Two days later he sent another balloon flaming down in somewhat more
exciting circumstances. While he was speeding with an escort of other
pilots, to attack three enemy balloons operating at an unusually low
altitude, his escort became engaged with a formation of Fokkers. This
would have made it seem to many pilots unwise to proceed with the
attack; but Luke took advantage of the fight above to dive down and
begin the assault on one of the balloons which, after several attempts,
he succeeded in shooting down, though machine bullets and anti-aircraft
shells and flaming onions were showered about him. As the balloon fell
burning, Luke flew down to close range and turned loose his machine gun
on the Huns on the ground with the desired result of many casualties.
When he got back home he found that his machine was so full of bullet
holes that a very few more taps would have weakened it enough to bring
it down in collapse. But within five minutes he was in another machine
and begging leave to go on a further quest.
At 5 o’clock that afternoon he sent down the second balloon in flames.
Later he discovered attempts being made to send up another balloon
north of Verdun; he hastened back to his squadron and asked to be
ordered out at dusk to surprise and destroy the big bag.
He left with instructions not to descend on the balloon until 7.50
(that being for the benefit of his protective escort who would follow
him down a few moments later). Precisely at 7.50 the watchers on the
aerodrome saw the balloon flare in the darkness and fall to the ground.
And so the story runs; each new adventure a companion thriller to the
others, every machine in which he flew being more or less riddled
with bullets, and the miracle is that the daring youth passed so many
hazards unscathed. Col. Hartney is authority for the statement that
balloon strafing is in reality “the most dangerous exploit any man in
any branch of the service can undertake.”
Frank Luke in seventeen days accounted for eighteen enemy balloons and
planes. He was the first American flyer to win the Congressional Medal
of Honor.