A few days after he had destroyed a Zeppelin, he fell to his death
while making a flight near Paris. With him Henry Beach Needham, an
American writer, was also killed.]
Warneford’s aeroplane was caught by the force of the explosion
and turned upside down, but he succeeded in righting it before it
touched the ground. He was forced to alight within the German lines.
Nevertheless he restarted his engine, though not without great
difficulty, and in due course returned to his station without damage.
Only the framework of the Zeppelin was left, the crew being all burned
or mangled, and the body of the machine being completely destroyed.
The flaming framework dropped on the Convent School of St. Amandsberg,
killing one nun and burning two Sisters who had rushed into the street
with children in their arms. The machine on which Warneford made this
attack was a Morane “Parasol,” a little monoplane with a pair of
wings raised well above the pilot’s head. This construction gives the
aviator full view on either side below, thus enabling him to take good
aim for bomb dropping. The Morane of that type was also noted as a
quick-climbing machine, a very decided advantage in attacking Zeppelins.
The story of Warneford’s triumph sent a thrill through England. The
King promptly sent a personal telegram of congratulation to him, and
conferred upon him the Victoria Cross. The telegram ran as follows:
“I most heartily congratulate you upon your splendid achievement of
yesterday, in which you single-handed destroyed an enemy Zeppelin.
“I have much pleasure in conferring upon you the Victoria Cross for
this gallant act.
“GEORGE R.I.”
Next day the French War Minister, on the recommendation of General
Joffre, awarded Warneford the Cross of the Legion of Honor. It was
known that he was returning on a visit to England. A splendid public
welcome was prepared for him. He went first, however, to Paris, and
there in company with Henry Needham, an American journalist, he set
out on a new Henry Farman biplane, which he proposed to take by air
to Dunkirk. Warneford and his passenger had risen to 700 feet when
the machine wobbled violently for a few seconds, and then overturned,
throwing them both out. They were both killed instantly. The return to
England was different from that which had been anticipated. In the late
evening of June 21, a fortnight after the deed which won him fame, the
train carrying Warneford’s body came into Victoria Station. Thousands
of people had assembled there to pay their final tributes to the hero,
and the little procession of the coffin covered by the Union Jack,
mounted on a gun-carriage, and guarded by seamen of the Royal Naval
Division, moved out amid the bared heads of the silent crowd. Warneford
was buried in Brompton Cemetery.
The strictly American aviation operations started in the
middle of March, 1918, with the patrolling of the front from
Villeneuve-les-Vertus by an American pursuit squadron using planes of
the French-built Nieuport-28 type. These operations were in the nature
of a tryout of the American trained aviators, and their complete
success was followed by an immediate increase of the aerial forces at
the front, with enlargement of their duties and field of action. By
the middle of May, 1918, squadrons of all types—pursuit, observation,
and bombing—as well as balloon companies were in operation over a wide
front. These squadrons were equipped with the best available types of
British and French-built service planes.
[Illustration:
© _New York Herald._