Aerial fighting is the only form of modern warfare which gives
opportunities for individual deeds of heroism; and every army has
its list of airmen, dead or alive, who have distinguished themselves
in thrilling fights high above the earth. Here, because there were
Americans fighting in the air, mainly with the French, before the
United States entered the war, this nation has already a record which
can vie with that of the other belligerents. On April 27 the standing
of American aviators based on the number of adversaries shot down was
as follows: Major Raoul Lufbery, 18; Major William Thaw, 5; Lieutenant
Frank Baer, 5; Sergeant Baylies, 5; Captain Charles Biddle, 2, and
Sergeant Vernon Booth, Sergeant August Grehore, Second Lieutenant
Henry Grendelass, Sergeant Thomas Hitchcock, Lieutenant Friest Larner,
Sergeant David Putnam, Sergeant W. A. Wellman, Lieutenant Allan
Winslow, and Lieutenant Douglas Campbell, 1 each.
As the above list shows, Major Raoul Lufbery was easily America's
leading airman, having far surpassed the initial record of an "ace,"
attained when an airman destroys five enemy machines. But his career
was cut short on May 19, when he was killed in a dramatic combat with a
German biplane behind the American sector north of Toul. Lufbery lost
his life after six other American airmen had tried in vain to bring
down the German machine. A German bullet set his petrol tank on fire,
and Lufbery leaped from his machine.