the tail down first and let the machine 
 lose all the speed possible before the wheels hit the 
 ground. This I did and to my delight she only ran 
 about fifteen feet on the ground and stopped right side 
 up. 
 
 The grass was eighteen inches high and water 
 slopped up over your shoes when you walked. My 
 wheels were six inches in the mud and you should have 
 seen the mud and water fly when I hit. The inevitable 
 crowd of French peasants soon began to arrive and I 
 took some pictures of the machine with the gang of 
 onlookers standing around it. The trouble was soon 
 located in a couple of broken spark plugs. These I 
 replaced from my tool kit and with the help of some 
 peasants pushed the machine to dryer ground. I in- 
 structed the most intelligent looking man how to turn 
 over the propeller so as to start the motor and at the 
 same time not have it come around and take his head 
 off. The ground was still pretty soft and it was quite 
 a job to get enough speed to lift the machine off the 
 
II THE WAV OF THE EAGLE 
 
 pound. When I did ,^ v i going, it was the middle of the 
 day, quite windy and the heal waves and holes in the 
 air were pretty bad. The ride to my next stopping 
 place was the roughest 1 have yet experienced, luit was 
 not enough so to bo dangerous ami reaUy made the 
 trip more fun, The sensation reminded mo more of a 
 
 oanoe on the river on a very rough day than anything 
 
 else. My experience in canoes has 1 think helped mo 
 
 more than anything else to get the feel o( an aeroplane 
 
 and to bo able to know just how far 1 can let one go 
 without being afraid that it is going to turn over. In 
 the Nieuports and Spads. oneo yon are a sufficient dis- 
 tance from the ground, you ean let them fall sideways, 
 turn upsido down or do any old thing and then right 
 them again. Asa matter of fact they really right them- 
 selves most of the time, but a Bleriot monoplane is a 
 different proposition and onee she upsets with you, the 
 jig is often up. 
 
 The remainder of my test was uneventful and 1 am 
 now a breveted military "pilote aviateur" and am 
 ranked as a eorporal. To all appearances I am the 
 same sweet young thing except that I now have wings 
 on my collar and my '"ensigne" has two wings on it in- 
 stead of one. When I get to Paris I may have a picture 
 taken in uniform and send it to you if they don't soak 
 me too much for it. By the way, I have no wings on 
 my back yet ! 
 
 From what I have told you oi a Rleriot you may be 
 glad to know that I have now finished with them and 
 to-night start work in the Nieuport School here. The 
 average time in the Nieuport School is about two weeks 
 and is spent in learning how to do ordinary living and 
 landings in this type of plane. They are biplanes and 
 
a le 'I'.-.'' 
 
 ,\ 8pad not be landed. 
 
 July. 1917. 
 
 PL : B '!• . ■ Franc 
 
 •aining-pk 
 2, 1917. 
 
 <l lamli 
 
IN THE SCHOOLS 15 
 
 entirely different from the Bleriot monoplane, being 
 much more stable but also a great deal heavier and 
 faster. The Bleriots which we used only make some- 
 thing between fifty and sixty miles an hour while the 
 Nieuport goes nearer one hundred. The former is 
 however as I have said, a wonderful training machine 
 and the way you can smash them up without hurting 
 yourself, is nothing short of marvellous. I have myself 
 seen students charge headfirst into the ground at full 
 speed from a height of fifty feet, completely wreck the 
 machine and yet step out of it without a scratch. It 
 was not at all uncommon in the Bleriot School for a 
 man to fall a hundred metres and sometimes more 
 and come off with a few cuts and bruises. Wrecking 
 machines by bad landings is the commonest thing in 
 the world and the average must be at least two a day. 
 This is a minimum estimate and I have seen five or 
 six wrecks lined up at the side of the field to be taken to 
 the shops as the result of a single day's work. Yet in 
 all the time I have been here there has not been a single 
 fatal accident in the Bleriot School nor a single bone 
 broken. Some few men have been pretty badly bruised 
 up so that they had to sojourn in the hospital for a 
 couple of weeks but that is about all. The reason for 
 this is that the Bleriots are very light and just strong 
 enough to take up the shock, at the same time going to 
 pieces and letting the pilot down easy. He is protected 
 on every side by some part of the machine and when 
 belted in, is just as though he were suspended in the 
 middle of a lot of shock absorbers. 
 
 This system of self-instruction is only used in the 
 Bleriot School and when a man completes the course he 
 should have pretty well acquired the feel of an aero- 
 
16 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 plane. It is a very expensive method and one that no 
 private school could afford to follow unless indemnified 
 by the pupils. In every case that I know of, however, 
 the accident has been the fault of the pupil and due 
 either to his not following instructions, losing his 
 head, or to rank stupidity. 
 
 Barring the one case of having your motor go back 
 on you when you are over country where it is very 
 difficult to land, there is no reason at all why a man of 
 reasonable ability who is accustomed to out of door 
 sports, should smash if he keeps his wits about him. 
 Many of the men hardly give their work a thought 
 except when they are actually in a machine and do 
 not seem to appreciate how much there is to learn. 
 I am trying to spend all my spare time studying French 
 so as to be able to take the instruction in better, 
 and in reading up books on planes and motors and 
 how and why they work. This is the reason that I 
 am pressed for time and cannot write a great deal but 
 it seems to me only common sense and your own salva- 
 tion to do so. The one case I mentioned of a motor 
 going bad when you have no safe place on which to 
 make a landing, should really never occur in school as 
 you can always pick a good route to the places you are 
 sent and if you fly high enough, should have no diffi- 
 culty in effecting a landing. A man hardly ever goes 
 through his triangles without having his motor " pan- 
 ne"* with him at least once and I really think the au- 
 thorities want this to happen so as to see how the 
 student will take care of himself. The reason for the 
 motors failing is that we use a type of engine in most 
 of the Bleriots which is much inferior to those used at 
 the front and is no longer in service there. 
 
 * Break down. 
 
IN THE SCHOOLS 17 
 
 Avord, June 5, 1917. 
 
 Julian Biddle arrived here on Saturday and has 
 started in in the Caudron School instead of the Bleriot 
 as I did. The training in the Caudron is not a system of 
 self-instruction but you begin by flying right away in a 
 double command machine with a monitor. Julian 
 chose this method because he thinks it is quicker, 
 which is probably true, but I doubt if it is as good. 
 It is the same system as that used at Newport News and 
 the machines are much larger and more stable than the 
 Bleriots. Yesterday when I was writing to you I was 
 sitting in a hay-rick at an old farm about three miles 
 from the school and Julian was in the straw nearby. 
 I first went to this place ten days ago with Oliver Chad- 
 wick and have spent many pleasant hours there since. 
 Chadwick was in my class at the Harvard Law 
 School and is an exceptionally fine fellow. He was 
 also probably the most skilful American pilot here, but 
 I am sorry to say that he left several days ago and 
 is now at the school of "perfectionnement" and acro- 
 batics at Pau. I shall follow him there in a couple of 
 weeks as soon as I have finished the Nieuport School. 
 I hope we get in the same unit as we get along very 
 well together and he is a first class man in every way. 
 It is very nice also to have Julian here and there are 
 several other good fellows whom I know that are ex- 
 pected shortly. I hope we can continue to get men of 
 this type in the organization. 
 
 The farm I spoke of is just a typical French peasant 
 place where a nice old man and his wife live with their 
 two grandchildren, a very lively pair of boys. The 
 "family" also includes two girls and a young fellow 
 who work about the farm, look after the sheep, cook, 
 
is THE WA? OF THE EAGLE 
 
 etc You oan get quantities of delicious fresh milk, 
 eggs, and oottage cheese at a ridiculously cheap price. 
 Nearby is a great big hay-rick where 1 sit and write and 
 do a good deal o\' sleeping. As we get up al 3.30 a. m. 
 and oannot get bo bed before L0.30, it is absolutely 
 necessary to get some sleep during the day and I find 
 the quiet of this place a great relief. The walk to ami 
 back from the farm also provides a bit of exercise. 
 
 I think thai probably the most important thing in this 
 business IS perfect physical condition and I have been 
 taking care o( myself as I never have before. YOU said 
 in your last letter that Bishop Brent was so impressed 
 with the moral conditions over here. They are not 
 good 1 must admit, according to our standards, but 
 
 then you must remember that French ideas on these 
 things are entirely different from ours even among the 
 
 best people. They are brought up to an entirely dif- 
 ferent standard and the worth while ones live up to 
 
 their own ideals although at the same time doing things 
 
 that we WOUld not approve of. It seems tome that if a 
 man lives up to his own standards o( what is right, that 
 that is about all you can expect of him. The man who 
 deserves condemnation is the one who has standards 
 OT should have them but is not man enough to live up 
 to them. 
 
 You asked me in one of your letters if I had ever 
 heard oi the place where your little French "orphan" 
 lives with his mother. I don't know for sure but should 
 say at a guess that it was somewhere in heaven. I 
 DOVer before heard ol an orphan living with a parent 
 but will try to look him up if I ever get near his abode. 
 
IN THE SCHOOLS I!) 
 
 A\m;i>, June 13, 1017. 
 
 After my long letter to mother of last week, (here is 
 not so much news (<> tell you. For eight days after 
 I was transferred bo the Nieuport school, I did nothing 
 but warm a bench and wait until I could get a chance 
 to fly, Three days ago ii came, and so far, I have found 
 no difficulty in driving a Nieuport after my training on 
 the Bleriot. The Nieuport is much steadier and gives 
 you a Peeling of perfect safety. You can look all about 
 you without thinking much of the flying of the machine 
 and the sensation in volplaning down to a landing is 
 mueh the same as that you get in coming down in a 
 good elevator so far as stability is concerned; without 
 any of the queer reeling in your stomach that an ele- 
 vator gives you. As to smashes and injuries, as I 
 think I told you before, 1 have yet to see a ease where 
 the trouble was not caused either by the student- getting 
 rattled and not using his head, or by doing something 
 contrary to instructions. 
 
 The Nieuport lands much faster than (lie Bleriot 
 
 and although easier to do ordinary simple flying in, is 
 harden- to fly and land really well. The machine of 
 this type in use at the front has a plane area of only 15 
 metres. The wings are so small you hardly see how 
 they lift the weight. The reason of course is the high 
 speed. 
 
 You speak in your letter about, not being rash. 
 Taking chances to no purpose is of course foolish, but, 
 in a game of this kind one must act on the judgment of a 
 
 second and snap and dash are, I think', essential to suc- 
 cess. The nature of (lie work makes necessary what 
 to many people would seem rashness. Tn order to 
 attain real skill a military aviator docs many things 
 
20 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 that he would not do for the fun of it if he were learn- 
 ing to be a peaceful pilot. You of course know what 
 I mean and we both know that there is a great dif- 
 ference between this sort of thing and mere foolhardy 
 rashness. War is of course largely a matter of chances, 
 but in aviation it is a good rule, I think, never to take 
 a chance just, for the sport of the thing when there is 
 nothing to be gained by succeeding, and above all, 
 never do a stunt, etc., in a machine not intended for 
 that kind o( work. This is the way many splendid 
 
 flyers are killed and the way met his end. 
 
 A new student here who was at P at the time and 
 
 picked up 's remains, told me today that he 
 
 was killed because he attempted to loop the loop in a 
 machine which had been weakened by the many rough 
 landings made in it by students. One of the other men 
 
 had remarked the same morning that would 
 
 kill himself if he did not stop doing stunts in that 
 machine. It is the same way here, there are hundreds 
 o( machines perfectly safe for the ordinary straight 
 living that you are supposed to do, which would not be 
 expected to stand the acrobatic work such as is done in 
 the machines used at Pau. 
 
 Avord, June 21, 1017. 
 Am still here at Avord and owing to a couple of slight 
 mishaps it will probably be three or four days more 
 before I have finished up ami am on my way to Pau. 
 This Xtenport school is not as easy as it is cracked up 
 to be and the landing of this type of machine has proved 
 the most difficult thing for me so far. The machines 
 are heavy and fast and land in a totally different fashion 
 from the Bleriots on which we received our preliminary 
 
Nieupon training-plane on its nose. 
 
 Accldenl caused bj a wheel beina broken hv •, , • 
 
 Fiance rutin i<n- v Droicen i>.\ a rough landing, Avord, 
 
 off ' ' '■''• A " " m " nl tl > the author's skill or rlther lack 
 
IN THE SCHOOLS 21 
 
 training. If you do not get them on the ground prop- 
 erly, you are very likely to bounce, then a wheel 
 breaks when you come down again, the axle sticks in the 
 ground and the old boat turns turtle. Four or five 
 days ago I made a rough landing and in doing so must 
 have bent one of the wheels. I stopped the machine 
 and then started to roll along the ground from the land- 
 ing place to the starting point. After I had gone about 
 fifty yards, a wheel suddenly caved in and the machine 
 stood on its nose, breaking the propeller but that was 
 all. As we are of course belted in, all I had to do was to 
 unfasten the belt and slide out. I then proceeded to 
 take a picture of the machine as she stood on her 
 nose, a pretty monument to my prowess. When they 
 are done, I will send you one. This accident was due 
 to my not having sense enough to stop and see if every- 
 thing was all right after I had made the landing. 
 
 After that everything went all right for a couple of 
 days when I made another rough landing, the wheels 
 gave way and the next thing I knew the machine 
 turned a summersault and lit in the middle of its back. 
 As you are already on the ground when you perform 
 these stunts you cannot very well hurt yourself, but 
 not so the machine. 
 
 Mine was pretty well bunged up this time, while 
 nothing at all happened to me except a pair of barked 
 shins where I kicked the front of the gas tank. I 
 should say that at least sixty per cent, of the pupils in 
 the Nieuport School have the same thing happen to 
 them before they learn and the daily average of "Ca- 
 potages"* as the French call them, must certainly be 
 five machines out of about thirty on the field. I should, 
 
22 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 however, by using my head, have been one of those to 
 go through without a smash, especially after complet- 
 ing what is supposed to be the hardest part of the train- 
 ing, the Bleriot School, without difficulty. 
 
 Yesterday I made ten trips by myself again and think 
 I now have it. My difficulty was caused by trying to 
 cut the landings too fine for a beginner and should have 
 been avoided by the exercise of a little intelligence. 
 
 I am glad my troubles came here rather than at 
 Pau, for on what we do there, will depend largely 
 what kind of a machine we get later on and I am of 
 course anxious to get the best. 
 
 Pau. June 30, 1917. 
 The only thing I have done here so far in the way of 
 flying, is some vertical spirals, but in the course of 
 these I did some acrobatic stunts by mistake. In the 
 vertical spirals you are instructed to tip your machine 
 over sideways to an angle of about 75 or 80 degrees and 
 then by pulling up on your elevating planes (which by 
 reason of the vertical position of the machine, then 
 operate in the same way as the rudder when the ma- 
 chine is in its normal position i. e. as a horizontal con- 
 trol) to execute a close spiral. In doing this the ma- 
 chine follows a course much like a grain of shot would 
 if you put it in a bottle and caused it to run round the 
 side by moving the bottle rapidly in a circle. The first 
 time I tried this everything went all right, but the next 
 time, I pulled my elevating planes too soon before the 
 machine had tipped up enough. The result was that 
 the elevating planes were still performing their normal 
 functions and instead of doing a spiral, I did something 
 which resembled an irregular loop the loop. When the 
 
IN THE SCHOOLS 23 
 
 machine got up on her end and started to go over back- 
 wards and sideways, it naturally did not take me long 
 to guess that something was wrong. When you get 
 mixed up in a Nieuport, all you have to do is to put 
 your controls in the center and the machine soon be- 
 gins to dive head first for mother earth. It is then a 
 very simple matter to pull her up straight again. I 
 simply followed instructions and did this and the ma- 
 chine came out without the slightest difficulty. Started 
 in again on my spiral and did the same trick over 
 again, not realizing what I was doing wrong. After 
 that I flew along straight for a minute until I had time 
 to work out what was wrong and then did my spiral 
 all right and have done a number of others since. It 
 gives you a great deal of confidence and makes flying 
 much more pleasant, to find that you can do this kind 
 of thing so easily. One is of course always careful not 
 to try any unusual manoeuvres unless one is so high 
 that a fall of a couple of hundred metres more or less 
 will not make any difference. Provided you are high 
 enough you do not care much what the machine does 
 and it is a great comfort to begin to get the feeling 
 that no matter what happens you can come out right 
 side up. There is nothing the matter with my heart 
 I guess, as I purposely came down three thousand 
 metres in five minutes the other day and did not feel 
 it at all. 
 
 Plessis-Belleville. July 13, 1917. 
 
 I reached Plessis-Belleville last Sunday and am now 
 
 going in to Paris for the big celebration tomorrow on 
 
 Bastille Day. There is to be another grand parade of 
 
 all the allied troops like the one last year, but this year 
 
24 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 we hear that there will also be an American contingent. 
 Both Chadwick and 1 were offered the chance of flying 
 from Plessia to Paris tomorrow and circling over the 
 city at fche time of the parade as a part of the per- 
 formance, but as we had both received a permission 
 to go and see the parade, He, from the ground, we 
 declined the chance lo fly. 1 have seen Paris from the 
 Eiffel Towci- and it would not be much fun simply 
 flying over high in formation and then flying back to 
 Plessis again. There is much more of interest to see on 
 I he ground. 
 
 Plessis-Belleville is one of the great French distribut- 
 ing stations for pilots going to the front. We are sent 
 here for some further training which usually occupies 
 about two weeks. 1 have not had much further trouble 
 since" my smash at Avoid and was declared available 
 and ready for the front after three days at Plessis. 
 Chadwick and I are the next two pilots on the list and 
 we shall therefore probably be off to the front in three 
 or four days. 1 had hoped to remain longer at Plessis 
 and get in some more practice, but I am glad to get 
 through in one way as it will enable me to go in the 
 same escadrille* as Oliver Chadwick. He is the best 
 man 1 know in the organization and we get along very 
 well together. We asked to be put in the same squad- 
 ron as it would be rather lonely for one American to be 
 by himself in a French escadrille. To what escadrille 
 we shall be sent and io what section of the front, we 
 do not as yet know. The captain at Plessis said he 
 would put us together and we also hope to be able to 
 get M with us. 
 
 You will probably be surprised that I am going to 
 * Squadron. 
 
IN THE SCHOOLS 25 
 
 the front so soon. It is sooner than I had expected 
 but I am glad of the opportunity to fight with the 
 French, before we are transferred to the U. S. forces, 
 which I think will be soon. 
 
 Plessis-Belleville. July 15, 1917. 
 
 At last I have a little while in which to write you 
 something about what I have been doing lately. I am 
 not now really at Plessis, but am sitting in the garden 
 of an inn in the town of Ermenonville which is^about six 
 or seven kilometres from Plessis. Chadwick and I 
 strolled over here for lunch and have been writing some 
 letters ever since. The town is chiefly famous as the 
 place where Jean Jacques Rousseau died and is buried. 
 Also there are several fine chateaux nearby and a won- 
 derful big old estate called the "Domaine de Chalis." 
 There is the ruin of a beautiful old castle on it and the 
 place is now kept as a museum by the "Institut de 
 France." I would like to know something of its his- 
 tory, but have not been able to discover anything as 
 yet. The grounds are very beautiful and have the 
 most complete system of artificial ponds and lakes. 
 They are now so old that you would never know that 
 they were artificial, were it not for the way in which 
 they are connected up at different levels. Chadwick 
 and I took a long walk through the place the other day. 
 
 I have spent considerable time in walking about the 
 country in the various places where I have been. 
 Physical health is of course of prime importance in 
 this business and I think the time is well spent. I 
 have also spent a good deal of time in another way 
 which I do not think nearly as profitable, namely, in 
 keeping a diary. I bought a good sized one as soon as 
 
26 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 l arrived and have kept it faithfully ever since. I 
 think a diary in which one merely puis down in out- 
 line what <>nc docs each day, is very tiresome both for 
 the keeper and anyone who might afterwards look at 
 it. There should certainly l>c included Borne thoughts 
 on various topics as they arise, but to keep such a 
 diary which [sat all complete, involves the expenditure 
 of a greal deal of time, and also a great deal of repeti- 
 tion of what 1 write home to you in my letters. It 
 seems to me that it will l>c better to write more letters 
 
 home, and if they arc fairly complete and you save 
 
 them, they will Berve the purpose of a diary. From 
 (his day henceforth therefore, no more diary, When 1 
 
 get to t ho front and am flying every day, 1 shall have 
 
 even less spare time than l have now and l prefer to 
 spend it learning how to get the Boohe. 1 would like 
 
 to make myself proficient enough to warm up a few o\' 
 Kaiser Bill's aviators without having them o\o the same 
 
 to me. Better a live aviator with a whole skin than a 
 dead one with a complete diary. 
 
 Pan was greal fun and a most delightful place. You 
 will soon have the postals 1 sent which will show you 
 what the country is like better than I could describe it. 
 One afternoon just before I left, I was up 2800 metres 
 
 with two other machines, doing some "vol de groupe"* 
 
 work. Down below there was a ha.e which allowed 
 you to see the ground under you very well, but which 
 in the distance appeared solid. We were just at the 
 top oi the base and the air above was as clear as crystal 
 and freezing cold. Fifty kilometres away rose- the 
 towering snow covered peaks of the Pyrenees, but they 
 appeared very close in the clear thin air. The ha.-.e 
 
 * IVrmntion iking. 
 
IN THE SCHOOLS 27 
 
 completely hid all the lower portions of the mount: iij is 
 and as this haze in the distance very much resembles 
 water, it seemed exactly as though one w;is in a boat 
 looking at a chain of rocky islands rising out of a win- 
 ter sea. A very fine sight, but .'is one is within 60 
 metres of several other machines in vol de groupe, 
 and as it is necessary to maintain that relative posi- 
 tion, one has not a great deal of time to be gaping at 
 the scenery. This kind of work is good fun and of 
 
 Course very important, as machines no Longer go out 
 alone at the front except in the case of a few very skil- 
 ful and experienced pilots. The flying is generally in 
 
 groups of four or five, the reason being both for the pro- 
 tection of the hunters and to make surer of the hunted. 
 The idea seems to he to try to find one machine by itself 
 or to manoeuvre one of a group until it is out of I ouch 
 with its fellows, and then the whole ^an^ jumps on tin; 
 
 one unfortunate "isoleV * Hardly seems a square 
 
 deal, hut after all, the aim is to put as many of the other 
 fellow's machines out of business as possible* The 
 vol de groupe work at Pau was done on Nieuporls of 
 a type now in use at the front, having 15 sq. metres of 
 
 wing surface, no II. J*, motor and making a little better 
 
 than 100 miles per hour. The Nieuports here at 1 lef ifl 
 are of the same type. I have also been flying a good 
 deal here in the 140 EL J'. Spad which makes a little 
 better than 115 miles per hour. The new 200 H. 1*. 
 Spad of which there are not as yet a great many at the' 
 front, makes ahout 125 miles per hour, which is moving 
 aIon<r pretty lively. 
 
 I am enclosing you a letter which ( 'hadwick wrote me 
 when he was at Pau and 1 was still at Avord. It will 
 * Solitary machine. 
 
28 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 bell you something of the work there. The monitor 
 whoso death he mentions killed himself doing a quick 
 turn olose to the ground. Be slipped off on a wing 
 and struck before he could right himself. The great 
 danger to the experts is that they get to dunking there 
 is nothing they cannot do. I make a practice of never 
 doing anything out of the ordinary until 1 am at least 
 
 ■100 metres lip and hop* 4 to be able to force myself to 
 keep (his rule. Then if any I lung goes wrong you 
 can fall a couple of hundred metres without getting 
 
 into trouble. We have young pilots here who try to 
 
 show off by doing queer things just as they are rising. 
 
 They remind me of the "expert" shot, who nourishes 
 a gun about his head and Looks down the muzzle. 
 The two types are about the same and are riding for a 
 fall sooner or later. 
 
 After finishing the Spiral work at Pan we did five 
 
 hours of vol de groupe ami then went io the class of 
 acrobacy. When you arrive at the acrobacy hangars, 
 
 the head mechanic greets you with a board on which 
 is a long list of lines to be paid by the pilots for the 
 benefit Of the mechanics. For instance bad landing 
 50 centimes; landing the machine on its back. 3 francs; 
 completely wrecking a machine , r ) francs; putting your 
 
 lunch in the machine, 1 franc; and many others. I 
 caused loud shouts of glee by inadvertently (?) sitting 
 in the monitor's special rocking chair from which he 
 watches the acrobacy. This was chalked up at 1 franc, 
 but was all they got against me I am glad to say. We 
 only got about one hour of acrobacy at Pan, three 
 Bights of about 20 minutes each. The monitor first 
 puts you in a machine on the ground, tells you what to 
 do in order to perform the various evolutions, makes 
 
IN TEE SCHOOLS 29 
 
 you go through the motions, and then sends you up to 
 perform while everybody else stands around on the 
 ground and watches. The machines in this class are 
 in the finest possible condition so as to avoid as much 
 as possible the danger of breaking from undue strains 
 put upon them by green pilots learning to do the 
 stunts. The wing surface; is only 13 sq. metres and 
 they are I think the smallest biplane in existence. The 
 Nieuports at the front have 15 sq. metres and the Spad 
 more still. The 13 metre handles very quickly and 
 having such small wings is less subject to strain and 
 breaking. 
 
 The first thing we had to do was the much talked of 
 " voile." The English call it a nose spin and the Ameri- 
 cans a tail spin. You shut off the motor, put the 
 machine into a loss of speed, throw all the controls to 
 one side and it starts falling head first at the same time 
 spinning very rapidly. The nose of the plane turns 
 almost as though on a pivot while the; tail describes 
 circles. The machine falls vertically but does not spin 
 vertically on its nose, on the contrary, as it turns, its 
 directional axis makes an an^l* 1 of about seventy de- 
 grees with the normal line of flight of the plane when 
 flying level. To straighten out you simply put your 
 controls in the centre, the machine stops spinning and 
 dives straight for the ground and it is then very easy 
 to pull it up straight and put on the motor. The vrille 
 is very spectacular but in reality is extremely simple. 
 The pilot does a few simple things which are hard to 
 do wrong, and the machine does the rest. Simple as 
 the manoeuvre is, it has been the cause of a great many 
 deaths, but there is no excuse for so many men being 
 killed in doing their first vrille. The reason seems to 
 
80 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 be that they hear other green pilots talking .about it 
 until it gets on their nerves and then when they have 
 started to do the vrille, they get excited and forget 
 
 what tO do in order to OOme out. [f you do not put 
 
 your controls in the centre the machine will keep on 
 vrilling until i1 hits the ground. I have personally 
 
 seen .several ninehines fall this way and the men were 
 always killed. 
 
 'The vrille got its had name in the early days of fly- 
 ing, for the old-type machines, once in one, would not 
 
 as a rule come out QO mat ha- what the pilot did. As a. 
 matter o( fact there Is nothing hard or dangerous about 
 it in a strong modern machine. If you have the motor 
 running open VOU can only do a vrille for a very short 
 time for you will soon get spinning si> fast that the 
 
 wings will tear off. 'This frequently happens when a 
 
 pilot is killed in a light. "With the motor off or slowed 
 
 down all the way, a ii,ood machine will vrille indefinitely 
 
 without breaking. All young pilots should I think bo 
 taught how \o go into and come out o( a vrille before 
 attempting any other forms o( aerobacy, for in at- 
 tempting to do some other stunt they will often get 
 
 mixed up and unintentionally tall into a vrille. If 
 
 however they already know how to do a vrille they 
 will realise it the instant their machine starts into 
 one and will be able to straighten out without ditlieulty. 
 
 The afternoon l arrived at Pan a French lieutenant 
 
 evidently lost his head with the result that he started 
 his vrille at 1500 metres and only ended it when he hit 
 the ground, losing his life also. A machine in a vrille 
 looks very much like a leaf falling off a tree. When 
 you come out headed for the ground you are of course 
 going very fast, much faster than the machine would 
 
IN THE SCHOOLS 31 
 
 fly on the level. The second time I tried it I thought 
 I would try and count how many turns I made, and 
 therefore got my eye on a big clump of woods under 
 me. I counted the first time all right, but after that 
 she went around so fast that the woods began to look 
 like the blades of an electric fan, i. e., all woods, so I 
 gave up that count as a bad job. Have done a num- 
 ber of others since and it is really very good fun. In 
 the Spad you fall just as fast but do not twist so quickly, 
 
 so that the sensation is pleasanter. A new pilot doing 
 
 his first vrille is told to start it at 1500 metres, keep his 
 eye on his altimetre, and come out after he has fallen 
 200 metres. This gives him lots of time to try again 
 if he does not get his controls in the centre the first 
 time. 
 
 The other things we had to do were vertical "vir- 
 ages," * which look easy but are in reality much the 
 hardest of all to do properly; "renvcrsements," f and 
 "tournants." J 
 
 To execute a renvcrsement you pull your machine up 
 a little into a climbing angle, put all your controls 
 hard to the side on which you wish to turn and at the 
 same time shut down the motor. This causes the 
 machine to turn sharply over sideways and brings it 
 out on its nose but facing in the opposite direction. 
 You then open up the motor and level the machine 
 out agaill by pulling in on your elevating controls. 
 The result is the quickest possible; way in which to 
 make a 180 degree turn. If you begin by pulling the 
 
 plane up at an angle of 15 degrees from the horizontal 
 
 you will be slightly on your back just after the turn, 
 the turn being made both on the lateral and the dircc- 
 
 * Turns. | Iinnnlniaiiu LuriiH. J Barrel rolls. 
 
82 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 tional a\is o\' the machine, that is to say sideways and 
 not over baokwards as in the loop. The same ma- 
 noeuvre may be carried out without tirst, pulling the 
 plane into a olimbing angle but will in this case result 
 in the loss of about fifty metres of height. By olimb- 
 ing a little first or "looming," as it is called in aviation 
 alangj a renversement may be executed with the loss of 
 little or no altitude. 
 
 To do a tournant the controls arc handled in much 
 the same way as for the renversement but the movement 
 of them is accentuated and instead of straightening out 
 after turning L80 degrees, you allow the machine to 
 make a complete turn, rolling over on its back and then 
 continuing right side up in its original direction, Both 
 
 the tournant ami the renversement may be done With- 
 out slowing down the motor all the way and when done 
 
 with the motor on are quicker and prettier to look at 
 but they are also harder to control si> exactly and 
 Subject the machine to a good ileal of strain which 
 seems unnecessary. 
 
 As they would only give us about an hour of acro- 
 baoy in all at Pan, we had no time to do more than try 
 each manoeuvre out a few times and see how it should 
 lie done. Since then 1 have had another hour and a 
 half oi aorobacy here in the Spad and have learned to 
 execute some o( the stunts properly but am still in need 
 o( a great deal of practice. The machines here how- 
 ever are old ones which have been sent back to be 
 used up. being no longer tit for service at the front. 
 It is therefore not safe to do anything but ordinary 
 flying in them as the wings will not stand it. You can 
 see the ends of the wings wobbling with the vibrations 
 of the motor in some of them. When we get to the 
 
IN THE SCHOOLS 33 
 
 front and have our own machine, a new one in fine con- 
 dition, there will then be a chance to do a lot more 
 
 practising. There is only one Spud hero on which we 
 are allowed to do acrobacy and as there are a good 
 many pilots, one (Joes not often get a chance to use it. 
 Personally I shall be glad to get to the front where I 
 shall always have my own machine and become thor- 
 oughly familiar with it. There is always of course a 
 certain amount of danger from school machines which 
 an; being continually abused by green pilots. By the 
 time you get this letter, however, my schooling will 
 all be behind me and I shall have been several weeks at 
 the front. There is where the real schooling begins. 
 You can fly to your heart's content and do all the 
 practising you want and I hope to get in a great deal 
 before taking on any Boches. 
 
 I told you that they refused to let me go to the 
 machine gun school at Cazau. After Chad wick was 
 there, an order came down from the colonel in com- 
 mand of the schools, directing that no more pilots wen; 
 to go to Cazau. His reason was that the school is 
 intended for the training of aeroplane mitrailleurs* who 
 shoot from the two-seater machines with movable guns, 
 and is only amusing, but not beneficial, for pilots who 
 are to use a fixed gun on a one-seater. " I don't agree 
 with him on this and neither do the U. S. aviation offi- 
 cers with whom I have talked, but "orders is orders." 
 It is just as important to know where to shoot with a 
 fixed gun in order to hit a moving mark, as it is with a 
 movable gun. Also it seems to me of the greatest 
 importance to know in what position is it most difficult 
 for the other fellow to shoot you. A great deal of our 
 
 * Macliinc-guunern. 
 
34 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 work will consist in attacking two-seater machines and 
 the harder the shot you can give your opponent, the 
 better. We got a little machine gun work at Pau on 
 t In" ground, aiul here I have so far had four flights of 
 about fifteen minutes each, shooting at a round spot 
 of sand on the ground, with a machine gun from a 
 Nieuport, The small fast chasse machines, one of 
 which I shall have at the front, are all one-seaters in 
 the French army and your machine gun is fixed. I 
 think the French make a great mistake in giving so 
 little shooting practice io their pilots and that it is 
 very poor economy to hurry up a man's training 
 by cutting down on such an important part of it. Once 
 we reach our escadrille at the front, however, I think 
 we will be given a good ileal of additional training. 
 
 This is about everything there is to tell you with re- 
 gard to the training both here and at Pau. Chadwick 
 and I are now merely awaiting our orders and getting 
 in as much work as we can in the meantime. They 
 are evidently holding us until they can put us together 
 in the same escadrille as we asked. 1 now speak enough 
 French to carry on an ordinary conversation and ex- 
 pect to have little difficulty with it after one month 
 where I shall speak practically nothing else. 
 
 Do not worry about me just because I am at the 
 front instead of still in the schools. As I told you in my 
 last letter, two-thirds of the deaths in the French avia- 
 tion at Plessis and the front, i. c, in the wax zone, dur- 
 ing the month of May. were from accident. You would 
 not wonder at this if you could see the extraordinary 
 things some of the French pilots do. Two poor fellows 
 fell in a Farman and were burned to a crisp the day I 
 reached here, just because the pilot did something in 
 
IN THE SCHOOLS 35 
 
 utter defiance of all the rules of flying. He pulled his 
 machine up until it lost its speed and naturally he fell; 
 although he righted her again about thirty metres 
 from the ground, he then proceeded to make the same 
 mistake over again and when the machine struck the 
 ground she immediately went up in flames. Even after 
 he saw he was going to smash, if he had had presence 
 of mind enough to cut off his motor, there would proba- 
 bly have been no fire. Over and over again I have 
 seen machines smashed to bits, but as the pilot cut off 
 his motor first, no fire resulted. 
 
 When a man does in aviation what the Farman pilot 
 I mentioned above did, he might just as well take an 
 automobile and run it head first into a wall or off a 
 bridge and expect not to be hurt. I should say at a 
 guess that the deaths in the French schools at least 
 equal those at the front and more pilots kill them- 
 selves needlessly than the Germans ever shoot. No 
 Americans have been killed in the schools since I came 
 over and the Frenchmen who come to untimely ends 
 by accident, are usually officers who are either too old 
 or otherwise unadapted to aviation. There seem to be 
 a good many students of this kind who are given a 
 chance at aviation, as a reward of merit, but who are 
 totally incapable of being made into good pilots. 
 
 I mentioned above the Frenchman who fell in a 
 vrille the day I reached Pau. Two days later we all 
 got "repos"* in the afternoon in order to attend his 
 funeral. All the pilots in the school and a large num- 
 ber of mechanicians marched behind the hearse through 
 the streets of Pau, in the regulation French military 
 funeral. This man happened to be a Protestant and 
 * Leave. 
 
36 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 after the service in the church, we all marched on again 
 to the cemetery. In the church two soldiers in full 
 uniform, steel helmets and fixed bayonets, stood guard 
 on each side of the casket during the reading of the 
 service. At the grave, after the minister had finished, 
 the captain of the school made quite a long speech and 
 was in turn followed by some old duffer who repre- 
 sented some Order of which I could not discover the 
 name. This seemed to me pretty trying on the de- 
 ceased's two sisters and brother, the only members of 
 his family present, but the rest of the proceeding was 
 even worse. These two poor women, who seemed com- 
 pletely broken up and were sobbing continuously, first 
 had a long walk through the streets after their brother's 
 body and then, after he had been laid in the vault, they 
 stood side by side under a nearby shed while about 
 sixty pilots and instructors lined up and filing past, 
 shook each by the hand. It may seem a strange com- 
 parison, but the hand shaking reminded me of a crowd 
 of wedding guests filing past the bride and groom. It 
 must be an ordeal for the family at such a time and it 
 is hard to see what comfort such a formality can be to 
 anyone in trouble. 
 
 There was one other acrobatic stunt we learned at 
 Pau which I did not tell you about and that is what is 
 known as a wing slip. You put the machine sideways 
 in a vertical position with the motor running at about 
 two-thirds of its normal speed in order to prevent the 
 plane from turning on its nose and diving. With the 
 aid of the motor and by manipulating the controls, 
 you can then make the machine fall sideways and it at 
 the same time goes forward due to the pull of the 
 motor. I generally start this manoeuvre by bracing 
 
IN THE SCHOOLS 37 
 
 one shoulder under the edge of the body alongside of 
 my seat. Otherwise when you turn her to 90°, you 
 fall up against the side and your belt is the only 
 thing that holds you. Also sometimes she slips over 
 a little on her back and you get an unpleasant sensa- 
 tion of commencing to fall out although of course the 
 belt would only let you leave the seat a few inches. 
 The greatest possible speed can be attained in this way 
 as the wings offer practically no resistance to the air 
 and the only thing holding you back is the wind re- 
 sistance against the side of the body of the machine. 
 It is in this wing slip that you get a real impression of 
 speed and you certainly do travel. The wind whistles 
 through the wires and you fall a thousand feet in an 
 incredibly short time. A conservative estimate of 
 the speed would be I think 200 miles an hour, at least 
 as fast as a man would fall through the air and infinitely 
 faster than any machine will fly on the level. To 
 come out of a wing slip you simply dive in the same 
 direction that you are falling and then pull up straight. 
 The stunt may of course be varied by slipping at a 
 more gradual angle instead of coming down vertically 
 and in this modified form is sometimes used as a means 
 of losing height preparatory to landing. 
 
 I don't think it will take me long to settle down to 
 the law again when the war is over. This sort of thing 
 makes you appreciate the blessings of home and I 
 shall be so glad to get back, that it will take quite 
 some war to get me away again. 
 
 Plessis-Belleville. July 24, 1917. 
 We have just received our orders for which we have 
 been waiting and Oliver and I leave to-morrow for the 
 
38 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 front. We have both been ready to go for the past ten 
 days, but they have been holding us up for some rea- 
 son or other. We asked to be sent out together and 
 our request was granted and I am also glad to say that 
 we are being sent to the crack group of the French 
 army, the one in which Guynemer and many other 
 famous French aces are. It looks also as though we 
 were going to get Spads, the best chasse machine that 
 the French have. It is of course a single-seater com- 
 bat machine. I do not know whether we shall be in 
 the same escadrille with Guynemer or not, but do 
 imi believe so, as his is supposed to be the best 
 escadrille in the service and I should hardly think 
 that they would take in a couple of green-horns. A 
 "groupe de combat" comprises four escadrilles. We 
 are in the same group with the cracks, but I do not 
 know what escadrille we shall be assigned to. Our 
 location will be along the north coast near Dunkirk. 
 Unless all the omens fail there is going to be quite a 
 bit of excitement in that region very shortly and we 
 are very lucky to have an opportunity to get in it. 
 
ESCADRILLM N. 73 
 
Insignia of Escadrille N. 73 
 
Bergues. July 28, 1917. 
 
 Just arrived at the front today and am in Escadrille 
 N. 73, Groupe de Combat 12. The group is otherwise 
 known as "Le Groupe Brocard" after its famous com- 
 mander Brocard, who is one of the great French air- 
 men. One of the escadrilles of the group is N. 3, more 
 generally known as "Les Cigognes" or "The Storks" 
 when translated into English. The name comes from 
 their insignia, a stork painted on the sides of the fuse- 
 lage* of each machine, and this squadron is easily the 
 best known in the French aviation. The whole group 
 carries the stork as its insignia, the bird being placed 
 in different positions to distinguish the several esca- 
 drilles, and consequently the entire group is often re- 
 ferred to as "Les Cigognes." The original "Cigognes," 
 however, which has gained such a wide reputation, is 
 Escadrille N. 3. 
 
 This group is the most famous fighting one in the army 
 and admittedly the best, so you can see that Chadwick 
 and I were very lucky to get in it. It contains more 
 famous fighting pilots than any of the other French 
 flying units, one in particular Guynemer, who has to 
 date brought down about 48 Boches officially and many 
 more unofficially. To count on a man's record, a 
 victory has to be seen and reported by two French 
 observers on the ground or some such rule as this, so that 
 a Boche shot down far behind the lines where no one 
 but his comrades see him fall, does not help a pilot's 
 total. Last evening Guynemer got one 25 kilometres 
 in the German territory and as I sit here on the aero- 
 
 * Body. 
 41 
 
42 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 drome he has just gotten into his machine and started 
 off for the lines in search of another victim. 
 
 Chadwick and I and two other Americans who came 
 with us, are the first Americans to be sent to this 
 group. An escadrille or squadron in the French ser- 
 vice numbers about fifteen pilots and machines. We 
 are indeed fortunate to get in this crack group, but as 
 it has suffered rather heavily lately, they had to fill 
 up, and so we got our chance. This morning the 
 captain of one of the escadrilles * was killed and our 
 own chief f was shot down with three bullets in his 
 back but will pull through all right. He was shot down 
 last night also, but only his machine was damaged. 
 He went up again this morning and while attacking one 
 Boche, another got him from behind. He has 17 
 Boches to his credit officially, so I guess he is entitled 
 to the rest that his wounds will give him. The cap- 
 tain who was killed had gotten seven German machines 
 officially, so we are sort of out of luck to-day, losing 
 two such good men. It seems to come in bunches that 
 way for some reason or other. 
 
 It looks as though I shall see lots of service and have 
 a chance to learn a great deal before the time conies to 
 transfer to the U. S. Army, if it does come. We hope 
 to be able to stay where we are for a considerable 
 length of time and that we shall not be forced to leave 
 this French unit before we have learned a lot more 
 about military aviation and have been able to make 
 some return for all the training that we have received. 
 This group is usually, like the Foreign Legion, moved 
 
 * Captain Auger of Escadrille N. 3. 
 
 t Captain (then Lieutenant) Deullin, originally of Escadrille N. 3, 
 but at this time commanding Escadrille N. 73. 
 
aptai 
 
 ges < myn 
 
 Taken at St. Pol-sur-Mer near Dunkirk, France, in September, I'M?, 
 short!} before his death. Captain Guynemer, who was af this time 
 i in- French ace of aces, Is standing In our of the hangars of his squad- 
 ron with his machine "Vieus Charles" showing In the background. 
 The machine is dismantle I for repairs. 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 43 
 
 about to the particular locality in which there is going 
 to be an attack, so we shall see plenty of action. It 
 was for instance at the battles of Verdun and the Somme 
 and it seems that it is usually in the thick of it. For 
 this reason it is obvious that I shall not be able to tell 
 you where I am and must be very careful what I write. 
 Since beginning this letter I have been talking to one 
 of the officers about the censorship and have, as you 
 will notice, been doing some censoring on my own 
 account. No details that could possibly be of any mili- 
 tary importance, so you will have to be content with 
 much briefer and more general letters than I have been 
 writing heretofore. 
 
 You will be glad to know that I got a S.P.A.D.* 
 machine, the kind I hoped to get. Also I shall have 
 a chance to do a good deal more practising before 
 starting in in earnest. The officers are as usual very 
 nice and willing to help in any way they can. We 
 get a great deal of advice and information here which 
 I have been anxious to get from the beginning. When 
 the time comes to make our first trip in search of a 
 real live Boche, we ought to feel able to give him some 
 sort of a run for his money. Here's hoping that my 
 first adversary is a young pilot like myself. Should 
 hate to bump into a German ace for a starter. 
 
 Bergues, July 29, 1917. 
 Guynemer came back from his sortie last night 
 having sent one more Boche to his happy hunting 
 grounds in flames. This wonderful French pilot seems 
 absolutely untiring and his skill must be something un- 
 canny. Approximately 50 Boche officially means about 
 
 * Society Pour l'Aviation et ses Derives. 
 
44 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 75 machines brought down altogether, and as most of 
 his victims have been two-seaters, this represents I 
 suppose something like 125 German pilots and ma- 
 chine gunners, observers, etc, disposed of by one 
 Frenchman. You can imagine how much nerve, skill 
 and endurance it bakes to accomplish this feat and live 
 to tell the tale. 1 was much surprised when I saw 
 him for the first time. He is small and very slight, 
 
 more like cousin T than anyone else I can think of 
 
 whom we know, indeed ho looks something like him. 
 lie is L"2 years old and without question the greatest 
 individual fighter (his war has produced. There are 
 many things about him which T should like to tell you 
 but which I am at present forbidden to talk about and 
 which will therefore have to wait until later on when 
 they are still interesting but no longer of military im- 
 portance. 
 
 It is quite a sight toseeabunch of the "Storks" start- 
 ing o\'\' at crack of dawn for a Sight over the lines, or 
 to See them coming home to roost, at dusk. One sees 
 
 here probably (lie finest flying in the world and it will 
 be a, great advantage to us young ones, who as yet are 
 not real pilots by a long shot, to be able to watch these 
 men work who really know the game. One is naturally 
 anxious to get started, but 1 shall take your advice and 
 go easy until 1 feel able to take care ot myself. As you 
 say, rashness only results in throwing yourself away to 
 QO purpose and foolhardiness is certainly no essential 
 of bravery. As far as one can discover, the most 
 successful men have been those who have known when 
 not to sail in and take too great chances. 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 45 
 
 BerguBS, July 30, 1917. 
 Our machines have not yet arrived and we shall 
 probably have to wait some little time longer, so 
 Chadwick and I have as yet done no flying since reach- 
 ing the front. There is however plenty to do in the 
 way of studying so the time does not hang heavily on 
 our hands. There are maps of the locality to learn, 
 types of Bochc machines to familiarize oneself with and 
 all kinds of things like this to keep one fully occupied. 
 It is however irritating to be so near the scene of action 
 and yet so far. When I was in the schools I used to 
 think that I would wish I was back home again when 
 the time came to go out over the lines. Maybe I still 
 shall feel that way and my present enthusiasm is 
 merely due to my excessive greenness. Just now, 
 however, with the big guns roaring all day and all 
 night in the distance and all of our companions in the 
 fray except a few of us new ones who have no machines 
 as yet, it makes you wish you could go out and get 
 in it. The guns sound like distant thunder. We arc 
 too far away to hear any but the big ones, but the ex- 
 plosions remind me more than anything else of the 
 noise made by the paddle wheels of a steamer on the 
 river on a quiet evening. You know how they sound 
 in the distance as each blade hits the water. The 
 noise of the guns has of course no such regular time as 
 the sound of the paddle wheels, but the shots are 1 
 should say, considerably closer together than the blows 
 of the paddles on the water. Remember that this 
 represents only the big guns and that we are too far 
 away to hear the 75's at all, and you will get some idea 
 of how much fun the Bochcs are having at the other end 
 where the projectiles are falling on their blessed heads. 
 
40 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 We are very comfortably housed hero in a big tent 
 and "everything in the garden is lovely" except the 
 mosquitoes, which are quite numerous and at least 
 three times the size of Jersey's best. They are the 
 first 1 have struck bo far in France, but they arc making 
 up for lost time* They are honestly half as big as 
 what we call a mosquito hawk and have a beak like a 
 great blue heron. The first one I saw I mistook for 
 one. One bit me on the right eye-lid the first night 
 and T could hardly get my eye open in the morning. 
 Then another one, who evidently saw me and had his 
 eye Tor symmetry shocked by the sight, bit me on the 
 other eye-lid the next night, so that yesterday my eyes 
 about matched. Last night I fooled them by sleeping 
 
 with my head under the covers and to-day my visage 
 does not quite so nearly resemble the morning after a 
 prize-fight. 
 
 A funny thing happened here a couple of days ago 
 while Some of the men were practising bomb dropping 
 at a target on (he living field. The Spad can be fitted 
 to carry a couple of small twenty-pound bombs which 
 are dropped from a low altitude on (roons and convoys 
 on the roads behind the enemy linos. The bombs in 
 question were tilled simply with a small bursting charge 
 and some stuff thai would make a smoke, so that the 
 aviator could see where they fell. One fellow let one 
 go from about 3500 feci, but he had waited too long 
 and it landed on a road within six feet of an English 
 "Tommy" who was taking a quiet stroll. If it had 
 
 ever hit him it would have pushed him out of sight. 
 Everybody thought it a huge joke except the 
 "Tommy," who was bored io death (or almost) ami 
 could not see anything funny about it. It is amusing 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 7:5 47 
 
 to note the difference in the popular attitude towards 
 such an episode, here and at home. With us the result 
 would probably have been a law suit and a long argu- 
 ment on the legal theory of injury resulting from 
 fright alone without physical contact. 
 
 You will be glad to hear that my commander, 
 Commandant Broeard, seems from what little I have 
 seen of him, to be the finest French officer I have yet 
 met. lie is a real man himself and takes that personal 
 interest in the welfare and ability of his men, which 
 means so much. It is quite evident that he means his 
 men to know their business thoroughly before he sends 
 them out. 
 
 I think Aunt K might like this place. My tent 
 
 is in a field next to some farm buildings and the pasture 
 is full of horses, cows, and three or four big fat sows. 
 The latter are very inquisitive and vvcry now and (hen 
 try to come in and pay us a visit, but a heavy army 
 shoe, well placed in the spare ribs, generally results in 
 indignant grunts and a hasty withdrawal. We came 
 in one day to find them all asleep in our tent. One 
 old lady had her head in my suitcase where I keep my 
 clean linen. She had first pushed open the lid and 
 eaten a supply of chocolate I had secreted then;. My 
 laundry bill the following week amounted to twelve 
 francs. We also have a large supply of dogs who travel 
 with us. Five fat puppies run about the kitchen- 
 dining-room tent and lick the plates and pots and pans. 
 One is called "Spad" and another "( 'ontart," the latter- 
 being the French expression meaning "throw on the 
 switch of a motor." The other names I have not yet 
 mastered. 
 
 At each advance in my training the food has im- 
 
48 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 proved until here it is first rate. As for my health, it 
 has never been better, and my spirits are excellent. 
 The work is interesting and I try to make it a rule to 
 do little thinking about what I might be doing if it 
 were not for this damn war. Do not worry if my letters 
 are irregular as the censorship is now severe and will, 
 I fear, subject the mails to long delays. 
 
 Beroues, August 10, 1917. 
 
 Have at last had a couple of flights over the lines 
 and will try to tell you something about it, but in such 
 general terms that the censor will not object. After 
 almost incessant rain, fog, and very low clouds for ten 
 days, it has finally cleared up enough in the last two 
 days to allow the machines to go out for at least a part 
 of each day. Yesterday morning I had my first trip 
 out over the Boche lines and as the patrol of which I 
 was a part, was quite a low one, I could see the whole 
 show and you never saw such a mess in your life. At 
 times we were as low as S00 metres and on our way home 
 went down to GOO metres over the artillery where we 
 could plainly see and hear the guns blazing away. 
 Higher up, one can see the gun flashes, but the noise 
 of one's motor drowns the sound of the shots. 
 
 I do not think there is much use in trying to describe 
 what the battlefields look like. They beggar descrip- 
 tion, and you can get a clearer idea from the pic- 
 tures in the "Illustrated London News." The ground 
 about the trenches and in fact the country for several 
 miles en each side of the lines, reminds me more of 
 some of these swamps which had been burnt over by a 
 forest fire, which we saw on the way in to the Rangeley 
 Lakes in Maine, than anything else I can think of. 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 49 
 
 I know nothing else which gives an idea of the utter 
 waste and destruction. The ground itself looks much 
 like one of those hard lumps you sometimes find on the 
 river shore which resemble a petrified sponge, or per- 
 haps a piece of slag from an iron foundry, or again a 
 photograph of the craters on the moon. For miles 
 the shell holes are so close that they merge, and the 
 earth is chewed up until the surface also somewhat 
 resembles the top of a bowl of stiff oatmeal. Every 
 little village and farm house is a wreck, the roofs, where 
 any are left, are full of shell holes; but a few fragments 
 of walls represent what is left of most of them. Some 
 of the larger towns are just a dark smudge with a 
 gutted ruin sticking up here and there. 
 
 This morning I went out on a patrol at daylight, a 
 couple of thousand metres up this time, and the sight 
 which greeted us as we approached the lines I shall 
 never forget. It was much more remarkable than 
 yesterday from a spectacular point of view. The sun 
 was not yet up and the flashes from the guns, which 
 you can see even in broad daylight, were very brilliant 
 in the early dawn. There was quite a lively bombard- 
 ment going on and the guns made me think of the fire- 
 flies on the lawn at home of a hot summer night, and I 
 might say that I have never seen the fireflies thicker. 
 This from our guns behind our own lines and the Boche 
 fireflies at work further on but not so numerous. 
 Over it all the drifting smoke of the battle and above, 
 all the way from 1000 to 5000 metres, flocks of planes 
 circling about. Scattered about the planes the little 
 puffs of smoke from the shells of the anti-aircraft guns 
 of each side shooting at the other fellows' birds. Some 
 kilometres behind the lines on each side a row of 
 
rut' w \\ OF i"ii I-* (CAOl m 
 
 ■tw !.•, i i!>. ob .-i\:ih.ui Kill, «. Mr. mi.- .\tlh-il. float 
 in. 1 i tl\ :ii ill.' .ii.l I .'I ill, -u I, mi.-. i.Mh.M'. \il,l (,> 
 
 m one i.i.- :ui,i (Ur moon Mid i 
 
 ..i 01) UlQ .mIum. :uul \ ,mi 
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52 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 the roads. It is remarkable to see the fields cultivated 
 right up to the blasi ed area and many of them with a 
 good sprinkling of shell holes. There is one town,* 
 the name of which I had often seen in the communiqu6s 
 before I left home, which lies in the centre of the 
 area over which we patrol. It was I suppose half the 
 size of Andalusia village, but like all little French 
 towns the houses were set quite close together as in a 
 city. This place appeared on my map and although I 
 thought I had the spot exactly located and searched 
 carefully from only five hundred metres above it, I 
 could find no trace of it. I asked a Frenchman and 
 he explained the mystery by saying that it had been 
 entirely blown off the map. There is absolutely no 
 trace of it left that can be distinguished from the sur- 
 rounding country. Even several macadamized roads 
 which ran through it, are blown out of existence. Since 
 the recent heavy rains it is often difficult to tell a 
 trench line from a brook, and every shell hole is full 
 of water. The ground reminds me also of the mud 
 flat next to the wharf at Andalusia after we boys had 
 been throwing a lot of rocks in it. The poor devils in 
 the trenches must have a nice comfortable time of it. 
 
 Julian Biddle arrived yesterday and has been as- 
 signed to this escadrille. He had been sent to another 
 group in a different locality, but asked to be sent here 
 so as to be with me and they granted his request. I 
 am glad he got here. He should make a good pilot. 
 
 You speak about the time when I shall write you an 
 account of my first fight. That will probably not be 
 for some time to come. We are at first given work 
 which is least likely to get us into a real hot aerial battle 
 
 * Bixschoote. 
 
A J »: i < I smash. 
 
 The pllo< escaped with a few cuts and minus a few teeth. Wreck of an Eng 
 lish Hopwlth c: i hcouI machine al si. Pol sur Mer, August, 1917. 
 
 Uned hi> for review 
 
 .I plane of E cadrille X. 7::. 
 
 Vu I •:. I'll . 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 53 
 
 and are instructed to keep out of them as much as 
 possible for the time being until we become more pro- 
 ficient and accustomed to the work. Of course if a 
 comrade was attacked and having trouble one could 
 not well stand around and watch him get shot up. 
 Young pilots do not however go on excursions far into 
 the Boche territory looking for trouble the way some 
 of the old hands do. Practice is everything in this 
 game as in all others and one is learning something 
 every minute spent over the lines. 
 
 Bergues, August 13, 1917. 
 Was out again last night after writing and again 
 this morning. Nothing much out of the ordinary 
 except that the Boche anti-aircraft guns were pretty 
 active this morning. I watched the shells bursting 
 all around a machine about half a mile from us and the 
 pilot doing all kinds of gyrations to throw them off. 
 Just about that time a couple went off pretty close to 
 me and as I noticed they had my altitude exactly, I quit 
 watching the other fellow and started doing a few things 
 on my own account. Last evening when we went out 
 about six o'clock, one of those black summer thunder 
 showers was drifting around. There was a lively 
 bombardment going on and part of the battle-field 
 was shrouded in semi-darkness. The flashes of the 
 guns stood out very vividly and the smoke, mist and 
 drifting rain squalls were about all that was needed 
 to complete my idea of what the private domains of Old 
 Nick probably look like. 
 
 August 14, 1917. 
 
 The King and Queen of Belgium received us here 
 yesterday. I was introduced to them both and said 
 
54 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 a few words to the King. Will write you all about it 
 soon but not now. My friend Oliver Chadwick has 
 evidently just been killed. We are not absolutely 
 sure yet but there is practically no hope. He was the 
 best of them all and we have been together all the time 
 for months. I had come to know him better than I 
 have ever known any other man and he was as fine and 
 fearless a Christian gentleman as ever lived. He was 
 apparently shot down from 2000 metres in a combat 
 and fell inside the German lines over the little de- 
 stroyed town I have described. I am glad he died with 
 his boots on as he wanted to, but my heart is sick and 
 I cannot write you about it till later. 
 
 St. Pol-suk-Mer.* August 21, 1917. 
 
 Just a line to tell you that I am well, but I have so 
 many letters to write that you will have to wait until 
 next week before I shall be able to write you fully. 
 My friend, Oliver Chadwick, was killed by the Boche 
 on Tuesday. He sailed in to help out another machine 
 that was being attacked and was in turn attacked from 
 the rear by two other machines. At least this is what 
 happened as far as we can learn. We are not even sure 
 that the machine that was brought down in this manner 
 was Oliver's, and as it fell in the Boche lines there is 
 no way of verifying it, but the evidence is very bad and 
 I am afraid there is little hope. There is the barest 
 chance that he may be a prisoner, but it is very slim. 
 
 Then on the 18th Julian was killed; so it was a very 
 bad week for the Americans here. I am terribly sorry 
 about Julian and I naturally feel his loss very keenly 
 for we were always very good friends and had had a lot 
 
 * One mile west of Dunkirk. 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 55 
 
 of fun together since coming to France. He was an 
 excellent pilot in the schools and extremely conscien- 
 tious and hard working. He got his military license 
 in a remarkably short time and sailed through all the 
 tests without the slightest mishap. Once he had had 
 time to gain a little experience here at the front I feel 
 sure that he would have done very well. Julian and 
 Oliver and I might have had some great Boche hunting 
 expeditions together if luck had not broken so against 
 
 them. I am glad to say that M arrived here the 
 
 day after Oliver was lost, so I am not left the only 
 American in the escadrille. 
 
 St. Pol-sur-Mer. August 24, 1917. 
 Got a rainy day to-day and as I have pretty well 
 caught up on the writing I told you I had to do, I can 
 now drop you a line about what has been going on 
 recently. On August 13th we were inspected by the 
 King and Queen of Belgium. We all got dressed up 
 in our best and stood at attention while the King 
 conferred some Belgian decorations on some of the men 
 for bravery and the work they had done. I have some 
 pictures of Oliver, Julian and myself standing in the 
 line of pilots with the King and Queen in front and shall 
 send the photos along as soon as I have an opportunity. 
 The commandant stopped in front of us and introduced 
 us all three to the King and Queen. You see we are the 
 first American pilots in the escadrille and therefore 
 somewhat of a curiosity so we sometimes receive at- 
 tention which our rank would not ordinarily entitle us 
 to. Shook hands with them and called them "Sire" 
 and "Madame" as per the commandant's previous 
 instructions. Had a few words with King Albert, 
 
56 THE WW OF THE EAGLE 
 
 who said he is hoping for great things when America 
 gets her forces over here. Glad to say ho spoke Eng- 
 lish as i was seared bo death Lest l might have to talk 
 French to them. Kings and telephones get my goat 
 when it comes to talking French. I guess little Willie 
 Is some pumpkins hobnobbing with royalty and such, 
 eh what ! ! The King is a very fine looking man and 
 the Queen is most attractive. 
 
 The uexl morning, the 1 4th, Oliver and I were not 
 scheduled to By until the afternoon, but as we were 
 both anxious to get all the practice possible, we went 
 to the field in the morning in the hope that they might 
 
 Deed an extra man. A patrol was just going out and 
 
 being short one man they asked Oliver to till up, I 
 saw him off ami was a little disappointed that ho had 
 gotten the job instead of my self, as ho already had an 
 hour or two more over the lines than I had. lie went 
 out with three Frenchmen and never eame back. They 
 reported that at about 9.45, shortly after they had 
 reached the lines, they lost track of Oliver while ma- 
 noeuvring near some clouds. Shortly after lunch we 
 received a telephone message that the infantry had 
 seen a machine of the type Oliver was flying shot down 
 in the eourse o( a combat from about 2000 metres and 
 fall about 1200 metres north of Bixschoote on a place 
 known as the "Ferine Carnot." According to the 
 report, the French machine went to the assistance of 
 an F.nglish one that was being attacked by a Roche, 
 and at- the same time was itself attacked from the 
 rear, by two other Boches. The French machine was 
 "uettement descendu" * as they say. and took a sheer 
 fall of over 6000 feet until it crashed into the ground. 
 
 * Clearly brought down. 
 
King Albert of Belgium decorating aviatoi , 
 
 in the group are, be Ide the King Lieutenant 
 
 tenant de La Tour "> Hun , Captain Beurtaiu SI B m Major 
 Borcard [commanding " Oroupe de Combat 12 French aviation Berg 
 Prance, Vugu I 13 lOl'i The record* <-r enemy planet brought 
 down an ;, of the date "i the picture. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth of Belgium getting oui of French plane. 
 
 After a flight .-■• Bergue*, Prance lugust 13, 1917, in the group ari 
 Brocard, Queen Elizabeth, and Lieutenant (then Adjutant 
 who later became • he ace </i ;,n | 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 57 
 
 I had hoped against hope that there might be some 
 mistake, that the machine was merely forced to land 
 or perhaps that it was not Oliver's machine at all and 
 that he might be only a prisoner. I have been doing 
 everything I could think of to get all the detailed in- 
 formation possible as it will mean so much to his 
 family to know just what happened and whether or 
 not he is really dead. The commander has been very 
 kind in trying to help me to collect this information, 
 but it has seemed almost impossible fco trace what clues 
 we have. Where so many thousands are being killed 
 and have been for the past three years, a dead man, 
 no longer able to help in the fight, is nothing, and men 
 busy with the great business of war have no time to 
 spend in trying to find one. 
 
 Oliver fell between the lines but very close to the 
 Cerman. The recent French advance has however put 
 the spot just within our own lines and I wanted to go 
 up myself and have a look but it seems impossible. 
 I thought perhaps I might be able to find his body or 
 the machine or something. Even though I could not 
 do this, however, my efforts seem to be bearing fruit 
 and there seems to be no longer any doubt that the 
 machine was Oliver's. 
 
 To-day I received a photograph of the machine 
 taken by a priest attached to the infantry, and also 
 some details of what happened when the machine fell. 
 It seems that both the Boche and French soldiers 
 rushed out of their trenches to try and get the machine, 
 and a fight followed in which both were forced to retire. 
 The picture was taken after the advance a day or so 
 later and shows a tangled mass of wreckage and beside it 
 the dead body of a Boche. No trace could be found of 
 
58 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 Oliver's body, but this is easily explained by the fact 
 that pilots often have papers on them of military im- 
 portance and his body would therefore have been taken 
 and searched. This would have been easy for the 
 Germans to do at night as the machine was so close 
 to their front line trench. I am now trying to get the 
 number of the fallen machine and to find some one who 
 
 actually saw it fall. I think then we shall have every- 
 thing. What chance h:ts a man who falls like that 
 from such a height? 1 have seen the result of a fall 
 of one tenth the distance or less, too often not to know. 
 1 have a large scale map showing the spot where he 
 fell; it will o( course always be impossible to find out 
 where he is buried. 
 
 I wish you could have known Oliver Chadwick as I 
 
 am sure he would have appealed to you as he did to me. 
 
 He was the kiud of man that it takes generations to 
 
 make and then you only get them once in a thousand 
 times. A man with a great deal of brains, he was also 
 a very hard worker and had Learned more about avia- 
 tion and made himself into the best pilot I have over 
 seen for one o( his experience, lie was one o( the very 
 few that 1 have met over here who came over Long be- 
 fore America entered the war. simply because he felt 
 it was his duty to fight for what he knew was right. 
 That was why he was fighting and what he was fully 
 prepared to die for. His ideals were of the highest and 
 he was morally I think the cleanest man 1 have ever 
 known. Physically he had always been a splendid 
 athlete and was a particularly tine specimen. Ab- 
 solutely fearless and using his brains every minute, 
 if he had only had a chance to really get started and to 
 gain a little more experience, he should have developed 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 59 
 
 into the best of them nil. Tim Bochc that got him 
 certainly did a good job from their point of view, for 
 if he had lived long enough to become really proficient, 
 they would have known it to their sorrow and I doubt 
 if they would ever have gotten him. 
 
 We were in the Law School together but I never saw 
 much of him there, as we lived far apart and had a dif- 
 ferent set of friends. Since I came over hen; however 
 and went to the aviation schools, we had been almost 
 constantly together. We had lived together, eaten 
 together, flown together and planned all our work to- 
 gether. Always a gentleman and thinking of tin; other 
 fellow, he was the most congenial man to me that \ 
 had ever known. I had come to regard him as my 
 best friend and it is astonishing how well you can get 
 to know one with whom you work in this business, 
 whom you often rely on for your life and who you 
 know relies on you in the same way. There is nothing 
 I would not have done for Oliver Chadwick and I know 
 he would have done the same for me. He was tin; 
 finest man of his age that it has ever been my good 
 fortune to meet and was my idea of what a gentleman 
 should be. I am very glad to have known him and I 
 think it did me a great deal of good. When a man of 
 this ran; stamp goes down almost unnoticed, it seems, 
 it makes one appreciate what this war means. To me 
 personally, his death naturally leaves a pretty big hole, 
 
 but I am glad that if Ik; had to die he died fighting ;is 
 Ik; wanted to. I know he himself uever expected to 
 survive the war, but his only fear was that lie might 
 be killed in some miserable accident. 
 
 He was a great favorite with all the instructors both 
 because of his amiability and because they could not 
 
60 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 help but admire his skill and fearlessness. The com- 
 mander here regarded him as one of the most courage- 
 ous men he had ever had, which is saying a great deal 
 in this organization. One of the officers tried to tell 
 me that Oliver should not have left his patrol and gone 
 to help out the other machine. I think he did exactly 
 what he should have done, he could not well stand by 
 when he saw a comrade in trouble and leave him to 
 shift for himself. What one admires in a man more 
 than anything else is the doing of his duty regardless 
 of the consequences to himself and this was Oliver all 
 over. As soon as I heard what had happened I felt 
 sure it was he. My great regret is that I could not 
 have been on the same patrol as we usually stuck pretty 
 close together and might have been able to help one 
 another out. 
 
 Had an interesting experience one day when a 
 French barrage fire was in full swing in preparation for 
 an attack. I was out on a patrol which happened to 
 be a low one, and my leader, a lieutenant, flew entirely 
 too low for one's comfort. He got down in the terri- 
 tory of the French shells and in a barrage fire they are 
 pretty thick. Every few minutes you would run into 
 the eddy caused by a shell and your machine would rock 
 from side to side and sometimes turn up on edge. 
 Once or twice they came close enough to hear them 
 screech above the roar of the motor and the machine 
 felt as though a giant had taken it and given it a mild 
 shaking by the collar, so to speak. As a matter of 
 fact we could have done better work flying above the 
 trajectory and we served no particular purpose being 
 where we were. We were still too high to fear any 
 fire from the ground, but in any event I am against 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 61 
 
 taking chances where there is nothing to be gained. 
 Seems to me it is just playing into the other fellow's 
 hands and I have no desire to start unnecessarily an 
 argument with one of our own shells in mid-air. On 
 any ordinary day shells in the air, other than anti- 
 aircraft, are not thick enough to bother about. 
 
 Another time, a few days ago, I was again up at about 
 16,000 feet, when an oil pipe broke and let all the oil 
 run out. As there was no way of telling this, it was 
 only a few minutes until my motor "grilled." That 
 is to say, the bearings burnt out and she stopped as 
 suddenly and completely as though I had thrown off 
 the switch. As I was on the Boche side of the lines at 
 the time, I thought I had better start hiking for my own 
 side of the fence "toot sweet." Every day as I had 
 been flying back and forth from the lines, I had amused 
 myself in looking for allied aviation fields so that in 
 case of trouble I would know where to go, if I could not 
 get back to my own field. A small fast chasse ma- 
 chine is a hard thing to land without upsetting unless 
 you have a good place to do it on, and this is es- 
 pecially true when the country is wet and full of shell 
 holes. I therefore bethought me of a field near a cer- 
 tain town* which I knew was the nearest to the lines, 
 although I had never been there. It was a long way 
 off and I did not think I should be able to reach it, 
 but it could do no harm to try, as from very high up 
 one cannot make out a suitable place to land anyhow. 
 There were too many clouds beneath me to make out 
 the town very well, but I knew the general direction 
 and started planing that way. When I got through 
 the clouds at about 6000 feet up I could see the town 
 
 * Poperinghe, five miles northwest of Ypres, Belgium. 
 
62 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 and soon the aviation field. Having plenty of height 
 it was easy to go there with room to spare and I landed 
 without further trouble. 
 
 A motor in the condition of mine means changing it 
 and putting in another so there was nothing for it but 
 to go back to my base by motor, a distance of some 
 thirty miles. What was my surprise to find that some 
 of our Philadelphia doctors were serving at a field 
 hospital near where I landed. After telephoning to 
 my squadron, I went over to see them and found Drs. 
 
 P , M , D , and V . I dined with them 
 
 and spent the night and we discussed the affairs of 
 the nations generally. To-morrow I expect to go back 
 and fly the machine home as the mechanics now have 
 it in shape. 
 
 Dr. P told me that the Boche had bombed the 
 
 hospital two out of the last three evenings. At first 
 they thought it was a mistake, but when they kept it 
 up it became apparent that there was no mistake. This 
 is a big field hospital in white tents and lots of red 
 crosses plainly visible. I have myself seen it from the 
 air and you can see it more distinctly than anything 
 else in the neighborhood. A couple of days before, a 
 bomb had landed on a cook shack about twenty yards 
 
 from Dr. P 's tent. The cook's leg came through the 
 
 roof of the tent next door and the guy-ropes of Dr. 
 
 P 's tent were decorated with his entrails. Nice 
 
 party don't you think? Another bomb landed right 
 
 alongside of the tent occupied by D and V . 
 
 Luckily they had just answered a special call to operate 
 that night and were not in their tent. A piece of bomb 
 went through one of their pillows where one or the 
 other, I have forgotten which, had just been sleeping. 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 63 
 Their clothes were blown all over the lot and D 
 
 exhibited numerous holes in the seat of his pants. 
 Luckily he had not been in them at the time. 
 
 We stood around after supper at the time when 
 brother Boche usually came along and waited for him 
 to put in an appearance. We had not long to wait. 
 Pretty soon we could hear his motors humming up in 
 the sky and dozens of searchlights began to look for 
 him. They picked up one of the raiders and the show 
 beat any Fourth of July celebration you ever saw. The 
 machine showed clear and white in the glare of the 
 searchlights. It was a dark night but very clear, with 
 millions of stars. On every side were the muzzle 
 flashes of the anti-aircraft guns, the sky was filled with 
 the flashes of the bursting shells, and the two seemingly 
 joined by streams of tracer bullets from machine guns. 
 These latter look much like Roman candles except 
 that they go much faster and keep on going up for 
 thousands of feet instead of stopping short like the ball 
 from a candle. Add to this the roar of the guns and 
 bursting shells and you can imagine what a quiet eve- 
 ning in a field hospital back of the front is like. The 
 one Boche that we could see was driven off, but pretty 
 soon we could hear others coming and this time so 
 high up that the searchlights could not find them. 
 As we stood there listening the sound of the motors 
 seemed to have almost passed over us, when suddenly 
 siz-bang-bang, and five or six bombs landed plumb in 
 the camp. We threw ourselves flat for a moment and 
 then went to see what had happened. You could 
 hear cries coming from the direction where the bombs 
 had fallen and the air was filled with dust and smoke. 
 One bomb which fell within about seventy-five yards 
 
C4 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 of us killed three men and wounded about six. Another 
 lit right in a ward, — imagine the effect when it was full 
 of wounded soldiers. The casualties in all amounted 
 to about 34 killed and 125 wounded. The camp 
 consists of four field hospitals joined together. Fifty 
 per cent of the staff of one of the hospitals was knocked 
 out. I enclose you two clippings describing similar 
 atrocities. The one described in the clipping headed 
 "The New Frightf ulness " happened not far from here 
 and I know it is true. Don't let any one tell you that 
 these things are mistakes. You can't bomb a hospital 
 three times in four days and then put in an alibi about 
 a mistake. The clipping entitled "Do we hate 
 enough?" seems to me to just about hit the nail on 
 the head except for the mention of a possibility of ever 
 again being friends with the Boches. They are be- 
 yond the pale of a decent man's friendship and should 
 be considered as a race with which no Christian should 
 have anything to do. I am frank to say that I am look- 
 ing forward to the day when I shall, I hope, kill some 
 of them, for I hate them as I would a snake and would 
 kill them with as little compunction. They have not 
 even the excuse of the ordinary murderer i. e. that he 
 was not decently brought up and did not know any 
 better. It goes without saying that in speaking of the 
 Huns I am always speaking of the German people who, 
 individually and as a nation, are responsible for this 
 war and whom we are fighting, and not at all of loyal 
 Allied or American citizens of German birth or descent. 
 I forgot to add that one of the nurses lost an eye, and 
 you have of course seen in the papers the case of the 
 "Belgian Prince," where a submarine commander 
 deliberately took the life belts away from 38 English 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 65 
 
 seamen and then drowned them in cold blood. Shoot- 
 ing is too good for people of this sort. I have no 
 particular malice against the Boches because they killed 
 Chadwick as that was in a fair fight, as fights go out 
 here. Except for the rotten explosive bullets that 
 they use so much, they seem to play the game fairly 
 well in the air when it comes to a combat. What they 
 do when it comes to hospitals I have already told you. 
 
 St. Pol-sur-Mer. September 4th, 1917. 
 Have been trying to write for the past three evenings 
 but it has been necessary to put the lights out and spend 
 the time in or close to a dug-out. There is a gorgeous 
 moon now, just right for night bombardment work 
 and the Huns have been making the most of it. Every 
 night regularly they bomb a nearby town,* generally 
 setting it on fire in several places. Since I began this 
 letter I have been out in the dug-out and there is a 
 big fire raging at this moment. The Boches have 
 dropped about fifteen bombs so far to-night and it is 
 quite a remarkable sight to watch them hit. The in- 
 cendiary ones light up the whole sky and the high ex- 
 plosives throw a huge fountain of sparks in all direc- 
 tions. When they are bombing the town we stand 
 outside and watch the show, but when they come our 
 way we duck down our hole like a lot of rabbits. No 
 one but a fool or a greenhorn will stand around and get 
 blown up just for the sake of seeing the sights. When 
 you add the searchlights, anti-aircraft guns, bursting 
 shells, and machine guns, to the fires and terrific ex- 
 plosions of the bombs, you have about all your eyes and 
 ears can take in at one time. I shall never again I 
 
 * Dunkirk. 
 
6G THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 think, so much as take the trouble to walk around the 
 corner to watch a fire-works display on the 4th of July. 
 
 St. Pol-sur-Mer, Sept. 8, 1917. 
 
 I told you in my last letter to Mother, which I had 
 to cut short, that I had my first fight last Sunday morn- 
 ing. It did not amount to much, but it was a satis- 
 faction to be able at last to let one's gun off at a Bochc. 
 On the morning in question, I was to go on a high patrol 
 but my motor would not start at first so I did not get 
 off until fifteen minutes after the others and had to 
 go out to the lines by myself. When I got there I was 
 still quite low, between 2000 and 2500 metres and ran 
 into a low patrol of three machines from our escadrille. 
 I thought they might possibly be my own crowd and 
 joined them for a moment to find out. Just as I did 
 so I saw five machines coming our way which I took 
 for another Allied patrol starting on its way home. The 
 men with whom I was were all pretty green (like my- 
 self) and evidently did not see the other machines at 
 all. They worked around toward our rear and al- 
 though I still thought they were friends I did not like 
 the way they acted and kept watching them over my 
 shoulder. When they got quite close, say 150 metres, 
 I suddenly saw the leader let drive at one of our men 
 who was below me to my left. You can plainly see 
 the flash of a machine gun and the explosive bullets 
 leave long streams of wavy smoke behind them in the 
 air. In a big scrap where there is a lot of shooting 
 the long hairs of smoke left by the bullets sometimes 
 make the planes look as though they were in the middle 
 of an enormous cobweb. 
 
 The man who was shot at turned suddenly and dove 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 G7 
 
 lo get out of the way; he got three bullets through the 
 tail of his machine. As he turned, the five machines 
 veered and I saw plainly that they were five Boche 
 single-seater fighting planes. The particular type very 
 much resembles one of ours and the cocardes are hard 
 to see until one is quite close. Our other two machines 
 kept K°J ,J K for our own lines, the pilots evidently being 
 taken by surprise and a bit mixed up. One could not 
 very well go off and leave the one man who had been 
 shot at with five Bodies after him, so I turned around 
 short and flew towards them. They had already 
 veered when our man whom they shot at turned toward 
 them. Three of them went down and two went up. 
 The three that went down wanted to go after our 
 machine that had gone down, but I think they were 
 afraid to do so when they saw me above them. Our 
 man made a safe get-away anyhow. I had a lovely 
 chance to dive on the Boche below me, but every time 
 I started I looked at the two above and they would 
 begin to do the same thing to me. It is pure fool- 
 hardiness to attack, when you do not have to, with 
 other enemy machines close above your head. That 
 was the way Oliver was killed, but he had to go in. 
 The five Boches kept retreating into their own territory 
 and it was impossible to get close enough to really 
 do much with one's shooting. The three below kept 
 circling about close together, evidently in the hope 
 that I would attack and give the two above their chance. 
 I got a few shots at one of them but he was three hun- 
 dred yards off and you can't do anything more than 
 worry a machine at such a range except by sheer good 
 luck. I then tried to get near the two upper ones, but 
 they kept hiking for home, and although I got a few 
 
68 THE WAV OF THE EAGLE 
 
 more long shots, I had to turn back .-is l was by myself 
 and getting boo far into the Boone territory, perhaps 
 ilucr or four milt's or so. On my way back the Boohe 
 "Archies" (anti-aircraft guns) tried to have some fun 
 with me, but did not come close enough to amount to 
 anything, The whole thing did not amount to more 
 than a useful experience as most o( the shooting was 
 too far off to have any effect. 
 
 Was out on Wednesday morning on a high patrol 
 and had a couple of other little settos from which 1 
 think l also got some experience, but that was about. 
 
 all. We were Up as high as 1 have been SO far. about 
 
 is, odd feet, and it is as oold as Christmas up there. 
 Dressed warmly however you do not feel it much, ex- 
 cept o\\ your face, ami 1 have UOW got something io 
 
 cover most oi thai up. There were five o( us this time 
 and at about 16,000 feet we ran across three or four 
 Boohe fighting planes who were a little below us. We 
 manoeuvred for position and attacked. 1 picked out 
 
 One fellow ami went for him, but after about six shots 
 and just when I was getting close enough to do some 
 business, my machine gun quit owing to a cartridge 
 
 missing fire* I tried to tix it at once, but she would 
 
 not ti\. Every one had gotteD pretty well separated 
 
 during the fight and as (here was one Boohe above me 
 
 in a fine position \o attack and I could see no sign of 
 
 my comrades, I started hiking for our side oi the fence 
 
 as fast as 1 could go. On the way I passed a Boohe 
 within a hundred yards going in the opposite direction 
 
 liked a seared rabbit. I had to laugh (o see him hump- 
 ing his machine up and down so as to make it hard to 
 hit. lie looked for all the world like a hopping rabbit 
 and I guess he thought I was going to take a eraek at 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 7:', 60 
 
 him, but if he 1 1 .* l< J only known It I was beating it, for 
 
 home just as hard aa he was. 
 
 As soon as I got in quieter water i fixed my machine 
 gun and began looking for my patrol. I had oot been 
 going five minutes when I ran bang on a Boche two- 
 seater all by itself. I was afraid to start shooting when 
 f first wanted to as there are bo many different allied 
 machines that it is very hard for a greenhorn to tell 
 them all from the German. I thought it was a Boche, 
 but did not Like to begin shooting until I was absolutely 
 surf;, so waited until he passed under my win^ close 
 enough to see his old maltose crosses on his planes. I 
 then turned around and went for him from above, which 
 \>y the way, is a fool method to attack a two-seater, 
 as it gives the machine gunner, who sits behind trie 
 pilot, a beautiful shot at you. Usually the best way 
 
 to do if- is to get under hi:: tail where ho often doe:: not 
 
 see you and can't shoot without hitting bis own tail. 
 I guess I was a bit too anxious however and spoiled my 
 own chance. I could see the machine gunner blazing 
 away and could not, get to close quarters without giving 
 him a much better chance at mo than I had at him. 
 I aimed ahead of him about the, distance that I thought 
 
 was right and gave him a rip from my machine gun. 
 
 I could Bee die tracer bullets and they looked to me as 
 though I hit him, but I could not, be sure. At all 
 events ho started for homo without a second's hes- 
 itation, full motor and diving slightly, which gives al- 
 most the greatest speed. I manoeuvred a little and 
 gave if to him again and I hope I touched him up for 
 the machine gunner seemed to me to stop shooting. J 
 went, after him a third time, this time from behind his 
 
 tail and we were both Btreaking it through the air at a 
 
70 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 scandalous pace. I had my machine nosed down a 
 bit and going full out, was overhauling him and had 
 just begun to shoot again when my machine gun 
 jammed, this time from a broken cartridge and so 
 that it was impossible to fix it in the air. We had been 
 going for the Hun territory all the time, so that we 
 were by this time several miles behind the German 
 lines. With my machine gun out of commission there 
 was of course nothing to do but go home. Since that 
 time we have been having poor weather again and I 
 have not been over the lines. 
 
 I certainly hope I can become skilful enough before 
 long to drop one of these fellows good and proper as 
 the saying is. My chance at the two-seater was badly 
 handled, as I had to do my shooting at about 200 yards, 
 and this is entirely too far. The great majority of 
 successful fights, practically all of them in fact, are 
 fought from 100 to 10 yards. You must remember the 
 terrific speeds of the machines, the fact that we have to 
 point our whole machine, and the great distances cov- 
 ered in a few seconds, in order to understand why patrol 
 formations get broken up in a fight and why there is 
 so much shooting without result. Also, when it is one 
 machine against another, if one fellow sees the other 
 coming a good way off and wants to get away, he can 
 usually do it. It takes so little time to cover several 
 miles, and a skilfully manoeuvred machine is very 
 hard to hit anyhow. The majority of successful com- 
 bats are cases of surprise, where you sneak up close 
 behind another machine without his seeing you or 
 where he is bus}- attacking still another machine, and 
 you can drop on his rear unawares. There are ex- 
 ceptions, of course, but most fights seem to be like 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 71 
 
 this. Of course if a number of machines attack one of 
 the enemy, they can often on account of their num- 
 bers get him whether he sees them or not and no 
 matter how hard he tries to get away. I think I 
 could do a lot better with that two-seater another time, 
 but a little experience like this is I guess the only way 
 to learn. 
 
 It would be utterly impossible for the one man in 
 a chasse machine to use a movable gun fired from the 
 shoulder. There is no place where you could carry 
 such a gun and you would not have room to use it if 
 you could carry it. In our small planes, of which the 
 greatest assets are speed and manageability, there is 
 just room for the pilot and no more. He is entirely 
 encased with nothing but his head sticking out and in 
 addition is tightly strapped in his seat with straps 
 coming up between his legs and over his shoulders. 
 This precaution is both necessary and important for in 
 the rush of a close encounter one will do things that 
 would otherwise throw the pilot around inside the 
 machine and possibly out of it. 
 
 There is not much news to tell you about this week 
 as my work has been very quiet, due largely to the flying 
 having been considerably interfered with by more bad 
 weather. We have however had some clear nights and 
 the Boches have been doing their best to make things 
 lively by dropping a few bombs around. I have 
 already told you what a night bombardment looks like 
 and also of the wonderful sight presented by the de- 
 fense against it. It is all very well to watch three or 
 four times, but when they keep it up night after night 
 so that you have to put the lights out and stay near a 
 dugout just when you want to do some writing or go 
 
72 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 to bed, it becomes nothing but a nuisance and a 
 bore. 
 
 Most of the bombs dropped near here have been 
 aimed at the town, but now and then the Boches seem 
 to take a shot at us. At all events, one night in the 
 early part of this week, they dropped one about ten or 
 fifteen feet from the side of our barracks and they sure 
 did muss it up good and proper. We had gotten our 
 room all nicely fixed up, but that bomb wrecked the 
 
 whole works. M and I had bought ourselves a set 
 
 of tea things, cups, saucers and plates, etc., so that we 
 could make ourselves tea in the afternoon and have 
 oatmeal, eggs, etc., in the morning. Everything went 
 in one grand smash, including the tar paper walls and 
 ceiling to our room. You never saw a prettier mess 
 or a more complete wreck than our room appeared to 
 be when we came groping in in the dark after the 
 Boches had gone. We were, however, lucky that our 
 room was on the opposite side of the building from 
 that on which the bomb fell. 
 
 Some of the men opposite us were much worse off 
 as the explosion pushed in their side of the building 
 and tore parts of the roof off over their heads. The 
 hole the bomb made in the ground was about four feet 
 deep by about twelve across. Right close by stood 
 our cook shack, but after the smoke had cleared away 
 it was hard to recognize. I have taken some pictures 
 and will send them along when they are developed and 
 I think they will show you what happened much better 
 
 than I can describe it. M and I had gone to a 
 
 shelter some little distance away where we could be 
 pretty safe and at the same time see what was going 
 on. When this particular bomb landed I said I thought 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 73 
 
 it looked very close to our barracks and that we would 
 have the laugh on the Boches if we went back and 
 found that they had blown our room up when we were 
 not there. We went to look after everything was 
 comparatively quiet and sure enough our room had 
 been blown up, but I am not so sure that the joke was 
 all on the BOehes. However, the bomb was not close 
 enough to hurt any of our things except the plates, 
 and after a couple of days' hard work we are now much 
 better and more comfortably installed than we were 
 before. 
 
 They did seem to have it in for us that night though, 
 as another bomb dropped in a village at least a mile 
 away, right on the house of the good woman to whom 
 we send our laundry, incidentally blowing the week's 
 wash literally to shreds. Pieces of the bomb which 
 dropped "chez nous" went right through the barracks 
 from one side to the other, in places fairly riddling it. 
 Luckily everyone was in the shelters and not a soul was 
 so much as scratched. Come to think of it the total 
 casualties were one dog. He was asleep in his kennel 
 in a tent and a piece of bomb came through the side 
 of the tent, through the side of the wooden kennel, 
 through the poor hound, out through the other side 
 of the kennel, and where it went after that is hard 
 to say. 
 
 I enclose you a snapshot of myself in flying togs 
 standing in front of my machine and have cut it down 
 until I do not think the censor can possibly object. 
 Pretty good of me don't you think but so far as I have 
 been able to discover I am certain that I am of no 
 " military importance." 
 
74 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 St. Pol-sur-Mer, Sept. 16th, 1917. 
 
 You will have seen in the papers long before you get 
 this letter, that Capt. Guynemer, the greatest of them 
 all, is gone. He and another officer went out on Tues- 
 day morning to hunt the Hun. They were flying fairly 
 high, somewhere around 1G,000 feet I think, and Guyne- 
 mer went down a little way to attack a two-seater while 
 the lieutenant who was with him stayed up to protect 
 his rear. About that time eight Boche single-seater 
 machines put in an appearance and the lieutenant was 
 kept busy trying to worry them and keep them from 
 going down on the captain. He succeeded and none 
 of the Bodies dove down, but in the general mix-up he 
 lost track of Guynemer and he has not been heard from 
 since. He must have fallen in the Boche lines and I 
 am afraid he was killed without much question. The 
 place where the fight occurred was over the Boche 
 territory, but close enough to our lines to have allowed 
 Guynemer to have reached them if he had been merely 
 wounded. Also, if the Huns had taken him prisoner, 
 we would certainly have heard of it before now. They 
 would be proud to get him and I am surprised that 
 they have as yet made no announcement of his having 
 been found. 
 
 The loss of this man is very great, as he was by all 
 odds the greatest aviator and individual fighter the 
 war has produced. I am awfully sorry, for if ever a 
 man had won his spurs and deserved to live it was Capt. 
 Guynemer. He had 53 Hun machines to his credit 
 officially and I hoped that he had become so skilful 
 that he would never be killed. As I have already 
 written you, he was small and of a frail appearance. 
 I believe his health was very far from good and the 
 
Captain Guynemer about to start on the last flight from which 
 he ever returned. 
 
 He came back with his machine badly shc-1 up. On his next flight, he 
 was killed and fell near Poelkapelle, Belgium, September 11, i'.»i7. 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 75 
 
 high altitudes sometimes made him so sick he had to 
 come down. He would fly for a week and then go 
 away for a rest, as he was not strong enough to stand 
 any more. In the course of several hundred fights he 
 had been shot down seven times and twice wounded. 
 To keep at it under such circumstances and after all 
 he had gone through, a man's heart has to be in the 
 right place and no mistake. He certainly deserved to 
 live the rest of his days in peace and one hates to see 
 a man like that get it. The evening before he disap- 
 peared, I was standing on the field when he landed with 
 a dead motor caused by a bullet in it. There were 
 three others through his wings. He had attacked an- 
 other two-seater, something went wrong with his motor 
 at the crucial moment and this gave the Boche a good 
 shot at him and spoiled his own chance of bringing 
 down his opponent. A little episode like this, how- 
 ever, rolled off his back like water off a duck, perhaps a 
 little too easily I fear. Long immunity breeds a con- 
 tempt of danger which is probably the greatest danger 
 of all. Guynemer's loss naturally throws more or less 
 of a gloom over everyone. 
 
 It is clear again this evening so I am going to close 
 this letter before I have to start for a dug-out. We 
 were out in quest of the elusive Boche this afternoon and 
 got up as high as I have yet been, between nineteen 
 and twenty thousand feet, but had no luck. Saw a 
 couple of them but they were above us and by the time 
 we had gotten up to where they were they had run for 
 home while we were still too far away to catch them. 
 Reminds me of the old days when I used to chase what 
 you were wont to call the " invisible duck." 
 
76 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 St. Pol-sur-Mer, Sept. 22, 1917. 
 Father in his last letter said he thought having a 
 Hun sneak up under your tail would be a great danger 
 and he is quite right. Surprise is the thing to try 
 to spring on the Bodies and is the most important thing 
 to avoid having them spring on you. I think my long 
 training in looking for the festive duck has helped me 
 considerably, as spotting a machine a long way off 
 in the air comes to much the same thing. I have not 
 been caught napping yet or even come close to it and 
 hope I shall not be. The closest I have been was one 
 day this week when we were flying just beneath some 
 clouds. Five Huns used the clouds to sneak up in 
 our rear and above us, and I know I did not see them 
 until they were within about three hundred yards. 
 There were four of us on the patrol and one of our men 
 lagged a little too far behind. He did not see the 
 Bodies until just as a couple of them opened fire on 
 him. He then did some quick manoeuvring to escape 
 while the rest of us tried to get above them to help 
 him out. They had us at a great disadvantage being 
 several hundred feet above. In the meantime our 
 companion was in a difficult position with several 
 Huns around him shooting at him and I was afraid 
 they were going to get him, but he did some pretty good 
 manoeuvring, making himself very hard to hit and they 
 never even touched his machine. There was a heavy 
 gale blowing that morning toward the German lines 
 and I never realized before how far one could travel 
 in a short time under such conditions. The rest of 
 us had turned and chased those Huns into their own 
 linos for only about a minute I think, before we turned 
 back. There was a solid bank of clouds above us at 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 77 
 
 about 12,000 feet and a lot more about 5000 feet lower 
 down. I lost my companions in a cloud and not being 
 able to see the ground had to fly back to our lines by 
 compass. 
 
 It is a funny feeling flying along in clear air with 
 clouds both above and below you and we do not often 
 do it except in such a case as this, for one quickly loses 
 one's bearings and there is generally no purpose to 
 be accomplished. This time, however, I did not want 
 to come down below the lower clouds for I knew I was 
 well over the Boche territory. Once or twice when I 
 passed over a hole so that I could see and be seen from 
 the ground, the Huns would let go an anti-aircraft shell 
 or two but they could not see me well enough to put 
 them close enough to worry about. I flew by the 
 compass for about ten minutes and when I dropped 
 down within sight of the ground was only just over our 
 own lines. One has to be careful of a heavy wind like 
 this and we have had a great deal of it, always toward 
 the Hun lines. It is a great handicap, for in a combat 
 one cannot manoeuvre without being quickly carried 
 into the enemy territory where one is likely to be soon 
 much outnumbered. The day after the above episode, 
 I was trying to bag a Boche and got mixed up with a 
 couple of them. Four of us were out on patrol and 
 attacked a formation of six Albatross scouts. There 
 was again a very heavy wind blowing into the German 
 lines and in chasing a Boche I was carried well into his 
 territory before I realized it. Just as I was getting 
 close enough to shoot at him another Hun came up 
 and then suddenly I saw five more coming behind him. 
 We were all on the same level and I did not like the 
 look of things at all, so turned back for our own lines. 
 
78 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 The two nearest Bodies got on my tail, one at about 
 sixty yards range and the other at perhaps a hundred, 
 and when each opened up with his two machine guns 
 I never saw so many explosive bullets in my life, they 
 seemed to me to be going by in regular flocks. 
 
 The thing to have done under ordinary circumstances 
 would have been to have turned and fought it out with 
 the two Huns who were shooting at me or at least to 
 have manoeuvred with them until a better opportunity 
 of getting away presented itself. In this case however, 
 to have turned would have landed me in the middle 
 of all seven of them and with the wind carrying us 
 into Hunland I would have been out of luck. The 
 only thing to do therefore was to keep flying for home 
 at the same time throwing my machine around so as 
 to present as difficult a target as possible. I did 
 things I never knew I could do before and think I in- 
 vented some new forms of acrobacy, for those Huns 
 scared me out of about live years' growth. Luckily for 
 me one of the Frenchmen saw that I was in trouble 
 and being above us all he was able to fly in over the 
 Huns and scared them oi'L When we got back to our 
 field after the flight I examined my machine expecting 
 to find about a dozen holes in it. Was rather dis- 
 appointed not to find any so I guess those Bodies 
 must have been very poor shots or more probably I 
 am just very green and thought that I was in more 
 trouble than I really was. 
 
 1 have explained to you that it is quite a job to get 
 any of these Huns here, but with a little luck and per- 
 severance perhaps we may have one of them fly into 
 some of the bullets that we strew about. Here's hop- 
 ing so anyhow ! 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 79 
 
 There is another moon now and we have been ex- 
 pecting more bombs, but thanks to cloudy nights we 
 have been left in peace. By day we swear at clouds 
 and by night we bless them. Sometimes they are 
 handy in daytime also as for instance the other day 
 when I was in the Hun territory by myself. I felt quite 
 safe, for with clouds above and below, if I had run into 
 too many enemy machines, a cloud affords a con- 
 venient refuge where you can easily lose them. 
 
 Bergues. Oct. 3, 1917. 
 The sector of the front where we do practically all 
 our flying runs from Dixmudc to Ypres. The Belgians 
 are on our left and the English on our right here. As 
 you are seeing by the papers, the British have been 
 giving the Huns what for around Ypres and I hope 
 we can keep it up and make substantial progress be- 
 fore the bad weather sets in. It has been much im- 
 proved lately. When we fly really high Ostend is 
 plainly visible and I often think of the days that you 
 and Mother and I spent there, swimming, going to 
 the races, etc. Times sure have changed ! Not long 
 ago several of us were protecting an artillery regulating 
 machine when our big guns were trying to blow up the 
 huge Hun gun that bombards Dunkirk. This work 
 was nearer the sea than usual, and at 1G,000 feet 
 Ostend looked almost as though you could drop a 
 stone on it. It is interesting when this big Boche gun 
 bombards at night. When she goes off our men signal 
 it in from near the lines, they blow a whistle in Dunkirk 
 and all the people take cover. Between one and two 
 minutes later I should think, the shell arrives and there 
 is an explosion which, with one exception, beats any 
 
80 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 other I have ever heard. After that you can hear the 
 crash of falling bricks and broken houses. 
 
 The one exception I mentioned, was when our camp 
 was bombed again about ten days ago. For the 
 second time in ten days our cook shack was wiped 
 out and my room wrecked along with the others. It 
 took a lot of time to fix things up again, not to mention 
 being a great nuisance. This time, I was in a trench 
 with the other pilots just in front of the barracks. The 
 trench had been prepared for such occasions and it cer- 
 tainly came in handy. Three bombs fell close to us, 
 of which one was about thirty yards away and the 
 other fifteen feet from the corner of the trench, where 
 
 M and I were. It bulged in the side of the trench, 
 
 blew our hats off and threw dirt all over us. The hole 
 in the ground was about four feet deep by about ten 
 or twelve across and needless to say this was the fellow 
 that broke all my records for noise. I was not quite 
 sure for a few seconds whether I was all there or not. 
 As we were below the ground, however, it never trou- 
 bled us though I thought it had about caved in one 
 of my ear drums for a while, but that is all right now. 
 
 A night bombardment is a fine sight to watch from 
 a safe distance but when you are yourself the target 
 it is the most unpleasant thing I have yet struck, 
 especially when the novelty has worn off and you know 
 what to expect. You always know when the Huns 
 are coming by the anti-aircraft guns and the peculiar 
 sound of their motors humming up among the stars. 
 When these motors tell you they are almost overhead 
 it is time to lay low in a trench. The bombs are 
 usually dropped quite close together in groups of from 
 four to eight perhaps. They of course fall in the line 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 81 
 
 along which the course of the machine carries them. 
 Suppose the first one falls say three or four hundred 
 yards from you and the next a hundred yards closer. 
 It is not hard to judge whether you are approximately 
 on that line or not. As a matter of fact the interval 
 between bombs is generally fifty yards or less. When 
 they come within a couple of hundred yards you can 
 hear them whistle for several seconds before they 
 strike, and they all sound uncomfortably close. You 
 just squat there in a trench, knowing that they have 
 got your line, listening to the oncoming hiss and won- 
 dering whether the next one is going to only fall in 
 the trench with you or square in the middle of your 
 back. If it comes good and close there is a blinding 
 flash, a deafening explosion, dirt flies all over you and 
 the ground rocks under your feet. The nasty part 
 about it is sitting there in the dark wondering whether 
 the next one is going to blow you into kingdom come, 
 and being perfectly helpless to prevent it. It gives 
 you an idea of what the men in the trenches have to 
 face constantly. I would rather take my chances 
 in the air with a Hun any day, for there you can see 
 your danger and what happens depends mostly on 
 your own skill. The danger in the latter case is much 
 greater comparatively speaking, but is not half so un- 
 pleasant. When you are down in a narrow trench the 
 chances of a bomb falling in it or close enough to it to 
 get you are very slight. Some of the shelters are 
 covered and protect you against falling shrapnel and 
 fragments of your own shells, but I rather prefer the 
 open trench. If a big bomb fell on the roof of the 
 ordinary shelter it would I think bury those it did not 
 kill. 
 
82 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 The next day we moved our camp, as things were 
 getting too hot for comfort. Now we can lie in bed 
 in the evening and watch them bomb Dunkirk and be 
 glad we are not there, for the Huns do not know where 
 our camp is and I don't think they will be able to spot 
 it. 
 
 Bergues, Oct. 15, 1917. 
 
 You speak about the value of constant care and in 
 this you certainly hit the nail on the head. I think 
 the motto of every flyer should be to never take an 
 unnecessary chance or one that will not produce some 
 real gain it' successful. Of the many accidents I feel 
 sure that at least ninety-five per cent are caused by the 
 carelessness, ignorance, or rashness of the pilot or by 
 his failing to use his head. I have personally seen a 
 painful number of accidents but I have yet to see one 
 that was not directly due to one of these causes. 
 As in anything else, as you become familiar with avia- 
 tion and your machine, there is a natural tendency to 
 relax and let your attention wander. To be able to 
 relax is important or a pilot would never be much good 
 and would soon wear out, but pipe-dreaming and care- 
 lessness when near the ground or over the lines is 
 bound to be fatal sooner or later. If you are where 
 there are no Huns and have a couple of thousand feet 
 under you, you can go to sleep if you like, for when the 
 machine begins to fall you will wake up soon enough 
 and in the modern fighting plane, Bopping over side- 
 ways or any way in fact, is the least of the pilot's 
 troubles. He does it every day on purpose to accus- 
 tom himself to his machine and learn what it will do 
 under all conditions. The cause of most accidents is 
 carelessness in landing, and of most defeats in combat, 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 83 
 
 the failure to watch the rear. This last is easier said 
 than done for when a man is trying to kill a Hun in 
 front of him, if he pays too much attention to his own 
 rear, his attention will be so distracted that he will 
 never succeed in getting the man he is after. 
 
 One of our cracks got square the other day with the 
 man who is reported to have killed Guynemer. This 
 German was a captain and an observer in a two-seater. 
 The Boche machine had flown far behind our lines to 
 take pictures, but was very high, over twenty thousand 
 feet, relying largely on his height for protection, for an 
 ordinary fighting plane will not go that high. Our 
 man,* who is very expert and has been a pilot for a 
 long time, was in a particularly powerful machine and 
 was the only one who saw the Boche who could get up 
 to him. He climbed up under and behind his tail. 
 Every time the Boche pilot would try to turn in order 
 to give his gunner a shot, the Frenchman would slide 
 around also, always keeping the Hun's own tail be- 
 tween himself and the machine gunner, so that the 
 latter could not shoot without shooting away his own 
 controls. In this manner he got right on top of the 
 Boche, and at the first salvo put his machine gun out 
 of business and probably hit the gunner, i. e. the cap- 
 tain who is credited by the Huns with having shot 
 Guynemer. After that there was nothing to it, the 
 second dose the Frenchman gave him cut away the 
 supports of the wings on one side so that they came out 
 of position. The Hun flopped over on his back and 
 Guynemer's supposed slayer fell out of the machine, 
 taking a nice little tumble of twenty thousand feet. 
 
 * Captain (then Adjutant) Rene" Fonck, the ace of all the aces. At 
 this time he had about fifteen German machines to his credit. At the 
 end of the war he had increased his official record to seventy-five. 
 
84 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 The machine and pilot tumbled end over end and as 
 they went by, a number of other French machines wait- 
 ing below who had not been able io get up, like a pack 
 o( wolves waiting for the leader to bring down the 
 game, amused themselves taking pot shots at them. 
 There Is no secret about a small fighting piano often 
 not being able to get up quite as high as a two-seater, 
 which although slower has a larger wing surface and 
 can consequently mount better where the air is thin 
 ami gives poor support. 
 
 Bebgues, Oct. 16, 1917. 
 To-day I was not listed to go out on patrol until the 
 afternoon and as it was a nice morning, persuaded a 
 Frenchman to go out with me on a "voluntary patrol" 
 ami see if we could not find some Huns. Am very 
 glad we did for it is raining this afternoon so that we 
 could not work, and also we sure did find the Huns 
 this morning. 1 am ashamed of myself for not having 
 brought one down but this is how it came about. We 
 were flying along at about 16,000 feet and in front of 
 us a rather heavy mist, something like that which one 
 sees hanging low over the fields on an autumn evening. 
 I was the leader and suddenly saw a two-seater machine 
 come out of the mist toward me and perhaps two 
 hundred yards below. At first 1 thought it was an 
 Englishman until as he started to pass under me I 
 saw his black malt esc crosses and the peculiar shape 
 of his wings. T thought this was a great chance and 
 it was if I had not made a moss of it. I did a short 
 turn and dove down full speed to get under his tail, 
 and the manoeuvre worked out very nicely for it landed 
 me behind and under his tail where he could neither see 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 85 
 
 nor shoot at me, the machine gunner being blinded by 
 his own tail planes. I thought at the time that he could 
 not have helped but see me when I dove down behind 
 him and just as I was trying to lay my sights on him, 
 the machine turned a little as though the pilot were 
 trying to get into a position where his gunner could 
 shoot. I was only about seventy-five yards away and 
 I thought to myself that if there was to be some shoot- 
 ing I should be the one to start it. I accordingly blazed 
 away without taking careful enough aim and although 
 I hit him, for I could see the luminous bullets plainly, 
 I did not get him in a vital spot. We were just about 
 over the lines when I shot and the Hun started for home 
 for all he was worth with little Willie after him and 
 shooting when he could, but a wildly zigzagging ma- 
 chine is an awfully hard thing to hit. Not perhaps so 
 hard to shoot holes through the wings, but the vital 
 spots are very small. I chased that son of a gun about 
 four miles into his own country until I saw four single- 
 seater fighting planes coming up to his assistance and 
 I had to give it up. My companion had stayed up to 
 protect my rear from four other Huns who appeared 
 about the same time that I had attacked the fifth, and 
 as in chasing the two-seater I had come down some 
 three thousand feet, I lost track of him. In thinking 
 this fight over I believe that Boche never knew I was 
 there until I started to shoot. He certainly did act 
 surprised then. If he did not know that I was there, 
 I should have gotten much closer and aimed carefully 
 before shooting at all. The tactics of practically all 
 successful aerial fighters are to get quickly to very close 
 quarters, fifty yards and often less, where they can 
 fairly riddle the other fellow. Also, in attacking a two- 
 
86 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 seater, the closer one gets the safer it is, for it is easy 
 to see that he will have to make a much greater move- 
 ment in order to get an enemy out from under his tail 
 if that enemy is only ten yards away, than if he is a 
 hundred yards away. As you may imagine, the diffi- 
 culties of aerial shooting are very great and if you 
 can get right up against a Hun where you can give it 
 to him point-blank with practically no correction to 
 make for his speed, your task is much simplified. 
 
 Be that as it may, about ten minutes after I got back 
 to my own lines and started to search for my com- 
 panion, I looked up and there right over my head about 
 six hundred yards was another Boche two-seater. I 
 don't think he had seen me at that time and I started 
 climbing up under him as fast as I could. Unfortu- 
 nately I had a new motor which had just been installed 
 and some of the wires, as I learned on coming down, 
 were loose. My engine consequently did not give me 
 anything like the power it should have and I was very 
 slow in climbing at the high altitude, about thirteen 
 or fourteen thousand feet. I gained height on the 
 Hun but very slowly and pretty soon he took a turn 
 and saw me, whereupon he also started for home. He 
 had flown inside our lines while I was following him 
 and I was under his tail perhaps five minutes in all, 
 trying to get up to him, but after following him several 
 miles into his own country the closest I could get to 
 him was about 400 yards. It would have been very 
 foolish to go as far into the enemy territory as would 
 have been necessary in order to catch him. I took 
 deliberate aim and gave him a good salvo, but he was 
 much too far off to hit, save by the greatest good luck 
 and I never touched him. 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 87 
 
 I had scarcely gotten back over the lines again when I 
 spotted still another Boche two-seater several hundred 
 yards below me and coming in my direction. I did 
 a quick, turn and dove to get behind his tail and as 
 I did so saw that there were two and that from the 
 way they manoeuvred they both saw me. I think 
 the most difficult attack of all to make is upon a two- 
 seater that sees you, for with a fixed gun ahead for the 
 pilot and the machine gunner in the rear with a movable 
 gun they possess an enormous field of fire, and can shoot 
 you almost anywhere except under their tails. The 
 fire from the pilot's gun of a two-seater is, however, 
 comparatively easy to avoid so that one can attack 
 head on from in front, but this gives the attacker only 
 the most difficult kind of a shot and requires great skill 
 and experience. The way most attacks are made, 
 is to get under the tail with all the speed possible so 
 as to give the machine gunner the hardest shot and 
 little time to make it. I therefore dove for all I was 
 worth and with your motor and gravity both taking 
 you down you can get going so fast it is hard to breathe. 
 
 After the second encounter, as there was a good deal 
 of mist, I had closed a little trap that I have over my 
 sights so as to keep the glass from becoming foggy. 
 My manoeuvre with these Huns came out all right and 
 brought me within 40 yards of one of them behind and 
 below. Every time he would start to turn I slid around 
 with him and he did not fire a single shot. I certainly 
 thought I had this fellow, but when I went to squint 
 through the sights the trap was closed, and I could 
 not see. I tried to open it and just as I was doing so 
 the Boche pilot gave his machine a twist so that his 
 tail no longer protected me and I saw the machine 
 
SS THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 gunner drawing a bead on me. "This is no place for 
 me," says I and I ducked under his tail again, at the 
 same time standing my machine vertically on her 
 nose so as to get away while still protected by the tail. 
 The machine gunner fired not more than half a dozen 
 shots 1 think but he luckily did not have time to do 
 much aiming and never touched me. I started to go 
 back at him again but we were getting very far into 
 his own country and I had to give it up. 
 
 Was not that trick of closing the sights the worst dub 
 trick you ever heard of? It carries me back to my 
 early days of duck shooting on the river. How well I 
 remember my feelings when I would work hard for a 
 shot and then just when I thought I had him, have 
 missed because in my haste I had forgotten to cock my 
 gun or put off the safety. I had just the same feeling 
 to-day only worse for I had set my heart on that 
 Boche. I as a matter of fact have another set of open 
 sights which I might have used, or I could have shot 
 by simply watching my tracer bullets. Or again I 
 could have stuck it out long enough to open up my 
 regular sights and use them but I was so surprised that 
 I guess I got a bit rattled and just did not think quickly 
 enough. When I woke up it was too late. You may 
 wonder what the other Boche was doing in the mean- 
 time. He was in the front of the one I was attacking 
 and was where I could sec him, so it was practically 
 the same as only having one to deal with. You may 
 also wonder why I should have missed the first fellow 
 I shot at. As I have said before, the whole business 
 reminds me of the beginnings of duck shooting — there is 
 just that same tendency to become over-anxious which 
 one must conquer, ami then too it makes a great dif- 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 89 
 
 ference when you have to keep ducking around under 
 a Boche's tail to keep him from plugging you. Quick- 
 ness is essential, but there is a certain quick delibera- 
 tion which I think must be acquired by practice. Just 
 the difference again between the quick unaimed snap 
 shot of the beginner in wing shooting and the equally 
 quick aimed shot of the old hand. And when the bird 
 shoots back it does make an awful difference for when 
 you see a machine gun aimed at you with fire spurting 
 out of it, there is, to me at least, a strong tendency to 
 duck my head like a blooming ostrich rooting in the 
 sand. To-day was my first experience in attacking a 
 two-seater from below and I think next time I shall be 
 able to do much better. The only thing I accomplished 
 to-day was driving those four Huns home off the lines 
 and if they all go home another time I shall deserve a 
 good kick. 
 
 Don't get the idea that we have fights every time we 
 fly. Until to-day I had not had so much as a shot at a 
 Hun for three weeks although I had in that time done 
 considerable flying. It seems to come in bunches for 
 all three encounters to-day were within twenty-five 
 minutes. 
 
 The clipping which I enclose about German ''Junk- 
 ers" is, I happen to know, substantially true. Have 
 not seen any of this new type of machine as yet. 
 They are I believe only for low work and are so heavily 
 armored that they cannot fly very high. 
 
 I think this is about all the news I have to tell you 
 this time and here's hoping I shall soon be able to write 
 of an encounter with a Hun that has a more successful 
 ending. 
 
 It is very interesting to watch the changes that 
 
80 Till': way OF THE EAGLE 
 
 ttln place in | sector as thQ infantry under you attacks 
 
 and advances* 3Tou can trace bhe advanoe by the slow 
 changing of green fields and woods into a blasted 
 wilderness which shows a mud brown color from the 
 air. Fields become a mass o( shell holes filled with 
 water and a wood turns from an expanse of green foU- 
 to a few shattered and leafless trunks. For weeks 
 l have watched in particular the destruction of a cer- 
 tain forest.* When l arrived at the front it was al- 
 most intact, here and there in the few open spaces one 
 could see an occasional shell hole. Now one whole 
 half of it which faces our lines is simply wiped out of 
 existence and but for a few battered stumps, has 
 melted until it looks almost like the surrounding 
 quagmire of mud and shell holes. The other half 
 has the appearance of a mangy dog. Every now and 
 
 then yon notice that there is less green ano! more mud. 
 This little forest is I suppose about four kilometres 
 
 square and the change is necessarily gradual. One is 
 
 naturally busy watching the air about him, but every 
 week or so yon will notice that the destruction of some 
 land-mark sneh as this forest has advanced another 
 step. It is the same way with the little Belgian towns. 
 l\v degrees they are obliterated until their sites are 
 only distinguishable by a smudge a tritle darker in color 
 than the brown of the torn fields which once surrounded 
 them. 
 
 feftQI B3,Oot tTth. 
 Went out again this morning with the same French- 
 man, looking for Huns. Cot two more cracks at them. 
 The first was too far to accomplish anything although 
 I could see some of my bullets going between his wings 
 
 * IVr. 
 
I. ( ADRILLE ::. 78 W 
 
 and h< 
 
 "Hell bent for Election." 'J b 
 
 a;-; t.h< : ■, .'. J '/, j)d : 
 
 l he • 
 
 him coming toward dm and let him paae about thirty 
 
 ■;, then jerked my d 
 quiekl) eU tmder hii taH^ hut when I 
 
 rely in Mi/ 
 
 mi nut/;. H': '//.'j v\\<)-tl<:<\ XU<; V.'h <;/•'; \i<: 7.' a-, hv//- 
 
 ,<-j><;'\ up and firf/J a Ionj§ 
 
 . ahead of me 
 h foi I 
 couple of fed 
 
 ition hut it leemed to me thai I eould fed die 
 
 wind from the bullet.-, a - - t.h':y r I'n»:y <•;<;.-' 
 
 me a thrill and J loft no time in getting under hii 
 t.i.il again I bad b lickly 
 
 at die high altitude 'lo// ad my prorifrifn 
 
 about three hundred feet under him b< ' 
 eould atop it. Tbia made tht 
 
 rk and although J hit him 
 aee the hul of hii 
 
 machine, they did no 
 him up and tent him bona 
 
 / hat. a difficult, thing 
 in thi rork, I b rer realized it before 
 
 Once more M. to ,/ "wait until 
 
 UW7. 
 
 Arrived in P fly a new 
 
 Lack to die front.. Had expected to get ofl 
 
 am afraid it. will be I .it. till 
 
 the an for me I think, 
 
92 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 but you will be glad to know that it will probably only 
 be a couple of weeks before I have the latest type, one 
 which will out-fly and out-climb anything the Huns 
 have. My present one is very good but the new ones 
 are better and also mount two guns instead of one. 
 
 Had two more arguments with the Boches on the 
 18th. One in the morning was a long range hit and 
 run scrap with a bunch of single-seater fighting ma- 
 chines where the object was more to drive them off than 
 anything else. In the afternoon I found a two-seater 
 by itself and think the pilot was a greenhorn for when I 
 dove under his tail he got scared and started to beat it 
 for home in a perfectly straight line. My position was 
 perfect and the machine gunner could not even see 
 me, let alone shoot. I could have run into him if I 
 had wanted to and thought I had him sure. Two shots 
 and the machine gun broke. I was so mad and dis- 
 appointed I could have cried but here's hoping such bad 
 luck is over and things will break my way next time. 
 I have gotten a lot of valuable experience this week 
 if nothing else. 
 
 Bergues. Oct. 30th, 1917. 
 You referred in your last letter to my speaking of 
 going out alone with one other man over the lines. 
 My reason for doing this is not at all because we have 
 not enough men to fly in groups, but simply because two 
 is the best number if you want to try to bring down some 
 Huns. Two men patrols are nearly always voluntary 
 "vols de chasse" and on such an expedition you can 
 get a shot at many Huns who would take to the woods 
 in the face of larger numbers. As you say, however, 
 there is in aviation too much striving for individual 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 93 
 
 success and not enough team work. This sort of thing 
 produces some fine men, but kills unnecessarily a great 
 many more. Although the Hun flyers are not up to the 
 English or French, man for man, I have seen them 
 bag our men on several occasions simply by always 
 using their heads and working on a system and get off 
 scot-free, although the man they got was probably 
 better than any single one of them. 
 
 As for the statistics you say you saw in Baltimore, 
 about all our best flyers having been killed, and many 
 of the Germans being still alive, I think that they are 
 mistaken. Practically all the big German aces are 
 gone. Our men and the English have bagged several 
 here in this sector this fall. On the other hand, there 
 are a number of Frenchmen who have many Boche 
 machines to their credit. 
 
 We have one fellow named Fonck in this group who 
 only started in on chasse work last Spring, although 
 he had been a pilot for a long time. Already he has 
 about twenty Huns. He is a wonder, and with a little 
 luck, should I think equal Guynemer's record. He is 
 the fellow I wrote you about, who got the Boche who 
 was reported to have killed Guynemer. He flies a 
 great deal, and the regularity with which he nails them 
 is extraordinary. A couple of days ago, he went out 
 in the morning and brought one Hun down in flames, 
 and killed a machine gunner in another, only failing 
 to get it because his engine went back on him. In the 
 afternoon Fonck went out again, brought another two- 
 seater down in flames, and probably got a single-seater 
 as well. When a man gets a few Huns and becomes 
 recognized as very good he of course gets greater 
 opportunities, and has the advantage of being among 
 
\)\ THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 the lirst to get the newest and finest type of machine 
 before the other pilots. But no matter what advan- 
 tage of this sort he has, Fonek lias won it and his re- 
 cord is none the loss remarkable. 
 
 1 hope when we are transferred to the U, S. forces 
 the fact that wo have our Government back of us will 
 enable us to bo anions:: the Brs1 to got the best machines. 
 As an improvement is made, it o( course takes time to 
 supply every one, hut the men who got the now typo 
 first got the jump on the others, so to speak, and have 
 the groat advantage of going after the Huns with a 
 machine that will perform hot tor than the Boche be- 
 lieve it will. For instance, if your machine will fly 
 Faster or climb higher ami more quickly than the 
 ordinary type will and the Hun that you are after 
 
 bases his calculation on the performance of the ordinary 
 type, you can easily see that you have a much better 
 chance of fooling him. This keeping ahead of the 
 times is, I think, of the utmost importance, and I 
 hope the X T . S. Government realises this. Turning out 
 machines in largo quantities and standardization 
 have of course their advantages, but it would bo a 
 groat mistake to load up with a lot o( machines of a. 
 certain typo and thou by the time wo could got thorn 
 on the front in the spring find that they were out of 
 dato. The science of aeroplane building is still ad- 
 vancing very fast. 
 
 One oi my reasons for hoping that after I have had 
 my fling at the front I may bo able to win a higher 
 position is. because I should much like to have an 
 opportunity of trying to cut out some of the frightful 
 inefficiency and waste of time and effort that one sees 
 on every side. It is sometimes perfectly appalling, 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 95 
 
 and I can now understand what I could not understand 
 before I came over, and that is, why the Germans 
 have been able to do so well. What we know of their 
 methods is of course only hearsay, but from all ac- 
 counts, "efficiency and united effort" are their middle 
 names as the slang expression has it. The results 
 they have accomplished certainly bear out this rep- 
 utation. 
 
 What do you all think at home of the recent Hun 
 invasion of Italy? The outlook is pretty gloomy, is it 
 not, but I hope it may serve to make people in America 
 realize that this war is not won yet by a long sight, 
 and that if if is going to be won they have got to get 
 into it for all they are worth. We certainly should 
 do our utmost without complaining when one con- 
 siders what a soft time of it we have had so far. Yes- 
 terday a Frenchman came to me with a letter he had 
 received from a friend of his, an English infantry 
 officer. It was written in English and he asked me 
 to translate it for him. The Englishman was speak- 
 ing of one of the recent attacks and said among other 
 things, that he was sorry to have to write that Major 
 
 X and his son Captain X had both been 
 
 killed within an hour of each other. I thought at the 
 time that this bit of news was going to be pretty hard 
 
 on Mrs. X when it reached England, but this is 
 
 what Kngland has been going through for over three 
 years now. J'ractically all her best young blood is gone. 
 When the same sort of news reaches America a hundred 
 thousand times or so, I guess we will wake up and 
 realize that we have a war on our hands, if we do not 
 realize it already. 
 
 The Italian business is certainly too bad and seems to 
 
96 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 be the direct result of the Russian fizzle. If the Rus- 
 sians had only done half their duty it seems likely that 
 the war might have been ended this year, but now it 
 doesn't seem possible that the end can come before 
 another year at least. 
 
 Bergues, November 12th. 
 
 I am in a particularly bad humor this morning, 
 so do not be surprised if it is to a certain extent reflected 
 in this letter. To-day is the most beautiful one that 
 could be desired — better than any we have had for two 
 weeks, and just what I have been waiting for. Three- 
 quarters of an hour ago I was all dressed sitting in 
 my machine, about to start out, when a mechanic 
 discovered a leak in a gasoline tank, which means that 
 it must be changed and that the machine will not be 
 ready until the morning, so there goes another day to 
 pot. 
 
 A few days ago I started out on a patrol with two 
 lieutenants and on our way to the lines we saw a num- 
 ber of miles to one side of us a great many of our own 
 anti-aircraft shells bursting. We went over to investi- 
 gate and what did we run into but ten Hun Gothas and 
 a couple of chasse machines flying over them for pro- 
 tection. The lieutenant who was leading our patrol 
 says he shot at a couple of them, but I could not see 
 him do it, as I was a little behind. The cover of my 
 radiator had cracked and the water, mixed with glycer- 
 ine to keep it from freezing, had sprayed out, covering 
 my telescope sights, the windshield and my glasses, 
 so that I could not see well. I had gotten a little be- 
 hind the others in trying to clean things up with my 
 handkerchief. At all events, the lieutenant's machine 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 97 
 
 gun went back on him, and he started back with the 
 other lieutenant after him; seeing them both go, I 
 thought they must be after a Hun that I had not seen, 
 so I started to follow them, but when I could see no 
 signs of a Boche in that direction, I turned back. 
 
 A Gotha machine, you know, is the enormous Hun 
 machine that they use for their night bombing in the 
 raids on England. They are almost as big as the Ca- 
 proni which they have been recently demonstrating 
 in the U. S. They have two motors and as a rule 
 carry three or four men. They are unusually well 
 armed with movable machine guns, fore and aft, and 
 the usual zone of safety under the tail is removed by 
 means of a tunnel in the fuselage, which enables them 
 to shoot under their tails. It therefore behooves you 
 to "mind your eye" when you attack and to make sure 
 you either get him or put his rear gunners out of 
 business at least, for although you may be able to 
 approach without giving him much of a shot it is im- 
 possible not to give him a shot in getting away. 
 
 These Gothas were the first that I had ever had a 
 real look at for they are rarely seen by day; once or 
 twice I have seen them in the distance over the lines. 
 At all events, when I turned back, I spotted one Gotha 
 off a little to one side of the squadron and somewhat 
 over my head. As they were only about 9000 feet up 
 climbing was easy and I started after him. They saw 
 what I was up to however and the Hun drew in along- 
 side of his companion for protection. Under these 
 circumstances, it is foolishness to attack by yourself, 
 for you will have at least two or three machine gunners 
 shooting at you with their movable guns and no way 
 of protecting yourself when you want to shoot, for 
 
98 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 then you have to hold your machine steady. You will 
 just get riddled with practically no chance of success 
 to compensate for it. I accordingly looked for better 
 game and saw another Gotha behind the squadron all 
 by himself and below me. I flew around over him for 
 a minute to see if the coast was clear and then dove 
 down behind his tail. When I started after him he left 
 the others and put for home as fast as he could go. 
 All these Huns were well within our lines, and this was 
 just what I wanted. 
 
 About this time I looked around to see if any other 
 Huns were coming on my tail and there were two chasse 
 machines just behind me in the sun. This gave me a 
 jolt for with my glasses all fogged up it took me several 
 seconds to make sure that they were English and not 
 Huns. All the time the "Archie" shells were bursting 
 in every direction, for in this sector at least, they often 
 do not stop shooting just because one of their own 
 machines goes after a Hun. As they generally shoot 
 behind they come closer to you than to the Huns, 
 and it always makes me sore. They did the same trick 
 the day before when I was trying to sneak up under a 
 Hun's tail. That time our guns were shooting at 
 him and their guns shooting at me, so that between 
 the two there was quite a bit of a bombardment. It 
 seems to me that this is bad policy for it is compara- 
 tively rare that they hit a machine with the "Archies" 
 and why bother a man who really has a good chance of, 
 accomplishing something. 
 
 To come back to the Gotha, I got within 150 yards 
 of him just behind his tail, so that he never fired a 
 shot, but when I tried to aim everything was so gummed 
 up I could not see the sights and the Gotha was nothing 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 99 
 
 but a blur. Now as I have explained, these machines 
 are regular battle ships of the air, and to get them you 
 have got to fairly riddle them for they frequently carry 
 two pilots in case one is killed. I had to give this one 
 up without firing a shot and I have been wondering ever 
 since whether I did what I should have. My mistake 
 was, in not going in quicker, and if I had then had time 
 to get right up close to him before he got into his own 
 lines, I could probably have seen well enough to shoot 
 anyhow. On the only other time that I have seen 
 Gothas by day they have been escorted by a whole 
 flock of fighting planes. Being by myself on this 
 occasion and not able to see clearly I don't mind say- 
 ing those Huns had me nervous. But it was such a 
 glorious chance and would have been such a triumph 
 if I could have bagged him, that it was worth taking 
 much bigger risks than one would usually take. The 
 only Frenchman I ever heard of who got one was Gap- 
 tain Guynemer. I shall probably not have such a 
 chance in six months, but if I do I shall certainly try 
 to make better use of it. I am sort of ashamed of my- 
 self for not sticking to that Hun and perhaps accom- 
 plishing something. 
 
 The day before my experience with the Gotha I 
 went out in the morning with the chief of the Escadrille, 
 Captain Deullin. It was the first time I had been 
 out alone with him on a Hun hunting expedition and I 
 was very glad of the opportunity to watch him fighting, 
 for he is an old hand at the game and there is probably 
 no one in the French Army more skilful than he. I 
 am glad to say that I think he will now take me with 
 him as a protection for his rear in other expeditions 
 of the kind, and this protection business often gives 
 
LOO THE WAV OF THE EAGLE 
 
 the protector some splendid opportunities, not to 
 mention the lot thai one can learn by watching. I 
 was glad to sec that the captain's methods of attack 
 were the same as 1 had been trying, although of course 
 much more skilfully executed, lie has a faster ma- 
 chine than mine ami left me a little behind several 
 times when he was attacking a two-seater. I only got 
 a few very long shots at one. 
 
 He had one tight with some single-seater fighting 
 machines which turned out better. I was right be- 
 hind the captain and started down with him when he 
 dove down to attack the highest of several Boche single- 
 seaters. In my capacity as rear guard I was necessarily 
 several hundred yards behind, and about the time that 
 I started to follow the captain I caught sight of an- 
 other Hun coming in behind me and on the same level. 
 He was a good way off, but started io shoot at me, so 
 1 had to turn and chase him. When I started after 
 him he also turned and started to run but I had no 
 more than begun to follow him when still another put in 
 an appearance above me. and 1 had to get out. In the 
 meantime the captain had gotten close to his man but 
 had to stop shooting at him to defend himself against 
 a couple of others and in doing so lost sight of the Hun 
 he had attacked. As soon as we landed, he told me 
 he could not understand why the fellow had not fallen, 
 for he had seen at least ten of his tracer bullets fired at 
 point blank range apparently go right into the pilot's 
 seat. Sure enough, a few minutes later confirmation 
 came in that a Hun had fallen at that time and place. 
 This made nineteen for Captain Peullin. 
 
 The afternoon that Captain Peullin got his Hun he 
 asked me to go with him in his motor to have a look 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 101 
 
 at the Boche as the machine had fallen in our lines, 
 and besides we were not entirely sure whether the one 
 reported was the same as the one the captain had shot. 
 We had some little difliculty in locating the spot, for 
 the report had not been entirely accurate, and neither 
 I nor the Captain had been able to see the Hun fall, 
 having been otherwise occupied for the moment. 
 Also, the fight took place some 15,000 feet up, and at 
 this height no matter how hard you try to watch a 
 machine it is usually lost to view before it hits the 
 ground. 
 
 The trip to the lines was just what I have been want- 
 ing to do ever since I have reached the front, and it 
 goes without saying it was most interesting. I have 
 seen the same places hundreds of times from the air, 
 but you do not get the detail that way. As you ap- 
 proach the lines, you come first to a country of occa- 
 sional old shell holes, and villages with here and there 
 a smashed house. As you go on, the shell holes become 
 more and more frequent and the villages more and more 
 completely demolished. We passed on to little ham- 
 lets, now used principally for the quartering of troops, 
 where the gaping holes in the walls and the splintered 
 trees gave evidence of the shelling they had received 
 in the days before the Hun was driven back. Then 
 we drove through what is probably the most famous 
 city * of the war, once a good sized town, with many 
 fine buildings, among them a beautiful cathedral. 
 I looked carefully to see and without exaggeration there 
 is not a building left with a roof, or that is more than 
 a gutted shell. Few of them are even this — the walls 
 also being blown in, and the cathedral is typical of 
 * Ypres. 
 
102 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 practically every house in the city, a pile of rubbish and 
 broken stones, with here and there the battered frag- 
 ment of a wall still standing. We shall never be able 
 to make the Huns really pay for the damage they have 
 done, but one cannot but look forward to the day when 
 we shall be in a position to give them a bit of their own 
 medicine in their own country. 
 
 The desolation of this city was as complete as it is 
 possible to be in a city, but not so complete I think as 
 that of the countiy beyond, where the hardest fighting 
 of the war has now been raging for almost the past three 
 and a half years. This country defies all description, 
 and as I have told you before, the nearest approach 
 to it I know of in America is a northern swamp where 
 a district once destroyed by a forest fire has been 
 flooded. Every tree is a splintered, leafless wreck, 
 killed as though by lightning, where indeed there is 
 more than a stump left. The ground is a mass of 
 merging holes, filled with water. It is easy to under- 
 stand why the men are always in mud when one passes 
 through this region, for as you drive along the road 
 you are as if on a dike with the surrounding land be- 
 low you. There are little ridges of course but in 
 many places the country lies below the road as do the 
 marshes when you are approaching the Jersey coast. 
 The ground is strewn with the wreckage of the war, 
 especially near the road, broken wagons and junk of all 
 kinds; once we came upon a number of used up tanks; 
 now and then you pass a cemetery with its thousands of 
 little wooden crosses, some bearing the name and rank 
 and the legend "Killed in action June 27, 1916" for 
 instance; others simply mark the grave of an unknown 
 soldier fallen there. One cannot but think of how much 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 103 
 
 lies behind each one of those little wooden crosses be- 
 sides the bones which rest beneath it. 
 
 We went in the motor as far as the road would allow 
 us, perhaps 1000 yards from the first line, and then got 
 out and walked over about 200 yards to an artillery 
 officer's dug-out, to inquire for our Hun. The walking 
 reminded me a little of wading for reedbirds in one of 
 those very soft marshes on the river at home where 
 you sink in up to your knees. We found that we were 
 within 800 yards of where the Boche had fallen that 
 morning, but it was practically dark by this time 
 so we could not go up to have a look at him; this was 
 disappointing as the machine was a new German type 
 which we wished to see.* The artillery officer had seen 
 him fall and said that he had lost his wings on his 
 way down, and all he saw coming was the body of the 
 machine. The place we got to was up with the light 
 artillery and of course considerably ahead of the 
 heavy. By the time we started back, it was dark, 
 blowing hard, with rain, and a more dismal sight you 
 never beheld. Every second or so the desolate country 
 would be lit up by the flash of one of our big guns, im- 
 mediately followed by the crash of the explosion and 
 the shriek of the shell as it passed out over our heads to 
 the Boche lines. Added to this, the whine and crash 
 of the shells coming the other way, and in the distance 
 on the front lines themselves, the rat-tat-tat of the 
 machine guns and the star shells going up and hanging 
 in the sky for a few seconds, with the brilliancy of an 
 arc light. When moving in this country at night one 
 can of course carry no light, but the flashes of the guns 
 light up the road like very vivid heat lightning on a 
 ♦Pfalz. 
 
104 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 summer night. It is easy enough to distinguish the 
 different sounds made by a "depart" and an " arrive," 
 especially after one has had a little practice listening 
 to both ends of the anti-aircraft gun firing, but I 
 believe soldiers in the trenches can also distinguish 
 between the whine of their own shells going out and 
 the enemy's shells coming in. Of course if you hap- 
 pen to be able to spot the individual report of a gun 
 and then hear the shell afterwards, you know that it is 
 one of your own, but when this is not possible it is hard 
 for a beginner to know which is which. They sound 
 very much like a falling bomb. 
 
 I do not envy those infantrymen and artillerymen 
 their jobs, but generally they would not swap with us 
 for anything, so we are both satisfied with our branches 
 of the service, and I guess it is just as well that it is 
 that way. It is little wonder though that men get shell 
 shock, sitting in one of those shell-holes — up to your 
 middle in cold water and listening to the whine of the 
 shells and wondering when one is coming to share your 
 hole with you — must get frightfully on a man's nerves. 
 As we retraced our steps across that bleak wind-swept 
 morass in the face of the cold rain, groping around the 
 shell craters by the light of the guns, I was mighty glad 
 I had a warm bed to go to where I could only just hear 
 those guns rumbling in the distance. 
 
 Bergues, November 13 
 Yesterday afternoon we had a little ceremony in 
 honor of Captain Guynemer at which his last citation 
 before the army was read and some of the other men 
 received decorations. Just before it started, a most 
 unfortunate accident occurred, about which I shall 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 105 
 
 tell you, as it throws a little light on the death of 
 Oliver. We were all standing on the field and a patrol 
 from the escadrille was just going out. I could not go 
 along, for as I told you my gasoline tank had to be 
 changed. One of our men who went up was a captain, 
 a new pilot, who had only been here about a week, and 
 was starting on his first patrol over the lines. He had 
 gotten up about 600 metres and as I watched him he 
 executed a "tournant" and did it pretty well for a new 
 man. My attention had been attracted however by the 
 rough manner in which he handled his machine, the 
 smooth grace of an old hand was lacking. When he 
 turned right side up after the "tournant," instead of 
 going on he dove vertically on his nose at the same time 
 doing a half turn in a vrille very slowly; then he dove 
 straight again and then another slow turn; every min- 
 ute I thought he would pull up, until he got within a 
 couple of hundred metres of the ground, when I saw 
 that something was wrong; he kept right on diving on 
 his nose until he disappeared behind some trees half a 
 mile away, then came a dull thud, and we knew that 
 that was the end of the little captain. Such things are 
 not pleasant to see; no one says much, for there is 
 nothing to say, and you just stand there helpless and 
 wait for the end. What happened to make him fall no 
 one knows, and you can only guess that upon doing the 
 "tournant" he must have gotten rattled, and lost his 
 head. So far as one could see, nothing broke about the 
 machine, and I flew the same one a few weeks ago when 
 mine was out of order, did barrel rolls and other forms 
 of acrobacy and everything seemed perfectly strong. 
 I was very sorry, for the captain seemed like a nice little 
 fellow; he was a captain in the infantry who had been 
 
L06 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 transferred to the aviation. Later in the afternoon I 
 walked over to where the machine had fallen to have 
 a look at it for I thought at the time thai that was 
 
 probably just the sort of a fall that Oliver had taken 
 ami I wanted to see if the wreck of this machine looked 
 anything like the picture I sent you. What I found 
 was almost a replica of that picture, which merely goes 
 tn confirm the report Ave received of the manner of 
 Oliver's fall. In his ease however it is of course pos- 
 sible that the machine was further demolished by shell 
 (ire. 
 
 Had some excitement to-day but I cannot write you 
 about it now if this letter is to catch the next boat, 
 so you will have to wait until next time. 
 
 Tlkssis-Bellkville. November IS, 1917. 
 Here T am again at Plessis-Belleville and it seems a. 
 long time since Oliver and I left here together for the 
 front in July. I flew an old machine down this morn- 
 ing and now have a little while before my train leaves 
 for Paris. You see when a plane is considered no 
 longer lit for service at the front, it is sent here to be 
 used up for instruction purposes. The fact that a 
 machine can no longer be used at the front does not 
 necessarily mean that it is not strong, but simply that 
 it has lost some of its efficiency and cannot climb as 
 well or By as fast as it once could. I had to come to 
 Paris anyhow to get my own new machine and fly it 
 back and as we had at the eseadrille an old machine 
 to be taken to the rear the captain told me to fly it down 
 instead of going by train. As you may guess I vastly 
 prefer the former method, for the trip is an interesting 
 one and the time required to go by air is about one 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 107 
 
 hour and a half as compared with fourteen or fifteen 
 by train. It was quite misty this morning so that I 
 flew all the way at about six or eight hundred metres. 
 Not being able to fly high and the visibility being very 
 poor I came by way of the sea, keeping it always in 
 sight until I struck the mouth of the Somme, then fol- 
 lowed the river to Amiens and from there on down the 
 railroad. The country is still new to me and I did 
 not wish to get myself lost in the mist. Going back, 
 if the weather permits I shall take the direct route 
 behind the front, for I am anxious to get to know this 
 section of the country. It may be very useful when 
 we are in the U. S. Army. The return trip should 
 also be very interesting, as it will take me over the 
 country evacuated by the Germans last spring, the 
 famous battlefield of the Somme and also that of Arras. 
 
 All this explains why I am now at Plessis-Belleville 
 writing to you in the little Cafe de la Place, where I 
 lived while I was here in training, and of which I think 
 I have sent you a picture. To-morrow morning I shall 
 go to the great distributing station for aeroplanes near 
 Paris, see that my machine is all right, take it up and 
 try it out, and then next day (weather permitting) 
 fly it back to the front. 
 
 Being here again, reminds me very much of Oliver, 
 for it was here that I really came to know, and I hope 
 appreciate him, and we did have lots of fun, flying to- 
 gether, and in off times taking long walks through a 
 beautiful country and talking in frightful French to 
 the people we met by the way. He knew more words 
 than I did, but I think I could beat him sometimes on 
 accent — New England and French inflections are a 
 trifle different. 
 
108 THE WW OF THE EAGLE 
 
 1 have been thinking a .muni deal aboul Oliver lately, 
 and 1 am sorry thai I shall have to be again the Bender 
 of bad tidings fco his father, for last Thursday 1 found 
 his grave. 1 told you in one of my Letters Dot long 
 ago about a eouple oi the Frenchmen in our esoadrille 
 having been brought down, one was named Joh'vel ami 
 the other Dron; you have pictures oi them both, ami 
 l remember 1 Bent you one of Dron, with a cigarette in 
 his mouth and a little puppy in his anus. Captain 
 Deullin went up to the linos Borne time ago to see if 
 he could find where they had fallen, and when he came 
 back reported that he had found the graves of both. 
 He had not told me that he was going, for 1 should cer- 
 tainly have asked to go with him ; he reported, to my 
 surprise, that he had found the grave of Jolivet in al- 
 most exactly the same spot where T thought Oliver 
 hail fallen. Thursday the whole escadrille went up 
 behind the lines to arrange the graves of the two 
 Frenchmen, 1 was glad to go and also glad of the 
 opportunity to at last look personally for some trace 
 of Oliver. When we arrived at what the captain 
 thought was the grave of Jolivet, lying scattered about 
 it were the fragments of a shattered plane. I at once 
 searched for a number, and soon found what I was 
 looking for, 1429, almost obliterated by the rains of 
 the past three months. That was the number of 
 Oliver's machine, and in the midst of the wreckage 
 was a rough grave; at its head a wooden cross that 
 some one had made by nailing two pieces of board 
 together, and on the cross written with an indelible 
 pencil "lei repose un aviateur inconnu."* All around 
 the grave a mass oi shell holes tilled with water, ami 
 
 *l\crc lies an unknown aviator. 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 109 
 
 the other decorations of a modern battlefield. I 
 tried to describe to you before what it is like, and this 
 was but a repetition of the rest, that is, at least in this 
 sector. A flat low country torn almost beyond recogni- 
 tion by the shells, here and there the dead shattered 
 trees sticking up from the mud and water, occasionally 
 a dead horse and everywhere quantities of tangled 
 barbed wire and cast-off material. Just beyond (lie 
 grave was the German first line before the attack on 
 August lGth. It is marked by a row of half- wrecked 
 concrete shelters, pill boxes the English call them. 
 Just beyond this a village,* but I stood on what had 
 been the main street and did not know that there; hurl 
 been a village there until the captain showed it to me 
 on the map. This little town has been so completely 
 blown to pieces and churned into the mud that there 
 is literally nothing left to distinguish it from the sur- 
 rounding country. Not even a foundation stone left 
 standing. 
 
 The grave is only about 1500 yards from our first 
 lines and not far in front of the heavy artillery. I 
 have marked it exactly on a map, and there can be 
 no doubt whatever that this is where Oliver is buried. 
 Although scattered and still further broken by the 
 weather, the wreck of the machine is recognizable 
 as the same as that shown in the picture taken by 
 the priest, the same broken roof of a house in the 
 foreground, and in the distance the same sticks and 
 splintered trees. 
 
 I am having a plate engraved by one of our mechanics 
 who was an engraver before the war; on it will be 
 "Oliver Moulton Chad wick, of Lowell, Massachusetts, 
 * Langcwaedc. 
 
110 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 U. S., a Pilot in the French Aviation, born September 
 23rd, 1S88; enlisted January 22nd, 1917; Killed in 
 action August 14th, 1917." This will show that he 
 was an American pilot in the French service, enlisted 
 as a volunteer before America entered the war. I 
 think the simpler such things are, the better. Around 
 the grave now is a little black wooden railing, which we 
 put there, and a neat oaken cross, on the cross a bronze 
 palm, with the inscription "Mort pour la patrie." 
 The captain and I are going back soon to put the plate 
 on the cross and I have bought a little French flag and 
 an American one, for I think he would like this. Also 
 I thought I would try and get a few flowers. The spot 
 should be a peaceful one after the war, for it will take 
 years to make anything out of that country again. 
 Just at present there is a great deal of artillery close 
 behind ; the roar of the guns was almost incessant when 
 we were there and a stream of shells went whining over- 
 head on the way to the Hun lines. 
 
 Paris. November 23rd. 
 In my last letter to father I mentioned at the end 
 that I had had some excitement, which I would write 
 to him about. That was ten days ago now, but I 
 have really not had time since to write. What I re- 
 ferred to, was this. That afternoon I had gotten an- 
 other American in one of the escadrilles in our group 
 to go out with me and protect my tail while we tried 
 to see if we could not find some Huns. For a while we 
 did not see much, and then below us we spotted five 
 single-seater fighting machines, who had evidently made 
 a little excursion into our lines, and were just going back 
 into their own. We attacked them together. My 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 111 
 
 companion pulled up a little too soon to have allowed 
 him a reasonable chance of accomplishing anything 
 I think, but I, on the other hand, got in a little too far. 
 You may think it sounds foolish or as if one was blow- 
 ing a bit to talk about attacking five when we were 
 only two, but an attack does not necessarily mean that 
 you charge into the middle of them and mix it up. 
 On the contrary you can by diving at high speed from 
 above get in some shots and then by using your great 
 speed climb up above them again out of reach before 
 they can get in a shot. If you remember to leave your 
 motor on as you are diving and in this way to come 
 down as fast as possible, without at the same time 
 going so fast as to interfere with your shooting, the 
 great speed gained in this way will enable you to 
 make a short steep climb and thus regain a position 
 perhaps two hundred metres above the heads of the 
 Huns where they cannot effectively shoot at you. I 
 am now of course speaking only of an attack on a 
 group of single-seater machines. If the engagement 
 ends here the chances of bringing one down are not 
 great, but you can sometimes by such methods and by, 
 for instance, hitting some part of one of the machines, 
 so worry the Huns that one will in the general confu- 
 sion get separated from his comrades so that you can 
 get a fair crack at him. This was about the first time 
 I had had a chance to try it, however, and I made a 
 botch of it. I saw I was getting in too close, but did, 
 I think, hit one of the Huns, though not seriously. In 
 my haste to get out, I made a false manoeuvre, and 
 fell on my nose instead of climbing up, as I should 
 have done. The result was, that the Hun I had been 
 shooting at and who had turned, got behind me on my 
 
112 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 tail in a most unpleasant position, where he could shoot 
 and I could not. Naturally I did not let him stay 
 there long, but had io dodge and boat a retreat. He 
 did manage to hit my machine a couple of times, one 
 bullet through a wing and another through the body 
 of the machine about six inches behind me, but never 
 touched me and did my plane no harm whatever. It 
 did not take much thinking to see that my little ma- 
 noeuvre had been very badly executed. 
 
 My companion and 1" started off again to see what 
 else we could find, and 15 minutes later I spotted six 
 more Huns in almost the same place. This time four 
 two-seaters with two single-seaters above and behind 
 them acting as protection. The two-seaters were far 
 enough below not to have to bother about, so I tried 
 the same plan again and came down on the rear of 
 one of the single-seaters. I blazed away at him and 
 he made the same manoeuvre as the first one, but this 
 time I kept shooting until very close, then sailed up 
 over his head, did a quick turn, and dropped on his 
 tail again. Before following him, I looked to see what 
 the other single-seater was up io, and saw him bravely 
 making tracks for home, leaving his friend to shift for 
 himself. I therefore kept after the first, and poured 
 in all about 200 shots into him, many of which I am 
 sure hit the machine, for I could see the tracer bullets 
 apparently go almost into the pilot. I think my first 
 burst of bullets put his engine out of business for he 
 did not seem able to dive very fast and I could catch 
 him with ease. 
 
 Several times when he would do a renversement he 
 would turn up and slide off on one wing, as though he 
 were going to fall and I thought I had him sure. 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 113 
 
 Three times I was bo close, only about 30 feet, that 
 J had to pull up to avoid running into him. I could 
 Bee Oi': Hun sitting there, staring up at me through 
 his goggles, the color of his bonnet and all the details 
 of the show. This kept up from 4000 to 1800 metres, 
 and he never got in a shot, 1 am glad to say. Why he 
 did not fall, I do not know. There is however always 
 a very good reason why they get away, I think, and 
 thai is because you do not hold quite close enough. I 
 know the experience taught me a lesson about being 
 too hasty in my shooting. I finally had to let him go 
 because I caught sight of nine of his brethren coming 
 to his rescue and when they started after me and be- 
 gan to shoot I thought discretion the better part of 
 valor and got out. At this time the Boche was flop- 
 ping about in the air and letting out a considerable 
 quantity of smoke. 
 
 Being busy in the getting out, I could no longer 
 watch rny would-be victim, but the American who 
 was with me and who had stayed above as a sort of 
 rear guard was able to watch him and said that the 
 last he saw of the Hun he was still going down in a 
 spiral with black smoke coming out of his tail. The 
 latter means a fire on board and if this was the case I 
 think that Hun's flying days are over unless he gets 
 a pair of wings in some Hun heaven — maybe they will 
 have such a place full of beer and sausages — certainly 
 Christians could not be expected to associate with 
 them. Be that as it may, I am sorry to say I could 
 not get any confirmation by some one on the ground of 
 the Boche having been seen to fall, so he does not count 
 officially for me; if he fell, as I think he did, he came 
 down considerably in his own lines. I wish I could 
 
114 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 have gotten him at the start for he then would have 
 fallen in our lines, and the machine was one of the 
 new type. Mais si le Boche est mort, c'est la premiere 
 chose.* As the Frenchmen say when they bag one 
 "Un moins qui mange la soupe ce soir." f If that Boche 
 ever did get down alive I am sure in my own mind that 
 he is at least at present sojourning in the hospital. 
 My manoeuvring worked out all right this time and 
 if I can catch another like that and do not get him 
 beyond question, I shall promptly admit that I am a 
 punk aviator. 
 
 The next day I was out on another expedition with 
 one of the lieutenants. We ran into a regular fleet of 
 Hun machines, there were five of the huge Gotha 
 bombers which carry three or four men each and 
 about eighteen single-seaters protecting them. The 
 lieutenant has been in the aviation since the beginning 
 of the war and said he had never seen so many Huns 
 at once. He tried to get a shot at the Gothas and in 
 so doing flew directly under five Albatross single-seaters 
 whom he entirely failed to see. I was some eight 
 hundred yards behind him at the time for he was flying 
 one of the new 220 H. P. Spads such as the one I am 
 about to get and when he had put on full speed in order 
 to attack the Gothas, he left my old bus far behind. 
 I saw the Huns coming down on my companion and 
 followed him as fast as I could but they attacked him 
 before I could even get within long range of them. 
 Luckily for him however they began shooting too far 
 away, put a couple of bullets through his wings and 
 warned him. He promptly stood on his nose and 
 
 * But if the Boche is dead, that is the main thing, 
 t One less who eats supper this evening. 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 115 
 
 dove vertically for six thousand feet with his motor at 
 extreme high speed. I never saw a machine go down 
 so fast before and it is a wonder he did not pull his 
 wings off. I think he would have in anything but a 
 Spad. As it was, he stretched all the bracing wires 
 between his wings out of tension and bent the wings 
 themselves back an inch or two so that the whole 
 plane had to be taken apart and re-regulated before he 
 could fly it again. When I saw that the lieutenant 
 had escaped I pulled out myself, for the five Huns who 
 had jumped on him had not followed him down, and 
 being still above me, there was not much that I could 
 do. Looked around for some Hun who did not have 
 so many friends with him but seeing nothing better 
 than another group of five below me thought I would 
 have a try at them. Being by myself I had to keep 
 above them and could not get a close shot but took a 
 crack at the rear man anyhow and at least succeeded 
 in making him sore. When I started to shoot the 
 Boches turned and then as I pulled up above and to 
 one side of them, the Hun at whom I had been shoot- 
 ing, sat his machine back on her tail and took a shot 
 at me. I was at least one hundred and fifty yards from 
 him and flying at right angles to him, a most difficult 
 shot, but at that he managed to put a bullet through 
 the side of my plane which missed my foot by two 
 inches and brought up in the bed of the motor with a 
 thud. It did not break anything however and I dug it 
 out with my knife when I got home. 
 
 Since then I have not flown over the lines, due partly 
 to bad weather and also to my trip to Paris. The 
 little delay here is certainly worth it to get such a good 
 machine. I shall be much safer in it for it will fly 
 
116 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 faster than anything the Huns have, will climb higher, 
 and much more quickly than my old one, and mounts 
 two machine guns of an improved type, thereby 
 greatly reducing the chance of gun jams. With it and 
 any kind of weather 1 certainly hope that I shall soon 
 be able fco write you of a Boche that goes down and 
 stays down officially. 
 
 Bergues. Nov. 27th, 1917. 
 My trip back from Paris was most interesting, but 
 rather too eventful for comfort, considering it was an 
 ordinary cross-country flight, with no Huns to compli- 
 cate matters. I came, as I told you I would, by way 
 of the front, going from Paris to Compiegne, and then 
 over the territory evacuated last spring. The battle- 
 field of the Somme looks much like our own sector 
 here, villages, fields, trees, everything blown to atoms, 
 except the Somme is more extensive, and one flies for 
 miles and miles over this sort of country. I do not 
 think, however, from the look I had at it that the 
 Somme wreck is quite as complete, except in spots, 
 as that here, for the fighting there, terrific as it was, 
 was not as long drawn out as it has been here, and the 
 country is not nearly so low and wet. A marsh is a 
 dreary sort of a place at best, unless it happens to be 
 full of ducks. I passed the scene of the recent English 
 advance before Cambrai, and could see the guns blaz- 
 ing away, although I did not go very close. Not hav- 
 ing as yet any guns on my machine, I was naturally 
 not anxious to fall in with some Boches. That ad- 
 vance by the British was certainly a great stroke and 
 will I hope tend to relieve the tension on the Italian 
 front. It does beat the devil how every time the Huns 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 117 
 
 are beginning to feel the pinch they succeed in pulling 
 off a coup of some sort to cheer their people up. Servia, 
 Roumania, Russia and now the Italian success — each 
 one must certainly add months at least to the duration 
 of the war. 
 
 Everything went all right until I struck Arras, when 
 I was met by a very strong north-west wind which very 
 much reduced my speed. I had arrived at the field 
 near Paris, ready to start in plenty of time, but my 
 motor had not run properly at first so that I was de- 
 layed in getting off until I had only just sufficient time 
 to make the trip before dark. When I left Paris the 
 wind had been a little in my favor and not particularly 
 strong. The trip down by the long route had only 
 taken me an hour and three-quarters, so that as I 
 was returning by the direct road, and left Paris at 
 20 minutes before three, I thought I would certainly get 
 here by half past four when it begins to get dark in this 
 countiy. The wind however shifted and became very 
 strong and to add to my troubles my motor began to 
 run badly, missing and throwing fire out of the exhaust, 
 so that I had to keep constantly watching to see that the 
 side of the machine did not get dangerously hot. Then 
 I ran into a storm, which seems to have been bad all 
 over the country; clouds, rain and mist forced me 
 to fly under 200 metres, and darkness fell very sud- 
 denly. 
 
 All this makes it hard to find your way in a country 
 you have never been over before, and in trying to 
 figure out just what my motor was going to do, I got 
 off the little strip of map I had and lost my bearings. 
 I had a compass of course and knew approximately 
 where I was, but as my gasoline was almost gone, and 
 
118 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 it was getting very dark, the only sensible thing was 
 to land for the night. I accordingly searched for an 
 aviation field, for in a hilly wooded country such as I 
 was over, where good landing places are scarce, one is 
 very likely to break one's machine in trying to land in 
 an ordinary field, when one cannot see much and there 
 is a heavy wind. I searched for 20 minutes, and al- 
 though aviation fields are generally numerous behind 
 the front, I could not find one for the life of me. I have 
 had some rough rides before this, but this one beat 
 them all. Our machines are strong and stable, but the 
 gale threw mine around like a canoe in a high sea. 
 Under such conditions you will often strike a pocket 
 in the air and the machine will drop so quickly that 
 you shoot up out of your seat until pulled down by 
 the safety belt. With a little room to spare under 
 you, it makes no difference, but it is most unpleasant 
 when very close to the ground. I much dreaded 
 breaking my new machine in landing, for it is an 
 excellent one of a sort which is scarce and hard to get 
 and for which the captain had kindly given me a special 
 order. Finally it got so dark that it was no use look- 
 ing further for an aviation field and it was absolutely 
 necessary to land without delay. I saw a field facing 
 into the wind and in the lee of a woods, so that the 
 force of the wind would be less, also some sort of an 
 encampment next to the field where I thought they 
 would probably take me in. I accordingly dropped 
 into it with all the care I could muster and certainly 
 broat lied a sigh of relief when safely on the ground with 
 everything intact. I would not have broken that 
 machine for anything for it would have seriously de- 
 layed my work out here before I could have gotten 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 119 
 
 another. You can yourself generally get through a 
 smash in landing with nothing worse than a few 
 bruises, but a ditch or a hole in the ground is all it 
 takes to turn a machine on its back and ruin it. I 
 noticed a weather report saying the wind had blown 
 60 miles an hour that night on the coast and observa- 
 tions taken the next morning at a field near where I 
 landed, showed 40 miles an hour, and this after the 
 wind had somewhat gone down. It must have been 
 blowing about 50 miles that evening, all of which 
 goes to show how the war has advanced aviation, 
 when one thinks of how a few years ago the machines 
 were such that an ordinary good breeze made flyers 
 hesitate about going up. As soon as I landed, a num- 
 ber of Tommies came running up and then an officer, 
 the latter evidently surprised to find my machine right 
 side up, for he had thought that I was going to land in 
 a plowed field near by. As a matter of fact, I fell 
 into great good luck, for the field where I landed was 
 as smooth and firm as a prepared aerodrome. 
 
 With the help of the Tommies, we pushed my machine 
 up under the lee of the woods, tethered it, covered up 
 the engine and had a guard put over it for the night 
 by the major of an English infantry regiment that 
 was resting in the neighborhood. Then the officer 
 who had first appeared, a captain, took me in tow, and 
 insisted that I come to his quarters for the night. I 
 found that he was in command of a company of Chinese 
 coolies, who had originally been stationed near us,* 
 but had been forced to move because of the bombing 
 they got from the Huns. One of these labor com- 
 panies is much larger than the ordinary infantry com- 
 * At St. Pol-sur-Mer. 
 
L20 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 pany. This one was acting as foresters, working in 
 the woods, getting out the timber which is so necessary 
 for the construction of the quickly made roads across 
 the battlefield over which the artillery and supplies 
 are brought up. The company is now enjoying per- 
 fect quiet and they deserve it after the way (hey caught 
 it at their former camp. That camp was only about 
 half a mil* 1 from where we used to be, and almost every 
 dear night the Huns would bomb it. No matter what 
 else (hey bombed, they always seemed to save a few 
 for- (his camp. We used to watch the bombs fall, and 
 wonder how many poor Chinks went up in smoke with 
 each one. As a matter of fact, their casualties were 
 heavy and the ignorant Chinamen were convinced 
 that the Roches had it in for (hem particularly. You 
 could see (hem any clear evening hiking across the 
 fields with their blankets on their backs to sleep in the 
 country, rather than stay in their camp. They be- 
 came terrified, and it was very difficult to keep them in 
 hand; the officers sometimes finding missing men many 
 miles from home. The officer told me of one instance 
 where a bomb fell right through the roof of a little 
 wooden hut, where four coolies were sleeping, but 
 fortunately went deep into the soft soil before it 
 exploded. The hut went straight up in the air and 
 the coolies in every direction, but by some miracle none 
 of them were hurt, except one who had his back burnt, 
 but has since recovered. He is now in the hospital 
 again, as the result of a friendly stab from one of his 
 comrades. Naturally all this bombing did not nourish 
 a very friendly feeling between (he coolies and their 
 tormentors the Huns. The coolie docs not care a rap 
 whether Germany is at war with China or England 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 121 
 
 or any one else, and I doubt whether many of them 
 even know it; but these particular coolies do hold a 
 most vivid and personal grudge against the Hun for 
 having showered them with bombs and slaughtered 
 their pals. The officer told me that they know the 
 difference between the black cross of the German 
 machine and the round cocardc of an Allied. He men- 
 tioned that it was a good thing for my health that I 
 was not a Hun who had been forced to land in their 
 midst, for the coolies would undoubtedly have torn 
 me limb from limb and the officers could not possibly 
 have stopped them. 
 
 In a little bit of a hut that served as a mess room I 
 found three other English officers, and they took me 
 in and were most kind and cordial, as indeed are all the 
 Englishmen whom I have met over here. These fel- 
 lows appreciate that we are all fighting for the same 
 thing, and are most anxious to help out in any way 
 they can. I have been forced to ask their assistance 
 on several occasions, and there is nothing they will not 
 do to make you feel at home and lend a helping hand. 
 I found the same thing the next morning when the 
 captain and I walked about four miles to a field of 
 the Royal Flying Corps, which I had missed in the dark 
 the night before, to ask for some gasoline, and tools 
 to fix my engine. Immediately the major in command 
 gave me a motor lorrie, all the gasoline I wanted, tools 
 and two mechanics to fix the motor. He also wanted 
 me to stay for lunch and invited me to come back for 
 the night if I could not get off. On another occasion, 
 of which I long ago wrote to you, when I had another 
 breakdown, the officer in command offered all the 
 above things and besides sent me home 30 miles in one 
 
122 THE WAV OF THE EAGLE 
 
 of his motors. It is this spirit and the way they fight 
 that makes one admire them von- much. 1 enclose 
 you another list o( citations for the V. C. as an example 
 of the way these Englishmen go after t ho Huns. In 
 reading these, remember thai they are the official cita- 
 tions which, if anything, understate the facts and arc 
 not the flowery exaggerations of some newspaper 
 
 reporter. 
 
 To return to the hut and the English officers o'i the 
 
 labor company 1 spent a most pleasant evening with 
 them, sitting about their little stove, ami swapping 
 
 yarns. One of them had an extra bed in his tent, where 
 he put me up for the night, each one insisting on giving 
 up one of his blankets for me. I was mighty glad of 
 them, as it was cold, and 1 thought the tent, would take 
 to aeroplaning itself at any minute, the way the gale 
 howled outside. I also got three good meals, as T 
 could not get my machine ready to leave before the 
 following afternoon.: 
 
 It is remarkable what a collection of men one will 
 run into over here, especially in the English Army; 
 of my four hosts last night, one had been a Methodist. 
 
 Episcopal Missionary in the Malay Peninsula, and 
 
 spoke Chinese, another came from Siam, another from 
 England, and the captain from Winnipeg, Canada, with 
 a wife from l.ansdale. near Doylestown, Pa., where 
 he told me she now is. The fellow from Siam could 
 not speak a word of Chinese, and it was most amusing 
 to hear him cussing out his coolie boy servant in Eng- 
 lish, the boy not understanding a word of what was 
 being said io him; one notices this trait in both the 
 English and French, when they can't make some one 
 o( another tongue understand them they often pour 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 123 
 
 out a perfect stream of talk to him which he could riof, 
 possibly understand without a very thorough knowledge 
 of the speaker's language. 
 
 Berqueb, November 28th, 1917. 
 T forgot to tell you one or two rather amusing stories 
 about the coolies that I heard from the Engli-h officer. 
 One day some coolies were Loading coal into a wagon 
 and the sergeant of the gang had borrowed three Hun 
 prisoners to help with the job; the Buna were filling 
 sacks with coal and were casting them up to the coolies, 
 when one of the latter, a great big strapping coolie, 
 the largest of the lot, resting from his labor, stepped 
 up to a Hun, and pointing his finger in his face, said 
 "You bloody .German, you no good. Dunkirk Ziz-z-z- 
 Boom! !" to which the Hun getting his meaning at 
 once, replied: "Yes Dunkirk Ziz-z-z-z Boom! Ha- 
 Ha-Ha!"; plainly indicating by the way he said it, 
 that he was glad they had been bombed. He no 
 sooner had the words out of his mouth when the big 
 coolie jumped on him, grabbed him by the throat 
 and the officers only got him off in time to keep him 
 from killing that Hun ; he mussed him up in great style 
 as it was. Another time, a yellow, dirty looking 
 Chink met one of the other native soldiers, a coal black 
 Kaffir boy; the Kaffir looked the Chink over and evi- 
 dently decided he needed a bath, for he pointed at 
 him and said "You washee, washee, good! [" The 
 Chink looked nonplused for a minute or so, and at a 
 loss for a fitting retort, then he grinned at the black 
 Kaffir, and replied "You Washee, washee, no good ! !" 
 Pretty good come back for the Chink, don't you think ? 
 If one could only draw like Bairnsfather, one could 
 
124 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 make a funny picture out of the incident. ... I hope 
 you can make sense out of this letter; I have been read- 
 ing it over, and it seems to be chiefly a lot of corrections. 
 Do you ever get sometimes so that you find the great- 
 est difficulty in expressing what you wish to say, and 
 then the next time, for no apparent reason, have no 
 difficulty at all ? I seem to be in the former condition 
 to-day, so will call a halt. 
 
 Bergues, December Sth, 1917. 
 You already know that from one cause or another, 
 I have not been able to get out on the lines for some 
 time, and when I finally did get out last Wednesday, it 
 was exactly three weeks since I had last seen them; 
 the same old lines, except a little more blown up, for 
 there had been a great deal of artillery activity in 
 part of the sector. On Wednesday I started out at 
 nine in the morning on a patrol, with two Frenchmen, 
 a lieutenant being the leader. We were on the lines 
 for some time without seeing any Huns except well 
 within their own lines, although once or twice I think 
 I saw where some came on the lines, but the others 
 evidently did not agree with me, and the Boches, if 
 there were any, were too far off to justify my leaving 
 the patrol and going to investigate. After a while 
 however I noticed a two-seater of a type known as an 
 Albatross which was flying up and down in his own 
 lines. He was a long way off, but from the way he 
 acted I thought he was just waiting for a clear path to 
 slip across the lines, take his pictures or make some ob- 
 servations, and slip back again. I have had several 
 encounters with two-seaters in the same locality at 
 about the same time of day, and at about the same 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 125 
 
 altitude, and accordingly kept my eye on this fellow, 
 to see what he would do. Sometimes he would go way 
 back into his own territory until he was just a speck 
 in the sky, and then again would come just above the 
 lines, evidently see us, and turn back again. 
 
 Now a patrol has the duty of protecting a certain 
 sector and cannot go off and leave it, which is one rea- 
 son why it does not usually offer the same chance to 
 get a shot at the Huns that a voluntary chasse expedi- 
 tion does. If for instance I had been there with another 
 man just looking for Boches and with no sector to pro- 
 tect, the thing to have done would obviously have been 
 to fly deep into our own lines as if we were leaving, 
 then climb up over that Hun's head and hang around 
 with the sun at our backs, in the hope that he would 
 not notice us, and wait for him to come into our terri- 
 tory. If he would not do this, you could go to him, 
 but it is always better to get them in your own lines if 
 possible, for you can then get a better shot without 
 having to spend half the time watching your own rear, 
 and ending up by being forced to retreat by the Boche's 
 comrades coming up in force. Once I left the patrol 
 and started after this Hun, but he evidently saw me at 
 once and dove back into his own lines; I saw that I 
 could not get any kind of a shot at him, so decided to 
 wait a little longer. I rejoined the patrol, and we 
 made a tour of perhaps ten minutes. 
 
 When we got back to the same place again, the lieu- 
 tenant had gone down somewhat so that the Hun who 
 was again just coming to the lines, evidently saw us 
 some 400 metres below him instead of on the same 
 level as before, thought he was safe, and came on into 
 our lines. My companions apparently did not see 
 
126 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 him, so I turned to one side, flew directly under the 
 Boche, going in the opposite direction, and then put 
 myself below and behind him by doing a renversement. 
 He saw me all the time, but I guess he thought he 
 could do what he wanted, and get out before I could 
 climb up and catch him. I must have followed him at 
 least five minutes, first into our lines, then back above 
 the lines again and then back once more. All the time 
 he was manoeuvring to keep me from getting behind his 
 tail, where he could not see me, and doing it well, for 
 in order to try to stay behind him and to manoeuvre 
 so as to give him only a long, hard, right-angle shot, 
 I had to fly further than he did, and accordingly could 
 not catch him quickly. I did get up to his level though 
 (4,700 metres) and when he finally started back for his 
 own lines, I got directly behind his tail and put after 
 him as fast as my bus would travel. When I got within 
 100 yards I tried to lay my sights on him, but being 
 directly behind him the back draught from his propeller 
 made my machine unsteady so that accurate shooting 
 would have been impossible. I dove down 10 metres 
 so as to get out of this and tried again. After my sad 
 experience with the single-seater, which I wrote you 
 about, and which I think went down, but was not con- 
 firmed, I tried my best to shoot most carefully this time. 
 All the time the Boche had not fired a shot, and from 
 the way he acted I think he must have lost track of me 
 behind his tail. Anyhow, I turned both my machine 
 guns loose and thought I saw my bullets going about 
 right. My left hand gun only fired about a dozen 
 shots and then broke, the Boche at the same time, 
 giving a twist to the right to get me out from under 
 his tail. I kept on plugging away with my other gun, 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 127 
 
 shooting for the place where the pilot sits, and again I 
 thought I saw the bullets going into the right spot. 
 After possibly thirty shots however my right gun also 
 broke, and left me with nothing, and at the same time 
 the Hun started to join in the shooting, firing perhaps 
 twenty shots. By this time we were I suppose about 50 
 or 60 metres apart and I got under his tail quickly to 
 get out of the way, so that I could not see just where 
 the Boche was shooting, but am sure he came nowhere 
 near me. There never was a truer saying than that 
 there is nothing which upsets a man's accuracy so much 
 as having the other fellow putting them very close to 
 him. That is I think one of the principal reasons why 
 accurate quick shooting is so important, not only for 
 the damage it does but because to come very close is 
 one of the best means of defense, even if you actually 
 do not hit. At all events, with two broken guns, close 
 proximity to a Hun is not a healthy locality, so I 
 turned on my nose and dove out behind my friend, 
 at the same time watching him over my shoulder to 
 try to keep myself protected by his tail. 
 
 As I watched him he started diving until he was 
 going down vertically and I could see the silver color 
 of his bottom and of the under sides of his wings, with 
 the black maltese crosses on them. It was a good 
 sized machine, and very pretty, with the shining silver 
 paint underneath to make it less visible against the 
 sky and the sides just by the tail a brilliant red, this 
 last being probably the individual mark of his escadrille, 
 for I have seen the same kind of a machine before, 
 painted in this way. When he got in a vertical nose 
 dive, instead of going on straight down, he kept on 
 turning until from flying toward his own lines right 
 
128 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 side up he was flying back into ours, upside down, and 
 diving slowly in this position. This is of course a sign 
 that all is not well on board and usually means that the 
 pilot has fallen forward over his control stick, thus 
 forcing the machine into a nose dive and then onto its 
 back. You will read in the Flying Magazines about 
 flying upside down but it is not what it is cracked up to 
 be. One often gets on one's back in certain manoeuvres, 
 but only for an instant, and with always sufficient cen- 
 trifugal force to keep one securely in place. In learn- 
 ing to loop the loop however I have gotten upside down 
 for longer than I intended because the loop was not 
 done properly, and it is not pleasant. You start to fall 
 out and even though your belt holds you pretty tight 
 in your seat, there is a tendency to grab the side of the 
 machine; then whatever dirt is in the bottom of the 
 machine falls over you, the oil, etc., fizzles out of the 
 top of its tank and the motor starts to splutter and 
 wants to stop due to the gasoline not feeding properly. 
 All this and everything being upside down, gives you a 
 queer feeling in your middle, and although in some 
 specially constructed machines I believe it is possible 
 to fly upside down, it is not at all my idea of a good time. 
 Hence when I saw my friend the Hun flying into our 
 lines with his wheels in the air I thought he must be 
 pretty sick, but after my previous experience, was 
 expecting every minute to see him come to and fly 
 home, while I watched him helpless, with two guns 
 that would not work. I accordingly dove after him, 
 holding my controls, first with one hand, and then the 
 other, and working with first the right and then the 
 left gun, and trying each in the hope of getting one 
 of them going, and taking a few more shots. At the 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 129 
 
 same time, it is necessary to watch your own rear to 
 see that no one is after you, so that between this and 
 trying to keep close to the Boche I had little time to 
 spare. Pretty soon some English machines came over 
 my head, which relieved my mind very much as to the 
 rear, and allowed me to concentrate on the Boche and 
 my guns. I worked away and incidentally said some 
 things I never learned in Sunday-school, but it is ex- 
 asperating when you could get a good shot and your 
 gun wont work and you have visions of what should 
 be an easy victim escaping you. There was nothing 
 to do though in this case, for upon returning to the 
 field, I found both my guns not simply jammed but 
 actually broken, one so that it had to be taken off the 
 machine and replaced. 
 
 While trying to fix the guns in the air I kept glancing 
 down at the Boche; sometimes he was on his back, 
 sometimes on his nose, and again diving almost nor- 
 mally, which was what made me think he might come 
 to life. The machine was however evidently completely 
 uncontrolled; I chased him down almost 4000 metres, 
 faster than I have ever come down before, so fast that 
 when we reached 1000 metres he was not more than 
 perhaps 400 metres ahead of me. A quick, great 
 change of altitude like this is most unpleasant, as your 
 ears get all stopped up and it gives you a headache, 
 but in a fight you do not at the time notice it, and this 
 time I was very anxious to see just where the Boche 
 fell so as to get him confirmed if he did go down. At a 
 thousand metres however I had to pull up and use my 
 hand pump, for all the pressure had run out of my gas 
 tank, due to the unusually long dive with the motor 
 shut down. I lost sight of the Boche and did not see 
 
130 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 him hit the ground but after my motor was running 
 nicely again I flew on down to 200 metres over the battle 
 field and searched for him, for he had fallen several 
 kilometres within our lines, so that it was possible to 
 go down low and have a look. Pretty soon I spotted 
 him lying on his back in the mud, his top plane was 
 mashed into the soft ground, but the rest of the machine 
 was apparently remarkably intact when you consider 
 the height from which he had fallen. Probably the 
 machine flopped over flat on its back, or right side up, 
 just before striking, and in this way the force of the fall 
 was broken. 
 
 Shortly after I got back to our field, the official con-: 
 firmation came in from the lines. The pilot and ob- 
 server were of course both dead. The pilot was I 
 think killed by one of my shots, or at least completely 
 knocked out, for there was nothing serious the matter 
 with his machine, and it fell only because it was un- 
 controlled. The machine gunner was however alive 
 after I had stopped shooting for I heard him shoot after 
 I had finished. If he had been any kind of a decent 
 man, or in fact any one but a Hun, one could not 
 but have felt sorry for him in such a situation. Not 
 much fun falling 4,700 metres, especially going down 
 comparatively slowly, knowing all the while what is 
 coming at the end, and with some little time to think 
 it over. Particularly bad I should think with a good 
 machine, which only needs someone to set the controls 
 straight in order to right it. Much better to catch on 
 fire, or have the machine break, and get it over with 
 right away. 
 
 Also after having had experience with the same thing 
 oneself, one cannot help thinking of the comrades 
 of these men, standing around the aerodrome, and 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 131 
 
 wondering why they don't come back, and again of 
 the people at home, who after they get the report 
 "Disparu," keep wondering and hoping for months 
 whether perhaps they might not only have been taken 
 prisoner. It is a brutal business at best, but when 
 you stop to think for a moment of what these Huns 
 have done, of the horrors they have committed, of the 
 suffering they^have brought on innocent people, and of 
 the millions of men dead before their time, all because 
 of them, you don't feel much sympathy for the indi- 
 vidual but rather look forward to the time when you 
 can perhaps bag another. 
 
 We had a most unpleasant accident here on Thanks- 
 giving Day. There is a French Squadron of Voisin 
 night bombers stationed on our flying field, and 
 although they only cross the lines at night, they do 
 considerable practice flying during the day time. On 
 Thanksgiving Day afternoon one of their machines 
 was going up for a practice flight at the same time 
 that a patrol from this group was leaving the ground 
 for a flight over the lines. There was not much wind 
 at the time, but what there was of it was coming from 
 the West, so that all machines leaving the field should 
 have done so facing in that direction. To do this, 
 however, the Voisin would have had to roll on the 
 ground all the way across the field, and to save him- 
 self this trouble the pilot started from just in front of 
 his hangar flying South. A Spad was leaving the 
 ground at the same time, going West. I was standing 
 in front of our hangars and noticed the two machines 
 approaching each other at right angles. Even before 
 they got very close to one another, it was apparent 
 that they must pass with very little room to spare, so 
 I stopped and watched them. 
 
132 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 The two planes were only about thirty yards high, 
 and just before they came together, the Spad pilot saw 
 the Voisin and pulled his machine into a sharp turn in 
 a desperate attempt to avoid a collision, one of his 
 guns going off in the air as he did so. It was too late 
 however, and the right wing of the Spad hooked into 
 the left wing of the Voisin; this swung the Spad around 
 and it charged head first into the front of the Voisin, 
 and then pitched headlong to the ground. There was 
 a terrific crash as the two planes came together, and 
 the air was filled with flying splinters. The force of 
 the collision turned the Voisin upside down and it 
 burst into flames even before it touched the ground. 
 
 M and I were nearest to the accident, only about 
 
 a hundred yards away, and were so horrified that we 
 just stood there for a second with our mouths open, 
 too startled to move. Then we dashed across the 
 
 field to the wreck, and M got his shoulder under 
 
 the body of the Voisin and raised it up, while some 
 of the Frenchmen and I dragged the men out of the 
 blazing machine. There had been three men in it, 
 two of whom were still in the body of the plane and 
 as the wind was blowing the flames towards the rear, 
 it was possible to get at the plaee where these men 
 were. We dragged the pilot out, but his head was 
 crushed, and he was obviously beyond helping. Then 
 we dragged the observer out, and he was burning from 
 head to foot, a bursting gasoline tank having evidently 
 thrown its contents over him. The flames were shoot- 
 ing up two feet in the air from the man's clothing. 
 I jerked off a heavy sweater which I was wearing, and 
 dropping on my knees beside him managed to put 
 most of the fire out, by rubbing him over with the 
 
* § 
 
 -a 
 
 ** 'in 
 
 =3 5 
 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 133 
 
 sweater, using it as a sort of a sponge. The poor fel- 
 low's face and hands were burned black, and as we tore 
 his clothes off, some very bad burns appeared over 
 his ribs and on other parts of his body. 
 
 While we were working on the observer, I happened 
 to glance up and caught sight of the third occupant 
 of the Voisin, a mechanic. He had been thrown out 
 of the body of the machine and as it lay on its back, 
 his feet were caught under the top wing, and his ankles 
 apparently broken off. His arms had fallen over some 
 of the wires and this held him erect as though he were 
 standing up. The propeller of the Spad had evidently 
 struck him in the face and had cut off the lower part 
 of his jaw. His head was supported by some part of 
 the machine and thus held in a natural position, and 
 he stood there with his eyes wide open, staring at us, 
 just as though he were alive. The place where he was 
 caught was just behind the wings of the plane and 
 right in the middle of the fire. The whole machine 
 was a blazing furnace, and it was impossible to reach 
 him. He was quite obviously dead anyhow, so it would 
 have done no good, and we had to watch him burn up 
 for all the world like a living man being burned at the 
 stake, and a more gruesome sight I hope never to see. 
 
 The wreck of the Spad was lying a little off to one 
 side, and had not caught fire, but as we dragged the 
 pilot out, a man whom I know very well, he certainly 
 looked as though his days were ended, for his face was 
 ghostly pale and smeared all over with blood. It 
 turned out afterwards, however, that he was hardly 
 hurt at all, just shaken up and a couple of holes punched 
 in liis cheeks. In a week he was out of the Hospital 
 and back with his squadron, as well as ever. The 
 
131 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 last I heard of the observer whom we dragged out of 
 the burning Voisin, he was very sick, but was expected 
 to recover. 
 
 A sight such as the above and the sickening smell of 
 roasting human flesh that goes with it, goes a long way 
 to impress upon one the absolute necessity of constant 
 watchfulness when leaving or landing upon an aero- 
 drome, and the importance of the strict enforcement 
 of the rules of the flying field. 
 
 Bergues, December 9th, 1917. 
 You said in your last letter that you do not wonder 
 that the French ami English are tired of the war, and 
 that they are entitled to rest after all they have been 
 through. Of course they are sick of it and they have 
 had a very hard time, but that hardly seems a suffi- 
 cient reason for our not going after the Boche and 
 trying to finish the war. I suppose you refer to my 
 criticism of the attitude one sometimes sees which is 
 typified by the question, "When is the war going to 
 be over?" As though there was nothing to be done 
 about it, a sort of a "When is it going to stop raining?" 
 attitude instead of asking "How soon can we finish 
 it?" The French have done much and done well, 
 England has done and suffered much, and so will we 
 before we arc through, but how about the Hun? He 
 is fighting a lot of nations and has suffered in his home 
 life much more than any of the great Allies, but he is 
 still going strong. The answer is forty years of train- 
 ing and preparation, combined with splendid system 
 and conservation of energy, but eveu so it seems to 
 me that he has more cause to be tired than we have. 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 135 
 
 Dunkirk. Dec. 24, 1917. 
 
 The Group moved away from here two weeks ago 
 and I should have gone with it but have been held over 
 by a succession of troubles with my machine, coupled 
 with some very bad weather. 
 
 Our new sector of the front will be in the famous 
 "Chemin des Dames" region on the Aisne, where the 
 French made their last advance a month or so ago. 
 It will be a relief to get away from this flat, uninterest- 
 ing region where we have been so long, and to miss 
 some of the fog and dampness that come in from the 
 sea. The weather where the group now is* should be 
 much more favorable for our work, and according to all 
 accounts the sector presents much better chances to 
 get a shot at the Boche. I went there by train a few 
 days ago while waiting for my machine to be repaired 
 and the day I was there a Hun machine similar to the 
 one I brought down came over our mess and that is 
 20 kilometres behind the lines. 
 
 He was of course very high, but was all alone and 
 would have offered a splendid chance had one been 
 up there. If you can catch a Boche like this you have 
 all the time you want to manoeuvre, can attack with- 
 out fear of interference by other machines, and if you 
 miss him the first time can go after him again. Such 
 opportunities were very rare in our old sector, but in 
 the new, from what I hear, they are much more fre- 
 quent, and even on the lines single Huns or small 
 groups are much oftener met with. These photo- 
 graphic and daylight bombing machines which pene- 
 trate far behind the lines, rely largely on their great 
 height for protection. The one we saw the other day 
 * At Chaudun, about six miles south of Soissons. 
 
136 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 had two French machines after him, and we watched 
 them try to get him, but he was evidently too far 
 above them and escaped without their doing more 
 than worry him a little. Such Huns are usually be- 
 tween 16,000 and 'JO, 000 feet, generally nearer the latter 
 figure. Down low, a thousand feet is for a good 
 machine only a, matter of perhaps a minute, but very 
 high where the air is thin it is an entirely different 
 proposition, and (lie lime (hat it takes you to climb 
 a thousand feet or two is often just (he time the Hun 
 needs in order to escape. Obviously the thing to do 
 is to be there when they come along, and if possible be 
 over them. 
 
 As I have told you before, aviation de chasse resem- 
 bles in many respects other kinds of hunting; for in- 
 stance, the pursuit of the festive duck. I have noticed 
 that successful Hun hunters often owe their success 
 to the same qualities which go to make a successful 
 duck hunter, that is, patience and knowing where the 
 birds use, so to speak. I know that many of the best 
 chances I have had I have gotten at the same time of 
 day, (lie same altitude and approximately the same 
 locality; chances at machines which I had noticed 
 died to do a certain kind of work, such as taking pic- 
 tures when the light was most favorable. I went and 
 laid tor them, and wish I could have the same chances 
 over again, for I think I could bring down some of 
 them which in my first attempt I hit, but let get away 
 from me. Reminds me again of my beginnings of 
 shooting on the river, and how well I remember the 
 tine shots I used to make a bungle of. When I get to 
 our uew sector I shall try to find out something of the 
 habits of these birds and go up and lay for them when 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 137 
 
 the weather is favorable. The country to which we 
 have moved is very pretty, with woods, and streams, 
 and rolling hills, and a seeming possibility of many 
 interesting things to be discovered on walks through 
 the country when the weather is unfavorable for fly- 
 ing. When I arrived, it was all very picturesque in 
 a mantle of snow, with every tree and bush a beautiful 
 bit of lace-work, each separate twig outlined by the 
 soft snow and frost with which it was covered. 
 
 Father in his letter wonders if it is very cold high 
 in the air at this time of year. It is bitter, and you 
 notice the difference between now and summer time, 
 although it is not nearly so pronounced as on the 
 ground. Any water jumping out of your radiator, for 
 instance, freezes at once, although it will also do this 
 in summer very high up. I have never suffered from 
 cold, however, as my rig is very good and entirely 
 covers my face. The Spad, which I have always flown 
 on the front, is probably as warm as any machine, par- 
 ticularly the new model, which is so arranged as to 
 give you the benefit of much of the heat from the 
 motor. 
 
 Paris. Jan. 7th, 1918. 
 
 As you know from my letters, the work that I have 
 been able to do in the past six weeks has amounted to 
 almost nothing, which makes me particularly sick when 
 I think that I might in that time have gone home 
 and been back again. I am now in Paris, having come 
 down to see about the transfer to the American Army, 
 and when I went to Headquarters I found that my 
 release from the French service had gone through, and 
 my commission in the American was ready and all I 
 need do to become a U. S. officer is to take the oath. 
 
138 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 The Colonel who will be my chief was, he said, just 
 on the point of sending for me, and wanted me to leave 
 my escadrille at once, but I succeeded in persuading 
 them not to make me do this, as I shall explain. After 
 a man has been at the front for three or four months 
 I think he gets in a position where he can in perhaps a 
 month's time, granting the same opportunities to fly, 
 learn as much as he did in all his previous work. The 
 reason for this is that his work at first is so much lim- 
 ited by his inexperience. He should not begin too 
 fast, and although the opportunities are there just the 
 same, they are not there for him. That is to say, his 
 lack of skill prevents his taking full advantage of the 
 opportunities in the way he can after he has passed 
 his preliminary stage at the front. Personally I feel 
 confident that if I could only have the fights over 
 again that I have already had I should certainly, with 
 the advantage of my new machine and greater ex- 
 perience be able to bag at least two or three Huns 
 instead of only one. And it was these chances that I 
 had been hoping to get in the past six weeks, so it is 
 mighty disappointing to have had them go by with so 
 little accomplished. I am, therefore, very glad to 
 have been able to arrange to return to my French 
 squadron and stay there until there is actually some- 
 thing definite for me to do in the American service. 
 
 I got five hundred francs prize money to-day from 
 the Franco-American Flying Corps for my first Hun. 
 It seems rather poor sport getting money for killing 
 people — too much like shooting for the market. It is, 
 however, just a special sort of pay when you come 
 down to it. 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 139 
 
 Paeis, January 16, 1918. 
 You will probably be surprised when you receive 
 my letter of last week on top of the cable which I sent 
 you a few days later. I tried to do as I wrote in that 
 letter to Father I intended doing, but things rather 
 broke against me. The next day I flew back to my 
 escadrille at the front only to find that during my 
 absence Captain Deullin had received an order from 
 headquarters that I was to be sent with several others 
 to the Lafayette Escadrille. This because of my 
 release from the French service and impending signing 
 up with the U. S. As I told you in my last letter, 
 however, this order had been changed, and instead of 
 going to the Lafayette I am to do instruction work 
 for several months. When the Captain received the 
 order he thought I could not fly with the escadrille 
 any longer, so being short of machines he promptly 
 assigned my new one to another pilot, who took it out 
 and broke it in landing. When I arrived and found 
 out about this, to say that I was sore would be putting 
 it mildly. It had taken me over a month to get that 
 machine all regulated to suit myself and the end of it 
 all made the loss of time seem more discouraging than 
 ever. The Captain was, however, not to blame, and 
 as it turned out was reasonable in supposing as he did. 
 He was very nice and offered to give me back my 
 machine as soon as repaired (it was not badly broken) 
 or to get me a new one at once. The Commander of 
 the Group, however, called up headquarters and they 
 said they had no provision for allowing Americans who 
 had been released from the French service to remain 
 in the Group, but that they must either stay for the 
 duration of the War or go to the American Escadrille 
 
140 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 as ordered. This, of course, settled it, and I returned 
 to Paris the next day with all my things and have been 
 here ever since. 
 
 Last Thursday I took the oath to support the Con- 
 stitution, etc., etc., and since then have been awaiting 
 my orders to report for duty. They should come any 
 day now and in the meantime I have been doing some 
 shopping, laying in new uniforms, etc. Am again 
 staying at the Continental, have a nice comfortable 
 room and have been putting in my time translating 
 some notes written by Captain Deullin on " Aviation 
 de Chasse." He gave me permission to do this and to 
 add something of my own, and I am going to show the 
 result to the U. S. officers in charge of the training of 
 American pilots. I think something of the sort might 
 be useful for the men learning to fly; I know from my 
 own experience what a vague idea we used to have of 
 the actual conditions at the front which we were en- 
 deavoring to prepare ourselves to meet, and I think a 
 student can learn more in his period of training, and go 
 about it more intelligently, if he knows as nearly as 
 possible what he is getting ready for. 
 
 I am in many ways very sorry to leave the French 
 service. In December I was promoted to the rank of 
 sergeant and held that rank at the time of transferring 
 to the U. S. Army in which I have been made a cap- 
 tain, but rank is not of great importance, and one 
 naturally does not like to leave an organization in 
 which one has been well treated,when it has still so much 
 work ahead of it for which every man is needed. Un- 
 doubtedly the immediate opportunities for flying on 
 the front would have been greater, had I remained 
 with the French, but I think it is the feeling of most 
 
ESCADRILLE N. 73 141 
 
 Americans who have seen service on the front, that 
 they should transfer to the American Air Service, which 
 is of course badly in need of men with experience in 
 flying under war conditions. 
 
 I have enjoyed my work with the French very much 
 and I admire them immensely as must any one who 
 knows them. The more one sees of this war the more 
 impressed one becomes with what France has done 
 and how much the rest of the world owes to her. From 
 the French I have always received the greatest kindness 
 and consideration, and after nine months in their army 
 my great regret is that I did not wake up a year or two 
 sooner, as I should have, and enlist long before I did. 
 
 I have been very fortunate in my squadron com- 
 mander, Captain Deullin, a thorough gentleman and 
 a splendid fighter, to whom I owe a great deal of what 
 I have learned about air fighting. 
 
 Paris, January 31, 1918. 
 I am still in Paris (almost a month now) waiting 
 for final orders. It seems a great waste of time, and 
 when it comes to delays the French Army certainly 
 has nothing on the American. I am hoping to be 
 definitely settled within a week, however, and when 
 I am, will write you fully about it. The work which I 
 was originally called in to do seems to have been so 
 split up that it practically no longer exists as one job. 
 Am doing everything I can to hurry things up as I 
 am very sick of Paris and anxious to get started again. 
 Are you so sure of what you say about how much 
 America has done by way of preparation for the coming 
 fight? A letter from Uncle J would seem to indi- 
 cate the contrary and what I have seen over here is to 
 
142 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 the same effect. The preparation in aviation in which 
 we are expected to do so much is certainly disappoint- 
 ing. The difficulties encountered were of course to be 
 expected, having in view the fact that America has 
 never herself produced a single machine of any type 
 which could be used on the front. It has, I think, 
 been a great mistake to feed up to the public all the 
 wild tales one sees in the papers about what the U. S. 
 will do in the air this spring. Most of this rot is writ- 
 ten by reporters who get their information second- 
 hand and don't know what they are talking about. 
 I fear the reality is going to be a great disappointment 
 to the public and will cause a bit of a howl. Even the 
 statements from men in the aviation at home who 
 should know better, show in many cases the most pro- 
 found ignorance of conditions and fundamentals. The 
 short article from the N. Y. Times which you enclosed 
 in your last letter and which is entitled " Aviation has 
 lost its romance" is just such another exhibition of 
 ignorance. The writer has taken certain facts which 
 he has seen in the papers and from them has proceeded 
 to draw entirely erroneous conclusions, i. e., because 
 he hears that planes are now flying more in groups 
 rather than singly as in the early days, he concludes 
 that air fighting has lost its individuality and become 
 like fighting on the ground. As you say, our work 
 does not sound much like what the article describes. 
 It is true that there is more team work, so to speak, 
 than formerly, but when the final fight comes it will 
 never cease to be very much of an individual matter. 
 The great speed of machines prohibits anything else. 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 
 
 (103d AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F.) 
 
Insignia of Escadrille Lafayette 
 (103d Aero Squadron, A. E. P.) 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE, 
 
 La Noblette,* Feb. 18, 1918. 
 
 Have already written you all about the various com- 
 plications in Paris which finally ended in my coming 
 out here to the Escadrille Lafayette, so shall say no 
 more about them. We have been having the most 
 remarkable weather for this time of year, gorgeously 
 clear days with an almost cloudless sky. Until the 
 last three or four days it has been quite warm, but 
 now it is clear and cold. When I think of all the rain 
 and fog we had during October and November in 
 Flanders it seems a shame things could not have been 
 more seasonably arranged. 
 
 I have not got a machine of my own as yet, but yes- 
 terday I borrowed one from another pilot and flew 
 around and got a good look at the country. f It is a 
 great relief after the dreary wastes of Flanders, for it 
 is rolling, with forests and patches of woods scattered 
 about among very large fields, much like the sector 
 we were in before I left the front in January. In fact, 
 we are only a few miles from that other sector, and the 
 country is even better for aviation, for should any- 
 thing go wrong with your motor you can find a place to 
 
 land almost anywhere. Yesterday M and I took 
 
 a walk through the woods, mostly of pine, and I am 
 going to do considerable more exploring before long. 
 Flanders looks well enough from the air for all coun- 
 tries look flat when you are above them, but when it 
 
 * About eight miles north of Chalons-sur-Marne. 
 f The Champagne sector, between Reims and the Argonne Forest. 
 145 
 
140 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 comes to living there, the sameness and lack of hills 
 or woods of any size become very tiresome. As for the 
 Boches hereabouts, from what little I have seen they 
 seem here also to have a habit of coming far into our 
 lines to take pictures on clear days, so I am hoping that 
 if I can get a good machine that will go really high, a 
 little patient waiting may give me a crack at some of 
 them. Those high boys well in your own lines and all 
 by themselves offer a great chance once you can get up 
 to them, but there lies the difficulty. Also it is not 
 much fun waiting around at 20,000 feet this time of 
 year. Yesterday I flew along behind the lines just in 
 front of the sausage balloons, and as the day was clear 
 got a very good look at things. To-morrow I think I 
 shall try to borrow a machine again and have another 
 quiet look, for I am a great believer in knowing your 
 country well before you start much scrapping. It is 
 a great help to be always able to tell at a glance just 
 where you are. 
 
 La Noblette, Feb. 19th, 1918. 
 
 Borrowed a machine again to-day and went out with 
 
 H and another fellow for a look at the lines. It 
 
 was another gorgeous winter day and one could see 
 for miles behind the German lines. The lines them- 
 selves are very clearly marked by a broad belt of 
 brown, pock-marked earth, from which the shells have 
 blown everything, backed on both sides by the second 
 and third-line trenches which show up very white and 
 distinct in the light-colored soil. Quite different from 
 Flanders, where the marshy ground and dark soil 
 make the trenches practically invisible unless you are 
 very low and where the first lines are conspicuous by 
 a complete absence of any trenches at all. In that 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 147 
 
 quagmire, trenches are out of the question in a heavily 
 shelled region, and the men just man the shell holes, 
 most of which are half full of water. Here the condi- 
 tion of the ground is better, and I think I got a fairly 
 
 good idea of the country to-day. Major T , who 
 
 now commands the Lafayette squadron, has given me 
 his machine for the time being, so I hope to get out 
 soon again. 
 
 I am sorry to say that yesterday morning the Huns 
 
 got a friend of mine named L who was in a French 
 
 squadron which is stationed on this field. I used to 
 
 know L at Avord and had seen quite a little of 
 
 him recently as we had taken several walks together. 
 Same old story of getting off by himself and not watch- 
 ing the rear carefully enough. He was on the other 
 side of the lines and three Boches surprised him from 
 the rear and evidently badly wounded him. He man- 
 aged to keep his machine under control, however, and 
 got several kilometers within our lines, but when he 
 was still 500 metres from the ground it was evidently 
 too much for him and he plunged head first the rest of 
 the way. We buried him this afternoon in a little 
 French military cemetery near here. The whole La- 
 fayette squadron went, and there was a guard of honor 
 
 of both American and French soldiers. L was a 
 
 plain fellow but a good one just the same, who worked 
 hard and fearlessly did his level best, and I am very 
 sorry he had to go. I think I shall get a couple of 
 flags for his grave, as I did for Oliver, if they are not 
 already there. 
 
 Later on this afternoon I took a long walk by myself, 
 and it certainly is a relief to get some air and exercise 
 in the country again, after the weeks in Paris. Shall 
 
lis THE WAV OF THE EAGLE 
 
 write you more of the country and the people when T 
 have had bime to explore further. Must stop now, as 
 
 M wants to go to Bleep. Certainly hope I shall 
 
 hear from you before long. 
 
 ll, pital \r Mmi.i.v, March 12, litis. 
 
 I have been laid up in this hospital for the past two 
 
 weeks bul regret dial 1 cannot write you any hero (?) 
 
 story about, the cause of my being here. It was not. a 
 
 Boehe bullet that laid me low, no such luck, nothing 
 
 but a good old-fashioned case of the mumps. Rather 
 
 thought that 1 had passed the age of such childish dis- 
 eases, but it seems not, lor 1 have had as pretty a ease 
 as you ever laid eyes on and a face shaped like a full 
 moon. It is nearly over now, though, and I should bo 
 back at the squadron within a week. 
 
 You refer iu one of your recent letters to what I 
 said about the English being so decent. I suppose 
 you have heard tales o( how they force the brunt of 
 the fighting on their Colonial Troops ami that they 
 have not taken over as much of the line as they should 
 have. Such stories are lies, pure and simple, and gen- 
 erally, 1 think, of German manufacture, to stir up 
 trouble. No troops tight harder than the English 
 home troops, and if there was any comparison to be 
 made, it would be that they do rather more than their 
 share. As for England's effort in the war in general, 
 all one need do is to consider the magnitude of her 
 operations in Egypt, and Mesopotamia, Palestine, and 
 S. Africa all in addition to her enormous part on the 
 western front ami to the work o( her Navy. We may 
 sometimes not admire her methods, because we think 
 they are not always the best calculated to produce 
 
ESCADRILLK LAFAYETTE 149 
 
 results, but no one can question that she has and is 
 doing her best, and the nerve and spirit of the English 
 fighting man is above criticism. 
 
 Do not pin too mueh faith on the reports you see of 
 internal troubles in Germany. To me I hey seem bo 
 mean little or nothing, and I | ■ loiild not he at all sur- 
 prised if they were purposely put out by the German 
 Government. The .Allies are entirely too fond of tak- 
 ing comfort from such reports and thinking that all 
 they have to do is to hang on and wait for the end. 
 This is just what Germany wants them to do that is, 
 take it easy while she makes use of the time to get 
 ready and hit another blow. When one considers how 
 completely the ( iovernmenf controls the < Ierman Press, 
 
 it seems foolish to believe that anything emanates from 
 Germany which is not meant to. With the Russian 
 muddle 1 think the end never looked further away. 
 
 P. S. — Have been reading this epistle over and 
 what 1 said about (he English reminds me that we can 
 hardly criticize them on matters of management after 
 what I have seen of our own forces over here, and after 
 all the talk we heard about how strong the Americans 
 would be on this score! Have seen some interesting 
 and also some disheartening things, since 1 entered the 
 U. S. A., but being an officer I suppose I should say 
 nothing. 
 
 La Noblbtid, March 19, L918. 
 
 Here I am back at the squadron again and very 
 
 glad to be here and out of the hospital, as 1 had no 
 fun there at all, and was very much fed up wilh the 
 place. 
 
 R had a narrow escape here (he other day. I 
 
 have written to you before about him and he is in my 
 
160 THE WAV OF THE EAGLE 
 
 estimation the besl man in this outfit, the kind of an 
 Amerioan of whom we may be proud. There is none 
 braver than he, and as I recounted to you in one of 
 my letters lasl summer, his bravery very nearly cost 
 him his life when he first went to the front as a flyer. I 
 think he wont a bit too strong at first but has been 
 taking better care of himself lately, that is, until a few 
 days ago, when he must have had a brainstorm. That 
 
 he is here to-day io tell the tale is only due to his own 
 
 skill and more particularly to the Goddess y^ Good 
 
 Fortune. It was on for a patrol, and when he 
 
 started noticed that for somo reason ho could not get 
 his machine off the ground within the usual distance. 
 He had to .shut off his motor and stop in order to avoid 
 running into the woods at the end of the field. In- 
 stead of at once coming back to the hangar and exam- 
 ining his machine to see what was wrong, what does 
 
 ho k\o hut turn around on the ground and roll io the 
 
 extreme end of the field where he could get the longest 
 
 possible run. He then started oil again and this time 
 managed to get up and went on out to the lines with 
 the patrol. After they had been out for a while the 
 leader saw a dear sky and an opportunity of making a 
 dash some four miles into the German lines and attack- 
 ing a captive observation balloon. 'This he did ami 
 
 R — attacked in his turn, diving almost vertically 
 
 on the balloon and shooting as he came. When ho 
 
 tried io pull up. however, he found that his elevating 
 controls would not work and his machine consequently 
 kept on diving for the ground a thousand meters or 
 
 so below. He tried again to ilatten out. putting on 
 his motor and jerking on his controls as he did so. 
 
 This time he managed to get the nose of his machine 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 151 
 
 up, flew back to our lines and oame in with the patrol 
 after a full flight- of some two hours. When lie went 
 to level off in Landing, his controls again would not 
 function properly, and be almost smashed tip on (lie 
 field, but just managed to get on the ground without 
 breaking anything. During the entire Sight he Hew 
 wild his controls out of their usual position in order 
 to keep his plane in flying position. Upon examina- 
 tion of the machine to And out what was wrong, it 
 turned out that the rivets which fasten the elevating 
 
 planes to the Controls had sheared off so that the only 
 
 thing that was holding them was that the joint was a 
 little stiff and gummed with paint. As it was, the 
 joint slipped about and threw the controls out of posi- 
 tion. It would he hardly possible to have a closer 
 shave than this and to go Up in the first place when 
 oii(! knows that the controls are not functioning prop- 
 erly is pure madness. I told R, so, for if any oik; 
 
 has to be killed, R would he about tin; last man 
 
 that I would want to see go. They did not get the 
 balloon and when I asked R if he was tired of life; 
 
 he laughed and said "No, but I made the I'.oches pull 
 their old balloon down anyhow." We have now cor- 
 rected and reinforced the construction of the tails of 
 
 the machines, so that the; same thing cannot occur 
 again. 
 
 You asked in one of your letters about Stewart 
 Walcott, who was killed in December. I knew him at 
 Avoid and Ik; was an extremely nice fellow, oik; of the 
 
 best of (he Americans in the Franco-American Flying 
 
 Corps. Unfortunately, it is among this class that the 
 
 gfeat majority of the losses have occurred. The an- 
 swer is simple — they do their best and fight. 
 
L52 THE WA? OF THE EAGLE 
 
 Speaking of close calls, such as that of B 's, T 
 
 think many pilots do not bake them enough to heart 
 It is all very well not to brood over such things ami 
 
 lot thorn got on your norvos but at tho sanio titno there 
 is no reason Why One should not learn aiul profit by 
 them. Many nion when they have a narrow osoapo 
 
 of one kind or another seem to quickly forget it just 
 because they '"got away with it" without coming to 
 grief. It seems to mo that it is a good idea to lot such 
 an experience sink in ami try to always thereafter take 
 every possible precaution against its happening again. 
 One cannot koop too close an eye on machines no mat- 
 tor how good they are supposed to bo or how much 
 confidence one may have in tho skill and care oi one's 
 mechanics. I know 1 have always tried to personally 
 examine any machine I have Sown, to tho extent of 
 sometimes almost making tho mechanics in charge tool 
 
 that I did not trust thorn. If they aro any good, how- 
 ox or, they understand when you explain your reasons 
 to thorn and toll thorn that you would always do tho 
 
 same thing, for your own personal satisfaction, even 
 
 if you know that a do/on oi tho host mechanics in tho 
 
 land had just examined every bolt in tho machine. 
 
 People talk of tho progress that has boon made in 
 aviation and that will bo made, and say that tho day 
 is coming when it will bo as safe as automobiling. 
 
 They don't know what thoy aro talking about and tho 
 
 two cannot bo compared. In an automobile if a wheel 
 comes off or tho steering gear breaks you perhaps roll 
 
 in tho ditch and that is all. provided you were not 
 racing. In tho air. if you loso a wing or your controls 
 break, you aro finished, at least until someone invents 
 
 a sky hook or a moans of got ting out on a oloud and 
 
I CADRILLE LAFAYBT1 E L53 
 
 making repair . fa the case of broken control , a 
 skilful pilot can often save oil neck, provided be bae 
 some of them left, but this depend* largely on the 
 Inherent stability ol the type of plane vrhicb be hap- 
 penf to be flying. 
 
 obuotb, March 27th, 1918. 
 
 Save had several Sights on the lines since la t writ- 
 ing, but <-vcvy time I go out things seem to tx 
 quiet and I have not had a shot at a Boche yet. I led 
 a patrol this morning and saw one two seater fooling 
 around low down far within his own lines. We went 
 back into our lines and got in the sun in the hope flint 
 he would not see ". and would come out when 
 could get a crack at him. Ead no luck, however, for 
 every time we got anywhere near him )><■ would beat 
 it \)-.K-k Into his lines ho far that it was impossible to 
 follow him with any chance of ixa 
 
 Kesterday morning R , another fellow and my- 
 self were out, and this time R was **M*"g the 
 show. We fooled around for an hour or so a little 
 Inside the German lines at about 8000 metres where 
 the Boche "Archies" gaveu quite a lively time. Then 
 some clouds came along at about 1600 metm 
 
 R started Into Germany flying above a line of 
 
 clouds. The third man's motor was not going properly 
 so that he was afraid to risk it and went back. All the 
 time the "Archies" kept plugging :iw».y as there were 
 not enough cloudi to prevent their i eeing us. When we 
 got about fifteen kilometres Into the German territory 
 
 R dove down through a hole in the clouds and I 
 
 followed close behind nun. 1 flattened out at about 
 1000 metres to look for him and saw him 800 or 400 
 
154 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 metres behind me. Turned to go baek and join him 
 but got mixed up in a low cloud which I had not 
 noticed and when I came out could see no sign of him. 
 Under me was a Boohe hospital with a lot of red crosses 
 on it. Their "Archies" and anti-aircraft machine guns 
 
 opened up in great shape and 1 don't mind saying that 
 1 felt mighty lonesome all by my little self with the 
 front lines so far away I could not even see them at 
 that height. 
 
 I thought R must have gone above the clouds 
 
 again so I put on my power and climbed up but could 
 see no sign of him. As my gasoline was getting low I 
 
 came home without more delay and 11 came in a 
 
 few minutes later. He reported that he had shot at a 
 town and a small railway train, but I did not see him, 
 as I was pretty busy watching the air for Hun ma- 
 chines. There seemed to be none out, however, for 
 which T was rather glad, as should live or six o( them 
 get after yon when in that position, they could give 
 yon a mighty poor time before you could get back to 
 your own lines. 
 
 When we got back I told R I thought he used 
 
 very poor judgment, for I cannot see the use of taking 
 chances when there is nothing to be gained by it. 
 What is the use of patrolling just inside the German 
 lines where their "Archies" continually shoot you up 
 and the black shell bursts give away your position and 
 dest roy practically all chance of springing a surprise. It 
 seems to me much better to stay a little in your own 
 lines or make short excursions into Hnnland and out 
 again, so that you are not much shot at and can at the 
 same time see any German machines which it would be 
 possible to attack. My theory is that you should allow 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 155 
 
 a Bochc to come as far as possible into your own lines 
 before attacking, for then you have twice the chance 
 of success. If he won't come, that is a different matter 
 and you can go after him, but give him a chance to 
 come. 
 
 Also at the time of an offensive, it is often necessary 
 to adopt different tactics and to push the air fighting 
 to far within the enemy lines, both for the better pro- 
 tection of our own two-seater machines, which at such 
 a time are themselves penetrating further than usual 
 into Hunland, as well as for the moral effect on our 
 own forces and those of the Huns. Again, I can see no 
 use in going miles into German territory in a quiet 
 sector (so far as activity on the ground is concerned) 
 just to shoot at ground targets from a height of 1500 
 metres where you have not one chance in a thousand 
 of killing anything and a good chance of being brought 
 down yourself. You don't prove anything and it does 
 not seem to me to be the best way to win the war. 
 At the time of an attack, when the roads behind the 
 lines are full of troops, etc., which offer a good target, 
 then is the time to go in and shoot them up, provided 
 you do it at 100 or 200 metres height where you can 
 really hit something. 
 
 The "Archies" do not often bring a plane down when 
 one considers the number of machines fired at every 
 day and the enormous expenditure of ammunition, 
 but there is no use in letting them shoot at you just 
 for the fun of it, particularly in this sector, where the 
 German batteries are more accurate than any I have 
 yet seen. They come too darn close for comfort. A 
 
 few days ago R got a piece of a shell through a 
 
 wing and another man got one in his tail. Yesterday, 
 
156 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 some one on the ground put a bullet through my bail, 
 
 but thai is, of course, nuu'h too far from me to be 
 dangerous. Another thing about low flying in enemy 
 territory is that all one needs is to have the motor 
 stop or get a bullet in it and the best one eau expect 
 is to laud and be taken prisoner. The English used 
 to do a lot of this sort of thing and lost a great many 
 men without accomplishing enough to make it worth 
 while. They sent and still send their men out on 
 a great many "strafing" expeditions. "Strafing" is 
 aviation slang for flying low and attacking enemy 
 troops with bombs and machine-gun fire. At the time 
 o( an attack when the roads are full of troops and 
 supply trains which offer good targets, strafing has a 
 great effect and is undoubtedly of the highest impor- 
 tance, lis greatest effect is upon the morale of the 
 troops attacked, for nothing gets on an infantryman's 
 nerves like being shot up from the air before he even 
 reaches the advanced positions. He feels that he has 
 little or no protection against this sort of thing and 
 that the only thing he can do about it is to hide. He 
 is often afraid to shoot at a plane, for fear of giving 
 away his own position, ami thinks that if he makes a 
 move the airman will spot him. As a matter o( fact 
 the man in the air in his swiftly moving plane cannot 
 see nearly as much as the man on the ground thinks 
 lie can. Things [lash by so quickly that small details 
 often pass unobserved. The infantryman's greatest 
 protection against the low-flying machine lies in his 
 rifle ami machine guns and he does not use them 
 nearly as much as he should. When he does shoot 
 he is discouraged because his tire seldom seems to 
 have much effect, forgetting that the vital parts of the 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 157 
 
 machine which he must hit, in order to bring it down 
 at once, are very .small. To do thin he must knock the 
 pilot out, set the plane on fire or damage the motor bo 
 seriously as to cause it to stop. Be may kill the 
 
 observer, wound tlie pilot, or hit the motor' or the plane, 
 so as to ruin it for further service, but still the pilot 
 may be able to get back to his own lines, and the man 
 who shot him will think that he missed entirely. 
 
 In addition to this, fire from the ground gets on a 
 pilot's nerves just as much as his shooting upsets the 
 man on the ground. Losses to the Air Service; when 
 engaged in ground strafing are very heavy and almost 
 all pilots will agree that they would rather do any 
 other kind of work. A pilot's skill and experience are 
 no protection to him against fire from the ground, and 
 he feels about as helpless as do the troops he is straf- 
 ing. He must also be constantly on his guard against 
 attack from the air, and no matter how carefully he 
 may watch, he will get into many difficult situations 
 because his work takes him far into the enemy lines 
 and low to the ground, so that Hun machines which 
 may be above him can easily overtake him and come 
 down on his back, even though he may have noticed 
 them as soon as they came in sight. It is for these 
 reasons that it has always seemed to me that strafing 
 should be confined, as it is in the French service, to 
 the period of an offensive, for in a quiet sector the 
 dangers to the aeroplane are just as great, while ground 
 targets being few an/1 far between, there is little that 
 the aviator can accomplish either by actual material 
 destruction or by affecting the morale of troops. 
 
 If I ever get a squadron of my own, I know that 
 there are some things they will not do. I prefer to 
 
158 THE WAV OF THE EAGLE 
 
 take my chances flirting with a Hun where I have as 
 good a chance as he has. Am glad to Bay that I am 
 in command of one o( the "flights" of this escadrille 
 so that 1 generally load the patrols that 1 am on and 
 can take them where 1 please. 
 
 Since 1 started on the present instalment of this 
 letter, R has come in from a voluntary patrol 
 
 with Major T and another fellow. They attacked 
 
 a bunch of five Hun single-seaters and three two-seaters. 
 
 R shot down two o( the single-seaters and they are 
 
 both already officially confirmed. He thinks he hit an- 
 other one pretty hard but there IS as yet no news of 
 this third Boche. Pretty good Work at that. I per- 
 sonally get more discouraged every day. Have just, 
 been out for the second time to-day and did not see a 
 feather. Worse than anything else, 1 ran see from the 
 way my motor is acting that it is not going to last more 
 than about one more flight if I can manage to nurse 
 it through that. Anil it is a brand-new motor ami 
 machine with only about five hours of flight. It seems 
 to me that every time 1 get a machine something like 
 this goes wrong and it is very disheartening after you 
 have worked several days to get the guns and every- 
 thing else properly regulated. When I have gotten 
 out on the lines there has not been a sign of a Hun, 
 and then the very next patrol runs into a bunch of 
 
 them. R seems to attract the Huns, for he has 
 
 had any number o( tights except when 1 have been 
 with him, and then we have not seen a thing. Their 
 tight this morning lasted almost half an hour in all. 
 with intervals. They attacked the same bunch of 
 Heches three or four times until their ammunition 
 was all gone or guns jammed. R got one and 
 
I. CADEILLB LAFAYET] E 159 
 
 then speared the oilier seven minutes later. Such a 
 fight is, of course, not continuous, the machines attack- 
 ing, then flying off, manoeuvring for position and going 
 at it again* 
 
 One of my chief troubles with my m«/»hii^f 
 
 been that I have been trying to use a new type which 
 i much superior to the old when it runs, being fa 
 and better in every way. [t has not proved a 
 cess, however, being continually out of order or the 
 motor breaking down* I am through with it now, 
 however, and am going back to the old type of ma- 
 chine that I had when I first went to (he front. Nearly 
 all the men here have them and they ^o v<-sy well, 
 although I can fly rings around them with my machine; 
 when it will go. Have decided, however, that I would 
 rather fly with the old type than sit on the ground 
 and curse at thenew. 
 
 Ll NOBIBTTB, April 9, 1918. 
 
 My letter this week must he brief, as wo are moving 
 to-morrow and it is late, with much packing -till to ho 
 done. Of course, J cannot toll you where wo are 
 
 going, hut it looks as though wo were ^oifij^ to get in 
 
 the big fight after all. Naturally, wo are delighted, 
 for it ''in that 'iii. greatest of all battles may very 
 likely make or break the war an'J being so near, it 
 woul'l be a pity to have had no part in it. It has 
 emed a waste of energy and material to sail around 
 in what i. generally a Bunless sky when there i 
 much to he done elsewhere. If the big battles od the 
 Bommeand south of if to the Aisne turn out as we hope, 
 
 I think there will still be a weary lot of war to follow, 
 
 hut if should nevertheless prove the turning point. 
 
160 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 Fismes,* April 13, 1918. 
 Yesterday was another of the most beautiful days 
 imaginable and I have never seen the visibility better. 
 From 15,000 feet you could see almost to the ends of 
 the earth it seemed, and a large part of the great bat- 
 tlefield on which the present terrific struggle is going 
 on, was spread out before us. I can tell you this 
 without saying anything I should not, for this greatest 
 of all battles extends over such a stretch of country 
 that the mere fact that one is in it does not give any 
 definite indication of where one really is. Yesterday we 
 had not as yet had any definite duties assigned to us, 
 so we got up a voluntary expedition in the morning and 
 went out to see what there was to be seen. I was lead- 
 ing the show and we had not gotten to the lines when 
 the white puffs of smoke from the French "Archies" 
 showed me a Hun two-seater coming into our lines. He 
 was very high and although we tried our best to Climb 
 up to him he saw us and got back to his lines before 
 we could catch him. Just as we got to the lines I 
 spotted another two-seater trying the same trick and 
 again tried to get up to him with no better results, 
 although we got a good deal closer to this fellow, not, 
 however, within even long range. As I have explained 
 to you before, climbing around 15,000 feet where the 
 air is thin is an entirely different part of speech from 
 climbing when near the ground. It takes considerable 
 time and if the Hun has a couple of thousand feet 
 advantage of you, he must be a long way in your lines 
 if you are going to catch him before he gets home. 
 Yesterday we were out of luck, as we were just getting 
 our height at the time and were still thousands of feet 
 below the Huns. 
 
 * In the Chemin des Dames sector, between Reims and Soissons. 
 
/. ■z 
 
 * i 
 
BSCADBILLE LAFAYET] E 101 
 
 After reaching the linei we flew about for mora than 
 an hour without seeing any Boche machine*, [n the 
 beautiful clear air, however, we did get a most won- 
 derful view of the country. Not far away, one of the 
 largest and most beautiful cities of Prance 4 was under 
 bombardment and was burning in a dozen places. 
 'J here are no civilians left In this town now, J am glad 
 to say, but the waste and destruction is sickening. 
 
 Finally I caught sight of two German machines fly- 
 ing far within their own lines and perhaps a thousand 
 metres below us. They were too far in to offer any 
 sort of a chance, so we went back a little into our own 
 I and flew about so that the Hun:-, had the sun in 
 their eye:-:. For at least ten minutes we waited and 
 
 finally were rewarded by Seeing there start out for the 
 
 lines, evidently thinking they had a clear coast. There 
 
 had been four of us to begin with, but one man had 
 
 lost the formation in some elouds and another had 
 had to go in on account of motor trouble. As we 
 Started after the Boches, it was impossible to always 
 keep in the sun, and they caught eight of us and 
 started back into their lines. In turning, the two 
 Suns drew up close beside each other in perfect de- 
 fensive position, so that it was Impossible to attack 
 
 either without ^ivinf/; the observer of the other an 
 
 excellent .hot. Seeing thi i I manoeuvred around them 
 for a second in the hope of getting them in a more 
 favorable position. They did exactly what I wanted 
 
 them to and one fell in behind the- other SO that it was 
 possible to attack him as though hi.-, comrade were not 
 there. 
 
 All this time I had thought that they were two- 
 seater machines as in fact they were, but as I dove 
 
 * RfciujH. 
 
L62 THE WA? OF THE EAGLE 
 
 down to get under the tail of the rear Hun I noticed 
 
 thai he only had one set of struts between the wings 
 on each Bide oi the fuselage. Now 1 had never seen 
 or ln\ud of a Hun two-seater which did not have at 
 least two Bets oi stmts, while most single-seaters only 
 have one. 1 therefore jumped to the conclusion that 
 these machines were single-seaters after all, even though 
 they were larger than the ordinary, for there is a new 
 German single-seater which 1 have never seen, but which 
 is considerably bigger than the older typo usually met 
 with. The machine also seemed a bit small for a two- 
 seater. Hence 1 wont after (his follow as I would a 
 single-seater, diving on his hack instead of going under 
 his tail. Have not had a fight for so long until this 
 one (not a shot since December 5th, when 1 got my 
 first) that 1 am afraid l started shooting too soon. 
 However, I think I must have had the groat good luck 
 to hit the pilot with one oi my first shots, for tho Hun 
 just kept living along in a perfectly straight line with- 
 out manoeuvring at all, giving one of the easiest tar- 
 gets imaginable. I could Bee my bullets hitting the 
 machine and going all around the pilot's seat, and no 
 man in his senses would By straight ahead with this 
 going on, Finally, got directly behind him, so that 
 my shots raked the machine from end to end, and let 
 him have at least a hundred oi them. When within 
 about forty yards, I suddenly saw the machine gunner 
 
 let go oi his gun, throw up his arms ami Bop down out 
 
 oi sight in tho body of tho machine, and so realised 
 
 that it was a two-soator after all. 
 
 About that time a lot oi white smoke started to 
 come out oi tho Hun's motor, evidently caused by tho 
 bullets hitting it, for tho machine did not catch tiro. 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE L63 
 
 Then he began to climb until he was at such a steep 
 angle that the motor could not pull the machine up 
 any further and it- seemed to hang almost stationary 
 for a f(;w second . You have seen a duci when it is 
 mortally shot climb straight up for a little, flutter a 
 second or so and then fold its wings and fall. This 
 Boche reminded me for all die world of such a bird. 
 He finally slipped sideways on one wing and then 
 plunged vertically on his nose:, leaving a long trail of 
 white smoke behind him. I circled above and watched 
 him fall and have never seen a machine go down so 
 fast before. He seemed to cover the nine thousand 
 feet to the ground in almost no time at all. I watched 
 him until he went head first into the ground and could 
 distinctly see the machine all the time it was falling, 
 but when it struck it just seemed to melt out of sight 
 and I could see no trace of it on the ground. When a 
 plane falls in this way the motor generally K'^'S out 
 of sight in the ground and the body is of course smashed 
 to atoms, so I suppose the wreckage was too .small to 
 Bee from my height. 
 
 All the time the second Boche had been hiking for 
 home as fast as he could go and had 1 been quick I 
 should have had a good shot at him also, for he was 
 only a couple of hundred yards away and directly in 
 front of me. When the first one turned out to he a 
 two-seater, however, it took me so much by surprise and 
 he was so long about making up his mind to fall that 
 by the time I woke up the other fellow was gone. 
 Also, not knowing the sector, I thought we were a 
 considerable distance in the German lines, when as a 
 matter of fact we were just over them, and the Boche 
 fell in No Man's Land. There was no trouble at all 
 
164 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 about the official confirmation, for almost as soon as 
 we had landed on our own field, confirmation came in 
 from several sausage balloons, the infantry, artillery, 
 and from a couple of observers in aeroplanes who had 
 seen the Boche fall. A report also came in that a lot 
 of Huns ran out of their trenches and gathered around 
 the wreck of their machine on the ground, whereupon 
 the French 75's amused themselves by dumping some 
 shells in their midst. Rather rubbing it in, don't you 
 think? I think I had a good deal of luck with this 
 fellow. My machine gun ran like a charm and never 
 even hesitated. 
 
 Then, too, this was a rube way to go after a two- 
 seater, for although it gives you a splendid shot, the 
 machine gunner has an even better one. As soon as 
 you run into one who is a good shot you are going to 
 have trouble, and the man who uses such tactics 
 against two-seaters wrll not generally last long. In 
 this case I think the machine gunner must have been 
 hit by one of my first shots, because he did not fire at 
 all so far as I could see. I don't think I shall make 
 this mistake again, however. The machine was evi- 
 dently a new type of two-seater* which I had not 
 heard of. It is rather small, the pilot and the ma- 
 chine gunner sit very close together, and the plane is 
 intended as a sort of combination pursuit and observa- 
 tion machine. 
 
 One of the other men in the squadron reported that 
 he shot down a single-seater in flames half an hour after 
 I got the two-seater, but we have as yet been able to get 
 no confirmation. If he gets this one it will make four 
 for him in a month, three of them in flames. Was 
 
 ♦AHalberstadt. 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 165 
 
 rather surprised that mine did not catch fire, for I 
 don't think I shall ever hit a machine harder than this 
 one, due to the very easy shot he gave me. I saw not 
 just a few bullets go into him but a regular stream of 
 them, and I don't see how I could have missed his gas 
 tank. There is a great advantage in setting a machine 
 on fire, for there is then no possible doubt, and it can 
 be seen to fall for miles, which makes confirmation 
 much easier. 
 
 Went out on another voluntary patrol in the after- 
 noon and tried to get a shot at another two-seater, but 
 in attempting to surprise him made rather a mess of 
 it, so that I never even got a shot. Then a little while 
 later we spotted three single-seaters flying far within 
 their lines, and I tried the same tactics of waiting in 
 the sun for them to come out. Waited ten minutes 
 and they would not come so went in after them. I 
 got on one fellow's tail and one of the other men 
 jumped on another, but both our guns jammed after 
 only half a dozen shots or so. We were far in the 
 German lines on the other side of their sausage bal- 
 loons, so there was nothing for it but to clear out. 
 
 In the morning when we were after the two-seaters, 
 my companion stayed over my head and protected 
 the rear. He tried to get a whack at the second 
 machine, but was unsuccessful. In making an attack 
 it is a great comfort to know that your rear is pro- 
 tected and the man who does this protection work to 
 my mind deserves a great deal more credit than he 
 usually gets. On coming out of the German lines 
 after the machine fell, their " Archies" opened up, but 
 they didn't seem to be as good as they were in our last 
 sector. There they were wonderful. 
 
166 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 Was looking over the official reports the other day 
 and saw an account of a most remarkable coincidence, 
 and incidentally one of the hardest bits of luck imagina- 
 ble. A German machine attacked a French sausage 
 balloon so that the two observers were forced to jump 
 in their parachutes. They were coming down all right 
 when the German machine above them was hit by an 
 "Archie" and blown to pieces. A piece fell on one of 
 the parachutes, breaking it, and the Frenchman fell 
 and was killed. That fellow certainly had no luck at 
 all. 
 
 Fismes, 29 April, 1918. 
 
 Rien de neuf ici. Toujour la brume et le mauvais 
 temps.* Now my French has about run out so we 
 will continue in the mother tongue. But "sans blag,"t 
 since last writing there has been practically nothing 
 but fog, mist, and rain, with the exception of one day 
 when it cleared up for a few hours. Got in a flight 
 then, but outside of that have not had my machine 
 off the ground. Hobey Baker and another fellow and 
 myself went out and had hardly reached the lines 
 before we bumped into three Hun chasse machines, 
 Albatross. I was leading our patrol so attacked at 
 once, as we had the advantage of height. Got on one 
 Hun's tail and should have had a very good shot, but 
 after a few shots my gun stopped again. Was able to 
 fix it in a second but then the chance was gone and I 
 never got as good a shot again. I was square on the 
 Boche's tail and saw several bullets miss him by inches 
 but am afraid I shot when too far away. He turned 
 under me and as I had fixed my gun by that time I 
 
 * Nothing new here. Always fog and bad weather. 
 fNo fooling. 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 167 
 
 dove and took another crack at him. He turned ver- 
 tically on his nose, so much so he almost got on his 
 back, and dove like a bullet. It was impossible to 
 follow or watch him as that would have taken me 
 below the other two Huns. This one is carried on the 
 official reports as "probably" destroyed by me, but 
 not confirmed. I do jiot think, however, that he fell 
 or was seriously hit, for if he had gone down he would 
 surely have been seen as we were just on the lines. 
 
 We were flying above a sea of white clouds with 
 just enough holes in them to allow one to see sufficient 
 of the country below to keep one's bearings. The fight 
 began at about 11,000 feet and just as I attacked the 
 first Hun I looked behind and above to see Baker and 
 the other man going after the other two. They had 
 no luck, however, as Baker's gun jammed after about 
 twenty shots and the other fellow was having trouble 
 with the pressure in his gas tank, so that he was able to 
 do very little. When I looked again one of the three 
 Boches was trying to get at me, so I left the one that 
 had dived and took a try at this second one. I got 
 on his back but that was about all the good it did me 
 for that fellow certainly could handle his machine. 
 He started diving toward our lines and I hoped that 
 I could drive him down low to the ground, even if I 
 could not hit him, and once close to the ground he 
 would have to stop his stunts and either land or fly in 
 something like a line, which would give me a decent 
 shot at him. He went into a spiral with little Willie 
 doing the same just behind and above him. We went 
 down several thousand feet in this way, twisting and 
 turning. I got some shots at him at close range but 
 only the most difficult ones. Once when he did a 
 
his THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 renversemenl in front of me I had to pull up to keep 
 from running into him. He tried bo gel above me, 
 but as the advantage of height had been with me from 
 the first, this was of course easy to prevent. 
 
 As we went down 1 glanced behind me to make sure 
 of not being surprised from the rear and Could see 
 
 nothing of my companions, but two Huns were oircling 
 
 some oOO metres over our heads. They were SO direct ly 
 above that I doubt if they saw us, and at any rate 1 
 knew I could dive into the clouds if 1 got into a tight 
 hole. The two above never came down, but having 
 them there always worries you and distracts your 
 attention by requiring too much watching of the rear. 
 My Hun dove for a hole in the clouds, but in watch- 
 ing the others I had gotten several hundred yards 
 behind him, ami although 1 came through the same 
 hole a couple of seconds later and went down under 
 the clouds to 3,000 feet there was not a sign of him. 
 Suppose he must have stayed in those clouds until he 
 was well within his own lines. The fact that there 
 were two BocheS above us when I was after this last 
 one. making three in all, the original number, is what 
 makes me think, among other things, that the first one 
 did not go down, although of course a. fourth might 
 have come along. My personal opinion, however, is 
 that that first Hun is now passing these rainy days 
 drinking beer ami calling the American the Boohe 
 equivalent of "sale eoehon."* because the American 
 gave him a thrill and perhaps necessitated the chang- 
 ing of the wings on said Hun's "joli Cuckoo" by shoot- 
 ing a few holes in them. 1 am sorry to have gotten so 
 little result out o( these last few encounters but have 
 * Dirt} pig. 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE L69 
 
 at least learned a great deal, I think, and hope to be 
 able to do better next time. My experience is fight- 
 ing with single-seater chasse machines has been very 
 limited. If. i a the most exciting of -'ill encounters but 
 offers tin: most difficult chance for a decisive victory 
 and consequently requires more skill in shooting to 
 bring one of them down. These Boche machines were 
 very pretty, being clean and new looking, with the mark 
 of one of the squadrons of Baron Von Elichtofen's 
 famous group on the tail planes. The tails were 
 painted in broad black and white diagonal bands, and 
 
 one had a diamond-shaped /nark on the side- of his 
 
 fuselage with some serf, of an "ensigne" inside*, which 
 
 I could not make out. All my last, three fights have 
 been with this outfit and I should like very much to 
 get one of them, for they are excellent pilots, suppo ed 
 to be the best the Germans have. However, we shall 
 not see them any more for a while at least, for we are 
 moving again immediately. I would like to tell you 
 where, hut of course cannot. 
 
 You want to know what we have to eat and when I 
 tell you, you will see that war is not so had after .'ill, 
 when it comes to eating, tor breakfast we have oat- 
 meal, eggs to order with bacon, hot eakes about every 
 other day, and coffee or tea. For luncl , one or two 
 hors d'esuvres, BUCh as bully beef or canned salmon 
 
 with mayonnaise, or perhaps canned asparagus. Then 
 
 some sort of meat, veal or steak or mutton, for in- 
 stance, with potatoes, and some other vegetable, a 
 salad, and generally some dessert, such as canned fruit 
 or a pudding. Willi this goes pretty good bread and 
 butter. Finally we have a demi-tasse and always 
 plenty of granulated sugar. We get stuff through the 
 
170 THU WAV OF THE EAGLE 
 
 French when we want it and also through the Ameri- 
 can Quartermaster; anything else we buy outside. 
 
 Our mess costs us 150 to 175 francs a month. For 
 dinner we get soup, some meat again, a couple of vege- 
 tables, salad, sometimes nuts and sometimes a dessert, 
 finishing up with coffee. So you see we are not to be 
 pitied and you will now understand why I say that one 
 of my greatest dangers is over-eating, especially when 
 the weather is bad, not forgetting, o( course, the ever- 
 present danger of breaking one's neck by falling out 
 of bed. 
 
 The "Challenge of the Present Crisis" arrived last 
 week and 1 read it through at one sitting, as you sug- 
 gested. I think it is excellent and certainly contains 
 much food for thought. I cannot, however, at all 
 agree with the author in his prayer to God to bless 
 Germany (see p. ot-oo). You remember the picture 
 1 sent you, "Ne leur pardonnez pas, nion pcre, car ils 
 savent ce qu'ils font."* The same thing applies to the 
 methods of the Huns in general and not simply to 
 their bombing of women and children. During this 
 war I shall kill personally and help to kill as many 
 Huns as possible, after it I shall never speak to 
 or have anything to do with one except perhaps to 
 tell him what I think of him and the rest of his tribe, 
 and if I ever catch one in my house or my office, I 
 promise you that he will go out faster than he came 
 in, if it is in my power to make him. Fosdick in his 
 book quotes Walt Whitman as having said "God damn 
 the Turk." I think the same prayer would be even 
 more suitable in the case of the Hun. You will say 
 that I am bitter. I am and I should be ashamed of 
 * Father, do not forgive them, for they know what they do." 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 171 
 
 myself if I were not. I hate the Huns but I do not 
 think my feeling is such as to interfere at all with 
 such ability as I may have to help defeat them. 
 
 Leffrinckoucke,* May 7, 1918. 
 
 Our moving is completed for the time being at least, 
 so now I have a chance to drop you a line. The bad 
 weather continues almost incessantly so that we have 
 been doing very little flying, but when it does clear up 
 there should be plenty of action, for we are again in 
 that sector where Oliver and I first arrived at the 
 front last July. I have had a couple of flights over 
 the lines, but the mist was so heavy that there was 
 not a great deal going on in the air. On the first ex- 
 cursion I did have one short flirtation with a Hun two- 
 seater, short because I again had trouble with my 
 confounded gun. The Boche plane was a new type,f 
 in appearance very much like some of the English 
 machines and so marked as to carry out the decep- 
 tion. I started to let him pass under me and then 
 noticing the peculiar markings, started down after him 
 to make sure. Immediately he dove back into his 
 own lines so we waited around for him to come out 
 again. This time I got dead behind and under his 
 tail at about fifty yards, but my gun quit after about 
 eight shots, the Hun twisted sideways and the machine 
 gunner started shooting, so I ducked under his tail, 
 stood on my nose and left him, with the least possible 
 delay. 
 
 You have no idea how hard it is to follow the 
 shooting instructions laid down in the notes I sent you, 
 that is, to hold your fire until you are at close range 
 
 * Three miles east of Dunkirk. f Hannoveranner. 
 
172 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 and then to shoot with sufficient deliberation to be 
 really accurate. There is the constant tendency to 
 get "jumpy" and shoot too hurriedly, which one is 
 continually striving to repress. As for my gun, such 
 troubles are most discouraging and I have had my 
 fill of them, so after this last fiasco I took it off the 
 machine and put on a new one, first examining every 
 part with the greatest care. Yesterday I tried it out 
 on a target and it worked to perfection, firing a large 
 number of shots without the slightest hitch. I hope, 
 therefore, that things will go better from now on. 
 
 My other trip on the lines was a daylight patrol at 
 the time of a particularly heavy artillery bombard- 
 ment. For as far as one could see the guns on both 
 sides were twinkling like the lights of a city in the 
 distance, while in between the black and white puffs of 
 the exploding shells and the little geysers of flying mud 
 and debris were practically continuous, as thick as the 
 large raindrops at the beginning of a summer shower. 
 Above the lines many planes, all of them ours at this 
 time, with hundreds of the little black clouds around 
 them made by the Hun "Archies." The lines look, of 
 course, much the same as they did when I first saw 
 them and wrote to you describing what a sight they 
 are, only the devastated area has spread enormously. 
 A green forest which I wrote you in the fall had taken 
 on a very mangy appearance, has now almost entirely 
 disappeared, until at present it is hard to distinguish 
 from the fields, or rather what were once fields, which 
 surrounded it. It is remarkable in how short a time 
 a region may be transformed when it becomes the 
 centre of heavy fighting. For instance, a village* 
 
 * Locro, southwest of Ypres. 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 173 
 
 which I visited last fall and which has been the scene 
 of fighting for only the past two or three weeks, is now 
 nothing but a heap of bricks and plaster with scarcely 
 a wall standing. Last fall there was not a shell mark 
 in the town. On this particular morning a certain 
 much disputed hill * was receiving a large share of 
 attention from the artillery and it looked like what I 
 suppose a volcano in eruption does. The whole top of 
 the hill seemed to be exploding every second, and cer- 
 tainly nothing could have lived upon it. In such a 
 case I believe only the approaches commanding the 
 hill are held. 
 
 Not so long ago I had a chance to visit Reims and 
 jumped at it. I had seen it often from the air, having 
 flown over it day after day, but had never seen it 
 from the ground. There are portions of the city 
 which are not very badly battered in spite of the rain 
 of shells to which it has been subjected almost since 
 the war began. Until recently I think 1,835 was the 
 record number for 24 hours, but I saw that one day 
 a few weeks ago the Huns fired something over 3000 
 shells into the city. That was at the time when you 
 may have noticed in the papers that the city was burn- 
 ing in a number of places more or less continuously 
 for a week. For blocks around the cathedral, how- 
 ever, the buildings are completely wrecked and lie a 
 mass of broken bricks and plaster with jagged walls 
 standing up from the debris. Fire has completed the 
 destruction of what the shells had left. The cathedral 
 itself is, I fear, beyond repair, although it is not in bad 
 shape as compared with the buildings which surrounded 
 it. The roof is gone and of course all the beautiful 
 * Kemmel Hill, cast of Locre and south of Ypres. 
 
174 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 stained glass has been smashed to atoms. There are 
 a number of direct hits visible on the walls and but- 
 tresses and the whole has been considerably scorched 
 by fire. A good deal of the intricate carving and pieces 
 of statuary have been broken, but there is a great 
 deal more which has not. The famous carved arches 
 at the entrance (the cathedral faces away from the 
 lines) with their thousands of little stone figures, have 
 been protected by sand bags and seem to be almost 
 intact. In fact, it was not as bad as I had feared and 
 may still remain as a wonderful monument, although 
 it can hardly again be used as a church. The after- 
 noon we were there was very quiet with only a few 
 shells falling in the distance. I took some pictures of 
 the cathedral and the town about it which I shall send 
 when I get a chance to have them developed. Thought 
 
 of Mother and Uncle J and how they would have 
 
 enjoyed being there, painful as it is to see the wreckage 
 of such beautiful places. 
 
 Think we shall probably see another big effort by 
 the Huns before long and this time we shall really be 
 in it. The guns have been pounding away incessantly 
 for the last two or three days and their steady rumble 
 is plainly audible as I write. Every now and then the 
 barracks shakes and the windows rattle when a par- 
 ticularly big one goes off. Our sleeping quarters here 
 are, by the way, the most comfortable we have ever 
 had. We are lodged in little huts made of corrugated 
 sheet iron and shaped like a cylinder cut lengthwise 
 
 in half, with the flat side on the ground. M , Hobe 
 
 Baker, L , and I have one together and are very 
 
 nicely installed, each with a washstand in the corner 
 by his bed, electric lights, and in the centre a table 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 175 
 
 larger than any we have at home, with books, maga- 
 zines, etc., and an oil lamp 1 . Men in the aviation cer- 
 tainly have a cinch while they are not flying. 
 
 Leffrinckovcke, 13 May 1918. 
 
 Due to our moving I had not until to-day had a let- 
 ter from home for two weeks, but at last they have 
 come and I have been having a fine time reading them 
 for the past two hours. It is blustering and raining 
 
 outside as usual and M and Hobe Baker have gone 
 
 off with an Englishman to see the front-line trenches. 
 They met the Englishman recently and when he came 
 for them to-day he asked me if I would not like to go 
 up some other time. Naturally I said yes, but this 
 afternoon I was just as glad to be left to myself so 
 that I could drop you a line and read my letters. 
 Also, as you know, I have already had several trips 
 up to the front in this section when I was here with 
 the French escadrille. 
 
 You will see by the papers that a great friend of 
 Oliver's and mine is missing, poor old Jimmie Hall. 
 He left this squadron about six weeks ago and went to 
 one of the new American squadrons, and I had not 
 seen him since he left. He was one of the very best 
 men in this outfit and I am deeply sorry that he is 
 gone. We know no more about what happened to 
 him than what we have seen in the papers, but al- 
 though he is evidently gone so far as this war is con- 
 cerned, I hope that we may see him again some day. 
 Jim has been in the war since 1914, first as a ma- 
 chine gunner with the English, then in the French 
 aviation and finally the American. He was a long time 
 in the trenches with the British and you have read his 
 
176 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 book. He has had several hair-breadth escapes so we 
 hope that his good fairy has not altogether deserted 
 him and that he may have pulled through this last 
 and be only a prisoner. I certainly hope so, for there 
 was a real man. He had been doing very well, and 
 was a most valuable man. not only for his ability as a 
 pilot, but also as an officer and a loader for our own 
 men. I had gotten to know Jim quite well. He was a 
 true friend and certainly no braver man ever lived. 
 According to the newspaper reports he was shot down 
 by a new type of German machine which has unusual 
 climbing ability and can shoot at another machine 
 above it much better than the ordinary single-seater 
 with fixed guns. The report was that Jim was diving 
 on one when it suddenly pulled up under him and got 
 him from below, but of course this is only a news- 
 paper report on which little reliance can be placed. 
 
 Tins new German machine is a tri-plane. It also 
 has fixed guns like all other single-seater fighting ma- 
 chines, but is very light, so that it climbs with ex- 
 traordinary speed and can stand very much on its tail 
 to shoot. The last fight I had was with one of them 
 just a couple of days ago when the weather cleared up 
 long enough to let us get in one flight. I was leading 
 a patrol of three other men when I saw this single tri- 
 plane detach himself from a group and start into his 
 own lines. I found afterwards that he had made an 
 unsuccessful attack on some of our two-seaters and in 
 doing so had evidently gotten separated from the rest 
 of his patrol. At all events the four of us jumped on 
 him at about 5000 metres and everybody had a few 
 cracks at him, but before we got to close range he 
 started doing all kinds of stunts so that he made the 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 177 
 
 hardest sort of a target. The other men seemed to 
 think we had hirn and did not follow him down, but I 
 have seen this sort of thing too often to take anything 
 for granted and felt sure the linn was just throwing 
 his machine around in order to get away and that it 
 was not out of control, Hence J kept after hirn, shoot- 
 ing whenever I could get my gun about on him. It 
 (forked to perfection this time and I must have fired 
 about a hundred and fifty shots, some of them at as 
 close as 40 yards range, or even less. But all the time 
 he was doing spins, renversements, etc., and all the 
 tricks of the trade. I know perfectly well I hit his 
 machine a number of times, but did not have the hick 
 or rather, was not accurate enough to set it on fire or 
 get the pilot. Once when I was diving seventy yards 
 behind and above him, at high speed and plugging 
 away, he suddenly pulled up into one of those steep 
 climbs for which these machines are remarkable. I 
 pulled up as quickly as I could without risk of break- 
 ing something, but the Hun ended up 75 yards above 
 me, and rather had the advantage if he had used it 
 properly. I put on my motor wide open, and by pulling 
 rny machine into a climb, was able to get my gun in line- 
 just as he started to turn. Gave him a blast and came 
 pretty close; in fact, this was one of several times when 
 I thought I might have gotten him. Anyhow, it seemed 
 to give him such a thrill, that he fell on his nose and 
 passed below me again, where it was a simple matter 
 to dive after him once more. I chased him down to 
 2,. 500 metres and then being alone and not knowing 
 where I was, on account of many clouds below, except 
 that I was a considerable distance on the German side 
 of the fence, I had to give it up as a bad job. He got 
 
178 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 away all right for I saw him pull up and fly off home 
 in a perfectly normal way. This new Hun machine 
 can outclimb our Spads but is not as fast nor as strong 
 and on account of its light weight you can catch them 
 easily in a dive. If, therefore, one remembers their 
 one strong point and watches out for it, they should 
 not prove as difficult to handle as some of the other 
 German types. 
 
 Have had three other fights since last writing, two 
 of them with these same Fokker tri-planes. My gun 
 has been working much better and twice the Huns 
 went down but only, I think, as a means of escape. 
 At the time of the second fight I was flying with one 
 
 of our men whose name is F and who has been 
 
 doing remarkably good work, having gotten seven 
 Huns officially, in the past two months, two of them 
 in one day, since we arrived in this sector. He has 
 great nerve and audacity but takes a great many 
 chances which would bring a less skilful man to grief. 
 His great assets seem to be quickness of decision, get- 
 ting to very close range, and then shooting with great 
 accuracy. 
 
 On the occasion I speak of he was leading, and I 
 wanted to watch him and see just what his methods 
 were. We saw a number of Huns fooling around far 
 in their own lines, and waited for some minutes for 
 them to come out, but as they showed no inclination 
 to come, we went in to see if we could not get a shot 
 at them. There were about fourteen chasse machines 
 in all, tri-plane Fokkers, Albatross, and Pfalz, three 
 
 types of Hun single-seaters. F had a scrap with 
 
 a couple of them and shot up one Fokker, which he 
 saw go down in a spin almost to the ground. I did 
 not get in it at first as I had to stay up to keep the 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 179 
 
 rest of the army from going down on F , but pretty 
 
 soon I got a chance at a Pfalz, which got a bit off to 
 one side of the others. Fired about 15 shots when my 
 gun stuck, but as it was I could not have fired any 
 more shots to advantage anyhow, for the Hun went 
 immediately onto his nose and then into a spin. Saw 
 him go down this way for 1000 metres, but could not 
 watch him further on account of the others which 
 started after us in force. We asked confirmation on 
 these Huns, but could get none, so I guess they did 
 not crash, although if they did they may have been 
 too far in their own lines to have been seen by our 
 observers on the ground. We of course could not sail 
 into the middle of an outfit like this, but you can often 
 pick one off on the edge of a group and get away 
 before the others can come to his assistance. 
 
 My other scrap was with a big Rumpler two-seater. 
 I fired a hundred and fifty shots, and he about a 
 hundred, I suppose. I hit him and had him about 
 where I wanted him when some others came up and 
 forced me to call it off. He went off smoking into his 
 own fines, but did not go down. This makes nine 
 fights now since I got my last official Hun. The 
 machine gun trouble has hindered me three or four 
 times and knocked out a couple of the best chances, 
 but one should be able to do better than this. My 
 shooting has not been what it should be and I do not 
 get close enough before beginning to fire. 
 
 May 25, 1918, Hopital de l'Ocean, 
 La Panne, Belgium. 
 
 I am really beginning to feel more like myself to- 
 day, so am going to start on that promised letter. 
 Not that I have been feeling very badly for I really have 
 
180 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 not, but the pain and inflammation in my knee has 
 kept me rather tired and listless, so that it has seemed 
 impossible to get up sufficient energy to do much 
 writing. 
 
 I am very glad I sent you those cables at once for 
 the only thing that I have seen in the papers about 
 myself was incorrect and misleading. There was a 
 notice in the Paris N. Y. Herald which said that my 
 machine was seen to finally crash and that later I had 
 been picked up in No Man's Land by a French patrol 
 with a bullet through my leg. This would naturally 
 give the impression that I was too seriously hurt to 
 be able to help myself, so here is hoping you got one 
 of my several cables in good time. I sent several 
 through different channels on the chance that one 
 might be delayed. I shall tell you from start to finish 
 what happened, although you probably know most of 
 it already. 
 
 On the morning of May 15th at about 9.30, Baker, 
 
 Lieut. F and myself sallied forth, in response to a 
 
 telephone call saying that there were a great many 
 Huns on the lines and more of our machines were 
 needed. We three were on the " alert" patrol for 
 the morning and it is the duty of such a patrol to send 
 out machines in response to special calls, etc. I was 
 leading the party and when we got to the lines the 
 Huns had evidently gone in, for there were none in 
 sight except very far within their own lines. We 
 
 cruised about for a while quite high up and F had 
 
 to go in owing to motor trouble, leaving Baker and 
 myself. I noticed a lone Boche two-seater sailing 
 about in his own lines, but he was very low down and 
 not in a good position to attack and I did not want to 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 181 
 
 go down and lose all that altitude until we were sure 
 the activity up above had quieted down. I mean the 
 activity which had brought the telephone call, for we 
 had certainly seen none ourselves to speak of. To go 
 down from 4500 to 1000 metres and then have the 
 Huns come along at the altitude you have just left, 
 means that it will take you about fifteen minutes to 
 get up to them again; and then, nine times out of ten, 
 it is too late. Accordingly, we took another turn 
 about, and seeing nothing I went back to see if the 
 lone two-seater was still there, and saw him still sail- 
 ing around in wide circles, evidently regulating artil- 
 lery fire. Also noticed a large white cloud just over 
 the lines opposite and above the Hun, so I thought we 
 might try to spring a little surprise on him. We dove 
 down on our side of the cloud where he could not see 
 us, flew along just above it until the Hun made a turn 
 near the lines, when I ducked down through a hole 
 and went for him. Unfortunately, he saw us com- 
 ing, and when I was within 150 yards of him, up went 
 his tail and he started diving full motor into his own 
 country. I dove after him as fast as my bus would 
 go and overhauled him a little but could not get to 
 good close range; started shooting at about 100 yards 
 range and the Boche commenced zigzagging as he 
 dove. I got in about seventy-five shots, I suppose, and 
 suddenly saw the machine gunner apparently almost 
 fall overboard, then throw up his arms and disappear 
 in the fuselage. Evidently he had gotten it even 
 though the pilot had not. Just at this moment when 
 I think with a few more shots I might have finished 
 the whole outfit, my gun stuck, due to a defective 
 cartridge and I had to give it up. I thought for a few 
 
182 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 minutes that the Hun might crash anyhow, but he 
 pulled up just over some houses and very low down, 
 for I could see his shadow on the ground close beside 
 him as he dashed off out of sight into his own back 
 areas. The scrap ended three or four miles in Hun- 
 land, and we got rather heavily "archied" coming out, 
 but nothing close enough to be dangerous. 
 
 When we got back to our lines a few minutes' work 
 sufficed to get my gun running again and we started 
 up the lines in the direction of home, as our gasoline 
 was getting low. Ten minutes after the first fight we 
 were flying along inside our own lines, when I noticed 
 a peculiar two-seater circling very low down between 
 the trenches, he could not have been more than 600 
 metres up. I took him for an English infantry liaison 
 machine, which he very much resembled, but then 
 noticed that he seemed to circle into the Boche lines 
 with remarkable impunity considering his very low 
 altitude, so decided to investigate. Sure enough 
 there were the old black crosses on him showing plainly 
 as he swung almost under me in making a turn over 
 our lines. I said that this Hun was flying between the 
 trenches as he was, but in this most terrible of all the 
 battlefields that I have seen, you cannot distinguish 
 the trenches from above, and in many places they 
 consist simply of shell-holes joined together. The par- 
 ticular spot where we encountered this Hun is less 
 than two miles from Oliver Chadwick's grave, so that 
 from the pictures and descriptions I have already sent 
 you, you know pretty much what the country is like. 
 Very low and flat and the ground nothing but a con- 
 glomerate mass of shell-holes filled with water, and 
 barbed wire. Here and there a wrecked concrete 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 183 
 
 shelter or "pill box," and the shattered stumps of 
 trees. 
 
 The only way that I knew that my friend was really 
 a Hun was by his crosses, for it was the first Boche 
 machine of the kind that I had ever seen, and indeed I 
 have never heard of any one that I know, running into 
 one like it. He had a rounded body like some French 
 machines, the tail was square and the lower wing 
 much shorter than the upper, like many of the English 
 two-seater observation planes. All the Hun two- 
 seaters that I have ever seen or heard of before, have 
 both the upper and lower wings approximately the 
 same length. In addition to this it was the slowest 
 bus you ever saw and I think I could go two miles to 
 his one. All this leads me to believe that it was a 
 new type of German armored plane which they call 
 " Junkers" and which I have read about in the avia- 
 tion reports. They are built especially for this low 
 infantry liaison work and are heavily armored about 
 the fuselage to protect them from fire from the ground. 
 In consequence of their great weight they cannot go 
 very high and are extremely slow. This fellow must 
 have been a squadron leader or something, for he had 
 four big streamers attached to his wings, one on the 
 top and another on the lower plane on each side. Per- 
 haps, however, these may have merely been means of 
 identification for the benefit of his own infantry, al- 
 though it is very common for patrol leaders to carry 
 such streamers so that their pilots may easily distin- 
 guish them from the other machines in the patrol. 
 Personally I have a big blue band around the fuselage 
 of my machine and also a blue nose, which serves the 
 same purpose. Whether or not this fellow was what 
 
IS I THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 I think he was, I hope that when T am flying again I 
 may see him or at least another like him and have 
 another go at him. He certainly got the best of me, 
 and I don't feel at all vindictive about it, as it was a 
 perfectly fair fight, but just the same it would give 
 me more satisfaction to bring (hat boy down than any 
 five others. It would also be interesting to see whether 
 his hide is thick enough to stand a good dose of armor- 
 piercing bullets at short range. An incendiary bullet 
 in his gas tank might also make his old boiler factory a 
 warm place to fly in. 
 
 As soon as T was sure that the machine was really a 
 Hun I dove down after him and made up my mind 
 this time to get at good close range. I did, and ended 
 up fifty yards directly behind his tail and slightly 
 below, but I made one bad mistake, a real beginner's 
 trick which was the cause of all my troubles. I evi- 
 dently was not quite far enough below him and I had 
 not fired more than one or two shots when T got caught 
 in the back draught from his propeller, which joggled 
 my machine about so that anything approaching accu- 
 rate shooting became an impossibility. I saw one 
 bullet go three feet to one side of him and another 
 several feet on the other side, so stopped shooting for 
 a second to get in better position. Any one with a 
 little experience should know better than to get him- 
 self caught like this, especially myself, for I had the 
 same thing happen with the first Hun I ever brought 
 down. That time I dove down a little before shooting 
 at all, and then fired from a good position a little lower 
 down. Hence, when I found myself in the same 
 trouble this time, I tried to remedy the situation in the 
 same way, but in doing so I entirely failed, for the 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 185 
 
 instant, to appreciate the very slow speed of the Hun. 
 I was already close to him, and when I dove down and 
 then pulled up to shoot, I found to my astonishment 
 that I had overshot the mark and was almost directly 
 under him, so much so that it was impossible to get 
 my gun on him. He started swerving from side to 
 side to get me out from under him so that the machine 
 gunner could shoot, and I tried to stay under him, 
 swerving as lie did and at the same time slowing down 
 my motor to the limit so as to try to let him get ahead 
 of me enough to allow me to start shooting again. 
 The Boche and I were at this time about twenty yards 
 apart and if he had only had a trap-door in his bottom 
 he might have brought me down by dropping a brick 
 on my head. However, he did not need it. The Hun 
 gave a twist which took me for an instant beyond the 
 protection of his fuselage. It was only for a second or 
 two, but that was sufficient for the observer, who pro- 
 ceeded to do the quickest and most accurate bit of 
 shooting that I have yet run up against. As a rule in 
 such a situation, you see the observer look over the 
 side of his machine at you, and then swing his gun 
 around on its pivot and point it in your direction. 
 While he is doing this you have time to duck. 
 
 In this case, however, I saw a black-helmcted head 
 appear over the edge of the Hun machine and almost 
 at the same instant he fired, as quickly as you could 
 snap-shoot with a pistol, or with a shot gun at a quail 
 in the brush, for instance. In trying to slow down as 
 much as possible I had gotten into almost a loss of 
 speed, so that my machine did not perhaps answer to 
 the controls as quickly as it otherwise would have. 
 This, however, made no difference, for although I 
 
L86 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 tried my best to swerve back under the Boche'g body 
 to got out of bis line of fire, and in Bpite of the groat 
 quickness with which he shot, he was as accurate as 
 he was quick and his very first shot, came smashing 
 through the front, of my machine above the motor and 
 caught me just on bop of the left knee. It felt more 
 like a crack on the leg from a fast-pitched baseball 
 
 than anything else 1 Know of except thai there is also 
 a. sort of penetrating fooling one gets from a bullet. 
 
 How many more bullets hit the machine 1 don't know 
 and never had a chance to find out, but my motor went 
 dead at once, so that knocked out all chance of any 
 further shots at the Boche. I doxc under him out of 
 his lino of lire and then twisted sharply around and 
 planed back for our own lines, trying to make the most 
 of the little height I had. A glance at my gauges 
 Showed no pressure in the gas tank, and that together 
 with the way in which the motor stopped made it 
 quite obvious that the trouble was a severed pressure 
 Or main gasoline pipe. Now wo carry a special little 
 emergency tank which is operated by gravity and is 
 for just such occasions. It will run ten or fifteen 
 minutes, plenty of time to find a good landing place. 
 I tried to turn it on but the little stop-cock would not 
 budge, so I dropped my controls and lotting the ma- 
 chine take care of itself for an instant, tried with both 
 hands to move it. Still no effect; it had evidently 
 also boon put out of business by a bullet, probably the 
 same which cut the main connections. It only took 
 a few seconds to cover the distance to the ground, 
 which could not have been more than three hundred 
 yards after I had gotten turned in the right direction. 
 
 Kept working away until the last minute, trying to 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 187 
 
 get the motor going, for every one who knows this 
 country also knows that it is utterly Impossible to 
 land any machine in it without crashing; let alone a 
 Spad which requires at least as great speed Tor land- 
 ing as any other type. All my efforts were usele I, 
 however, and I saw that there was nothing for it but 
 to smash up as gracefully as possible. The thing that 
 bothered me most, however, was not the smash, for 
 that would probably only result in a little shaking up, 
 but I thought I was further in the Hun lines fchao 1 
 was and had most unpleasant vision:; of : pending the 
 
 rest of the war in Germany, which Is not at all my 
 
 idea of a good time. If, however, it was No Man's 
 Land where \ was going down, 1 thought the Buns 
 would probably turn their guns loose on my plane as 
 soon as it crashed and that the best tiling to do would 
 be to get Out and away from it as quickly as possible. 
 
 I held my machine off the ground as long as 1 could, 
 with the double purpose of getting as far towards our 
 own lines as possible and also so as to reduce my speed 
 to a minimum before I touched the ground and the 
 crash came. Braced myself inside: my cockpit and 
 tucked in my head like a blooming turtle in his shell. 
 Just at the last moment I vccrc/l the plane a little 
 to one side to avoid landing in the middle of a barbed 
 wire entanglement and then the instant my wheel:-: 
 touched the ground, over my machine went in the 
 middle of its back with a loud crash. A 8001] as it 
 was over I unbuckled my belt and scrambling out lost 
 no time in rolling into a nearby shell-hole. 
 
 I looked around, rather expecting to see a buncfa of 
 Hun- running up to grab me but there was not a liv- 
 ing soul in sight and the place seemed remarkably 
 
188 THE WA"S OF THE EAGLE 
 
 quiet. Twenty yards to one Bide was an old artillery 
 observation post made of sand bags which looked as 
 though it might make a fairly secure hiding place, so 
 1 decided to get there while the going was good, for I 
 felt sure that it could not be long before things started 
 to happen. 1 crawled towards this shelter as fast as 
 1 could go, trying always to keep out of sight in the 
 shell-holes, rolling over the edges of the craters and 
 half swimming, half wading through the water and 
 mubk with which they are tilled. On the way 1 passed 
 a dilapidated lot oi' barbed wire. 1 suppose 1 reached 
 the shelter in less than a minute after hitting the 
 ground and just as 1 got there machine guns seemed 
 to open up all around. The Ilun whom I had so un- 
 successfully tried to bring down was flying overhead 
 and I think shooting at the wreck o( my machine, 
 although 1 did not look to be sure. Then the Boche 
 gunners in the trenches turned loose with a machine 
 gun or two on my plane and some of the English 
 infantry began tiring at the Hun plane to drive him 
 off, while others, as 1 learned afterwards, tired at me, 
 thinking that it was a llun that had comedown. The 
 average infantryman, you know, does not know much 
 about aviation, and sometimes finds it difficult to dis- 
 tinguish between his own planes and those of the 
 enemy. Altogether there was quite a rumpus, so I 
 just lay low in my shelter, and as the bullets went 
 singing by, was mighty glad 1 had a shelter \o lie low in. 
 The Boche plane was still (lying around and I did 
 not dare come out until he had gone for he would have 
 seen me and potted me like a rat. While I waited I 
 tore open my pants ami had a look at my knee. It 
 did not seem to amount to much —two or three holes 
 
ESCADKILLE LAFAYETTE L89 
 
 as big as the end of your little finger and about a 
 dozen little ones. It looked as though I had stopped 
 a load of bird shot more than anything else. It bled 
 very little, but I tied if up with my handkerchief any- 
 how to keep the mud and crater out. 
 
 In less than five minutes after I had come down I 
 heard the sound which I liar] been expecting and 
 dreading, the whine of a Boche shell coming. The 
 fir i one landed about a hundred yards over my plane 
 but the line seemed to be perfect. I waited I 
 wh( re the next one would go and the next five or six 
 all landed in about the same place, perhaps seventy- 
 five yards in front, of me, but rather effectively cutting 
 
 me off from the English trenches. They were; all big 
 ones (5.9 inch calibre) and came at perhaps 30-second 
 intervals to start with, later they speeded up a bit and 
 sent sometimes three; or four over at the same time. 
 They used high explosive, luckily for me, instead of 
 shrapnel, but the II. E. makes a terrific commotion 
 when it goes off and throws a column of mud and 
 d<'luis nearly a hundred yards in the air. Seems to 
 have rather more bark than bite, however. 
 
 Pretty SOOn they began to come closer, and though 
 T hated to leave my cozy shelter I decided to get mov- 
 ing again for if one of those boys had landed in my im- 
 mediate ricinity, there La no doubt, at all but that my 
 shelter and I would have gone for a rid'-. It seemed 
 just a question of time until this happened, so I took to 
 crawling and swimming in shell-hole:- again. Stopped 
 for a minute to rest in another little shelter, which was 
 about the size of a, chicken coop, arid into which I 
 could just fit myself by drawing my knees up under 
 my chin. A couple of 5.0 shells went off just behind 
 
190 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 my little Band bag house, rocking it from side to side. 
 This made crawling seem a very slow method of get- 
 ting away, so decided to try running. Before my leg 
 
 stiffened up it did not hurt much, but even so, with 
 those big shells coming that elose, I think I could give 
 a pretty good imitation of running, without any legs 
 at all. 
 
 While in the first shelter T had taken a good look at 
 the sun and at the German and English lines of sausage 
 balloons, so that T was fairly sure of my direction. 
 Hence I waited until a shell had just burst and then 
 got up and made a dash for it along the edge of a little 
 old narrow gauge railway where the going was smoother. 
 Had not gone far when a sniper's bullet cracked into a 
 rail alongside of me and I heard the whiz of some more 
 big shells coming. Down goes little Willie flat on his 
 face in the ditch and boom, boom, boom went three 
 of them just to one side. After their first long shots, 
 the Hun artillery evidently got a couple of practically 
 direct hits on my overturned machine, for they blew 
 tin 1 wheels o\'(, tore the wings from one side, and gen- 
 erally finished it, thereby making me exceedingly glad 
 that I was no longer in it. After this they seemed to 
 change their range again and began putting them back 
 where the first ones had fallen and as I had by this 
 time reached this spot they came much too close for 
 comfort. There was nothing for it but to get on as 
 fast as possible, for crawling won't help you if one of 
 these big fellows decides he wants to share your shell- 
 hole. 
 
 I kept on running and crawling as opportunity 
 offered and each time T heard a shell coming dove 
 head first into the nearest shell-hole. Am afraid my 
 

 1 
 
 • 
 
 "Iii Flanders fields the 
 
 Wreck of the machine shown facing |>; 
 
 sblo 
 with 
 
 pilot' 
 
 A portion of the Ypres 
 
 rtor. 
 
 the spot where the author was shot down on May 15, L918. The ground 
 
 shown is higher than thai where the author came down, anil the picture 
 
 was taken altera dry spell, in the foreground are the remains of a trench 
 liter bombardment. 
 
BSCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 191 
 
 diving form was rather poor, for a Tommy told me 
 later that they could see the splash I made all the 
 w;i,y from their lines. But what ):; form among Allies? 
 You can't imagine how the sound of a l>ij/ one coming 
 close make you want to hug the mud in die bottom 
 of any old hole that comes along, J guesi I had the 
 wind up all right (English for being scared) but then 
 I am not used to (his kind of war and \ hope I shall 
 never have to I":. I struck two more lines of barbed 
 wire entanglements which were in good condition and 
 very i.hu:k. I was afraid to stand up in full new of 
 the Suns and try to climb over them, which would 
 probably have only resulted in my getting completely 
 tangled up, especially as I still had on my heavy fur- 
 lined flying combination. Therefore in both o 
 went under, rolling in each case into a big shell-hole, 
 submerging up to my chin and swimming under, pn h- 
 ing the win: up with my hands as I went. Funny 
 what one will flunk of in such a situation, but I had 
 to laugh at my elf a I remembered Bairnsfather's 
 comic drawings, "The Better 'Ole" and "When 'Jo 
 they feed the Sea Lion?" it you don't remember 
 them, look them up in the collection of Bairnsfather 
 
 that f lent you by N and you will see 
 
 what I mean. I don't think I ever really appreciated 
 ;i.ll there is in those drawings until then. 
 
 Finally I sat down in a shell-hole to take <>tt my 
 combination, for being soaking wet if. weighed a ton 
 and had me so all if) J felt as though I could lug i f do 
 further. Just then l looked up and have never been 
 so delighted In my life as when I saw half a dozen 
 Tommies beckoning to me over a low parapet about 
 fifty yard.-; away. I was pretty well fed up with 
 
192 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 crawling and swimming by this time, so decided to 
 cover that last fifty yards quickly, bullets or no bul- 
 lets. Made a run for it and it is too bad some one 
 did not have a stop-watch to take the time, for I think 
 I was about two seconds flat. I fairly threw myself 
 into that trench and then in an Irish brogue came 
 the question, "Faith, and who are you?" "I'm an 
 American," says I, panting for breath, for I was a 
 bit all in from running. This surprised them very 
 much. Some one yelled over from another trench 
 nearby to know if they had captured a Boche and one 
 of the Tommies said, "Ay say Maitie, when you furst 
 com down we was afther thinkhY you was a bloody 
 'Un." They had been led astray by the different 
 arrangement of the colors in the American cocarde, 
 nil, blue, and white reading from the outer circle in, 
 instead of red, white, and blue, as in the French; and 
 blue, white, and red, as in the English. 
 
 This trench where I ended up was an advanced post 
 at the extreme end of a corner salient, so that my 
 choice of direction was very lucky as it took me to the 
 aearest possible friendly point. It was, however, com- 
 pletely isolated so that no one could go or come during 
 the hours of daylight, and there was nothing for it 
 but to wait until dark. I reached the trench about 
 noon. The trench was manned by a platoon from an 
 Irish regiment,* most of them from Ulster and, of 
 course all volunteers, and a mighty good lot they were. 
 One of the stretcher bearers put some iodine and a ban- 
 dage on my wound, and another fellow produced bread 
 and butter with good hot Oxo soup, made on a little 
 hard-alcohol stove. Cigarettes were plentiful and we 
 
 * Royal Irish Rifles.' 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 193 
 
 settled down to an infantryman's day in the trenches 
 for a change. The weather was beautiful, with a 
 warm sun, and just a few fleecy clouds floating about. 
 The Huns kept on for a while dropping 5.9's around 
 the wreck of my poor machine, of which we could see 
 a portion of a shattered wing from the trench, and 
 then things subsided into what the men considered a 
 rather quiet day. 
 
 There were no officers in the trench, the platoon 
 being in charge of a couple of very intelligent and 
 seemingly capable sergeants. We sat and chatted 
 about the war and the affairs of the nations in general 
 and every now and then some one would produce a cup 
 of hot tea, cocoa, or coffee, with hard tack, bread, and 
 butter and such knick-knacks. These men get their 
 breakfast at 3.30 a. m., and then nothing comes near 
 them again until 9.30 p. m., when it is dark enough to 
 bring up supper, so naturally they take a lot of little 
 odds and ends to spell them in between times. The 
 trench was an open affair with no head protection 
 except in one or two places where a piece of light sheet 
 metal was thrown across, but this would of course stop 
 nothing worse than a spent piece of shrapnel. The 
 Huns shelled our immediate vicinity very little except 
 for four shells, the first of which fell a hundred yards 
 away, the next fifty, and then two at about twenty- 
 five yards on each side, straddling us. No one paid 
 much attention to them; one or two of the men would 
 look up, laugh and say, ''Hey there, Jerry's wakin' 
 up again." Several times we saw some Hun two-seat- 
 ers in the distance and twice a patrol of single-seaters 
 passed over, well up. Our "Archies" got after one 
 patrol of four and split it all up so that I prayed that 
 
194 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 one of our own patrols might come along, for those 
 four solitary Huns would have made fine picking. The 
 English artillery was much more active and our own 
 shells kept shrieking just above our heads all day long, 
 for an hour or two in the afternoon becoming very 
 lively indeed. We could watch the shells landing on 
 the Hun trenches four or five hundred yards away, 
 and throwing up great clouds of dirt and wreckage, 
 and a most interesting and comforting sight it was. 
 
 Towards sun-down the men began to get restless 
 from the long hours of sitting in cramped positions, 
 and commenced moving about in the trench, and show- 
 ing their heads above the parapet in a way that seemed 
 to be foolish. You may be sure that I did not show 
 even the end of my nose, for having gotten that far 
 I was taking no more chances than I had to. The 
 sergeant cautioned them, but they did not pay much 
 heed until suddenly " crack" and the dirt flew from 
 the end of the parapet, where a sniper's bullet had 
 landed. If it had been six inches higher a Tommy 
 who was standing directly in line with it would have 
 now been in Kingdom Come; but then this war is all 
 "ifs" of that sort. This warning was luckily sufficient 
 for pretty soon another bullet jostled a sand bag 
 directly in front of where I was sitting. After one 
 more ineffectual try the sniper called it off, but the 
 episode brought forth an anecdote from one of the 
 men. He said that a year or so before he had been 
 sitting in a trench when one of the men had carelessly 
 shown his head. A sniper took a shot at him and 
 missed by a couple of inches, to which the intended 
 victim replied "Hey there, Jerry, missed me, didn't 
 ye? 'ave another go at it" and stuck his head above 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 195 
 
 the parapet again. Quick as a flash — crack — and a 
 man next to him caught the foolhardy soldier as he 
 fell with a ball squarely in the middle of his forehead. 
 "Now," added the teller of this story, "that guy was 
 just arsking for it and he got it. You guys there will 
 get it too if you keeps on arskin, so help yourselves, 
 but not me!" This was the wisdom of an old timer, 
 and I think it was wisdom which many a soldier would 
 do well to take to heart. 
 
 I had an interesting day with those fellows; they had 
 seen a lot of service. Several of them had come over 
 in 1914 and been at it ever since, many of them had 
 been wounded, all the old timers seemed to have been. 
 Finally as darkness began to fall an officer came on 
 his rounds inquiring for "the missing airman," and I 
 hobbled off across the duck boards after him, using an 
 old pick handle as a cane, for my knee had grown very 
 sore and stiff during the day. Our path was in plain 
 view of the enemy trenches, but it was by this time 
 tco dusk for them to make us out so we were not dis- 
 turbed. 
 
 A walk of four hundred yards brought us to com- 
 pany headquarters and there I had supper with three 
 officers in their bomb-proof shelter. It reminded me 
 more of a large dog kennel than anything else, and to 
 negotiate the door it was necessary to crawl on all 
 fours. The Colonel had sent up word from battalion 
 headquarters that he hoped that I would dine with 
 him, but as the officers at company headquarters had 
 also invited me I was glad to take the first meal avail- 
 able. The dugout where we ate served as a general 
 dining-room for the officers and also as living quarters 
 for two of them. It was perhaps three and a half feet 
 
196 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 high and certainly not more than eight by six feet in 
 extent, but of course a vast improvemenl on what the 
 men have. While on duly in the front linos fchey just 
 Bop down anywhere (hoy can when it is not their turn 
 on guard. 
 
 My day as an infantryman made me very glad to be 
 in the aviation, but the peculiar part about it is that 
 you will rarely if ever hud a Tommy who envies us. 
 I can't imagine anything much worse than the exist- 
 ence o( these fellows with whom 1 spent the day in 
 the front line trench. With nothing but an open 
 trench io protect them, affording no place to rest or 
 sleep, except by sitting on the bottom and leaning up 
 
 against the side, and the trench necessarily so shallow 
 from the nature o( the ground that to stand upright 
 meant exposing one's head and shoulders, they have 
 to stick it there for stretches o( a week :it a time, ami 
 sometimes when there is an attack on and the reliefs 
 are scarce, the sessions are much longer. The bottom 
 of the trench is always full o( water; the duck boards 
 keep you out o( it in dry weather, but when it is wet 
 they are submerged. All day and night the shells fall 
 around them, sometimes very thick, and again only at 
 long intervals. If one lands in the trench or on the 
 parapet, if of course means heavy casualties. The in- 
 cautious showing of a head may bring a sniper's bullet 
 or a. burst oi machine-gun tire at any minute. The 
 sergeant told me that he thought what made the men 
 more "windy" than anything else in such an advanced 
 post was the thought o^i being severely wounded and 
 having io lie there all day before being able to get io 
 a doctor. In a very serious case, where it meant life 
 or death to get a man operated on at once, the stretcher 
 
ESCADMLLE LAFAYETTE 197 
 
 bearers would of course chance it and take a patient 
 in in full view of the Huns, but the sniping of stretcher 
 bearers has become so common that this is only done 
 when absolutely necessary. What a contrast to our 
 cosy billets far in the rear, where we have nothing to 
 fear when not flying other than an occasional bombing 
 at night. Bad weather brings the hardest times of all 
 to the infantry, while to the flying corps it means idle- 
 ness in comfortable quarters. Nevertheless, the in- 
 fantrymen will tell you every time that you earn your 
 comforts and that you only fall once in an aeroplane, 
 or words to like effect. 
 
 After supper with the company officers I crawled 
 out of the dugout and started on a walk of perhaps a 
 half mile or more to the battalion headquarters, the 
 nearest point to which an ambulance could come up. 
 As we passed along the trench I noticed a couple of 
 large fresh shell-holes that had blown in the edge of 
 it, and my guide informed me that one of them had 
 sent the company sergeant-major to Kingdom Come 
 the night before. 
 
 By the time we were started across the duck-boards 
 once more the last light had faded from the west 
 and a brilliant moon in its first quarter lit up the 
 whole scene. This country, as I have tried to de- 
 scribe it to you, is fantastic enough during the day, 
 but by moonlight it becomes more so. Behind the 
 trenches on both sides the sky is constantly lit up by 
 the flashes of the guns, and their shells go whining 
 overhead in weird fashion. It would not take much 
 imagination to hear in them, the shrieks of the thou- 
 sands of departed spirits, whose earthly carcasses are 
 rotting in this same ground. The trenches themselves 
 
198 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 are lit every few seconds by star shells and there is a 
 constant procession of signal lights and chains of lumi- 
 nous balls which look like those which come from the 
 burst of a rocket. I do not know what they all mean 
 except for certain kinds of chains of fiery balls which 
 we call "flaming onions," and which I believe the 
 Huns send up to guide their night-flying machines. 
 
 Every now and then there comes a burst of machine- 
 gun fire, from first one point and then another, as 
 some gunner gets jumpy or thinks he sees something 
 suspicious in the gloom of No Man's Land or the 
 trenches beyond. The tracer bullets from the machine 
 guns make their contribution to the greatest display of 
 fireworks imaginable. Above it all comes the throb- 
 bing of the motors of the night bombing planes of 
 both sides as they cross the lines in search of their 
 various objectives. Speaking of this, you may have 
 noticed in the papers that the Huns have been again 
 at then* old tricks of bombing hospitals and been very 
 successful at it, as they usually are at such work. As 
 we trudged slowly along we passed reliefs coming up 
 to take their turn in the trenches, stretchers loaded 
 with hot suppers for the men, etc., etc., for those 
 front fines in this flat country must be fed and sup- 
 plied in the dark. I could not help thinking of An- 
 dalusia with the same moon sparkling on the river, 
 shining on the great white pillars of the house and 
 throwing the shadows of the stately trees across the 
 lawn on a peaceful spring evening. Quite a contrast 
 to this wreck of Flanders. 
 
 Battalion headquarters reached at last. The doctor 
 dressed my knee again and I went into the mess room, 
 where I found the Colonel. Headquarters proved to 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 199 
 
 be a veritable mine, an intricate arrangement of corri- 
 dors and rooms all sunk at least thirty feet below- 
 ground so as to be proof against the heaviest shells or 
 bombs. Pumps were constantly working, drawing off 
 the water, for otherwise such a place would be nothing 
 but a well. The Colonel produced a bottle of Scotch, 
 for which I was very thankful, for I felt like a bracer. 
 While I waited for the ambulance I told him what had 
 happened and he seemed to think I had done well and 
 been mighty lucky to get out of it, for it so happened 
 that he had been in. the front lines at the time I came 
 down and had seen the whole show. He was most 
 agreeable and we had a long talk, as the ambulance 
 was a couple of hours in getting there. He was send- 
 ing up one of his engineer officers to save anything he 
 could from my machine and blow up the rest. I dis- 
 couraged this plan, for I recalled the sad experience 
 of a French patrol which tried to reach a Hun machine 
 that I brought down last month between the lines 
 on the Chemin des Dames. I had had some eighty 
 hours of flight out of my machine already, so it was 
 about done anyway and not much of a loss, and the 
 Hun artillery had pretty thoroughly finished what was 
 left of it after the crash. We take great care not 
 to mark on our maps anything on our side of the 
 lines, so there was nothing the Huns could learn 
 even if they did reach the wreck. Perhaps a few in- 
 struments, such as the compass and altimeter or even 
 the machine-gun might have been saved, but to my 
 mind the mere chance of this is not worth risking lives 
 for. Needless to say, I had stopped for nothing once 
 I hit the ground, but only lost an extra flying helmet 
 and a pair of goggles, so far as my personal effects went. 
 
200 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 I would like to emphasize again the kindness and 
 cordiality which I have always met with at the hands 
 of the English. This is the third time that I have 
 been thrown upon their hospitality, and always with 
 the same result. It has not been merely the officers 
 but all ranks that have shown this spirit of fellowship. 
 There was nothing that the men in the front trenches 
 did not try to do for me. They were continually pro- 
 ducing hot drinks, and insisted on sharing with me all 
 the little comforts they had, and would hear of no 
 refusal on my part. I learned that several of the men 
 and two of the officers had volunteered to go out and 
 bring me in out of No Man's Land in broad daylight. 
 When I came in they were preparing to start. This 
 meant leaving the comparative safety of their trenches, 
 and taking a long chance of being killed on the possi- 
 bility of being able to reach me, and bring me in, and 
 would have required a large amount of nerve and self- 
 sacrifice. For me it was a case of being " between the 
 devil and the deep sea" and running one danger to 
 escape a worse; but for them there was no such alter- 
 native. As I have already told you, by the time I 
 got to company headquarters I had two invitations to 
 dinner and there was nothing for my comfort and 
 assistance that these fellows did not think of. At last 
 the ambulance arrived and proved to be one of Henry 
 Ford's vintage. I was never so glad to see a "tin 
 Lizzie" in my life, for I had had enough walking for 
 the time being. Just as I piled in a poor fellow who 
 had been gassed came staggering along, supported by 
 two comrades. They propped him up in a corner of 
 the ambulance and as we drove along in the darkness, 
 for of course no lights can be shown, he sat there gur- 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 201 
 
 gling and gasping for breath, evidently in the greatest 
 pain. Every now and then a spasm would strike him 
 and it seemed as though he must choke to death. In 
 spite of the modern masks, every time there is a bom- 
 bardment with gas shells there are always a few men 
 who get caught by it. The rotten stuff seems to he 
 for days in shell-holes and such places, and men will 
 suddenly be affected when no gas has been sent over 
 for a day or so. This is one form of war which the 
 infantry has to face that, thank heaven, we are not 
 troubled with. 
 
 We finally reached the ambulance headquarters 
 about 3.30 a. m., and after getting an anti-tetanus in- 
 jection I turned in on a cot for the rest of the night, 
 just as day was breaking, for there was no ambulance 
 going to the hospital until morning. My knee hurt 
 too much to permit of sleep and there was a big British 
 gun concealed in a woods nearby which kept pegging 
 away, shaking the whole place at each discharge. 
 This together with a lively bombardment going on 
 further away, but which nevertheless sounded pretty 
 close, would have made sleep an uncertain quantity 
 anyhow for one accustomed to only more distant bom- 
 bardments. Among the officers at this place were four 
 American medical lieutenants who seemed like a very 
 nice lot. I breakfasted with them and the English 
 officers, among the latter a colonel, and felt rather 
 ashamed of my sorry appearance. I certainly looked 
 more like a second-class soldier than an officer. Since 
 I have been acting as armament officer of the squad- 
 ron I have taken to wearing a pair of enlisted men's 
 breeches cut down to fit, for my work requires a cer- 
 tain amount of tinkering with machine guns that plays 
 
202 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 havoc with one's uniform. Then the American tunic 
 with its high, tight collar is almost impossible to fly 
 in if one is to do any looking to the rear. Hence I 
 wore simply a sweater over my army shut, and have 
 also stuck to my French poilu boots, the most com- 
 fortable and serviceable footwear I know. On the 
 morning before, we had gone out unexpectedly, so that 
 I had not had a chance to shave, and altogether in my 
 torn breeches held together with a couple of safety 
 pins, and the whole outfit caked with mud, I was in- 
 deed a sorry spectacle of an officer. 
 
 After sending off a cable to you I got an ambulance 
 about 9 a. m. and started for a British casualty clear- 
 ing station. I was sitting in front with the driver, 
 and when about half-way there what should I see 
 coming but one of the squadron light cars with Maj. 
 
 T , Hobey and M in it. I leaned out as we 
 
 passed and yelled "Hey! Where are you going?" and 
 when they saw who it was they all looked as though 
 they had seen a ghost and nearly fell out of the car. 
 The day before Hobey Baker had been unable to do 
 much in the fight, owing to his having been out a little 
 longer than I had and his gasoline being nearly all gone. 
 He had seen me start down when the Hun shot me, and 
 then smash up in No Man's Land. That afternoon 
 they had gotten a report from the English that I had 
 been seen to get out of the wreck and jump into a shell- 
 hole and that a patrol would be sent out that night to 
 try and find me. I had sent them a wireless the night 
 before but it had not reached them, and when I tried 
 to telephone had been unable to get them. Not hear- 
 ing from the English any report as to the result of the 
 promised patrol they had naturally concluded that I 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 203 
 
 had been killed or was at best a prisoner, more prob- 
 ably the former, and the Major had sent in a report to 
 headquarters that I was missing. I most sincerely 
 hope that my cable reached you before this rumor got 
 out. When I met them they were on their way to the 
 front to see what news they could get of me, and as 
 you may imagine they were a bit surprised when I 
 yelled at them. We had a grand reunion and I think 
 the people of the small village where we happened to 
 meet thought that the American officers had gone 
 
 crazy. It was a bit dramatic. M and Hobey did 
 
 not say much but both looked as though they were 
 going to cry, and if I do say so myself, I think they 
 were all glad to see me. The Major offered to send 
 me to any hospital I wanted, to Paris even; but as I 
 knew this one to be so excellent, and near at hand, I 
 asked to come here. I therefore left the English am- 
 bulance and went back to the squadron in the light 
 car with the others, and then came directly here. At 
 the squadron they were no less surprised to see me 
 
 than the Major, M and Hobey had been. 
 
 My knee was very painful and swollen, so I thought 
 it best to take no chances, even though the wound did 
 not on the surface look as though it amounted to 
 much. I am glad I did, for an X-ray disclosed three 
 fragments of the bullet lodged against the bone. They 
 operated at once, and I think made a very good job 
 of it. I did not remember that ether made you feel 
 so sick. It is too bad there is no way of telling when 
 one is going to get shot, so as not to have to take 
 ether on top of a full meal. 
 
204 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 May 27. 
 
 I have been writing this letter in instalments each 
 day as I have had the chance, but it seems to have 
 run on a great deal already, so I guess I had better 
 bring it to a close and get it off. I asked the doctor 
 the day before yesterday morning how much longer I 
 should probably be here, and he said two weeks. I 
 hope you will not be worried at my being in the hos- 
 pital longer than I said in my cables that I should be. 
 The wound has not proved much more than I at first 
 thought, but the fact that the poisonous fragments of 
 the bullet were in my knee for somewhat over twenty- 
 four hours before they could be removed, has made it- 
 rat her slower in healing than I had expected. I still 
 exercise it three or fom* times daily, which is a nuis- 
 anee, but has at least resulted in my now being able 
 to bend my knee almost as far as the other. 
 
 The men from the squadron have brought me both 
 good news and bad during the past few days. Of the 
 former I am delighted to hear that Jim Hall is not dead 
 but a prisoner and only slightly wounded. He has 
 gone through so much and his luck has so wonderfully 
 pulled him out of the fire before, that I almost felt it 
 in my bones that it would not desert him this time. 
 He is a great fellow and the Huns had better keep 
 their eye on him or they will wake up some fine morn- 
 ing to find him back in France. When I spoke above 
 of having been so badly dressed when I was shot down 
 I had in mind also this very chance of being taken 
 prisoner. When I was brought down I certainly looked 
 like a soldier and had nothing with me to prove that 
 T was an officer. In my haste to get off I had even 
 forgotten my pocketbook. This is a great mistake, 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 205 
 
 and I shall not fly on the lines again without money 
 in my pocket and enough uniform to prove my rank. 
 If the Huns had caught me they would probably have 
 had me cracking rocks behind the lines or going in for 
 some other form of outdoor sport of this kind. Their 
 treatment of prisoners is generally atrocious, but offi- 
 cers are evidently treated much better than the men, 
 especially officers in the Flying Corps. Being an offi- 
 cer, one might as well have the benefit of this and then 
 one could probably do something to better the condi- 
 tion of the men. 
 
 Have you noticed in the papers how Lieut. Fonck 
 has been going ? Forty-five officially now and with any 
 luck he will easily beat Guynemer's record. He is a 
 wonderful pilot and a perfectly marvellous shot, and 
 seems to me to be easily the most skilful pursuit pilot 
 that the war has produced so far. In all this time he 
 has only gotten one bullet in his machine, and that 
 through a wing. He never seems to get himself in a 
 tight corner. I read with interest the clipping you sent 
 me about him, for I know him, as he was in Groupe de 
 Combat 12 when I was there. 
 
 June 2, 1918. 
 About a week ago the Hun long-range guns fired a 
 few shells into this town, four of which exploded, the 
 first doing practically all the damage. All the shells 
 landed within three hundred yards of the hospital and 
 it is most unpleasant, for one feels so helpless. I was 
 lying in bed writing in the morning and heard the gun 
 go off, but thought nothing of it, as the guns firing on 
 the lines are plainly audible from here. A second or 
 so later a big shell went screaming past the corner of 
 
206 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 the building, followed almost immediately by a loud 
 explosion as it landed. This first shell struck squarely 
 in the middle of a military laundry where a lot of 
 women and young girls were busy washing and ironing 
 soldiers' clothes. The result was about twenty-five 
 killed and eighty wounded, the great majority women. 
 I suppose the Huns are justified in firing into this town 
 when one considers that there are a large number of 
 troops quartered here; but just the same, it is one of 
 the worst aspects of the war. For an hour or more they 
 were carrying by under the window of our room, a lot 
 of poor women and girls all cut and covered with 
 blood, and their cries were pitiful to hear. Outside 
 the reception room there soon collected a crowd of 
 weeping mothers and relatives, and it made your heart 
 sick to see them. It is bad enough when the wounded 
 are soldiers, for that is war; but when it comes to 
 women, it seems like something worse than war. 
 Granting that the Huns are justified in shelling this 
 town now, one cannot but remember that it was they 
 who started this hell on earth for their own ends. 
 Forgiving and forgetting, with regard to such as they, 
 is to my mind, as I have said before, not a sign of a 
 Christian spirit but of pure weakness. If Christianity 
 requires us to forgive them I am afraid that I am no 
 Christian. We have no right to forget, and the mem- 
 ory of the millions who have died to defeat the Huns 
 forbids that we should do so. When this war is won, 
 it will have failed in one of its greatest purposes, if in 
 the years to come the Huns are not made to pay in 
 full, the penalty for their crimes, so that they may per- 
 haps some day come to realize that it does not pay to 
 be a beast. Do you wonder that so many wounded 
 
Lieutenant Rene* Fonck, the ace of aces, in front of hie Spad. 
 
 Lletfcenanl Fonck holdi a crow cm from the machine of the Bun who 
 ,,.,. credited bj the German* writh having «hol Captain Guynemer. 
 -i,«,i down by Lieutenant Fonck three weOa after Captain Guy- 
 nemer'* death, near Poperinghe, Belgium. 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 207 
 
 men are anxious to get at them again as soon as pos- 
 sible ? 
 
 June 11, 1918. 
 
 HOPITAL DE L'OCEAN, VlNCKEM, BELGIUM. 
 
 At last it is definitely decided that I am to leave this 
 hospital to-morrow — just four weeks since I came here. 
 When I came in I expected, as you know, to be laid 
 up for only a short time; but knees seem to be very 
 slow and contrary things with regard to getting well. 
 Have been taking walks each day of a couple of miles, 
 
 so you see I am all put together again. Major T 
 
 is coming for me to-morrow to take me back to the 
 squadron, stopping on the way at a French review, 
 where a general is to confer decorations. Among the 
 recipients of the Croix de Guerre will be several men 
 from the squadron, of whom your angel child gets a 
 cross with palm. This for making a darn fool of him- 
 self and letting a Hun shoot him, when if he had done 
 as he should have, he ought to have plugged the Hun. 
 It seems rather funny when one stops to think of it to 
 get more credit for being shot down than you would 
 for shooting down the other fellow. 
 
 Soon after writing my last letter to father, the whole 
 hospital was evacuated from where we were on the sea, 
 and we were moved some fifteen miles down the line. 
 We are still about the same distance from the front 
 and our sausage balloons are very plainly visible. As 
 I was taking the air outside the hospital after supper 
 a few evenings ago, a lone Hun came across the lines 
 and shot down two of our balloons in flames. The 
 evening before another one tried the same thing, at 
 the same time, but missed the balloon, although he 
 forced the observers to jump in their parachutes. The 
 
208 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 Bodies were heavily "archied," but got away safely both 
 
 times, and I met a Belgian pilot* the other day who 
 has brought down seven Hun balloons in flames in the 
 past three weeks. You see, therefore, that ballooning 
 is not such sure death as father seemed to think; true, 
 they are more dangerous than attacking enemy ma- 
 chinos, but, on the other hand, they are a great deal 
 easier to get. 
 
 Another evening, a few days ago, I was taking a walk 
 and saw something happen which I think must have 
 occurred but a very few times during the war. The 
 Roches were intermittently shelling one of our balloons 
 with a big gun. They were coming fairly close, but 
 the balloon kept changing its altitude to throw them 
 off their range, anil it is not often that a balloon is 
 brought down by shell fire. They are too far behind 
 the lines and the range is too elusive to make 4 it pay. 
 Both sides have rather given up shelling them, although 
 they still occasionally indulge in the pastime. The 
 evening in question I saw a shell burst a considerable 
 distance above the balloon, and then as I watched 
 another burst several minutes later and perhaps a 
 hundred yards directly below. The balloon swung 
 around and started skyward, at the same time drifting 
 towards us in the light breeze. The shell had cut the 
 cable, a most remarkable piece of luck for the Huns 
 when you consider that the range must have been at 
 least eight miles. She had not gone far when two 
 black dots dropped from the basket and then slowed 
 up as their parachutes opened up. The observers 
 
 * Lieut. Coppens, who later became the Belgian aoe of aces and :\t. 
 the end of (ho wax had brought down aboul ;;<"> German observation 
 balloons, by f:ir the largest number of balloons ever destroyed by one 
 pilot. 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 209 
 
 came sailing down as their balloon went sailing away, 
 getting higher and higher each minute. These captive 
 balloons are equipped like free balloons with a safety- 
 valve, etc., so that they can be brought quietly down 
 by the observers in case they break away. These fel- 
 lows evidently got frightened, however, and jumped as 
 quickly as they could, without even stopping to open 
 the safety valve. Naturally we don't want to lose a 
 balloon with all the equipment in the basket, if it 
 can be helped. A chasse machine was sent up from 
 a nearby field and shot enough non-incendiary bullets 
 into the gas bag to let it quietly down in our lines. 
 
 Perhaps a minute after the observers jumped, and 
 as they were coming down side by side in their para- 
 chutes, the Huns took another pot at them, and the 
 shell seemed to burst just between them, and very 
 close; but, apparently, did no damage. It must be 
 pretty poor fun to be shot at while one is hanging to 
 the end of a parachute in mid-air. The observer in 
 such a situation is so utterly helpless that it has always 
 seemed to me poor sport to shoot at him, but it has 
 long been apparent that the Huns are devoid of all 
 sporting instincts. If the Boches like this sort of thing 
 I suppose we might as well give them a dose of their 
 own medicine, and I think that the next time I go 
 ballooning I may be tempted to pot the observer on 
 his parachute. However, there is no use in trying to 
 cross that bridge till we come to it. 
 
 For one thing I shall be glad to leave to-morrow 
 and that is so as to get away from the night bombing. 
 The Huns have not hit this hospital yet, but they 
 dropped one bomb a few nights ago within a hundred 
 yards of it, and broke some windows, which is quite 
 
210 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 close enough. This section seems to be a sort of high- 
 road for them on their way to bomb other places, so 
 that they are continually passing over at night and our 
 "Archies" blazing away at them. One feels that they 
 may let one go at any minute, and this keeps wounded 
 men in a very nervous state, for they feel so helpless 
 and with their wounds still fresh in their minds, they 
 have no desire to collect any more or be blown to 
 pieces in their beds. I do not think there is any worse 
 side of the war or any dirtier trick than this bombing 
 of hospitals. To illustrate the terrific power of a big 
 bomb, I will tell you what happened several months 
 ago in our more southern sector. One night a large 
 bomb fell squarely in the centre of a main road, a road 
 with a solid foundation and paved with sturdy French 
 cobblestones. Shortly afterwards an ambulance came 
 along in the dark and ran into the hole. This was not 
 a Ford ambulance, but a big French ambulance, larger 
 than an ordinary big limousine car. Standing a little 
 way off up the road the ambulance was not visible at 
 all, being completely below the level of the road in the 
 bomb hole. This will give you some idea of its size. 
 One of our cars came along a while later and helped 
 rescue the wounded men from the ambulance and take 
 them to a hospital. 
 
 The other day I met the Colonel who is in charge of 
 this hospital walking in one of the corridors with 
 Queen Elizabeth. I saluted as I passed them and 
 then the Colonel called me back and introduced me. 
 The Queen had evidently been surprised to see an 
 American there and wanted to know what was the 
 matter. She is most attractive and was very kind 
 and considerate. 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYETTE 211 
 
 Next day I was standing in front of the hospital 
 with a couple of British officers I know, when who 
 should come up but the Prince of Teck, the brother 
 of Queen Mary of England. He is a Brig. -General in 
 the English army. He stopped and chatted for about 
 five minutes and wanted to know what had happened 
 to me. Now, of course, I do not mean to boast by 
 telling you all this; but I just want you to realize the 
 kind of a fellow I am, and appreciate the society in 
 which I move. When I come home I don't know 
 whether I shall be able to bring myself to associate 
 with you ordinary folks or not ! ! 
 
 But "sans blag" I did stop and talk with the Queen 
 for about five minutes, or rather she stopped and 
 talked with me. She started right off in English, so I 
 did not have a chance to air my French on her. For 
 future reference I might say that it is technique or 
 etiquette or whatever you call it, when one is passing 
 the time of day with royalty, to allow them to start 
 the conversation. I spoke of having seen her last 
 summer when she came with the King to Groupe 12, to 
 confer decorations; but I don't think she understood 
 me very well, for she looked at me in a blank sort of 
 way, as if she thought my wound had affected my 
 brain. I did not see the King this time. Both he and 
 the Queen seem to keep very busy, and do a great deal 
 of good ; they tell me the latter sometimes assists as a 
 nurse in the operating room, and I know she goes very 
 frequently to the hospitals. 
 
 There are a couple of English officers here in the 
 hospital, one of them an observer of a British two- 
 seater, who was shot in the leg a week ago while flying 
 over Zeebrugge, taking pictures of the blocking ships 
 
212 THE WAV OF THE EAGLE 
 
 sunk there. He did not have the lurk I did, for the 
 explosive bullet caught him above the ankle and ex- 
 ploded, almost tearing his leg off* He said he looked 
 down and saw his foot turned around backwards, and 
 then doubled up his knee to try and slop some of the 
 bleeding. Fortunately his pilot was not hit, so was 
 able to bring him right back and landed on the beach 
 in front of the hospital. They had his leg off in half 
 
 an hour after he landed. This boy's spirit is something 
 Wonderful, and you would think he had lost 8 ten cent 
 piece instead oi his right leg about six inches below 
 the knee. He seems about twenty years old, and is a 
 very attractive fellow, lie is. 1 think, the most cheer- 
 ful man in the ward, ami to hear him talk he seems to 
 be looking forward with great amusement {o trying to 
 learn io walk properly with an artificial leg. lie is 
 keen to get a Belgian leg. as he hears they are lighter 
 and much better than any of the others, and with this 
 he says lie thinks he can do about everything, except 
 that he has his doubts about being able to dance. 
 Even this man with his leg just off and not sewed up 
 yet. is made to exercise his knee and hip-joints six 
 times a day. so as not to have his muscles stiffen up. 
 It is wonderful what this exercising seems to do. As 
 you may imagine, however, it is rather heroic treat- 
 ment, not only during the actual exercising but after- 
 wards, for the movement starts all the cut muscles to 
 aching, and it takes then quite a while to quiet down, 
 just about in time for the next exercise. This English- 
 man had received a release to go back to England and 
 finish his course in medicine, the same day he was 
 hurt, but refused it. 
 
ESCADRILLE LAFAYET] E 213 
 
 60 Rui Bifsiiro, Pahs, June 17, 1018. 
 T finally got out of the hospital on the L2th, and 
 after getting decorated (some hero, eh what? ifahl 
 Hall) went back to the squadron. That evening a 
 patrol was going out bo I borrowed a machine and 
 went along to sen If the linns wnrn still there. There 
 whs /iot ;t great deal g'>ing on. I was not leading the 
 patrol, but was bringing up the rear as an extra man, 
 for I was feeling a bit seedy still and did not want to 
 
 have to stay through the whole patrol if I did not feel 
 
 like it. Saw one chance to jump three Hun single- 
 seaters but waited for a EQinute to let the leader of 
 OUT patrol Start things; he evidently did not see them, 
 
 and then it was too late. V/e make it a hard and fa t 
 
 rule that other members of a patrol shall let the 
 
 leader start a fight in his own way; for if two or three 
 try to start it, each according to his own ideas, every- 
 thing gets balled up. A little later I saw what J took 
 to he a Hun two-seater and thought I might he ahle 
 to take it out on him for what one of his pal I did to 
 
 me on May loth. Was behind the patrol by my elf 
 
 at lh': time so did not have to bother about the leader. 
 Started to dive down after him and got myself all 
 "hot up" over the prospect, only to diseover when I 
 got nearer that he, was an Englishman. 
 1 felt a little queer and out of practice on the lines. 
 
 After laying off for a month J think it takes a, couple 
 of flights to get one's hand in again. In climbing into 
 
 the machine 1 strained my knee a little, and when 1 
 came back it had swelled up com Lderably, so I thought 
 I had better go easy for a while, as I have no de Ire 
 
 to spend any more time in the hospital. T therefore 
 
 packed up and eame to Paris the next 'lay, bringing 
 
214 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 all my things with me, as I am not going back to the 
 Lafayette. I was to go out as C. 0. of a now squadron, 
 but upon arriving here found that they had not boon 
 able to wait until I was in shape for active duty, so 
 had given it to another man. I believe I am down to 
 take the next squadron formed, and had expected to 
 go back to the Lafayette again the end of this week 
 and fly with them until further orders came. How- 
 ever, orders came this morning, relieving me from duty 
 with the Lafayette and directing me to report to Head- 
 quarters in a few days. I shall therefore leave Paris 
 the end of this week, and will let you know when I 
 find out what I am to be given to do. 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 
 
IH^K 
 
 " Death the Great Reaper " 
 
 The insignia of 13th Aero Squadron, A. E. F. 
 Copied from author's plane. Nicks in the blade 
 of the scythe indicate individual pilots' victo- 
 ries; gravestones show combined victories of 
 the squadron up to October 22, 1918, when the 
 author left it. 
 
Paris, June 22nd, 1918. 
 
 Just a line as I am in rather a rush and have not got 
 a great deal of news for you anyhow, Paris being a 
 much less fertile place for news than the front. 
 
 I have been made Commanding Officer of the 13th 
 Aero Sqdn., a new chasse squadron being formed. Am 
 lucky in being equipped with French Spads, the ma- 
 chine which I have always flown at the front, and 
 which I prefer to all others. The machines are of the 
 latest type, carrying two machine guns, and should be 
 very good if we have any luck with the motors and I 
 can get some first-class mechanics. Have been rush- 
 ing around here in Paris for the past few days finding 
 out about my squadron equipment. Have most of the 
 machines already and am going to a field near Paris 
 this afternoon to try out a couple of them. The bodies 
 of the machines are very strongly built and I have 
 been to the factory, where I went over with the build- 
 ers some weak points which had gradually developed 
 at the front. I was much encouraged to find that 
 they knew of all these faults and had corrected them 
 by reinforcing and changing the construction. I don't 
 want to have any of my men losing his wings nor, in 
 fact, would I care to lose my own. These planes are, 
 I think, the strongest chasse machines made, and it is 
 a great comfort to a pilot to feel that he has this extra 
 strength in his machine in case he gets in a tight place 
 and has to put his plane to unusual strains. 
 
 To-morrow I go to headquarters near the American 
 front to see about my personnel and pilots and shall 
 
 217 
 
218 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 then probably return to Paris within a week to see 
 further about equipment. I am very glad to get this 
 squadron, as it will be fun getting it organized and 
 then later on trying out at the front my ideas of the 
 best chasse methods. There is much organization 
 work to be done, however, and I shall consider myself 
 lucky if I can have the men flying on the lines a month 
 from now. You see, therefore, that I shall be out of 
 active flying for a month and by that time should be 
 in perfect condition for anything. Indeed, I have 
 been getting along so well that I am in good condition 
 now. My knee is still a little weak if I should try to 
 run, for instance, but beyond that I hardly notice it. 
 
 Paris, June 30, 1018. 
 Since last writing you I have been out to the Ameri- 
 can front*, where we shall soon be flying, and am now 
 in Paris again, making final arrangements about the 
 machines, equipment, and pilots for my squadron. I 
 flew down last Sunday and it is a long trip, as far as 
 
 the old journey from Paris to Dunkirk. M has 
 
 been assigned to my squadron and will be one of the 
 flight commanders. I am getting two other men who 
 have had some experience at the front, to act as the 
 other two flight commanders. Three experienced men 
 is the least number one can get along with in a squad- 
 ron. This makes fifteen perfectly green men in the 
 squadron; but we must do this, having so few experi- 
 enced pilots. I intend to bend all my energies at first 
 to keeping these fellows from going too strong and get- 
 ting themselves killed before they know enoughjx) be 
 
 * Region of Toul. 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 219 
 
 able to protect themselves. I don't care if the squad- 
 ron does not bring down many Huns for the first month 
 or two, if the pilots can keep out of serious trouble 
 and learn the game. If they can do this, I think they 
 will in the end accomplish much more. Am glad to 
 say that our sector is a fairly quiet one, and thus a 
 very favorable place to train new men. 
 
 As to the question of my coming home, I am afraid 
 that is impossible, for several reasons. I read carefully 
 what you said about it, but you are wrong on some of 
 your information. The French do not take their men 
 away from the front after six months; and, in fact, a 
 pilot's greatest efficiency is not reached until he has 
 been there longer than that, for he really cannot learn 
 the game in less than six months at the front. There 
 have been one or two remarkable exceptions, perhaps; 
 but I think it usually takes considerably more than 
 six months. Take some of the great French pilots as 
 an example of service at the front: Guynemer was 
 there two and a half years; Fonck has been at it for 
 more than two years and so has Deullin, and I could 
 mention many others. 
 
 Totjl, July 26, 1918. 
 It is not long after daylight and I am sitting on the 
 flying field in my combination waiting for a telephone 
 call notifying us that some Fritzie has ventured across 
 the lines, and needs attention. As a rule the C. 0. 
 escapes this rather tiresome business, which is taken 
 care of by the other members of the squadron, but 
 being short of experienced pilots, I am for the present 
 myself acting as a flight commander until one of the 
 other men has had sufficient experience to relieve me. 
 
220 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 Don't like the idea of a lot of green pilots flying on the 
 lines without an old pilot to lead them. 
 
 We have not had much excitement as yet. The 
 second day of active work on the lines one of my 
 patrols ran onto a lone two-seater, got some shots at 
 him, and he was officially confirmed as down before 
 they got back to the field. Unfortunately for us, how- 
 ever, further reports came in a couple of days later 
 that he had not gone down at all but had pulled up, 
 after falling in a vrille to within a couple of hundred 
 metres of the ground. His spin was just the old trick 
 to escape, and after the patrol passed on he came back 
 on the lines again, so that washed out that Boche. 
 
 The next day I was myself leading a patrol and 
 spotted a single two-seater under us just over the lines. 
 I attacked and one of the other men with me. Fired a 
 hundred rounds at less than 100 yards range and the 
 Hun went off smoking like a Christmas pudding from 
 the place where his gas tank should be and I thought 
 he was going to take fire. He did not, however, but 
 pulled up close to the ground and then was seen to 
 land in a field behind his own fines. This was the 
 first fight I had had since being wounded, and found 
 myself very rusty, after my two months' lay-off. The 
 Hun manoeuvred well and I had considerable difficulty 
 keeping myself covered by his tail, but should cer- 
 tainly have had him at that. I had not been able to 
 get the necessary fittings for my own sight, so had 
 nothing but an emergency sight to which I am not 
 accustomed, and of which I had had to leave the regu- 
 lation to the armorers, owing to many other things 
 keeping me busy. I had trouble in lining these sights 
 up and was much slower in shooting than I should 
 have been. Once when I thought I did have it on him 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 221 
 
 I noticed my tracer bullets going over the Hun's head. 
 Upon returning to the field I tested my guns and 
 sights on the target and found them to be six feet out. 
 Moral — never let any one else regulate your sights, a 
 moral which I already fully appreciated and have 
 always followed and shall certainly never stray from 
 again. Have not had another shot since, as we have 
 been having some bad, windy weather, but this cannot 
 last and I am hoping soon to get even for my experi- 
 ence of May 15th. 
 
 The squadron is coming along pretty well, and I now 
 have my full quota of pilots, and we are making regular 
 patrols. In the fight the other day when I did not get 
 that two-seater, two of the new men got separated from 
 the patrol and lost themselves, finally landing far to 
 the South. This in spite of all my talking about the 
 importance of studying the map, and that before allow- 
 ing any new pilot to go on the lines, we have taken 
 them around the whole sector a couple of times, well 
 behind the lines, so that they could get their bearings. 
 They finally got back all right without breaking any- 
 thing, and I have now instituted a class in the geogra- 
 phy of the sector for them and another man, who got 
 lost and broke his machine in landing. Have told 
 them that they don't fly until they can pass my exami- 
 nation — one of them flunked last night. Am doing 
 the same thing for all new pilots coming to the squad- 
 ron. This business of getting lost and having forced 
 landings in consequence, is too expensive both in pilots 
 and machines and is usually the result of pure careless- 
 ness or boneheadedness. The men are all anxious to 
 fly, so I think they will soon learn their lesson in 
 geography. 
 
 The new American pilots coming to the front are 
 
222 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 very encouraging, for they are as a whole a very nice 
 lot of boys, keen, and anxious to get some Huns. 
 There are, of course, some mediocre specimens, but 
 they are the exception and the average is much better 
 than among the French pilots with whom I trained, 
 both in skill and morale. I do not mean this at all as 
 a criticism of the French, for a comparison of our men 
 when we are just entering the war, and still have all 
 our best to draw upon, with the French material after 
 four years of war, when the majority of their best 
 young men have been killed, would be distinctly unfair. 
 The trouble is to keep our men from going too strong 
 at first and getting themselves into trouble before 
 they have had sufficient experience to be able to pro- 
 tect themselves. You will be glad to hear that we are 
 insisting on team work and the patrols sticking to- 
 gether, and are discouraging the great tendency for 
 one man to try to dash off by himself and be a hero at 
 the expense of the whole. Any man who leaves a 
 patrol for such a purpose will be put on the ground 
 for a couple of weeks and confined to camp, and if he 
 repeats the performance I shall send him to the rear. 
 I think the sticking together plan will give better 
 results in the long run and certainly less losses, and 
 after all this is the combination that we are after. 
 
 I had a thrill a couple of weeks ago when I sent a 
 new man up for his first ride in a Spad. In getting off 
 the field, which is rather rough, he bumped a bit and 
 bent an axle so that the wheel was at an angle of about 
 45 degrees, with the axle almost touching the ground. 
 I knew that if he bounced at all when he landed the 
 wheel would probably snap off or that the axle would 
 at least catch in the ground and throw the machine 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 223 
 
 over. As it was his first trip he would probably land 
 fast so as to be sure not to lose his speed too soon, and 
 I had visions of seeing him turn over at sixty miles an 
 hour. I said good-by to that new machine and only 
 hoped that the pilot would not be killed or seriously 
 injured. There is almost nothing one can do to pre- 
 vent such an accident once a machine gets up with a 
 bad wheel, except stand on the side lines and hope for 
 the best. While this man was flying around the field 
 I sent a man out with a spare wheel to wave it at him 
 in the hope that he would catch on to the fact that 
 there was something wrong with his wheel and land as 
 slowly as possible. Also sent for the doctor and the 
 ambulance, got a stretcher ready and had men out on 
 the field with fire extinguishers. A cold-blooded per- 
 formance, perhaps, but I thought we might as well be 
 ready for anything. 
 
 Luck was with us, however, and the pilot as he 
 passed over the field saw the man waving the spare 
 wheel and realized for the first time that something 
 must be wrong. When flying *your lower wings pre- 
 vent you from seeing any part of the landing carriage. 
 I held my breath when the plane came down to land 
 but if the pilot had been flying for five years and had 
 tried a thousand times he could not have made a softer 
 landing. The bad axle held and the plane rolled along 
 and stopped as though there was nothing at all the 
 matter. 
 
 Toul, August 6th, 1918. 
 Here I have gone and let my letter-writing interval 
 increase to ten days again, but without making too 
 many excuses I do seem to have very little time to 
 
224 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 myself. What with trying to instruct these new men 
 and also run the squadron, keep the planes in condi- 
 tion, etc., time does not hang at all heavily on my 
 hands. 
 
 Have had a few scraps since last writing and, as I 
 wrote you, I at first found myself rather rusty, but did 
 better in the last one. One fight with a two-seater on 
 July 31st resulted in some long-range shooting, but he 
 was too far in his own lines, and saw me too soon, to 
 allow me to get to close quarters, so nothing happened. 
 
 On the morning of the first I had two of my new men 
 out, and we ran across four Fokker bi-planes. They 
 are a new Hun single-seater chasse machine. We had 
 the altitude and I put my patrol in the sun in the 
 hope of being able to surprise them, but they saw us 
 before we got within shooting distance. I tackled one 
 and one of the new men another, while the third man 
 of my patrol stayed up to protect the rear according 
 to orders. I fired at rather long range and did not go 
 in very close, for I caught sight of my companion chas- 
 ing one Boche down below the others, forgetting en- 
 tirely in his zeal that it is a good idea to watch one's 
 tail. I accordingly laid off to try and watch him, but 
 finally ended in losing sight of him in the heavy mist, 
 and by that time it was too late to continue after the 
 other Huns. I think they must have been a green 
 bunch like ourselves, for they manoeuvred badly and 
 one of them dove madly for home the instant he saw 
 us, as though he was scared to death. I did catch 
 sight of one of them going down for a thousand metres 
 in a vertical nose dive. The boy who followed the 
 Hun down too low got some good close shots at him 
 and was not bothered by the others, who were evi- 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 225 
 
 dently afraid to follow him with the other man and 
 myself still above them. The infantry reported the 
 fight and said that two of the Huns were still going 
 down vertically on their noses at 500 metres from the 
 ground when they lost sight of them in the mist. As 
 the fight took place at 4,000 metres I think those Huns 
 must have at least been a bit scared, for a man does 
 not dive 3,500 metres on his nose for the fun of the 
 thing. It was impossible to see, however, whether or 
 not they crashed, and on account of the mist and our 
 being three or four miles in the Boche lines no confirma- 
 tion could be obtained. 
 
 In the afternoon I was out again, this time with 
 three of the new men. We were at 5,000 metres and 
 had gone into the Hun lines to escort some of our big- 
 ger planes home from a long-distance day-bombing ex- 
 pedition. Nothing happened but a lot of "Archies," 
 and we had just left the big machines after bringing 
 them back into our lines, when I spotted three little 
 black specks in the distance far within the Boche ter- 
 ritory. They had evidently been following our bomb- 
 ers. I never thought we could catch them and they 
 were too far in to pick a fight, which would be the first 
 any of my patrol had ever had. I followed them any- 
 how to see where they would go and we chased along 
 far behind them with the sun directly in our backs. We 
 must have been fifteen kilometres over the lines where 
 the Huns were not expecting trouble and with the sun 
 behind us they never noticed us at all. This business 
 of flying far in the enemy territory would be dangerous 
 for new men in a sector like Flanders and would not 
 pay, but in this quiet sector if one has sufficient alti- 
 tude it is safe enough. As you know, my motto is 
 
226 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 " safety first," particularly with the new men. After 
 we had followed these Huns east for a couple of min- 
 utes they turned south towards the lines and I turned 
 after them, trying always to keep the patrol directly 
 between them and the sun. Diving slightly and with 
 our motors almost wide open we overhauled them 
 rapidly and by the time they reached their own lines 
 we were only about 500 yards behind and above them. 
 
 Up to this time they evidently had not seen us, for 
 they naturally expected trouble least of all from be- 
 hind them in their own lines, and a machine behind 
 you and above and in the sun is the hardest of all to 
 see. Suddenly they saw us, each Hun did a renverse- 
 meiit, and all three dove under us back into their own 
 territory. I dove on one and gave him a burst as he 
 passed under me, which apparently came very close, 
 then did a renversement and dropped on the tail of an- 
 other. Then my old machine gun hoodoo started 
 again. The first guns which I had on my new ma- 
 chine loaded with ordinary bullets had worked beauti- 
 fully, but I had been hoping to get a balloon so had 
 mounted an extra size balloon gun on one side and 
 filled the other gun with nothing but incendiary am- 
 munition, not so reliable a combination, but the only 
 thing for balloons, as ordinary armor-piercing and 
 tracer ammunition will not set them on fire. 
 
 These Bodies were Albatross single-seater chasse 
 planes and certainly were a good-looking lot with their 
 greenish camouflaged wings and tails, and bodies made 
 of bright yellow laminated wood. I fired a few more 
 shots and then just as we had succeeded in separating 
 one Hun from his companions and turning him to one 
 side, I got the best chance that I have had since com- 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 227 
 
 ing to the front. One of my patrol had also fired at a 
 couple of the Huns and had had machine-gun trouble, 
 and I saw him flying along beside a Bochc not thirty 
 metres from him, just as if they were doing a friendly 
 patrol together. Each was making little nervous 
 movements, as though he did not know exactly what 
 to do, and I learned later that my man had been try- 
 ing to fix his guns. The Boche was evidently busy 
 watching him and did not notice me as I slipped up 
 behind him, and I made up my mind that this time I 
 would take my time and make sure of him. Got within 
 about forty yards and laid my sights very carefully in 
 the middle of the pilot's back, pressed both triggers 
 and not a single shot did I get out of either gun. One 
 gun had stopped just as I stopped shooting the time 
 before, so that I did not notice it, and I thought I 
 had cleared the stoppage in the other. Don't think I 
 have ever been much madder or more disappointed, 
 and as on a former occasion, I guess I said some things 
 Mother never taught me in Sunday-school. I was so 
 close to that Hun that it seemed as if one might almost 
 bring him down with a brick. 
 
 I started in to try to fix my guns for another shot 
 and was behind the Boche and within easy range of 
 him for at least a half minute while I worked with 
 them. One gun was beyond repair as the band of 
 cartridges had broken, but I managed to get the other 
 one going again. It had not been working well, shoot- 
 ing only half a dozen shots and then stopping, so I 
 tried to get very close and make my shots count. 
 Twice I came down on his tail and gave it to him at 
 forty or fifty yards, getting a few shots out of my gun 
 each time, the Boche at the same time doing a ren- 
 
228 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 versement. Once I had to pull to one side to prevent 
 running into him, and several times I saw my incen- 
 diary bullets go into his machine. It is a wonder he 
 did not take fire. Each time I looked above and be- 
 hind me I saw my Spads circling overhead, so I decided 
 to try to stick to my friend until I got him. Once he 
 fell several hundred yards apparently out of control 
 and I thought I had him, but he went into a spiral 
 again, as though he had regained control of his ma- 
 chine, so I kept after him and managed to clear the 
 stoppage in my gun for, I think, the fourth time. 
 The Boche kept spiralling down and I after him, really 
 too close, for I could not bring my gun to bear. We 
 kept this up while we went down a thousand metres 
 or more. Finally I let him get a little further away 
 and was then able to drop on his tail again. Just as I 
 was firing at him for the last time there came the 
 "clack, clack, clack" of machine guns close at hand 
 and I felt several bullets hit my machine. Looking up 
 I discovered another Hun who had come down behind 
 my left wing to within forty metres without my ever 
 seeing him. He had a hard right-angle shot but did 
 pretty well at that, putting two bullets through one of 
 my wings, one of which split an interplane strut and 
 half severed a control, and two others through the 
 body of my machine a little behind my seat. They 
 did no damage, however, beyond necessitating putting 
 on a new wing before I could fly my plane again. I 
 ducked so quickly that I fell into a vrille, but came 
 out after making one turn, as I had no desire to get 
 both Huns over my head. I dodged around for per- 
 haps half a minute, all three of us within 100 metres, 
 fixed my gun again and thought that if I could get a 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 229 
 
 good shot at one of them and put him out of business 
 or scare him off, I could then have an even thing of it 
 with the other or get away if necessary. One's natural 
 tendency to dive straight for home in such a situation 
 is about the worst thing one could do, as it gives the 
 other man just the chance he wants, that is, to dive 
 directly behind and rake you in a straightaway shot. 
 I manoeuvred with these Huns to keep out of their 
 line of fire and succeeded in doing so as the one I had 
 been attacking was too sick to have much fight left in 
 him. Then as I watched the Hun behind me, a third 
 appeared diving down on my back, and I thought the 
 only thing to do was to get out and run for home, as I 
 do not fancy mixing it up with three of them low down 
 and considerably in their own lines, when two out of 
 the three have the jump on you. The Boche below 
 and in front of me was in no position to shoot, so I did 
 a renversement and dove under the two who were 
 coming down from the rear, having first succeeded in 
 getting a lucky burst into one of them, then as they 
 passed over my head and lost me for an instant under 
 their wings, did another renversement so as to head for 
 home, and dove for our lines with my motor wide open. 
 By the time the Huns located me again I had a 
 head start of three hundred yards and no Boche ma- 
 chine can catch one such as those we have when div- 
 ing slightly with the motor wide open. One of them 
 did some long-range shooting but came nowhere near 
 me and I came home flying in zigzags with all the 
 speed I could muster. That is the first time I have ever 
 been caught by surprise and I hope the last. Don't 
 imagine it happened because I am not in good condi- 
 tion or anything like that, as I was never more wide- 
 
230 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 awake. It was simply a case of being interested in 
 the Boche in front of me and relying too much upon 
 the rest of my patrol. They did their best and are 
 very good men, but it is extremely difficult for a new 
 man to follow a fast fight going on below him, espe- 
 cially if the planes are diving at high speed as I and 
 that Boche were. The show started at 5,000 metres 
 and I ended up at 2,000; the rest of my patrol lost 
 track of me during the fight and I never saw them 
 again until we got back to our field. Then, again, the 
 Hun who surprised me came down just behind one of 
 my wings, where I could not see him. It is fine to 
 surprise the other fellow, but no fun at all when you 
 are the one caught napping. At first I thought the 
 two who attacked me when I was after the third Hun 
 were the same that we had at first attacked, but from 
 later developments it seems that they may have been 
 two others. I was so busy getting away at the end 
 of the fight that I had no time to see what happened 
 to the Huns, and reported on coming back that I could 
 not tell whether any of them went down or not. Next 
 day in comes a report from an observation post that 
 two of them crashed and both have been officially con- 
 firmed. 
 
 You asked me in your last letter how many I now 
 have officially. This makes only four, as I have not 
 had one confirmed since April 12, in spite of a number 
 of fights and one machine gunner of a two-seater that 
 I shot the same day I was brought down. Was begin- 
 ning to think I had forgotten how to shoot entirely, 
 but getting these two makes me feel much better about 
 being myself shot up by them, and also about May 
 15th. The other members of our patrol who took an 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 231 
 
 active part in the fight will share in the confirmations, 
 it being impossible to be sure who fired the shots 
 which brought these Huns down. I was very glad, as 
 you may imagine, to have had a hand in getting the 
 squadron's first two official Huns. 
 
 Toul, August 7th, 1918. 
 I think the Boche aviation in this sector had a right 
 lively day on August 1st. In the morning, just after 
 my patrol had attacked the four Fokkers, the two 
 that we did not shoot at ran into another patrol from 
 one of the other squadrons in the group. This other 
 
 patrol was led by a very good pilot named E with 
 
 whom I used to be in the Lafayette. On this oc- 
 casion he had two green men with him and he chased 
 those two Huns almost to their own field, twenty-five 
 kilometres behind the Boche lines. When he got back 
 there he saw a Hun two-seater flying around at COO 
 metres near his own field, so dove down under his tail 
 
 and gave it to him. E had too much speed as I 
 
 did on May 15th and overshot the Boche, so he climbed 
 up over him again and to his astonishment saw that 
 there was no one in the machine-gunner's cockpit. 
 This was almost too good to be true, so E pro- 
 ceeded to sit on the Boche's tail at 30 yards' range and 
 riddle him, the pilot being, of course, helpless so far as 
 shooting was concerned. That poor Hun was evi- 
 dently up simply trying out his motor in the security 
 of his own back areas and had not bothered to take 
 
 his gunner with him. E finally shot him at only 
 
 150 metres' altitude and close to his own field where he 
 crashed head first into the ground a complete wreck. 
 In the meantime, however, one of the Fokkers had 
 
232 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 jumped on one of E 's companions who had become 
 
 separated, and as the man was perfectly green and 
 close to the ground miles behind the Boche lines, he 
 was in a bad way. Luckily E saw his predica- 
 ment, and although all his own ammunition was gone 
 he dove down on the Fokker's back and scared him 
 off so that the new man got away. Altogether a 
 mighty fine piece of work on E 's part. 
 
 Another patrol the same morning chased a Hun 
 almost home and forced him to land in a wheatfield. 
 They then proceeded to machine-gun some German 
 hangars from a couple of hundred feet in broad day- 
 light. Ticklish work, but it certainly does make the 
 Huns nervous never to know when they are safe. 
 
 This is about all the news I have to give you. The 
 weather has been poor, so that I have only been out 
 once since August 1st. Went out at daylight then 
 and flew over a "coup do main" being made by the 
 American troops. The clouds were very low and kept 
 us down between 200 and 300 metres, so that we had 
 a wonderful view of the whole show; in fact I have 
 never had a better look at a battlefield under heavy 
 shell fire. The area covered was very small, but it 
 was lively enough while it lasted. Behind us as we 
 ilew above the lines were the hundreds of brilliant 
 Hashes from our own artillery and beneath us and in 
 front the shells breaking continuously on the German 
 trenches and back areas. Occasionally an ammunition 
 dump would Hare up and a small woods seemed to be 
 veritably alive with bursting shells. At our low alti- 
 tude the "departs"* and " arrives "f were very loud 
 and clear and we could at times hear the rattle of the 
 
 * Discharge of a cannon. t Explosion of a shell. 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 233 
 
 machine guns on the ground. Our observation bal- 
 loons were hanging just below the heavy drifting clouds 
 and the whole effect in the semi-darkness of the dawn 
 was indeed picturesque. We saw no enemy planes at 
 all, and the only excitement consisted in being shot at 
 by our own Infantry, which came about in this wise. 
 
 The sector which we had to cover was very short, 
 only four or five miles long, so that we were continu- 
 ally passing backward and forward over the same 
 ground. Each time we passed the point of a small 
 woods, a burst of machine-gun fire on the ground was 
 distinctly audible. No tracer bullets were used, so 
 that it was not possible to see just what they were 
 shooting at, but it sounded very much to me as though 
 we were the targets. A machine gun fired up toward 
 you makes a different sound from one fired along the 
 ground at the enemy. We were so low, however, that 
 one could hardly believe that the Infantry could fail 
 to recognize us as their own planes. 
 
 As the machine-gun fire continued to break out each 
 time we flew by the little woods I became convinced 
 that they were firing at us and accordingly avoided 
 this particular spot. Tried my best to locate the guns 
 but they were too well concealed. I was mad enough 
 to dive down and give them a dose of their own medi- 
 cine, which might perhaps teach them to look before 
 they shoot. Our green divisions in line for the first 
 time are woefully ignorant of the Air Service and one 
 continually hears of the "doughboys" complaining 
 that they never see any planes with stars on their 
 wings. I suppose they have seen the star insignia in 
 the pictures in the magazines and on the war posters 
 and do not know that this insignia has never been used 
 
234 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 on the front. We have always used the round cocarde 
 like the French and English, except for the different 
 arrangement of the colors. There is nothing more 
 important than a proper understanding of the avia- 
 tion on the part of the ground forces and vice versa, 
 and a good liaison system between the two. The 
 Huns seem to be way ahead of any of the Allies on 
 this and it is about time we appreciated its importance. 
 
 Sure enough, when we returned to our field and ex- 
 amined our machines, three out of the four of us who 
 had been on the patrol had from two to four bullet 
 holes in his wings and tail. If the machine gunners 
 who fired at us had not been very poor shots they 
 should have been able to bring us down, for we were 
 flying back and forth only two hundred yards over 
 their heads for about an hour. Later in the day a 
 regular army Lieutenant-Colonel in the Air Service 
 came to see me about it, saying that he had been in 
 the front lines observing the attack and that the ma- 
 chine guns which shot us up had been just to one side 
 of him. He had sat there and watched them shoot 
 because he also had thought that we were Huns. Now 
 our machines do not look anything like a Hun ma- 
 chine to one at all familiar with them, and one would 
 think that by the time an officer had risen to the rank 
 of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Air Service it would have 
 crossed his mind that it might be a good idea for him 
 to study his own planes sufficiently to know what they 
 look like. I have since been wondering what, believ- 
 ing us to be Huns, they thought our idea was in flying 
 over their heads for an hour without ever attempting 
 to fire a shot. 
 
 The Air Service is unfortunately burdened with 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 235 
 
 a few regular officers who have done very little war 
 flying on the front, but who fail to appreciate their 
 lack of practical experience. I admit that they have 
 not had much opportunity to gain experience, and a 
 West Point training will not teach a man much about 
 how an air patrol on the lines should be conducted. 
 What one does object to, however, is the refusal of 
 some of these officers to take advice from men who 
 do know the game and to learn something about it in 
 this way. There is one man of whom I am thinking 
 who is a most glaring example of this small-minded 
 type. He has under his command several men of long 
 service on the front, men with fine records who have 
 had more experience in air fighting than any one in 
 the American army, yet when these men attempt sug- 
 gestions in a most friendly and loyal way to him as 
 their commanding officer, he makes it very evident 
 that their ideas are not wanted and that they are to 
 understand that he and not they are running the organ- 
 ization. This attitude is entirely uncalled for, as the 
 suggestions are made without the slightest intimation 
 of any desire on the part of those making them to 
 controvert his authority or to take credit to them- 
 selves for their ideas. This man also fails entirely to 
 appreciate that an officer can make his subordinates 
 realize that he means what he says without being un- 
 necessarily disagreeable to them and thus making real 
 co-operation impossible. The best officer and the one 
 whose orders are never questioned is the one whose 
 men love and admire him instead of fearing him. And 
 the best soldiers do not really fear any officer, anyhow, 
 and obey the bulldozing type only out of respect for 
 his position as their commander and not from any 
 
236 THE WAV OF THE EAGLE 
 
 respect or Fear of the man. My friend might do pretty 
 well as the commanding officer of some unit where 
 unruly soldiers were sent for disciplinary purposes, but 
 as the commander of an Air Service unit on the front 
 he is mighty poor. 
 
 I do not mean this as a general criticism of the 
 regular army officer in the Air Service, for there are 
 some exceptionally good broad-minded men among 
 them who are just the opposite of the type I have at- 
 tempted to describe. 
 
 Tovl. August 15, 101S. 
 One of the patrols from the squadron which was 
 out early this morning had a lively fight with four 
 Fokkers and incidentally got one of them. The man 
 
 who did most oi the work is a new pilot named D 
 
 who had as yet had very little experience and had 
 never been in a. real hot scrap before. In the light 
 this morning he first drove one Fokker ofY his Bight 
 commander's tail, thus extricating his companion from 
 a very serious position, lie then attacked another 
 Hun at long range and finally still a third, this time at 
 very close quarters. This last opponent seems io have 
 been a very good pilot, for as they went at each other, 
 
 head on. he put four bullets through one of D 's 
 
 wings, one in his radiator and another half shot away 
 a strut. Then the Hun swung around behind him and 
 tired a bullet through his mirror. The mirror is de- 
 signed to assist in seeing behind one and in a Spad is 
 only about six inches from the pilot's face. The next 
 bullet cut the support o( the mirror and blew it over- 
 board, while still another creased his helmet. D 
 
 said he was scared to death, but he certainly did not 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. P. 2:;7 
 
 let that interfere with his determination to Bee the 
 show through. Willi his plane riddled, water squirt- 
 ing over hi., feet from hie punctured radiator and the 
 motor heating up as a result, that youngster chased 
 that I fun far info his owe lines until he finally got him 
 only 600 yards from the ground, and brought the 
 
 Boche down in flumes. One could not ;i: k for a better 
 
 exhibition of nerve and grit; you cannot realize how 
 disconcerting it is to have bullets go Bmashing through 
 your plane close beside you, especially to a new man. 
 I know that when I first started in, I would have run 
 for home under the same circumstances and would 
 
 probably do so now. When I) landed on the field 
 
 after the fight he was naturally a hit excited. He' 
 came running over to me and Bald: "Gee, Captain I 
 
 When that Hun broke my mirror and threw glass all 
 over me, it for some reason made me so damn mad 
 that I made up my mind I was going to get him ." 
 
 And lie sure did. That hoy deserves a lot of credit 
 and I shall do my hest to see that he gets it.* 
 
 Tout., Aug. 23, 1918. 
 I wish our mail came with something like regularity 
 and I guess you are thinking the same thing about 
 my letters if the service home is as poor as it is com- 
 ing over. I get letters in a large batch about once 
 every three weeks or a month and nothing at all in 
 between. There is no comparison at all between our 
 service and the French, but still 1 guess we have no 
 eaw '• to complain if we finally get OUT letters, for it 
 must he a terrific joh trying to get our men and sup- 
 
 * D was awarded the American DiHtinguibhed Service Cross 
 
 for (he above exploit. 
 
238 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 plies over. The news one gets in the papers these 
 days is certainly good, and it really begins to look as 
 though the Hun is pretty nearly finished as an offen- 
 sive power. Is it not wonderful the way the entire 
 aspect of the war has changed during the past couple 
 of months? As I have so often said before, it is still 
 a long way to the end, but it is a great thing to have 
 it in sight. 
 
 There is nothing much new to tell you about this 
 week aside from my experience with my fifth Hun, 
 about the most interesting from my point of view 
 that I have yet had. The squadron is going along 
 about as usual and things seem to be turning out 
 fairly well. I have some very good men whom I 
 think will develop into first-class Boche getters. One 
 of my men has had to quit due to heart trouble, as he 
 fainted one day while playing baseball and I found 
 out that he had fainted once before in the air but had 
 
 said nothing about it. I got Col. N , (an expert) 
 
 to examine him and he said he should never fly on 
 the front, so I am sending him off with a recommenda- 
 tion that he be used as an instructor on the ground. 
 To allow him to fly would not be fair, in my opinion, 
 either to the man himself or to the men who fly with 
 him and must rely upon him. The man has had the 
 same trouble for years and that he was ever passed 
 for the Air Sendee is remarkable. 
 
 I will tell you something about that Rumpler two- 
 seater I brought down last Friday morning, for it was 
 in many ways very amusing. For about four days 
 previous there had been a Hun coming over the camp 
 high up every morning between 5.15 and 6 o'clock, 
 evidently taking pictures and looking around to see 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 239 
 
 what was going on behind our lines. He always got 
 away safely as there was no one up there at that time 
 and before any one could leave the ground and climb 
 up to him he would be home again. The "Archies" used 
 to wake us up shooting at him. I thought I would go 
 up early and lay for him, and accordingly got myself 
 out of bed at 3.30 on Friday morning and took off at 
 crack of dawn about 4.45. For this sort of work I 
 prefer to be alone, for one then has so much better 
 chance of effecting a surprise attack and there is no 
 chance of being caught unawares oneself by a bunch 
 of Hun single-seaters. Climbed up to 5,600 metres 
 and waited for Mr. Boche, remaining far within our 
 lines so as to let him come in without scaring him off. 
 I hung around for about an hour without seeing a 
 thing and was beginning to cuss my luck for having 
 picked the one morning when the Boche would not 
 come over, when I saw far in the distance toward the 
 lines the white puffs from our "Archie" shells. Then I 
 made out the Hun among them, a tiny black speck on 
 the horizon. 
 
 As soon as I saw him I turned around and flew off in 
 the other direction, so as to get out of his way and let 
 him come in, and also so as to put myself in the sun 
 where he could not see me. I waited five or ten min- 
 utes while he kept sailing along into our lines, all the 
 while gradually approaching him so that the sun was 
 in his eyes. Finally he began to turn as though he 
 thought he had gone far enough so I went after him, 
 but his position was such that I could not keep my 
 place in the sun while attacking him and he saw me 
 before I got very close. He was only about 4,500 
 metres up, so by diving I overhauled him very quickly 
 
240 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 and went down under his tail with all the speed I 
 could muster. The pilot manoeuvred very well and I 
 had a hard time to keep myself covered, but managed 
 to get in close and gave him a burst until I had to turn 
 away to keep from running into him. The pilot told 
 me afterward that he heard the observer yell when I 
 shot so I suppose I must have hit him. The machine 
 appeared hard hit and for a minute I thought he was 
 going down, so laid off and waited to see what would 
 happen, as we were so far within our lines that I had 
 ample time for another attack if necessary. We flew 
 along for a minute or two, the observer firing a few 
 scattered shots at long range, and then the pilot started 
 for his own lines again. I went after him once more 
 and coming up under his tail gave him a good burst 
 at short range; when I stopped shooting I suppose 
 we were ten or fifteen yards apart. This time I did 
 better, for I got the observer in the stomach, shot the 
 band of cartridges on his gun so it would not work, 
 shot the synchronizing gear on the pilot's gun so that 
 it was out of commission, and another bullet stopped 
 the motor. I pulled away when I got too close and 
 watched again to see what would happen, but even 
 then the pilot tried to plane back to his own lines. 
 The observer had stopped shooting and I noticed his 
 gun sticking straight up in the air, so thought he must 
 be knocked out. There was lots of time and I climbed 
 up over the Hun where I could look down in the ob- 
 server's cockpit. There seemed to be no one there so 
 I went down and gave him another dose, this time get- 
 ting the pilot in the shoulder. By this time we were 
 down to 2,000 metres and the pilot seeing that he could 
 not possibly get back to his own lines, gave up and 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 241 
 
 planed back into ours. I sat on his tail a couple of 
 hundred yards away and watched him, for although it 
 would have been an easy matter to have gone in and 
 shot down the now defenseless Hun, it did not seem 
 worth while when it was quite evident that he could 
 not possibly escape. I thought at the time that it 
 would be much nicer to get the machine intact if pos- 
 sible rather than simply a wreck. 
 
 We were right beside a river* which ran down a 
 little valley with quite high hills on either side. By 
 the river was a broad green field, smooth as a prepared 
 golf course, and the Boche made for this. He just 
 missed some telegraph wires and then made an abso- 
 lutely perfect landing without so much as a bounce. 
 I was afraid he would try to set his machine on fire or 
 run away, so kept circling over his head, prepared to 
 give it to him if he tried any tricks. For several min- 
 utes no one got out of the machine, and I thought 
 both men must be knocked out, but pretty soon the 
 pilot jumped down and I saw him standing by the tail 
 of his machine. It seemed perfect ages before any 
 one came, and I fired my guns once or twice to attract 
 attention. Finally I saw some French soldiers run- 
 ning to the plane, and then a crowd quickly began to 
 gather around it. I went down and landed a few hun- 
 dred yards away and then turned and rolled back on 
 the ground. Just before I got to the Boche plane there 
 was a stone sticking up out of the ground about eight 
 inches, grown over with grass, which I failed to notice, 
 and I think it was almost the only stone in the whole 
 field. Anyhow I hit it and caved in one of my wheels, 
 which allowed a wing to touch the ground and snapped 
 * The Moselle. 
 
242 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 off several ribs. This was a bit disgusting, but I 
 wanted to see that Boche, so stopped my motor and 
 hopped out. 
 
 A great crowd of soldiers and civilians came dashing 
 across the field and in the centre, between a couple of 
 gendarmes, was the Boche pilot. He was a little short 
 stocky fellow and had his coat off, with some blood 
 soaking through his shirt. Surrounded as he was by 
 a crowd of Frenchmen who looked none too friendly, 
 but rather as though they would like to string him up, 
 and rather pale from the scare he had just had, he was 
 looking pretty miserable and downhearted. I could 
 not help feeling sorry for him, so smiled and held out 
 my hand. He just beamed all over and shook hands 
 with a will. Tried both French and English on him, 
 but it was no go. as he could not understand any bet- 
 ter than I could his German. "Nicht gobble-gobble" 
 said he. or something that sounded like it, but the 
 "nicht" was the only word I could make out. Then 
 the gendarmes took him off to get his wound dressed 
 and lock him up. The wound was a mere scratch and 
 did not penetrate more than half an inch. 
 
 By this time people had begun to come from every- 
 where and the place looked like the exit from a foot- 
 ball game, the crowd was so large. I walked over to 
 the German machine and they had just taken the ob- 
 server out of his cockpit and laid him on the ground. 
 Some of the Frenchmen told me he was dying, and he 
 breathed his last just as I walked up. He was a tine 
 big strapping fellow, twenty-one years old. and looked 
 like a gentleman. It gave me a queer feeling to stand 
 there and look at that dead boy whom I had never seen 
 before, stretched out with two or three of my bullets 
 
I a 
 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 243 
 
 through his stomach, his fast-glazing eyes staring wide 
 open and that nasty yellow look just coming over his 
 face. It is nice to get them down on our side of the 
 lines where one can get the machine, but on the other 
 hand, even though you know perfectly well that you 
 have killed a man, it seems less personal if you do not 
 see him. They are Huns and I will without hesitation 
 kill as many as I can, for it has to be done, but, just 
 the same, they are human beings, and one cannot help 
 remembering that they have a mother somewhere who 
 will be wondering what has happened to them. I 
 have got a little parachute to which I am attaching a 
 note giving the names of the men and a short state- 
 ment of what happened to them, and this I shall drop 
 over the German lines the first clear day. Lieut. 
 Putnam brought down another two-seater in our lines 
 a couple of days ago, and we are going to combine on 
 the note. His machine came down in flames, however, 
 so that there was almost nothing left but the motor, 
 but by giving them the motor number they will, of 
 course, know who the men were. The Hun aviation 
 in this sector is very good about doing the same thing 
 and sending us information about any of our men who 
 are lost, so the least we can do is to reciprocate. 
 
 As I was standing there a gendarme went through 
 the dead observer's pockets but did not find much 
 except a pair of eye-glasses and a half-empty flask of 
 whiskey. The former he gave to me and I have them. 
 Inside the case was the man's name, "Lt. Groschel." 
 The pilot's name was Johann Eichner and I enclose 
 his card. Please keep it as a souvenir. The long 
 word under his name is not an address but is the Ger- 
 man for "Air pilot." 
 
244 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 The Hun machine was absolutely intact except for 
 about thirty bullet holes in various parts of its anatomy, 
 which did not at all spoil its appearance, but made it 
 unfit for flying. He had quite a few holes in his wings, 
 a sign of inaccurate shooting, but once when I was 
 very close to him he turned and dove quickly and I 
 got into the back wash from his propeller. This threw 
 my machine about, and as I had both guns going at 
 the time I sprayed bullets all over the sky. The pic- 
 tures which I am enclosing will give you a much better 
 idea of a Boche two-seater than anything I could write. 
 
 Toul, Sept. 1, 1918. 
 
 I am writing twice in succession to you, as this let- 
 ter is more or less of a continuation of my last, so 
 please explain to Mother and tell her not to get jealous. 
 
 To take up the thread of my letter of last week 
 about where I left off, after looking the Boche plane 
 over and getting the gendarmes to put a guard on both 
 it and my own so that the crowd would not tear them 
 to pieces for souvenirs, I walked up to a nearby vil- 
 lage* to telephone to the squadron. Finally got them 
 and told them to send over some mechanics with a 
 truck and trailer, so as to repair my machine and also 
 take the Boche machine apart and cart it back to 
 camp. After telephoning I went with a friendly gen- 
 darme to the house of one of his friends, and they pro- 
 vided me with some very welcome coffee and cheese 
 and crackers, for I was beginning to feel a bit empty 
 after my early start. While I was getting this break- 
 fast, a very pretty little daughter of the house, aged 
 about six, came shyly in, holding to her mother's 
 * Bouxieres-aux-Dames, about five miles north of Nancy. 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 245 
 
 skirts, and presented me with a beautiful little bouquet 
 of fresh roses which she had just picked for me. The 
 roses were set off by sprigs of some other sort of a 
 flower with which I am not familiar. I enclose a bit 
 of it for Mother's benefit. So you see I still get along 
 all right with the children, and also with the old folks, 
 as will appear later on in this story. 
 
 After breakfasting I walked back with my gendarme 
 friend to the field where the planes were, and you 
 never saw such a crowd in your life. Pretty soon the 
 major who commands the group arrived and then a 
 number of pilots from the squadron, together with 
 mechanics. Then a French general put in an appear- 
 ance and made me stand up in front of the Boche 
 plane with my flowers in my hand while he took my 
 picture. I felt awfully foolish during this procedure 
 with about three. thousand people looking on, but you 
 will see from the enclosed photo what a sweet and 
 girlish smile I managed to assume. Don't you think 
 it goes well with the flowers? I was going to put the 
 flowers out of sight somewhere, but suddenly remem- 
 bered that the little girl had come down to the field 
 with her mother and was standing there in the crowd 
 looking at me, so I was afraid it might hurt her feel- 
 ings if I did not keep the flowers. I therefore stood 
 there with my posies like some June bride, looking as 
 self-conscious as I felt. 
 
 It was fortunate that the general was there, how- 
 ever, for the gendarmes had orders not to allow any 
 picture-taking, but the general changed all that and 
 one of my sergeants got a lot of good ones. 
 
 After my mechanics had put a new wheel on my 
 machine and repaired the broken wing-tip, I flew back 
 
246 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 to our field, leaving them to take the Rumpler to pieces 
 and load it on the trailer. This they did, and the 
 whole kaboodle reached camp that afternoon. I think 
 the crew of my plane had the time of their lives that 
 day. On the way back to camp they had to pass 
 through a very large town* and the sergeant in charge 
 of my crew sat up in the cockpit of the German ma- 
 chine and rode through the streets as though he were 
 Napoleon himself. Then after we had removed some 
 things from the plane here at camp, the colonel in 
 command of the "Wing" ordered it set up on exhibi- 
 tion in the public square of a nearby town.f My crew 
 again did the work and seemed to enjoy it immensely. 
 We got all kinds of souvenirs from that Boche, and 
 one of the enclosed pictures shows my photographer- 
 sergeant sitting among some of them. The camera 
 was a beauty with large Zeiss lenses of the finest grade. 
 
 I wanted very much to keep it for Uncle J , as he 
 
 could have gotten splendid pictures with it. These 
 lenses are too expensive for most private individuals 
 to buy. It so happens, however, that such lenses are 
 needed in our own service, for the Germans can make 
 better ones than any of the Allies. I therefore had to 
 turn the camera over to our technical department, 
 but hope some day to get it back. At the extreme left 
 of the same picture is the Hun observer's map, the 
 dark line on it being some of his gore. The map I 
 turned over to the intelligence department, but expect 
 to get it back before long. All the other things in the 
 picture I am keeping in addition to a couple of splen- 
 did undamaged machine guns and a lot of Boche am- 
 munition. A few days ago the enlisted men of the 
 
 * Nancy. a Toul. 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 247 
 
 squadron presented me with a very handsome cane 
 made from the laminated wood of the German pro- 
 peller, and beautifully inlaid with pieces of the brasa 
 gasoline tank. Of all the souvenirs, however, I think 
 the pictures are probably the best. 
 
 The next day Major D and I, together with a 
 
 pilot from one of the squadrons who spoke German, 
 went to the headquarters of the French Army in this 
 sector to see the German pilot. He seemed all right 
 and had his coat on over his wounded arm, so that 
 you would never have known he had been touched. 
 Through an interpreter we had a long talk with him; 
 he was very communicative and told us many things 
 that we wanted to know. He seemed thankful to have 
 escaped with his life and was anxious to answer my 
 questions, for I think he realized that after I had 
 knocked out his observer I could have killed him if I 
 had wanted to. 
 
 He even went so far as to tell us the unit to which 
 he belonged, the number of machines in his squadron, 
 and to show us on the map the location of his aero- 
 drome. He may, of course, have been lying about 
 these, particularly the latter, for no man with any 
 sand at all would give away the position of his field. 
 In all the other answers he gave, however, I think he 
 was sincere, for his responses were much too promptly 
 and freely given to have been false, and he did not 
 speak at all like a man who was lying. He was not an 
 officer, but he was by no means stupid, quite the con- 
 trary, but even so I don't think he was clever enough 
 to make up all the things he told us. One thing he 
 wanted to know was whether pilots captured by the 
 Allies were as well treated as our pilots who landed in 
 
248 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 Germany. He said that the officer pilots captured 
 were sent to a camp near to and very like the camp 
 to which they send their own pilots when they are in 
 need of a rest. They are comfortably housed, have 
 good meals with meat twice a day and are allowed to 
 go and come as they please so long as they give their 
 word not to attempt to escape and report back at 
 night. This again, of course, may have been an exag- 
 geration* in order to try to get good treatment for 
 himself, but even if it was true, I guess the joker in 
 the pack was the proviso about not attempting to 
 escape, for few men would care to give their word on 
 this for more than a very limited period. The Boche 
 also told us that the German pilots were very well fed 
 but that the men in the trenches had a miserable time 
 of it in this respect. We did not get around to asking 
 him about the civilian population. With regard to 
 our combat he said it would have been a different story 
 had he had his old observer with him, that it was 
 Lt. Groschel's first trip across the lines and he had 
 not shot at me very much. It was small comfort to 
 him, I think, when we told him that his observer's gun 
 had been put out of commission at the beginning of 
 the fight and that, therefore, he could hardly be blamed 
 for not shooting more than he did. 
 
 One interesting thing we found in the Hun plane 
 was a small, innocent-looking iron box about the size 
 and shape of an ordinary brick. It was screwed to the 
 floor of the observer's cockpit. Printed on the top of 
 the box in German were the words " Beware. Danger 
 of death." One of the words was "Vorsicht," which 
 
 * From reports of prisoners since received, it was certainly a false 
 statement. 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 249 
 
 I remembered as having been painted on the cases of 
 caps which exploded in that Admiralty case we had 
 in the office. At first we never noticed the thing, it 
 was so small and inconspicuous, until a French major 
 pointed it out. We then cautiously removed it and 
 brought it back to camp. I gave orders that it be put 
 away carefully in a safe place, for it should have been 
 turned over to the Ordnance Department. Unfortu- 
 nately the man to whom I gave the orders misunder- 
 stood me and thought I said I wanted it done away 
 with. _ In my absence, therefore, they took it out in a 
 field and tied it to a tree, fastened a rope to the small 
 handle on top of the box after unfastening the safety 
 wire which held this down, then pulled the handle out 
 and ran. Just five minutes later that little infernal 
 machine went off with a report like an ordinary aerial 
 bomb. It blew a hole in the ground a foot deep by 
 three feet across and cut down the tree to which it 
 was tied and another small one beside it. The trees 
 were eight and four inches in diameter respectively 
 and of solid live wood. The Boche pilot told us that 
 all German machines except the single-seaters now 
 carry these bombs so as to destroy the plane in case of 
 a forced landing in enemy territory. He had not 
 pulled the handle because he was not sure that his 
 observer was dead and he could not get him out of 
 the machine by himself. I had heard of these things 
 before but had never seen one. I remember hearing 
 of one case where a Hun plane was forced to land in 
 Belgium. The pilot and observer got out and walked 
 off to one side surrounded by soldiers, but never said 
 anything about having released the fuse of the bomb. 
 A lot of Belgian soldiers gathered about the machine 
 
250 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 and the bomb went off, killing a large number of them. 
 Whereupon the other soldiers promptly slaughtered 
 the two Huns. 
 
 The Boche pilot went on to say that he did not like 
 American pilots, for he had been shot down in flames 
 by two of them about the middle of last May. Luckily 
 ior him he was able to land his machine and jump out 
 before she burned up. Two weeks before, about the 
 first of May, he got some bullets in his motor which 
 put it out of business, but as he had lots of height he 
 was able to glide well into his own lines and land 
 safely. His last encounter when I brought him down 
 on Aug. 16th was, therefore, his third experience at 
 being brought down. He said he had been flying 
 for five years and I believe him, for he certainly han- 
 dled his machine well and had his observer not been 
 knocked out at the beginning, he would have given 
 him some good shots at me. Eichner said he had 
 almost finished his term of service at the front, and in 
 three weeks would have been sent to the rear as an 
 instructor. Pretty rum luck to get knocked down 
 just at the end like that. 
 
 This Boche was so communicative that we wished 
 very much that we could have had more time to talk 
 to him. The circumstances under which we ques- 
 tioned him were very unfavorable for getting the 
 most out of him. He was in a small room with four 
 American and three French officers, being continually 
 plied with questions by them. If we could have taken 
 him somewhere, given him a good dinner and a few 
 drinks, and then gotten to swapping yarns in a friendly 
 way about the war instead of firing a lot of direct 
 questions at him, I think he would have told us every- 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 251 
 
 thing he knew about Germany. He seemed more 
 worried about not having anything to shave or brush 
 his hair with than anything else. Also he had, the 
 night before he was brought down, given his observer 
 a hundred marks to buy him a flask of whiskey, which 
 had only cost four marks. He wanted to know if the 
 change had been found on the observer's body, for he 
 did not have much cash with him to see him through 
 till the end of the war. I felt like giving him some, 
 but thought the guard would probably take it from 
 him, and then also a Hun is not entitled to many 
 favors, so I gave him a package of cigarettes and called 
 it square at that. He seemed pleased, said he thought 
 the captain (being me) seemed like a pretty nice sort 
 of a fellow, and wanted to know my name, so we ex- 
 changed cards and I have already sent you his. The 
 one I gave him had "Andalusia, Pa.," on it so if he 
 calls on you after the war do not be surprised. Un- 
 fortunately the pilot who acted as interpreter and who 
 could read German script was drowned a few days ago 
 while bathing in a creek near by. I enclose you the 
 leaves from the note-book which you sent me for 
 Xmas, on which Eichner wrote his name and address 
 as well as that of his observer. The rest of it says 
 that he was brought down in combat but only slightly 
 wounded, while the observer was killed. He wrote this 
 with the idea that I would drop his note over the 
 lines, but I shall drop a copy. 
 
 Had a hot scrap with another Rumpler the other 
 day and we only lost him by the hardest kind of luck. 
 The flight was the most disappointing and at the same 
 time the most extraordinary encounter I have ever 
 been mixed up in. Have no time to write you about 
 
252 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 it now but will save it for my next. The gist of it 
 was that I drove a Rumpler two-seater from 5,500 to 
 50 metres, four miles inside our lines, shot the ob- 
 server's gun away from Mm, and then when I had him 
 lashed to the mast had to let him get away because 
 the belt in one gun broke and I had fired all the car- 
 tridges out of the other in driving him down. For ten 
 minutes I manoeuvred around him without being able 
 to fire a shot, but trying to run him into a tree or a 
 house or hoping that some one on the ground would 
 come along and bring him down with a brick. 
 
 P. S. — Forgot to tell you what I referred to above 
 when I said I still got along with the old folks as well 
 as the children. When I went back to the field where 
 the German plane was, an effusive middle-aged French 
 lady grabbed my hand and insisted on kissing it, before 
 the whole crowd, much to my confusion. These poor 
 people do not know the difference between a photo- 
 graphic and reconnaissance plane such as the Rumpler 
 and the night bombing machines. The region where 
 my Hun came down had been very heavily bombed, 
 so the civilians look upon any one who brings down a 
 Hun as their deliverer from torment. I tell you all 
 this to show you that I am still quite a man with the 
 ladies, provided they are under the age of twelve or 
 more than about forty-five. In between these ages I 
 seem to be about as hopeless as ever. 
 
 Toul, September 20th, 1918. 
 
 Many happy returns of the day, even though it 
 
 will be a month late when you get it. It really begins 
 
 to look as though we shall be able to celebrate your 
 
 next birthday together, for I think the old Boche is 
 
Observer's cockpit and machine-gun of machine shown 
 
 facing page 242. 
 
 Note how the cartridge-belt has been broken by a bullet, thus putting 
 
 tin- gun (.in of action 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 253 
 
 beginning to get a bit worried by the constant ham- 
 mering the Allies are now giving him from one end of 
 the front to the other. This is only a line to let -you 
 know that I am well and flourishing, for I have been 
 and still am so busy that extensive letter-writing is 
 well-nigh impossible. We have had a big week and 
 the squadron has done some good work, although I am 
 sorry to say that we have also had a hard knock and 
 lost too many men. In three days — September 13th- 
 15th — we shot down officially eight German machines, 
 all single-seater fighting planes. In the same time, 
 however, we ourselves lost six men, two of them being 
 among my best pilots and one particularly as valuable 
 a pilot and as fine a man as there was in the squadron. 
 It makes me sick at heart to see these boys go, espe- 
 cially when I know that all but perhaps one or two of 
 our losses were entirely unnecessary and should never 
 have occurred. In the American aviation it is the 
 same as in the infantry, the great trouble is that the 
 new men will get carried away with themselves in a 
 combat and go too strong. I have talked and preached 
 and harped on the importance of care ever since the 
 formation of the squadron, but it seems that the only 
 thing which makes most men remember is bitter ex- 
 perience. When a man has seen his friends shot down 
 around him or has been nearly killed himself a few 
 times, he begins to realize what he may get himself in 
 for and thinks twice before he takes wild chances which 
 do not pay. These fellows we lost had plenty of 
 nerve, but as I said before some of them went too 
 strong and others evidently got separated from the 
 formation in the course of a combat, and then instead 
 of returning to our lines at once, fooled around by 
 
254 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 themselves in the Gorman lines trying to pick up the 
 rest of the patrol. There were plenty of Huns about 
 and I suppose my men must have fallen in with supe- 
 rior numbers and been overwhelmed. Of the six I my- 
 self saw one shot down in the course of a tight in which 
 we brought down two Huns and in the same fight I 
 saw another of my men following a Boche far into his 
 own lines at only about 100 metres altitude. T was 
 afraid he would get himself into trouble and tried to 
 watch him. at the same time endeavoring to get the 
 patrol together, for we had become very much scat- 
 tered during the tight. It happened, however, that I 
 was flying an extra plane without any distinguishing 
 marks on it, while my own machine was being repaired. 
 It was. therefore, difficult for the other men to recog- 
 nize me. and being unable to collect them I went in 
 by myself to watch the man who was still chasing a 
 Hun just above the tree tops, lie followed him fifteen 
 kilometres into the German lines and then I saw him 
 attacked by two Fokkers and manoeuvring very well 
 to protect himself. I dove to help him and would 
 have been in plenty of time had my motor not stopped, 
 owing to some dirt in the gas line. This forced me to 
 pull up for several seconds, but I got her going again 
 and dove down over the fight as fast as I could go. but 
 by the time I had come from -.000 to 000 metres alti- 
 tude the Huns had shot my man's motor and forced 
 him to land. There were lots of Boche about and as 
 we were on the far side of one of their balloons and 
 the machine guns and "Archies" on the ground were 
 making it pretty hot for me 1 had to pull out. I tried 
 to get a shot at the two Huns, but before I could come 
 up with them they flew back toward their own aero- 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 255 
 
 drome, which was only a short distance 1 from where fche 
 fight took place, and there was nothing more I could do 
 then, but to my dying day I shall feel that I should 
 have been able to save that boy. Perhaps not, but 
 just the same I am afraid I hesitated an instant too 
 long. I could not see him get out of his machine, so 
 perhaps he was wounded. I only hope he was not 
 killed.* lie was certainly conscious when lie landed, 
 for he brought his machine down very well and al- 
 though it went up on its nose as though a wheel had 
 rolled into a hole, it was not even going fast enough 
 to turn over. 
 
 Still another man was caught by surprise by a gang 
 of Huns whom the two other men who were with him 
 saw and were able to get away from. He was a (light 
 commander and an excellent, pilot and why he was 
 surprised with all the warning he had, I cannot guess. 
 
 The other three men none of us saw even attacked, 
 and what happened to them no one knows; they just 
 did not come back.j 
 
 * This pilot had a most remarkable esoape. The motor, body, and 
 wings of his plane were riddled with bullets and he himself got, several 
 
 through his clothes but w;is unwounded. lie was made prisoner and 
 returned after the signing of the armistice. 
 
 f()f these three men one got lost in the courso of a fight, among Homo 
 clouds and was forced to land in the German lines, while another find 
 
 his motor f;iil him when he was attempting to save the man to whose 
 
 assistance the author also tried to go, as described above. The result 
 
 was that he too was forced to land in enemy territory and was taken 
 
 prisoner. The third pilot mentioned earlier in these letters as D 
 
 and as having brought down a Hun machine in Haines after his own 
 plane had been riddled, was .shot down with one bullet, through his leg 
 and with his right, arm pi-.i.ct ically torn off above the elbow by an ex- 
 plosive bullet, lie fainted in (he air, but recovered consciousness suffi- 
 ciently to partly right, his machine before it crashed tolthe ground. I'.y 
 great good fortune he was not killed, and after Spending tWO months in 
 a (ieriuan hospital, where his arm was amputated, returned after the 
 signing of the annistiec. 
 
256 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 We have orders now to attack Hun observation bal- 
 loons whenever possible and to burn them up, or at 
 least force the Huns to pull them down. During a 
 patrol the other d:ty I noticed one balloon very clearly, 
 and at the end of the patrol went down to take a shot 
 at it. My guns were not equipped with incendiary 
 ammunition at the time, but on each patrol we have 
 Borne pilot whose guns are loaded for balloons. Before 
 going out I had told the men that we would attack 
 balloons it' we saw any up, and accordingly dove down 
 on this one to show the pilot who was loaded for bal- 
 loons that T wanted him to attack it. As we dove 
 down on the balloon I opened fire at three or four 
 hundred yards range, much farther than I would have 
 if 1 had hoped to be able to set it on fire myself. Hav- 
 ing only armor-piercing and tracer ammunition, how- 
 ever, 1 knew that this was practically impossible, and 
 shot more to point out the balloon to my companion 
 than for anything else. The Huns did not pull the 
 balloon down nearly as fast as usual when they saw us 
 coming, and several anti-aircraft machine guns opened 
 up on ns when we were still twelve hundred yards 
 above them. As I was diving I noticed one in particu- 
 lar shooting at me, and the incendiary ammunition 
 which they use makes the gun appear at long range 
 something like a huge watering-pot spraying its con- 
 tents up toward you. 
 
 When 1 first opened fire I aimed directly for the bal- 
 loon without allowing for the fall of my bullets at long 
 range, and noticed the stream of shots passing just 
 under the edge of the gas-bag and about into the 
 observer's basket. Two of ns fired perhaps three hun- 
 dred and fifty rounds into that sausage, but we only 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. P. 257 
 
 shot a lot of holes in it ami nothing happened, for the 
 man who had the balloon ammunition did not see it 
 at all. Then we Btarted back for our lines, about 
 eight miles away, and I never before have run into 
 such hot anti-aircraft fire. Ther^ must have been a 
 dozen machine guns firing at us from every possible 
 
 angle, and it seemed as though the HUM had lurried 
 loose every "Archie" gun in the sector. We flew along 
 
 for what seemed as age in a perfect cloud of shell- 
 bursts, ducking and diving this way and that to throw 
 the gunners off their Conge, but vvcry way one tinned 
 it seemed as (hough a shell would go off in front and 
 Others on each side. Being only five or six hundred 
 yards from the ground, the machine guns could be 
 
 plainly heard, and these, mingled with the explosions 
 of the bursting shells, made quite a rumpus. It cer- 
 tainly is remarkable, though, how much I hooting can 
 be done without hitting anything, for none of our 
 planes was so much as touched by either the machine 
 guns or the "Archies." 
 
 The most peculiar part of the whole thing, however, 
 was that with two planes right on top of that balloon 
 shooting it full of holes, tin; observers did not jump 
 out in their parachutes. I do not believe that any 
 observer in his sober senses would stick to his basket 
 
 under such circumstances, and at first thought that 
 
 my shots which 1 saw apparently going into the basket 
 
 must have hit the observers. Upon thinking it over, 
 however, I am inclined to believe that the whole thing 
 was a trap. I have heard of decoy balloons about 
 
 which are placed particularly strong anti-aircraft de- 
 fenses. In such cases the ranges and angles of fire are 
 very carefully worked out ahead of time, the idea 
 
258 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 being to decoy enemy planes to attack the balloon, 
 and thus get them down within good range of the guns. 
 Such a decoy of course carries no observers. If this 
 is what we ran into, the decoy worked first-rate, but 
 I can't say so much for the men behind the guns. 
 
 Balloons seem to be my hoodoo and it does not look 
 as if I should ever get one. Each chance I have had 
 my guns have either jammed or I have had no incen- 
 diary ammunition. Then I load up with incendiaries, 
 go out and run into some Hun planes. The incendiary 
 bullets then jam or make so much smoke I can hardly 
 see the Hun and this makes me mad, so that I get rid 
 of the incendiaries again, and so it goes. 
 
 Captain Deullin, of N. 73, came around to the 
 squadron and had dinner with me the other evening. 
 I have also dined with him once or twice and he is now 
 in command of Groupe de Chasse 19 of the French 
 Aviation. We got talking over the old days when we 
 were in Flanders a year ago, and he told me a most 
 amusing sequel to a fight which I remember he had 
 there. 
 
 He was out by himself one day, flying very high, a 
 considerable distance inside the Boche lines, east of 
 Ypres. He ran across a formation of half a dozen 
 Albatross scouts, and being above them, tried to dive 
 down and pick one of them off. There was one Hun 
 in particular who had his machine very gaudily painted 
 up in red and yellow and all the colors of the rainbow, 
 whom Deullin tried to shoot. This Hun would delib- 
 erately fly up under him, offering an apparently good 
 chance, but as soon as Deullin would start to dive 
 down on him he would begin side-slipping and doing 
 renversements down into the middle of his companions 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 259 
 
 who kept circling in close formation just below him. 
 This was, of course, nothing but the old Hun trick of 
 trying to decoy an enemy down into the middle of a 
 group of their machines, so that they could all jump 
 on him, but Deullin is too old a hand to fall for any 
 stuff like that. He tried for fifteen minutes to get 
 that brightly colored Hun but could never get a decent 
 shot at him and said that he was without exception 
 the most skilful German pilot that he had ever run 
 across. Finally he had to give it up, as his supply of 
 gasoline was getting low, so he started back to his own 
 lines, the Huns following along below and behind him. 
 On the way he ran across a solitary Albatross, took 
 him by surprise, and shot him down in flames. 
 
 Six months later, when Deullin was down on the 
 Soissons sector, he heard that a well known German 
 ace had been brought down slightly wounded, in the 
 French lines. As Deullin speaks German, he thought 
 it might be interesting to talk to the Hun, so he went 
 over to see him. He asked him how long he had been 
 flying in the Soissons sector, and the Hun said that he 
 had only been there a little while, as his squadron had 
 always been stationed in Flanders. Deullin told him 
 that he also had been in Flanders, suggested that they 
 might have met up there, and then told him the story 
 about his fight. He mentioned the peculiar way in 
 which the brightly colored Albatross had been painted, 
 and the time and place at which the fight took place. 
 The Hun smiled and said: "Why, yes, that was I. I 
 remember that very well." Deullin then said: "And 
 did you see that Albatross of yours that I shot down 
 in flames, just after our fight?" To which the Hun 
 replied: "Yes, I saw him; didn't he burn nicely?" 
 
260 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 P. S. — I was mixed up in one or two of the fights 
 this week but do not think my shooting had anything 
 to do with bringing down any of the Huns, so they do 
 not count for me personally. 
 
 Belrain,* Sept. 29, 1918. 
 Once again I am sending you just a line after an 
 interval of ten days, to let you know that I am well. 
 We have been going through a period of the toughest 
 fighting I have ever experienced since I have been on 
 the front, but I think the old Boches have been having 
 a still tougher time than we have. I am sorry to say 
 that the squadron has had still further losses, although 
 we have managed to keep our victories ahead of the 
 losses. On the 26thf I lost two new men who had 
 come out to replace some of those lost in the first offen- 
 sive. You cannot guess how I hate to put these new 
 boys into the hardest kind of fighting, while they are 
 still so totally inexperienced that they do not know 
 how to properly protect themselves. One knows per- 
 fectly well when one sends them out that some of them 
 are going to be killed, whereas, if they could be given a 
 little preliminary experience in a quiet sector, they 
 would have a much better chance and would individu- 
 ally probably accomplish a great deal more. There is 
 no time for this now, however. The Huns are on the 
 run and the thing to do is to throw in everything we 
 have so as to get them running so fast they cannot 
 stop. A green man is worth more now, green as he 
 is, than he would be a couple of months hence if he 
 were saved and given additional training. Hence 
 with each squadron doing as much work as it can pos- 
 
 * About ten miles north of Bar-le-Duc. 
 f The first day of the Argorjne offensive. 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 261 
 
 sibly handle at full strength and after having had such 
 heavy losses in this squadron, it is absolutely necessary 
 to throw the green men in, and when they don't come 
 back, one simply has to grin and bear it. 
 
 We sallied forth on the morning of the 26th shortly 
 after daylight and had a dozen machines flying in two 
 formations one above the other. I was leading the lower 
 formation myself and we had not been long on the lines 
 before I spotted seven biplane Fokker single-seater 
 fighting machines coming in the distance. We had 
 the altitude on them so I passed over them and then 
 dropped on the rear man. Unfortunately he saw me 
 just before I opened fire and turned sharply under me. 
 I gave it to him at about fifty yards, but the shot was 
 a very difficult one, and although my tracer bullets 
 seemed to be going In about the right place I could 
 not be sure that I got him. There was no time to 
 watch him after my first burst. Going down after this 
 one put me on the same level with the rest of them, 
 about 4,200 metres, and as they all turned back I saw 
 that I was going to charge right through the middle 
 of them. Jammed on my motor full speed and pulled 
 up for all I was worth, passing just above the heads 
 of all six. Then did a renversement and dropped on 
 the tail of the last man, who had, I think, been the 
 leader. Perhaps he did not see me for a moment be- 
 cause I got behind him at about fifty metres and had 
 a dead shot at him. Gave him a good burst and he 
 turned over and started to fall. I think he was pretty 
 sick, for I saw my tracer bullets going into him, but 
 again was unable to watch this Hun go down on ac- 
 count of the others. I attacked a third, but had to 
 shoot at too long range to be effective. 
 
 By this time I thought the fight had progressed far 
 
262 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 enough into the German lines, considering that there 
 were new men along and we had lost considerable alti- 
 tude during the combat. I therefore pulled up and 
 endeavored to get my formation together, signalling 
 the other planes to fall into their positions. Collected 
 a couple of them and with the upper formation well 
 together and above we started for our lines. Just then 
 I caught sight of six or seven machines far in the 
 German lines, so far away that it was impossible to 
 tell which were Fokkers and which Spads. They 
 were manoeuvring, however, as though in combat, and 
 I knew that if any of my men were there they must be 
 greatly outnumbered and much too far in the Boche 
 lines. I turned and dove full speed toward the fight 
 and soon made out a Spad manoeuvring wildly, trying 
 to shake off two Fokkers which were on his tail at 
 point-blank range. He was in a bad way and I prayed 
 that I should not this time be too late. Just then to 
 my right I saw a second Spad making for our lines, 
 closely pursued by two other Fokkers, so I dove down 
 on them and drove them off and then turned to help 
 out the first Spad. He was nowhere to be seen, al- 
 though I caught a glimpse of his two pursuers making 
 for home. One of my men did not return from this 
 fight, so I am afraid that they must have gotten him. 
 Once more the same old story of a man forgetting 
 that there is any danger other than that which may 
 come from the machine which he is attacking. This 
 is, of course, much the lesser danger. In this fight we 
 had everything in our favor and there was no reason 
 why anyone should have gotten in trouble if they 
 would only not get carried away with themselves. It 
 is splendid the way these boys will sail in and fight, 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 2G3 
 
 but no amount of warning seems to teach them the 
 necessary caution if they are to live long at the game. 
 Only bitter experience teaches them, and that is dearly 
 paid for. The man who was being pursued by the 
 Fokkers which I drove off was a major temporarily at- 
 tached to the squadron to get some practical experi- 
 ence. He got it all right. He is an extremely nice fel- 
 low and I am glad to say he got safely back to our lines. 
 In the course of this fight we shot up four or five Huns, 
 but only two were confirmed.* 
 
 Later in the day on the 2Gth we got orders for a 
 strafing party on some roads well in the German 
 lines. "Strafing," you will recall, is aviation slang 
 for bombing and shooting up troops, etc., on the 
 roads, from very low altitudes, two or three hundred 
 metres. It is most unpleasant and dangerous work, 
 for one gets shot up from the ground, against which 
 there is no protection, and then any Huns who may 
 come along in the air have you at a great disadvan- 
 tage. I could not go out on this show as several of 
 my flight commanders were laid up and I had to take 
 out a high patrol shortly afterward. Seven Fokkers 
 came down on the strafing party, and although my 
 men shot down one Hun, one of ours did not return. 
 It is a rotten situation to put a green man in, but I 
 fail to see how it can be helped. Am glad to say, 
 however, that I don't think we shall have much more 
 of this work to do. The Boches we got on the 26th 
 
 * The pilot who failed to return from this fight was shot down, 
 wounded, in the German lines. He returned after the armistice with 
 the information that a second group of Fokkers had come into the 
 combat in addition to the original seven, and that instead of two, 
 eight Huns were actually brought down, four of whom he himself saw 
 dead on the ground. 
 
264 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 make fifteen for the squadron, but the losses have been 
 much in excess of what they should have been, eight 
 in all. 
 
 Will have to stop now so as to get this letter off, 
 but there is not much other news to give you anyhow. 
 We have moved since I last wrote but have only gone 
 a little way up the line, not so very far from where we 
 were. The fight on the 26th took place just north of 
 the most famous city of the War, so I shall leave you 
 to guess the exact location.* My Hun had four large 
 red and white squares on the centre section of his top 
 plane, the marking of a rather famous German squad- 
 ron which we call the checkerboards, for the squares 
 look like part of a checkerboard. f I glanced over the 
 side of my machine at the Hun as he spun down below 
 me only twenty or thirty yards away and could plainly 
 see his markings. 
 
 Belrain, Oct. 8, 1918. 
 Since we moved from our old station J our mail has 
 been veiy much delayed, so that for several weeks we 
 received none at all, but a few days ago came a very 
 welcome letter from you and Mother. I was mighty 
 glad to hear that everything is going along smoothly 
 at home and that you are all well. Things are moving 
 along about the same here, plenty of work and no little 
 excitement, but the weather has been almost continu- 
 ously bad and has made the flying hard and not pro- 
 ductive of many Boches to our credit. We get out 
 
 * Verdun. 
 
 t Reported as one of the squadrons of the Von Richthofen group. 
 
 j Toul. The squadron moved from Toul at the end of the St. Mihiel 
 offensive, to a field south of the Argonne Forest, in preparation for 
 the Argonne offensive. 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 265 
 
 almost every day but are all the time flying in low- 
 clouds, squalls of rain, etc., which make it unpleasant. 
 Under ordinary conditions we would not be flying at 
 all, but during a push weather conditions make little 
 difference. The squadron got a couple of Huns this 
 week, but I was not in either of the fights, as I have 
 been having bad luck with my machine and had to 
 give up a patrol four or five times in succession due to 
 motor trouble. 
 
 Forgot to tell you that I now have a new machine 
 of a special type mounting a most murderous weapon 
 of a gun. I cannot tell you just what this gun is, but 
 if I ever hit a Boche with it he should come down in 
 small pieces. The trouble is to hit them, for the gun 
 only shoots once and then must be reloaded by hand. 
 The machine was made specially by the French for 
 poor Dave Putnam, the American "As des As," who 
 was taken by surprise by eight Huns at the beginning 
 of the St. Mihiel offensive and brought down. I was 
 awfully sorry about Putnam, as I knew him quite 
 well, and he was a fine, fearless, unassuming fellow, 
 who had done some wonderful work. We found him 
 in our lines with two bullets through his heart. 
 
 The machine I mention is the only one of its kind 
 in the American service, so I am very anxious to try 
 it out. They gave it to me when Putnam was killed. 
 Guynemer had one and Fonck and Deullin each have 
 one and have used them with fair success. I do not 
 mean by this statement to be trying to class myself 
 with them, so don't start to kid me on that score. 
 This special gun is difficult to use, but if a shot ever 
 hits a Hun he might just as well say his prayers and 
 give up, if he has time to think about anything at all. 
 
266 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 I have my regular machine in addition, and we have 
 really been so busy that I have not had time to try out 
 the new one. It handles differently from our ordinary 
 machines and I wish to get considerable practice before 
 I go monkeying around any Huns with it, for I should 
 hate to be knocked by some Heinie just because I could 
 not manoeuvre my new plane quickly.* 
 
 Give my regards to every one in the office. How is 
 
 Y these days? I have not heard from him for 
 
 ages. Has he any offspring yet? I remember last 
 fall I bet him I could get a Boche before he had any 
 children. 
 
 Belrain, Oct. 14, 191S. 
 
 What do you all think of the news from all the 
 fronts and the peace prospects from the Huns? It 
 certainly is wonderful and it really begins to look at 
 last as though they are getting a bit weak in the knees. 
 My guess is that it will either be all over by the time 
 you receive this letter or that we will have at least 
 another year of it. I have heretofore thought the lat- 
 ter certain, but it now looks as if the former is the 
 more probable, and I surely hope so. We must stick 
 at it all the harder for the time being until the war is 
 ended as it should be, but the end cannot come any 
 too soon to please me. I spent all of yesterday search- 
 ing the battlefield for one of my men who was killed 
 
 * The gun mentioned was a 37 mm. cannon, which shot through 
 the hub of the propeller. It fired two kinds of ammunition, one like 
 a huge shotgun cartridge loaded with a lot of slugs, and the other a 
 combination incendiary and high-explosive shell, which would explode 
 upon contact with any part of an aeroplane. If, therefore, a hit was 
 scored even on the wing of an enemy machine, the resulting explosion 
 would blow the wing off. It would consequently not be necessary with 
 this gun, as it is with a machine gun, to hit that small area of a machine, 
 which is ordinarily its only vital spot, in order to bring it down. 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 207 
 
 about ten days ago, and a few hours spent on the 
 ground near the front lines impresses the horror of it 
 all upon one more than a month's flying over the 
 same lines. The man I speak of had a bit of the hard- 
 est luck that it is possible for a flyer to have. His 
 name was Armstrong and he was one of my flight 
 commanders and about the most valuable man I had. 
 Besides being an extremely nice fellow and a very 
 skilful pilot, he had a head on his shoulders which he 
 used all the time which made him invaluable as a 
 leader of the younger men. He had learned to appre- 
 ciate the two principal points in this game, i. e., that 
 there is a great difference between foolhardiness and 
 true courage, and that nine-tenths of the danger comes 
 from another enemy than the one which you are 
 attacking. The realization of these points, coupled 
 with nerve and perseverance, are, I think, the most 
 important qualities of a successful pilot. 
 
 Armstrong took the lead of a patrol one cloudy 
 day when I was forced to come back owing to motor 
 trouble. Shortly after the patrol reached the lines 
 they sighted half a dozen Fokkers and dove to attack 
 them. Owing to the low clouds they were only about 
 600 metres up and our artillery was sending over a 
 heavy barrage. Just as Armstrong opened up on a 
 Fokker, one of his pilots who was fifty yards in rear of 
 him suddenly saw his right wings and tail fly off while 
 the rest of the machine fell in a cloud of black smoke, 
 leaving the air filled with fragments of the plane. He 
 had run squarely into one of our big shells on its way 
 to Germany. There could be no other explanation, for 
 the fight was just inside our lines and the patrol was 
 not being fired on by anti-aircraft guns at the time. 
 
268 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 This same thing has happened a number of times be- 
 fore, but it is comparatively rare, and coming as it did 
 to one of our best men just when every experienced 
 man in the squadron is so badly needed, was about 
 as tough a bit of luck as one could imagine. An inti- 
 mate friend of Armstrong and I searched high and low 
 yesterday for some trace of him, but could find noth- 
 ing. We expect to try again shortly; for after my ex- 
 perience with Oliver I know how much this would 
 mean to Armstrong's family and to his young wife, 
 whom he married just before sailing for France. 
 
 Armstrong had a very close friend who has now taken 
 his place in the squadron as a flight commander, and 
 there were two other men who were also about as close 
 friends as I think it is possible for two men to be. 
 Both these pairs were old friends and had been con- 
 stantly together in their training and work at the 
 front just as Oliver and I were. Now one is gone 
 from each and the distress of the other two is indeed 
 pitiful to see and I think I know how they feel. The 
 loss of their dearest friend has shaken them as nothing 
 else could and, although it will probably make better 
 men of them in the end, the process is a very painful 
 one. One of these men fought six Huns single-handed 
 and at a low altitude ten miles in the German lines in 
 his efforts to save his friend. He brought down one 
 Hun and was almost killed himself, and I have recom- 
 mended him for the D. S. C. for his courage. 
 
 The fighting on the ground in this sector has been 
 terrific recently and the opposition stronger, I think, 
 than at any other part of the front. The Huns seem 
 to have massed a large part of their best troops oppo- 
 site us, and in addition to this the country is hilly and 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 269 
 
 naturally suitable for defense. Walking over the bat- 
 tlefield was a very interesting though gloomy sight, 
 for the day was stormy, with a cold, drizzling rain. 
 Everywhere one went were evidences of the recent 
 advance, rifles and bayonets lying about in the grass, 
 here and there various articles of cast-off clothing and 
 equipment, and occasionally a knot of bloody bandages 
 or a blood-soaked shirt where some poor devil had 
 been trying to tie up his wounds. As you go forward 
 you pass rows of holes scooped out by the advancing 
 infantry, each one just big enough to hold one man. 
 
 In one of these, rather deeper than the others, I 
 noticed where some fellow had evidently taken shelter 
 until help came to him. In his pit were his mess-kit and 
 some empty emergency ration tins, all lying in a pool 
 of dark blood. While we were there our artillery was 
 hard at it but the Boche shelling was only very inter- 
 mittent. Every now and then you would hear the 
 whine of a shell coming which reminded me very much 
 of May 15th, although none of them came very close 
 to us. Now that the Huns are squealing for peace I 
 wish that I could take President Wilson, who is evi- 
 dently going to have a good deal to say about the 
 terms, and walk with him over some of these battle- 
 fields. Let him look at a battle in progress, and at 
 all the wreckage behind it, at the fragments lying 
 about of what were once men and horses and at a once 
 beautiful country now reduced to a barren desert. If 
 he could see the ambulances with their gruesome loads, 
 and the less severely wounded hobbling along toward 
 the rear, many of them covered with blood and hav- 
 ing wounds which would ordinarily call for an ambu- 
 lance but having to walk none the less to make room 
 
270 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 for others worse off than they. If he could then pay 
 a visit to a first-aid dressing-post and to the receiving 
 and operating rooms of a field-hospital, the latter a 
 veritable butcher shop, I am sure that he would feel 
 as most of the men at the front feel, that there can be 
 no decent peace until the Huns are utterly and com- 
 pletely defeated and made to pay the full price for all 
 the misery that they have caused. I hope those higher 
 up appreciate this as it is, but a little view of the real 
 thing would bring it home to them as all the pictures 
 and descriptions in the world never can. Some of the 
 men that I have lost from this squadron have been of 
 the best and it makes one sick at heart to see these 
 splendid young fellows, the finest that we can produce 
 and men who cannot be replaced, dropping off singly 
 and in bunches. Of their families I know nothing, but 
 knowing the men themselves and the stuff that was in 
 them, one knows that their people must be of the 
 right sort and one can easily imagine the sorrow that 
 must be caused by the loss of such men. If any but 
 the right kind of a peace should come, one would 
 always feel that all these fine fives had been sacrificed 
 in vain. 
 
 We have been having a long stretch of bad weather, 
 so that there has not been much flying, for which I 
 have been rather thankful in a way, as the men needed 
 the rest. I have personally only had one fight since 
 last writing and that a very unsuccessful one. We 
 were out one day protecting some of our " Liberty" 
 day bombers and I caught a Fokker napping who had 
 gotten off to one side of his patrol and was entirely 
 taken up with trying to get a shot at the Liberties. I 
 dropped down on him and sneaked up behind without 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 271 
 
 his seeing me, but lost him by my same old trick of 
 shooting too soon. I thought he was going to see me 
 and duck, when I should have known that he probably 
 would not see me. I opened fire at about a hundred 
 yards range and gave him about forty shots, some of 
 which I am sure hit his machine, but did not have the 
 luck to get the pilot. He pulled up in my face into a 
 renversement and dove on his nose to escape, while I 
 was prevented from following him by the rest of the 
 Hun patrol, which was off to one side, and by my job 
 of protecting the Liberties. Was so disgusted at miss- 
 ing him anyhow that I sort of felt that having missed 
 such an easy chance I did not care much if the Boche 
 did get away. If I had only waited as I should have 
 until I was right on top of him I could not well have 
 missed him. I certainly am an idiot not to have 
 learned better judgment by this time. 
 
 The fight I mentioned in one of my earlier letters, 
 
 when I said that F was sitting on a nearby hill 
 
 watching the whole show, occurred in this wise. About 
 a week after I got that Rumpler three of us were out 
 looking for another one and found him at 5,500 metres, 
 a considerable distance in our lines. I had a stronger 
 motor than the others and climbed up under him first, 
 and made him turn to protect himself. I drove him 
 down a little, never getting very close, and then we 
 all three pounced on him and shot the observer's 
 gun away from him so that the Hun was practically 
 helpless and should have been easy meat. Then the 
 Fates turned against us, for one of my men's motor 
 failed him so that he had to land while both the other 
 fellow's guns jammed. He pulled up for a minute to 
 fix them and lost the fight, for just at that moment I 
 
272 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 and the Hun were playing hide-and-go-seek around the 
 edges of some big white puffy clouds. I kept after the 
 Boche (another Rumpler with a big white number 8 
 on the side of his fuselage), but he manoeuvred very 
 well and made it almost impossible to get a decent 
 shot at him. I would give him a burst now and then 
 to turn him and drive him down low in our lines where 
 he would have to stop his tricks, relying all the time 
 on having two men with me to help finish him off. 
 Finally I drove him down to 50 metres, about a mile 
 
 in front of F 's balloon and some four miles in our 
 
 lines. That day my own machine was out of commis- 
 sion and I was flying a plane especially equipped with 
 large balloon guns shooting incendiary ammunition. 
 
 They do not carry as much ammunition and are not 
 as reliable as our ordinary guns and I had fired a good 
 many shots at long range to drive the Hun down rather 
 than with any thought of getting him at such a dis- 
 tance. Then, to my consternation, when I had gotten 
 the Boche just where I wanted him I found that my 
 companions were nowhere to be seen and that I had 
 fired all the ammunition out of one gun, while the 
 band in the other was broken. While I had been 
 shooting I had, of course, had to manoeuvre so as to 
 protect myself, for even after we silenced the observer's 
 gun it was some little time before I realized that he 
 could not shoot and saw that his gun was pointing idly 
 up in the air beside him. When I saw that Boche 
 skimming the tree-tops and just before I discovered 
 that my own guns were useless, I had visions of getting 
 another Rumpler intact with two prisoners this time. 
 Reckon I was a bit too cocky from my previous expe- 
 rience. Unfortunately the Boche had a good motor 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 273 
 
 this time and would not land, but kept trying to get 
 back to his lines. 
 
 When I found that I could not shoot I kept manoeu- 
 vring with him, and for ten minutes tried to run him 
 into the trees or a house or to herd him over to the 
 balloon where the machine gunners on the ground 
 could get him. Tried every bluff I could think of to 
 make him land, diving down and coming up under his 
 tail as though I was going to shoot him, and several 
 times pulling up when the nose of my machine was 
 only a few feet from him, in the hope that he would 
 think that a wild American was trying to run him 
 down and thus scare him into landing. All the time 
 the observer was standing facing me in his cockpit, 
 and as I would dive down on him he would lean over, 
 tap the pilot on the shoulder and yell in his ear which 
 way to turn, at the same time pointing first one direc- 
 tion and then another. I think I would almost recog- 
 nize that fellow; he had a small brown mustache and 
 a rather pasty face and was wearing one of those big 
 round cork helmets that we used to have in the schools. 
 
 During these proceedings the Boche pilot's gun was 
 all right, but it is not very hard to keep out of the way 
 of that. Finally after ten minutes or so of this game 
 the Huns caught on to the fact that I could not shoot 
 and started for home, allowing me to do more or less 
 as I pleased. Made one last effort to bluff them as 
 we reached the lines, but it was no use and the observer 
 even went so far as to wave at me as I turned off for 
 the last time. Then what did they do but turn around 
 and chase me home several miles into our lines, the 
 pilot plugging away at me with his gun. 
 
 We had climbed up three or four hundred metres 
 
274 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 by this time and I have always wondered what our 
 "doughboys" must have thought when they saw one 
 of their Spads dashing full speed for home with a big 
 old Rumpler on his tail. As you know, the Rumpler 
 is a two-seater reconnaissance machine, which usually 
 only fights to protect itself when attacked. I had no 
 trouble in getting out of his way, but it was the most 
 ignominious thing I ever had happen to me and I 
 have not gotten over feeling sore about it to this day. 
 It was just like having a Hun tied to a tree and then 
 having to let him go, for all the hard part was over, 
 and all that was needed to finish him was half a dozen 
 more shots. I kept praying all the time that another 
 one of our machines would come along or that some 
 one walking down the road would bring the Boche 
 down with a pistol or a brick or any old thing. Can 
 you beat the whole thing for a crazy combat? When 
 I saw that he was going to get away I almost cried 
 with mortification. 
 
 Hobe Baker has certainly had a run of the hardest 
 
 kind of luck. Both he and M were recommended 
 
 by me to take squadrons of their own and each was 
 
 given a squadron, but Hobe came ahead of M , 
 
 and was the first to go. As bad luck would have it, 
 Baker's squadron was not yet ready, while the one 
 
 which M was given a week later was all ready to 
 
 go to the front. Now M 's squadron has been 
 
 operating on the front for six weeks while Hobe is still 
 in the rear and has not even got his pilots and machines 
 yet, and there seemed to be no immediate prospect of 
 his getting them when I last heard from him. It is 
 too bad, for Hobe is one of the very best, a very skilful 
 pilot, and has all the nerve in the world and is a thor- 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 27o 
 
 ough gentleman. He is one of the fairest, most straight- 
 forward fellows I know and should make an excellent 
 squadron commander, but he has struck rum luck 
 from the start. I know how he frets in his present 
 position and wishes he could be here at the front with 
 us again. 
 
 Things have been going along about as usual here 
 lately, almost continuous rain and bad weather. The 
 constant damp has laid a good many of the men up 
 with grippe, but I have personally been very well 
 except for a slight cold, which is practically gone now. 
 Had one clear day, day before yesterday, and in lead- 
 ing a high patrol I managed to get my nose and upper 
 lip frostbitten; they are healing now and I am a pretty 
 sight but quite well just the same. Had a little excite- 
 ment on this flight, but no results, I fear. I spotted 
 five Fokkers sailing along a short distance in their 
 lines and slid around behind them to attack the high 
 one. Before we got very close I saw a lone Fokker 
 away from the others and flying straight into our 
 lines. This looked like easy meat so I took after him, 
 tagging along behind him for a mile to let him go as 
 far as he would into our territory. When he got a 
 mile or so in I put on my motor full speed and came 
 diving down on top of him, all the time searching the 
 sky for others, as I felt sure that the Huns were up to 
 one of their old tricks. The lone Boche had, I think, 
 been watching us all the time, for when I got within a 
 hundred yards of him and before I would have opened 
 fire, he started to turn back under me, offering only 
 the most difficult kind of a shot. I gave it to him and 
 hit him, I think, and then pulled up to fix one of my 
 guns which had jammed, and to look for the other 
 
276 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 Boches. Two of the men with me shot at the Boche 
 and we followed him down a little, he continually 
 working back into his own lines. Then I saw his little 
 game, for here came his five friends, and he trying to 
 lead us in under them. As soon as I caught sight of 
 them I pulled up and started to climb, at the same 
 time waving my wings as a signal for the patrol to 
 stop chasing the single Hun and fall into position. 
 One man, however, a most excellent pilot and one of 
 my flight commanders, did not see me pull up, and I 
 saw him do just what I had feared all along. He dove 
 down after the first Hun, entirely failing to see the 
 others coming above, then as he pulled up after shoot- 
 ing he pulled directly into the faces of three Fokkcrs, 
 all of whom had altitude on him. The only thing he 
 could do was to run, but this is no easy matter with a 
 couple of Huns close on your tail. I saw my pilot 
 turn and start ducking back for our lines, with two 
 Boches close after him. I was by that time above 
 the whole gang, so, as our man came toward me with 
 the two Boches behind him, I stood on my nose and 
 dove for all I was worth, both guns wide open and 
 aiming in front of the Huns. There was no time to 
 really aim, as I was afraid that a delay of a second 
 might mean the end of our pilot, so I just sprayed the 
 sky in front of the Huns with tracer and incendiary 
 bullets, in the hope of being able to distract their 
 attention sufficiently to let our fellow get away. I 
 think the fuss I created did make them hesitate a lit- 
 tle, and the Spad took advantage of this to dive like 
 mad, and got safely away without a single bullet hole 
 in him. I had myself gotten under the top Boches 
 by this time, so pursued my usual policy, "He who 
 fights and runs away," etc., and lit out for home 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 277 
 
 before they got close enough to bother me. Altogether 
 a rather unsuccessful party, but one in which I think 
 our men learned a few things. But the nerve of that 
 solitary Boche to let us jump him so that he could 
 lead us into a trap, and the confidence he must have 
 had, both in himself and his companions ! If we did 
 not get him we at least gave him the thrill of his life, 
 and I think his mechanics will be busy for a day or 
 two changing wings and patching holes. He was one 
 of the most gaudily painted boys you ever laid eyes 
 on, bright red wings and fuselage as far back as the 
 pilot's seat, and the rest of the body pure white with 
 black crosses. In the middle of his top plane a black 
 and white checkerboard.* 
 
 I also recognized the markings of the others as one 
 of the best-known Hun squadrons, broad black and 
 white bands, the same as a gang that I had a fight 
 with over Noyon last April. Some of the Huns with 
 red wings have the rest of their machines a brilliant 
 sky blue and are really beautiful to look at. There is 
 a great deal of the best German chasse concentrated 
 on our sector now and the pilots are certainly good, 
 there is no use denying that fact. They have lots of 
 fight in them and the way some of them can throw 
 their machines around in the air shows clearly that 
 they are old hands at the game. I wrote you a while 
 ago that I plugged one of this checkerboard crew, but 
 I would like to drop one of that red-winged outfit. 
 We knocked a couple of them down in the last offensive 
 but they got more of us than we did of them. 
 
 Gave myself quite a thrill the other day when we 
 
 * A few days later it was reported by American observers on the 
 ground that this German had crashed in his own lines. A good illus- 
 tration of how impossible it often is for a pilot to be certain whether 
 or not he has brought down his antagonist. 
 
278 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 were out on a strafing expedition. A great deal of 
 traffic was reported on a certain road* about five miles 
 inside the Hun lines and we were ordered to attack it 
 with machine guns and bombs. I was leading a patrol 
 of about seven machines, but when we got back near 
 the road there seemed to be nothing on it at all. We 
 therefore flew over and dropped our bombs on some 
 cars standing in a railroad yard along a river, f and then 
 came down along the road to make sure that there was 
 nothing there. Seeing nothing, I fired a number of 
 rounds into a village J where there seemed to be a few 
 soldiers, and then caught sight of a big Hun wagon, 
 which looked like an old-fashioned prairie-schooner, 
 going slowly down the road, drawn by four horses. I 
 dove down over the trees, and shot one of the rear 
 horses, but did not have time to watch the result, for 
 something went wrong with the timing mechanism of 
 one of my guns and I shot three or four holes through 
 my own propeller, knocking several big hunks out of 
 it. The effect of this is to throw the propeller out of 
 balance, and my motor started to vibrate as though 
 it were going to jump right out of the machine. The 
 motor acted as if it might stop at any moment, and, 
 being five miles inside the Hun lines and only two 
 hundred yards high, I had most unpleasant visions of 
 ignominiously ending the war by shooting myself 
 down in Germany. Slowed my motor down as much 
 as possible to have it still keep me going, and nursed it 
 along, so that it brought me back to our lines, where I 
 landed on an advance flying field until a new propeller 
 could be sent up from the Squadron. In flying back 
 
 * From Dun-sur-Meuse to BanthSville. 
 
 t At Dun-sur-Meuse. J Aincreville. 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 279 
 
 to our lines I found it rather hard to force oneself to 
 fly along at extreme slow speed just over the heads of 
 a lot of Heinies, who, of course, take delight in shoot- 
 ing at you. There were evidently no good bird shots 
 among them, however, for they never touched me. 
 
 One of the other squadrons in this group had an 
 amusing time with a Hun a few days ago. Eight of 
 them caught a solitary two-seater in our lines and sur- 
 rounded him, the Hun got scared and dove down to 
 500 metres, all the time following down the course of 
 a river* which runs into our lines. Some of the pilots 
 thought that perhaps they could make the Boche land 
 and have some fun with his machine, and get some sou- 
 venirs, but the Hun observer kept taking pot-shots at 
 them all the time. Finally one youngster went down 
 right beside the Boche and motioned for him to land, 
 but for reply the observer shot the stuffing out of him, 
 blowing a hole in his wind shield right in front of his 
 nose and starting a fire in his machine. This made 
 the American pilot a bit sore, to say the least, so he 
 sailed into the Hun, shot the pilot through the head 
 and set the plane on fire. Just before he hit the 
 ground the observer jumped out and then the Hun 
 machine spread itself all over a field. The American, 
 having a small fire on board himself, had to get down 
 as quickly as possible, which he did, but unfortunately 
 picked out a barbed-wire entanglement. This wiped 
 off his landing gear, while he and his machine turned 
 a somersault over the wire and brought up upside 
 down. He was never even scratched, so crawls out 
 of his machine, grabs his pistol, and dashes over to 
 where the Boches were for fear they might get away 
 
 * The Meuse. 
 
2S0 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 from him. As one of them had just fallen 300 feet 
 and the other was burning up in the wreck of his 
 machine, this was a rather unnecessary but amusing 
 precaution. Some of these young pilots of ours do 
 the craziest things you ever heard of, but the nerve of 
 some of them and the way they will fight is simply 
 great. They are constantly confronting the Huns 
 with the unexpected and getting away with it by the 
 very audacity of their methods. 
 
 One often hears tales of men who have landed 
 behind the German lines and been able to get away 
 again, but I never personally knew of a case until the 
 other day. A new pilot from this group got separated 
 from the rest of his formation during a fight which took 
 place far the other side of the lines. Two Huns got 
 on his tail and although he tried everything he could 
 think of to get rid of them, he could not shake them 
 off, and they ran him right down to the ground and 
 forced him to land in then lines. His plane was badly 
 shot up, but by great good fortune neither he nor his 
 motor was Int. When he landed he left his motor 
 turning over slowly and lay over in Ins cockpit as 
 though he had been shot, the Huns all the time circling 
 about just above his head. They evidently thought he 
 was done for, for after looking him over they flew 
 away, whereupon our pilot took off and came home. 
 A mighty neat trick, but the next man who tries it is 
 going to be out of luck, for the Huns probably will 
 not be satisfied until they have shot him to pieces. 
 
 I would like to say a word about the enlisted men of 
 the American Air Service units as I have seen them 
 on the front. The men of my own squadron are, I 
 know, an exceptional lot, and one could ask for no 
 
A direci hit. 
 
 Spad plane of the author's squadron which had a forced landing three miles 
 from the lines bul within sighl of the German observation-balloons. I'n- 
 til the Hun artillery obtained this hit there was nothing the matter with 
 the machine but a broken gasoline line. 
 
 The end of a famous American ace. 
 
 Brought down near Limey, France, in the St. Mihiel sector, on the first daj 
 ( i' the offensive, September, 1918. 
 
13th AERO SQUADRON, A. E. F. 281 
 
 better, and although I do not believe the general aver- 
 age can come up to the standard of the men of the 
 13th Squadron, it is nevertheless very good. The men 
 are intelligent, hard-working, and conscientious. They 
 as a whole take pride in their machines and in their 
 pilots, and you cannot imagine what a comfort it is 
 to a pilot to feel that his mechanics are careful and 
 have his safety at heart. When the enlisted personnel 
 first came out, they had had very little experience 
 with the type of motor which we use,* and although 
 this lack of experience caused us some minor troubles, 
 the men pitched in with a will and overcame this 
 handicap in a remarkably short time. 
 
 The pride and affection which a good pilot can in- 
 spire in his mechanics and the grief of the men when 
 their own particular aviator does not come back, is 
 sometimes very touching. 
 
 When a pilot does not return from the last after- 
 noon patrol before dark, we put out gasoline flares 
 on the field to guide him home, in case he loses his 
 way in the dusk. The Spad only carries sufficient 
 gasoline to stay in the air for about two hours and 
 twenty minutes, and yet I have seen a mechanic insist 
 on keeping the flares burning until 9 o'clock at night 
 for a man who had gone out at 4. Other men telling 
 him that it was useless had no effect, for he said he 
 knew that there was not any Hun good enough to kill 
 his pilot, and that he just had to come back. I am 
 glad to say that this fellow's faith was rewarded, for 
 his pilot showed up the next day, having had a forced 
 landing far from his home field. I have seen other 
 mechanics sit down and cry like children when we 
 
 * The Hispano-Suiza 220 H. P. 
 
282 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 would come back from a fight and tell them that their 
 pilot had gone down, and, again, I have known them 
 to walk around for half the night, unable to sleep, 
 because their man was missing. 
 
4th PURSUIT GROUP, A. E. F. 
 
Insignia of U. S. Military Pilot 
 
Oct. 27, 1018, 4th Pursuit Group, 
 American E. F., Toul. 
 
 As you will see by the heading of this letter I am no 
 longer with the 13th Aero Squadron. Two days ago 
 I received orders relieving me of that command, and 
 have been made C. 0. of the 4th Pursuit Group, which 
 comprises four chasse squadrons and one squadron for 
 the overhaul of motors, headquarters work, etc. Have 
 got three squadrons now and the other two arrive in 
 a week's time. The group, however, is an entirely 
 new one, as are several of the squadrons in it, and it is 
 up to me to organize it and get it working as soon as 
 possible. As I have as yet hardly any group head- 
 quarters staff or organization to operate with and have 
 somewhere between 1,000 and 1,100 officers and men 
 to look after, you may imagine that time does not 
 hang heavily on my hands. 
 
 I guess this new job pretty nearly finishes my days 
 of active flying on the lines, although I did manage to 
 bring with me my special machine which I must try 
 out on a Boche the first chance I get. By the way, 
 that Hun with the red wings I wrote you about last 
 week was confirmed, so I guess he was not quite so 
 smart as he thought he was. Expect to have so much 
 organization work to do in the next month that I 
 doubt very much if I shall be able to fly at all during 
 that time. The weather continues punk, though, so 
 I guess I am not missing much. Have been figuring it 
 out roughly and the property, planes, trucks, etc., 
 which I have in the group comes to about ($2,000,000) 
 
 285 
 
286 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 two million dollars in money value. When one con- 
 siders what a small item a single group is in the whole 
 army one does not wonder that you are all having 
 Liberty Loan drives at home. 
 
 P. S. — The boy with the red wings makes my seventh 
 official Hun. 
 
 Toul, Nov. 12, 191S 
 It is hard to believe that the whole show is really 
 over and that we shall probably never have to fight 
 again. Yesterday morning they called me up from 
 headquarters and said that no more patrols were to 
 go out as the armistice went into effect at 11 a. m. I 
 hung up the receiver with a sort of a "Well ! What do 
 we do now?" feeling. It is a wonderful relief to have 
 it over, but it does leave j'ou with a very much "let 
 down" feeling, as though one had suddenly lost one's 
 job. Having been at it so long it almost seems as 
 though one had never done anything else and that 
 one's reason for existing had suddenly ceased. I wish 
 I could simply drop everything and come home, but 
 I fear that time is still a long way off. With 125 offi- 
 cers and about 950 men on my hands I shall be mighty 
 busy devising means to keep them well and amused 
 and out of mischief. Then again, this being only an 
 armistice, the formation of the group, gathering of sup- 
 plies, planes, etc., goes on as usual as though the War 
 were to last forever, so that I shall be just as busy as 
 if nothing had happened. Our days of air fighting are 
 over. I guess, but the administration and organization 
 work goes on as usual and I am mighty sick of it. We 
 shall be a sort of international police for a while, but 
 here's hoping they hurry up with the peace confab 
 
4th PURSUIT GROUP, A. E. F. 287 
 
 so that we can all close up shop and come home. 
 About our only chance for excitement will be strafing 
 some Hun riot, which would be lots of fun. That is 
 the way I like to fight, against some one who cannot 
 do much shooting back and turning one's machine 
 guns on a Boche revolution ought to furnish no end of 
 amusement to us bloodthirsty fighting guys ! ! It will 
 be immensely interesting, though, if we should be sent 
 up to the Rhine and live among the Hun population 
 for a while. One thing this young man intends to do 
 in such a situation is to always carry a couple of auto- 
 matics about with him, for having seen the War through 
 this far he has no desire to have some swine of a Hun 
 stab him in the back on a dark night. 
 
 What do you all think of the armistice terms? If 
 they go through with them they do not leave the Hun 
 much chance to start the war again, do they? There 
 does not seem one chance in a thousand that there will 
 be any more fighting outside of what the Boches may 
 do to each other if there is a revolution. When one 
 thinks of the critical situation in which we were last 
 June, it seems nothing less than a miracle that this 
 wonderful change should have come about and the 
 war be over in so short a time. I suppose Foch will 
 be considered the world's greatest general and he cer- 
 tainly deserves it. No man ever had as difficult and 
 stupendous a job handed over to him, and it is hard 
 to see how he could have handled it better. 
 
 Had to interrupt this epistle this afternoon and 
 have just now come in from a movie show which we 
 set up for the men in an old barn. One of the squad- 
 ron commanders bought a first-rate machine the other 
 day and we get a new set of pictures each day through 
 
288 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 the Y. M. C. A. To-night was the first show and the 
 pictures were really splendid, as good as anything you 
 ever saw in a first-class movie house at home. The 
 show to-night was "The Three Things" — you remem- 
 ber that little story about the war by Mary Shipman 
 Andrews. We must try to get a lot of comics of the 
 Charley Chaplin variety; I think they appeal to the 
 men more than anything; one gets a bit fed up on this 
 war business. The movie machine cost 3,700 francs, 
 but we charge a small admission fee, and if the attend- 
 ance to-night continues it will not take long to pay 
 for the apparatus. The girl who took the heroine's 
 part to-night was the prettiest thing you ever saw. I 
 would like to see her in real life, just to see how much 
 of it was make-up; the original article would probably 
 be an awful disappointment. 
 
 A peculiar thing happened here day before yester- 
 day. It cleared up for a spell and a Rumpler came in 
 over the field very high up, our attention being at- 
 tracted by the "Archies" blazing away at him. For 
 fifteen months I have watched "Archie" shoot at Hun 
 planes and never saw him hit one yet, but on the last 
 day of the War, as we watched this fellow, he sud- 
 denly went into a spin as a shell burst near him and 
 spun down for about 2,000 metres. The observer fell 
 overboard and then the pilot straightened his machine 
 out and suddenly popped overboard with a parachute, 
 leaving his machine to take care of itself. Down she 
 came and dove head first into the ground with a crash 
 t hat we could hear two miles away. It seemed to take 
 the pilot forever to come down in his parachute, but he 
 finally landed perfectly all right. He said the "Archie " 
 did not get him but that he side-slipped into a spin by 
 
4th PURSUIT GROUP, A. E. F. 289 
 
 accident and his observer fell out. Why he should 
 have jumped from a perfectly good machine, even 
 though his observer was gone, is hard to see, for there 
 were none of our planes anywhere about. I think, the 
 man must have been lying, although I must admit 
 that the " Archies" did not appear to be coming very 
 close to him. He said that they were all expecting the 
 armistice to be signed, and that his C. 0. had told the 
 squadron that no one need fly, but that he and his 
 observer had gone out anyhow for a bit of a joy-ride. 
 They got it all right. The observer hit so hard he 
 made a great big hole in the ground. 
 
 Speaking of guardian angels, as parachutes are 
 dubbed in the air service, I remember one which 
 worked very well, but perhaps not just as the Huns 
 intended it to. During the fighting near Reims last 
 spring a Hun" two-seater was attacked by several 
 French Spads. The Boche pilot put his machine into 
 a spin and allowed it to fall a long distance in this way, 
 this, of course, being merely a ruse to escape. He 
 evidently put up a pretty good bluff, because his 
 observer got scared, and thinking that his pilot had 
 been hit, jumped overboard in his parachute. Just 
 before the plane reached the ground, however, the 
 pilot straightened her out and flew safely back to his 
 own lines, while the observer with his parachute landed 
 equally safely in our lines. 
 
 I wish I could get off for a few days and go to Paris, 
 for there are a number of people there I should like to 
 see, to say nothing of the tremendous celebration they 
 must be having. I ran over to Nancy last night in 
 my car, and if the spree in Paris was like the one there, 
 it must have been a wild night on the boulevards. 
 
290 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 Am afraid, however, that I shall have to miss it all, for 
 there seems to be little prospect of my getting away 
 just now. Perhaps a little later I can arrange it. I 
 hope so, for I feel pretty stale and think a few days' 
 change would do me good. I will admit now that 
 there have been days recently when I did not want to 
 fly a bit, the losses in the squadron were so heavy that 
 it was hard not to let it get on one's nerves. Twelve 
 pilots in three weeks is pretty hard on the morale of 
 the ten who are left. I am speaking of the original 
 members, for a squadron is, of course, kept up to 
 strength by replacements. Things went much better 
 afterward, however, and for a month we had no losses 
 at all and the squadron did some good work. A couple 
 of days after I left it seven of them jumped on seven 
 Fokkers and shot down six without any of our men 
 even getting their planes shot up. That is a clean-up 
 which is hard to beat; in fact, the most successful fight 
 I have ever heard of and I certainly hated to miss it. 
 Now the open season for Huns is over and you can't 
 half guess how glad I am. To-night the moon is shin- 
 ing and we admire it instead of swearing at it and tak- 
 ing to the dugouts. It is almost too good to be true 
 to think that before very long we shall be home again. 
 There have naturally been a good many days when 
 the chance of ever getting back again seemed a bit 
 slim, and it is hard to realize that I shall some day be 
 shooting ducks on the river once more. The losses in 
 the 13th Squadron were pretty high, but recent re- 
 ports received through the Red Cross make things look 
 brighter. Of the eleven men who went down inside 
 the German lines up to the time of my leaving the 
 squadron, six were not killed but are prisoners, some 
 
4th PURSUIT GROUP, A. E. F. 291 
 
 of them wounded, but just how badly we do not know. 
 During offensives such as we have had in the last 
 couple of months considerable losses are, of course, to 
 be expected. I remember that in my old French 
 squadron during the four months of the battle for the 
 Passchendaele ridge, we lost nine out of the original 
 fourteen, but of these nine two were killed in accidents. 
 
 Paris, Dec. 1, 1918. 
 
 Since arriving here I have seen my old friend H , 
 
 who has just come back from a German prison-camp. 
 You will remember that I wrote to you last spring that 
 he had been shot down for the second time, but had 
 this time gone down behind the German lines. I got 
 from him the story of what happened to him, and 
 although we all thought he had already had about as 
 narrow an escape as a man could have and live to tell 
 the tale, he went it one better this time. 
 
 H was in a fight with some Albatross single- 
 seaters, and was diving steeply down on the tail of 
 one of them. Evidently one of his wings was defec- 
 tive, for a large part of the cloth suddenly tore loose 
 and ripped off. This unbalanced his machine, and 
 he started to go down in a slow spin, but by using his 
 motor and putting all his controls to one side he was 
 able to right his plane and started back for our lines. 
 About this time the German " Archies" started to 
 
 take a hand in the fight, and H received a direct 
 
 hit from a 77 shell. He was flying a type of plane* 
 
 which has a rotary motor, in which, as you know, the 
 
 cylinders are set about the crank shaft in much the 
 
 * Nieuport, type 28. 
 
292 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 same way as the spokes of a wheel are set around the 
 hub. The shell stuck between two cylinders but failed 
 to explode. It must, of course, have been pretty 
 nearly at the top of its trajectory, or it would have 
 knocked the motor all to pieces anyhow. As it was, 
 
 the impact tossed H 's plane about in the air and 
 
 stopped the motor and he was then no longer able to 
 control his crippled machine. He fell once more into 
 a spin, going down in this way for many thousand feet 
 until he finally crashed in Hunland. His motor had 
 been so nearly carried away by the shell that when he 
 struck the ground it fell off the machine and rolled 
 away to one side, where it was later found with the 
 unexploded shell still stuck between the cylinders. 
 
 H himself broke both his ankles in the crash, one 
 
 of them very badly. He spent several months in a 
 Hun hospital and was then sent to a prison-camp. 
 When I saw him he walked with a slight limp, but aside 
 from that was as well as ever. If anybody can beat 
 his experiences for hairbreadth escapes I would like to 
 hear about them. His guardian angel has certainly 
 stuck to him through thick and thin. 
 
 Hobe Baker and some of the pilots in his squadron 
 had a peculiar fight with a Hun two-seater a few days 
 before the armistice. They met him very high up, 
 about 20,000 feet. Hobe gave him a burst from be- 
 hind and must have hit the pilot, for the Hun flopped 
 over on his back and the observer fell out, coming 
 down with a thud a considerable distance in our lines. 
 The machine fell upside down for four or five thousand 
 feet, when the pilot evidently came to, for he righted 
 his plane and tried to get back to his own lines. Hobe 
 and one of his men jumped on him again and fairly 
 
4th PURSUIT GROUP, A. E. F. 293 
 
 riddled him, and the Boche finally crashed about a 
 mile in Hunland. About a week after the signing of 
 the armistice we crossed the lines and went up to the 
 wreck of the plane. In it and scattered all about it 
 we found a lot of propaganda leaflets, which the Huns 
 had been engaged in dropping among our infantry 
 when they ran into our patrol. The leaflets are printed 
 in French on one side and English on the other and 
 are headed: "The German People Offers Peace." I 
 enclose you one of them. You will notice that even 
 at this stage of the game they still maintain their right 
 to attack passenger steamers carrying war material. I 
 think the veiled threat contained in the paragraph 
 "Who is to blame, if the hitherto undestroyed towns 
 and villages of France and Belgium sink in ashes?" is 
 rather significant. 
 
 The practice of dropping propaganda from aero- 
 planes is now, of course, an old one. I remember 
 when we used to drop copies of some of President 
 Wilson's speeches. You may recall that the Huns 
 once sentenced two Englishmen to long terms of im- 
 prisonment who had been forced to come down in their 
 lines after dropping propaganda. Is it not typical of 
 the logic of the Hun mind that a man who drops 
 bombs is merely committing an act of war, while he 
 who drops bits of paper is considered a criminal ? 
 
 I am glad to say that Lieut. Fonck pulled through 
 the war all right, and ended up with a score of seventy- 
 five or seventy-six official Huns, I am not sure which. 
 This is top score for the Allies, and the highest authen- 
 tic record of any one pilot during the war. Fonck's 
 actual score is much higher even than this, and it is 
 safe to say without exaggeration that he brought down 
 
294 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 The German People Offers Peace. 
 
 Tbe new German democratic government has this programme: 
 
 "The will of the people is the highest law.'* 
 The German, people wants quickly to end the slaughter. 
 The new German popular government therefore bat offered aa 
 
 Armistice 
 and has declared itself ready for 
 
 Peace 
 
 bn the basis of justice and reconciliation of nations. 
 
 It is the will of the German people that it should live In peace with all 
 peoples, honestly and loyally. 
 
 _ What has the new German popular government done so far to pnt into practice 
 the will of the people and to prove its good and upright intentions? 
 
 a) The new German government has appealed to President Wilson 
 to bring about peace. 
 
 it has recognized and accepted all the principles which 
 President Wilson proclaimed as a basis for a general lasting 
 peace of Justice among the nations. 
 
 b) The new German government has solemnly declared its readiness to evacuate 
 Belgium and to restore it 
 
 c) The new German government is ready to come to an honest understanding 
 with France about 
 
 Alsace-Lorraine 
 
 d) The new German government has restricted the U-boat War. 
 
 No passengers steamers not carrying troops 
 or war material will be attacked In future. 
 
 c) The new German government has declared that it will withdraw all 
 
 German troops back over the German frontier. 
 f) — The new German government has asked the Allied Governments to 
 name commissioners to agree upon the practical measures of the 
 evacuation of Belgium and France. 
 These are the deeds of the new German popular government. Can 
 DMte be called mere words, or bluff, or propaganda? 
 
 Who is to blame, if an armistice is not called now? 
 
 Who is to blame if daily thousands of brave soldiers needlessly have to 
 •bed their Mood and die? 
 
 Who is to blame, if the hitherto uadectroved towns and villages of Francs 
 and Belgium sink in ashes? 
 
 Who is to blame, if hundreds of thousands of unhappy women and children 
 are drives from their homes to hunger and freeze? 
 
 The German people offers its hand 
 for peace. 
 
4th PURSUIT GROUP, A. E. F. 295 
 
 somewhere between one hundred and one hundred and 
 twenty German machines. I remember very well how 
 in Flanders in the Fall of 1917 he used to come back 
 from a flight and ask for confirmations on sometimes 
 two and sometimes three or four Huns whom he was 
 practically certain he had gotten, and yet he could 
 get only one of them confirmed. Taking everything 
 into consideration, Fonck is, to my mind, in a class 
 by himself as a fighting pilot. There have been many 
 other great pilots just as brave, such as Guynemer 
 and Ball, but none of them have combined with it 
 Fonck' s marvellous skill. I know that up to the time 
 that I left Groupe 12 of the French Aviation, Fonck 
 had been hit only once, having then gotten one bullet 
 through a wing. I saw Captain Deullin the other day 
 and he told me that he had maintained this record to 
 the end, throughout hundreds of fights. It is hard for 
 one not familiar with air fighting to realize what this 
 means. Luck has, of course, had something to do 
 with it, but I think the principal reason lies in Fonck's 
 almost uncanny shooting ability, and his faculty of 
 almost being able to smell a Hun, and thus always get 
 the jump on him. 
 
 I have been doing a good deal of thinking lately 
 about the tactics of air fighting, and have come to the 
 conclusion that I have often been overcautious. I 
 know that if the war had gone on I would have materi- 
 ally changed my own methods, particularly in the 
 matter of attacking two-seaters. I have always tried 
 to take them from the rear and below, and to protect 
 myself by keeping in the blind spot behind their tails. 
 This is a first-rate method if the Hun does not see you, 
 but the trouble is to get there, and he will almost 
 
296 THE WAY OF THE EAGLE 
 
 always see you before you get in shooting position. 
 In this way you lose the tremendous advantage of a 
 surprise, and as the Hun is always manoeuvring to try- 
 to get you out from the vulnerable spot beneath his 
 tail, you nearly always have an unsteady target and 
 consequently one which is hard to hit. Particularly if 
 one is above one's enemy when one catches sight of 
 him, I think that an attack carried out with great speed 
 from above would give better results. One would then 
 rely for protection upon the element of surprise, speed, 
 and particularly upon accurate shooting. Reliable 
 machine guns would, of course, be of the greatest im- 
 portance, as they always are. If you missed him, or 
 anything went wrong, you would probably have to 
 protect yourself by keeping right on going and passing 
 down below him. The shooting would certainly be 
 simplified, for the Hun two-seater pilot would not have 
 the same reason to manoeuvre his plane. For a green 
 man such a method of attack would be rather danger- 
 ous, but for an experienced pilot I think it would offer 
 much greater chances of success, and I wish that I 
 had come to this conclusion before it was too late to 
 try it out. 
 
 Now that the war is over the question which natu- 
 rally presents itself to one's mind is "Is it over too 
 soon?" There is no question about it that it would 
 have been a great satisfaction if we could have gone 
 on and gotten into Germany and given them a taste 
 of what they have been giving us for the last four 
 years. Do you think the Huns are repentant for what 
 they have done? As has been so often said, the Hun 
 is fundamentally in his nature a bully, and like all 
 bullies begins to whine for mercy when he finds that 
 
4th PURSUIT GROUP, A. E. F. 297 
 
 he is getting the worst of it. But put him back where 
 he was in 1914 and 1915, when he thought he was 
 going to win, and he would commit the same outrages, 
 only worse, so as to get square for having been thwarted 
 this time. 
 
 And do you suppose for one moment that the Hun 
 thinks he is licked? Not a bit of it! And if we in 
 future years forget what he has done and do not make 
 him feel it, he never will realize it. The Allies are the 
 ones who will dictate the terms of peace, and if we use 
 our power and make those terms strong enough, the 
 fact that he is beaten should be brought home to the 
 Hun. If we do this, then, of course, the war ended 
 none too soon, for satisfying as it would have been to 
 have invaded Germany, the cost in the lives of our 
 men would have been too great to have continued the 
 fight a day after it became unnecessary. 
 
/ 
 
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