HEROES OF FRANCE
_Vive la France!_ To her heroic sons we owe in a great measure the
supremacy in the air enjoyed by the Allies. Who can forget the heroic
and skilful M. Pégoud? Great is our debt to him. With his remarkable
skill as a pilot in the earlier days of flying—his wonderful diving,
‘turning and twisting,’ his ‘looping the loop’ and flying upside down,
all with amazing ease and grace—he taught the astonished world a great
object-lesson in the materiality of the air. ‘He showed that the air
can give the aviator as much support as water to a fancy swimmer, and
that where stability is lacking the human brain can supply the need,
and that in human flight, like the bird and its wings, the machine
and the individual can be in closest touch.’ To his bold example and
skilful illustrations as a pilot we owe more than can be told. Above
all, would we praise his heroic spirit.
It is indeed the heroic spirit of the airmen of France that has been
largely the source of our great success. Who has not heard how at the
time of the great German offensive against Verdun the aviators of
France, thinking of naught but conquest for their beloved country, flew
straight into enemy aircraft, thus robbing the enemy’s pilots of their
nerve, and gaining a supremacy by their self-sacrificing courage which
has remained firmly in their grasp! And never must we forget that to
the heroic courage of the airmen of France is added remarkable skill.
Take, for instance, the triumphant French aviator Lieutenant Nungesser,
who has brought down no less than twenty enemy machines. Such victories
could only have been gained by great skill linked with indomitable
courage.
The official communiqués of France tell many thrilling stories.
Take, for instance, the following for September, 1916: ‘One of our
aeroplanes, which was attacked by four enemy machines, succeeded
in freeing itself from its opponents, one of which, subjected to
machine-gun fire at very close quarters, fell in the Chaulnes district.
‘September 7.—Our Service d’Aviation took an active part in the
actions of the past days on the Somme front, watching the movements
of the enemy’s infantry, carrying out bombardments in the rear of the
German lines, and attacking with machine-guns troops on the march. Our
machines, armed with guns, repeatedly bombarded the enemy’s trenches.
During the air-fights which took place yesterday two machines were
brought down by our pilots. One fell in the direction of Gueudecourt,
and the other in the neighbourhood of Brie-en-Santerre.
‘Five other German machines were forced to descend damaged.
‘During the night of the sixth, in spite of unfavourable atmospheric
conditions, sixteen of our bombarding aeroplanes dropped heavy bombs on
railway stations, bivouacs, and enemy stores at Roisel and Villecourt
(Sommecourt), where a big fire was caused.
‘September 8.—Yesterday, on the Somme front, two enemy aeroplanes were
brought down in the region of Epenancourt. Another was forced to land
after a fight near our lines, and was destroyed by artillery fire.’
On the fifth day of the same month the champion French aviator of whom
we have read, Lieutenant Guynemer, brought down in the region of
Ablaincourt his fifteenth enemy aeroplane.
On September 10, 1916, French aeroplanes were engaged in forty actions
over the enemy lines, in the course of which the German aircraft
suffered appreciable losses. On the Somme front, Adjutant Dorme
brought down his ninth aeroplane, which fell at Beaulencourt, south of
Bapaume. Four other German machines fell damaged—one in the region of
La Maisonette, the other to the north and the east of Péronne. On the
Verdun front an enemy aeroplane which came under machine-gun fire at
very short range crashed to the ground near Dieppe. Another machine was
brought down in the German first lines near Vauquois.
On the following night French aeroplane squadrons dropped 480 bombs on
the stations and enemy depots in the region of Chauny. Several machines
belonging to this squadron twice flew from their aerodrome to the place
where the bombardment was carried out. During the same night eighteen
aeroplanes dropped numerous bombs on the military establishments at Ham
and in the region to the south of Péronne.
The French aviator, Adjutant Maxime Lenoir, who distinguished himself
at this time, calls for special note. On August 4, 1916, he brought
down his sixth enemy machine, and performed other most valuable
services. The coveted decoration, the Legion of Honour, has been
conferred upon him.
Concerning French pilots in general, Mr. Lawrence Jarrold, writing in
the _Daily Telegraph_, has said: ‘In aviation, _les Boches n’existent
plus_, every one in this camp agrees. Since the Somme offensive no
German aeroplane has ever dared to cross its own lines into French
territory. The French have invented methods of air photography the
perfection of which is almost miraculous. “Does not the enemy do the
same?” I asked. “No, he never comes to photograph us, because we never
let him.” In July fifty-eight German aeroplanes were brought down by
the French attacking squadron. One of the new French machines alone
brought down seven Boches, and not one of these machines was lost.
These are the new attacking machines of extraordinary speed. There
are other new French aeroplanes of great power. Some of these have
lost a gunner killed, but all have always come back. One of the French
aviator-captains who showed me over the camp was the officer who had
himself read the letter taken from a German aviator officer, moaning
over the incompetency of German aviation. That German aviation has
ceased to count on the Somme is no exaggeration at all. One morning I
saw over twenty French sausages lolling in the air, where they cast a
seeing eye upon the German positions. Not a single German sausage was
anywhere to be seen—none has been seen for weeks. “The moment a German
sausage comes up, one of my men rises and puts an inflammatory fuse
into the thing, and it bursts up,” said the aviator-captain.’
Mr. Jarrold also reported that the same fate had befallen the German
aeroplanes. ‘Not one dares cross over the lines. The result is that
the German artilleryman is blind. He fires over and over again at the
same place upon which he had long ago trained his gun, but he can fire
nowhere else with any knowledge. French mastery of the air on the Somme
is an absolute fact. But in the air, on the Somme, the Boches are now
powerless, and the French work their war machine absolutely peacefully.
Their aviators have told them that they are safe from air attacks, and
they know it is a fact.’
On September 15 French aviators particularly distinguished themselves
in combats above the enemy’s lines on the Somme front. Sub-Lieutenant
Guynemer brought down his sixteenth, Sub-Lieutenant Nungesser his
twelfth, Lieutenant Heurtaux his sixth, and Sub-Lieutenant de Rothefort
his sixth aeroplane. Moreover, it was confirmed that, in one of the
recent fights, Lieutenant Deullin secured his sixth victory. Two other
German machines, attacked at very short range, were forced to descend
in a seriously damaged condition. Moreover, on the Verdun front, an
enemy machine was brought down to the north of Douaumont.
Bombarding aircraft showed great activity during the night of the
fourteenth. A squadron of ten machines dropped eighty-five bombs on
the railway stations and the lines at Tergnier and Chauny, and on the
station and the huts at Guiscard. Many of the bombs found their mark. A
big fire was observed at Tergnier and the beginning of an outbreak at
Guiscard. Another French squadron dropped forty bombs on the barracks
at Stenay, where several fires were observed, and forty on the works
at Rombach. One pilot got as far as Dillingen, in the Valley of the
Saar, where he dropped eight bombs on a large workshop, causing a
fire. During the same night the blast furnaces at Rombach received ten
bombs, and the railway from Metz to Pont-a-Mousson four, which caused
considerable damage.
Later, it was learnt that besides the nine German aeroplanes brought
down on the French front on the fifteenth, six other enemy machines
were forced to come down in a damaged condition in their own lines
after fights with French pilots.
On September 17 it was confirmed that an enemy machine, which was
attacked by machine-gun fire by Adjutant Lenoir, fell north of
Douaumont. This was the eighth brought down by this pilot. It was also
confirmed that Adjutant Dorme defeated his tenth enemy machine, which
fell on September 15 between Erie and Ennemain.
At a later date (September 23), French aviators fought fifty-six
engagements on the Somme front, in the course of which four enemy
machines were brought down, while four others were seen to fall in a
damaged condition. During these fights Adjutant Dorme brought down
his eleventh German machine (in the neighbourhood of Goyencourt),
Lieutenant Deullin his seventh (south of Doingt), Adjutant Tarascon
his sixth (south-west of Hergny). The fourth German machine reported
as having been brought down fell south-west of Rocquigny. On the same
day, in the region of Verdun, Adjutant Lenoir attacked a German machine
at close quarters and brought it down in its lines north of Douaumont.
This was the tenth machine brought down by Adjutant Lenoir.
At a later date, the French pilot, Adjutant Baron, accompanied
by a bombardier, left his aviation camp at 7.15 p.m. and reached
Ludwigshafen, in the Palatinate (about 100 miles from the nearest point
of the French border), where three bombs were dropped on military
establishments. Continuing their route, the aviators dropped three more
bombs on an important factory at Mannheim (ten miles farther east), on
the right bank of the Rhine, where a vast fire and several explosions
were noticed. The aviators returned safely at 12.50 a.m.
On September 24, the German aviators having shown more activity than
usual, French _escadrilles de chasse_ delivered on the greater part
of the front veritable aerial battles. French pilots gained great
successes and indisputably had the upper hand of the enemy. On the
Somme front there were twenty-nine engagements; four enemy aeroplanes
were brought down. One fell in the Vaux woods. Two others successively
attacked by Sous-Lieutenant Guynemer came down in flames after some
minutes’ fighting. Sous-Lieutenant Guynemer consequently brought
down the same day his seventeenth and eighteenth aeroplanes. The
fourth machine fell south of Misery. Three other German machines were
seriously hit and fell wrecked near Estrees; and in the region of
Péronne four enemy machines were compelled to come to earth in their
own lines. It is also confirmed that one of the German aeroplanes,
given as seriously hit on September 22, was brought down between Misery
and Villers-Carbonnel. Farther to the south, between Chaulnes and the
Avre, six German machines were brought down. One of them fell in flames
near Chaulnes, in the course of an engagement between four machines
and a group of six enemy machines. The second fell at Licourt, the
third at Parvillers, the fourth was seen crashing to earth south of
Marchelepot, the fifth and sixth were brought down by the same pilot
in an engagement between one of the French squadrons and six German
aeroplanes, and they fell in the region of Andechy, one of them in
the French lines. In the region north of Chalons a Fokker fell in
flames near the French lines, and another Fokker appeared to have
been seriously hit. In the Verdun region an enemy aeroplane was fired
at by machine-guns at close quarters, side-slipped, and descended on
the Poivre Hill. East of St. Mihiel a Fokker nose-dived into its own
lines. In Lorraine a French pilot pursued a German machine for twenty
kilometres (12½ miles) into its own lines, killed the passenger, and
compelled the machine to descend. Another enemy machine came down in
the Forest of Gamecy. Finally, in the Vosges, two enemy aeroplanes
nose-dived into their own lines in an abnormal manner after fights with
French pilots.
It is noteworthy that on the following morning Captain de Beauchamps
and Lieutenant Daucourt, each piloting a machine, started at
eleven o’clock from their aerodrome, and threw twelve bombs on the
factories of Essen (Westphalia). The aviators returned safely to
their landing-point after accomplishing a flight of 800 kilometres
(500 miles)—a remarkable achievement! Captain de Beauchamps,
who is twenty-nine years of age, once commanded a squadron on the
Eastern frontier, and Lieutenant Guynemer served for some time under
him. Lieutenant Daucourt, thirty-seven years old, also has many
long-distance flights to his credit. In April, 1913, he flew from Paris
to Berlin, a distance of 560 miles, beating his own ‘record’ in the
contest for the Pommery Cup, when he made the journey from Calais to
Biarritz. In October of the same year he started with a passenger for
Cairo, a flight of 3,750 miles, but was forced to land in the Cilician
Taurus, on November 26, owing to an accident. He has been mentioned in
Army Orders for his fine courage and tenacity in the accomplishment of
missions. In February, 1915, when attacked by two German aeroplanes and
his machine-gun had jammed, he escaped by daring airmanship. In the
following month he attacked four enemy machines single-handed, and put
them to flight.
Special reference must also be made to the heroic French aviator,
Adjutant Tarascon, who was mentioned in the official communiqué of
September 18 as having brought down five German aeroplanes. We learn
from a French source that he enlisted voluntarily, having been rejected
owing to an aviation accident, of which he was the victim, in peace
time. He was picked up in a very serious state, and it was found
necessary to amputate his left leg. Tarascon temporarily abandoned
the sport which cost him this infirmity, but asked to be allowed to
resume his position as pilot when it was a question of defending his
country. The courage of this hero cannot be sufficiently admired. He is
an expert, and one would never believe, whilst watching the evolutions
of the aeroplane which he handles with such skill, that he had but one
leg. Recently, during one of these astonishing raids, almost level
with the tops of the trees above the enemy lines, which have become a
speciality of Allied aviation, Tarascon received a shell splinter in
his artificial leg, the shot being so violent that the leg was broken.
A number of American volunteers are in the French Air Service. Inspired
by the example of the heroic sons of the country they delight to serve,
they have earned high honours and warm praise. Describing an action
witnessed from an anti-aircraft gun emplacement, one writer says:
‘The Germans dropped back for a moment, then the whole force came
forward to attack the Americans. There was a circular counter formation
on the part of the Americans, and the rapid firing of the guns was
accelerated.... At times it was impossible to distinguish the Germans
from the Americans in this most unequal fight. We saw Prince and
Balsley capsize and fall. In the apparent death-drop Prince righted
his machine when near the ground, and returned to the aviation field
uninjured, but with a bullet through his helmet. Balsley was not so
fortunate. He owes his life, perhaps, to the fact that his feet were
strapped to the controls. An explosive bullet struck him on the hip,
rendering him helpless for a time, but he was able to regain command
of his machine sufficiently to make a landing, though the machine
was completely wrecked. Balsley explains that his machine-gun jammed
during the second rush of the Germans. He is now in the American
Ambulance Hospital in Paris. His wound is not believed to be dangerous,
but the doctors say he will never fly again. Just after these two
men had fallen, when things looked bad for the American squadron,
reinforcements of French machines came up. The Germans were soon
driven back across the lines, and the engagement was over. One German
machine was destroyed and its two occupants killed, others were
injured. The French suffered no casualties except the wounding of
Balsley and the loss of his machine.
‘The American aviators are not reckless or foolhardy, but brilliant
fliers, who use their heads. They continue to be very active, despite
unfavourable circumstances, such as repeated bombardments of their
camps and hangars by German aviators. The Germans try constantly
to draw out the Americans. At Belfort they sought to get them at a
disadvantage, and again just recently in a raid on Bar-le-Duc. In this
latter engagement the Americans ascended as the invading squadron’s
approach was telephoned from the firing line. They met and opened fire
directly over the French hangars at Bar-le-Duc. The Germans again
outnumbered them two to one. Both the French captain and Prince were
forced to come down, one with a punctured gasoline tank, and the other
with his ammunition box blown off by explosive bullets. Soon after
Cowden’s machine-gun choked, and he, too, descended, leaving Hall and
Chapman to fight off the Germans alone until reinforced by a French
squadron from Toul. They were then able to force the Germans back into
German territory and inflict heavy losses, though no injuries were
suffered on the French side.’
Among the American aviators who have been most successful is Lieutenant
Thaw. He has fought sixteen battles and brought down five adversaries.
His machine received several bullets while over the German lines at
Verdun, one of which hit him in the elbow, breaking a small bone. He
has recovered, and is again with the Corps. Sergeant Kiffin Rockwell
destroyed a German ‘plane on May 18, and attacked several on May 26,
when he was badly wounded in the face. He brought down two German
machines during the battle at Verdun. Sergeant Bert Hall, after a long,
hard fight on May 22, brought down a German from a height of 13,000
feet. He followed it down 3,000 feet, and saw it crash to the ground
just within the German lines.
On September 25, 1916, French _avions de chasse_ fought forty-seven
engagements on the Somme front. Five enemy machines were brought down,
while three more, which were seriously damaged, were obliged to
alight. Another machine, which was attacked at close quarters with a
machine-gun, fell disabled, but could not be followed to the ground.
During these engagements, Sous-Lieutenant Heurtaux brought down his
eighth machine in the direction of Villers Carbonnel, and Adjutant
Dorme his twelfth machine north of Lieramont. In the Woevre, Adjutant
Lenoir attacked an enemy machine constructed to carry three, and after
a very hard fight brought it down near Fromezey (north-west of Etain).
This was the eleventh machine brought down by this pilot.
Further aerial combats, which again resulted in victory for the French
aviators, were fought on September 27. Sous-Lieutenant Nungesser in
the course of the day alone brought down two German aeroplanes between
Le Transloy and Rocquigny, and an enemy captive balloon, which fell
in flames in the Neuville district. These three victories bring up to
seventeen the number of machines brought down by this pilot. Moreover,
two other German aeroplanes which had been seriously hit fell out of
control—one towards Le Transloy and the other near Le Mesnil Bruntel.
Another captive balloon, attacked by French pilots, collapsed near
Nurlu. In Champagne a Fokker, attacked at close quarters, fell at first
in spirals, then vertically, and was smashed, crashing to the ground at
Grateuil.
It is noteworthy that the much-vaunted German Fokker machine was now
under the shadow of defeat. On September 27 a Fokker, on being attacked
by a French pilot, crashed to the ground near Rheims. Another, shortly
after, ‘nose-dived’ into its own lines. Many other German machines
of the same type fell victims to the courageous and skilful French
aviators.
The French communiqué of September 24 recorded Lieutenant Guynemer’s
seventeenth and eighteenth victories over German aircraft on the
Somme front. As a matter of fact, Lieutenant Guynemer destroyed three
aeroplanes on that day while extricating a brother aviator from the
clutches of five enemy craft. Two of the latter took flight, and three
remained. At 11.22 the first German was shot down. The second followed
thirty seconds later, and the third, already in full flight, was
destroyed at 11.25.
A summing up of the French communiqués issued between July 1 and
September 25 showed that 250 enemy aeroplanes had been destroyed
or brought down out of control within their own lines; twenty-two
observation balloons had been burned; 142 objectives within the
territory occupied by the Germans had been hit; and 5,426 bombs had
been dropped. Such figures bear eloquent testimony to the air services
of our gallant Allies.
Further good work was done in October of the same year. On the second
day of the month Sergeant Sauvage brought down his fifth German
machine. A few days later Adjutant-Pilot Baron and Adjutant Chazard
bombarded at Stuttgart the Bosch magneto factory. Dense smoke was seen
rising from this factory as the result of the bombardment. Stuttgart,
the capital of Würtemberg, is 100 miles from the nearest point on the
French frontier. The return journey, therefore, involved a flight of at
least 200 miles.
On the tenth day of the same month, in addition to numerous
surveillance, reconnaissance, and range-regulating flights, French
aeroplanes fought fifteen engagements in the Verdun region, fourteen
south of the Somme, and forty-four north of that river. In the course
of the latter engagements four enemy machines were brought down, one
by Adjutant Dorme, who thus brought down his thirteenth machine. Six
other enemy machines were seriously hit and fell into the German lines.
It is noteworthy, as showing the unity of action between the French
and British Air Services, that on October 13 a Franco-British squadron
of forty aeroplanes bombarded the Mauser Works at Oberndorf on the
Neckar. Four thousand three hundred and forty kilogrammes (over four
tons) weight of projectiles were dropped, and their attainment of the
objectives aimed at was noted. Six German aeroplanes were brought
down in the course of fights into which they entered to defend their
factories. The raid on the Mauser factory was one of a series of
attacks on important works in Germany carried out by Allied aviators.
During the previous three weeks military establishments, blast
furnaces, and factories had been raided.
A new method of warfare for aviators, first undertaken by French
pilots, is that of flying low over the enemy’s lines, and attacking
enemy troops with machine-gun fire. The _Daily Telegraph_ Paris
correspondent, praising this work, has stated that ‘the aviators
attached to the infantry belong to a special section. They precede
each attacking wave by a few yards and fly extraordinarily low,
sometimes not more than a hundred yards or so above the enemy’s lines,
upon which they drop bombs, thus paving the way for the infantry
advance, and simultaneously, of course, signalling back information to
the infantry as it comes on.’
On October 22 it was reported that Adjutant Dorme had brought down
his fifteenth machine at Barleux, and Marechal de Logis Flachaire
his fifth machine, which was dashed to pieces on the ground in the
same district. On the following day, in spite of a thick mist, French
aircraft displayed activity and fought some twenty engagements. Three
enemy machines were brought down—one to the north of Azannes, another
near Ornes, while the third was seen to fall with a broken wing north
of Romagne. Following upon an engagement fought by one of the French
air squadrons with an enemy group in the region of Verdun, one of the
French pilots came down to within about a hundred yards from the ground
in order to set fire to a shed and to open with his machine-gun on a
motor-car.
Later it was reported that Sergt.-Aviator Sauvage had brought down
his fifth German aeroplane. He was the youngest French aviator to
be mentioned in dispatches. His one desire, we learn, since he was
fourteen, was to become an aviator. At sixteen he was apprenticed to
a small aeroplane builder. He worked hard, and under the direction of
the aviator Gilbert he built a machine to which he added some small
improvement. He had just gone to Valenciennes to try this machine when
war broke out, and he had to make off, leaving the aeroplane behind,
which presumably fell into the hands of the Germans. After one year of
war he managed to get taken into the aviation service, got his pilot’s
licence in March, and went to the front three months later.
It may be recorded here that a new name has been added to the official
list of French aviators considered worthy of mention in dispatches.
This distinction is awarded only after an aviator has brought down
his fifth enemy machine. At the time of writing (October, 1916), the
following heroic French aviators enjoy this remarkable distinction:
Sous-Lieutenant Guynemer, who has brought down eighteen enemy machines;
Sous-Lieutenant Nungesser, seventeen; Adjutant Dorme, fifteen;
Sous-Lieutenant Navarre, twelve; Adjutant Lenoir, eleven; Lieutenant
Heurtaux, ten; Sergeant Chainat, nine; Lieutenant Deullin, eight;
Sous-Lieutenant Chaput, eight; Sous-Lieutenant De la Tour, seven;
Sous-Lieutenant Pégoud, six (killed in action); Sous-Lieutenant De
Rochefort, six (killed in action); Adjutant Tarascon, six; Adjutant
Bloch, Sergeant Viallet, Sergeant Sauvage, Adjutant Lufbery (American),
and Marechal des Logis Flachaire, each five.
There can be no fitting praise in view of such achievements. Truly
France has many heroic sons! Again comes the cry—_Vive la France!_