Thaw, Prince, Cowdin, and the other veterans were training on
the Nieuport! That meant the American Escadrille was to fly the
Nieuport--the best type of _avion de chasse_--and hence would be a
fighting unit. It is necessary to explain parenthetically here that
French military aviation, generally speaking, is divided into three
groups--the _avions de chasse_ or airplanes of pursuit, which are
used to hunt down enemy aircraft or to fight them off; _avions de
bombardement_, big, unwieldy monsters for use in bombarding raids;
and _avions de rélage_, cumbersome creatures designed to regulate
artillery fire, take photographs, and do scout duty. The Nieuport is
the smallest, fastest-rising, fastest-moving biplane in the French
service. It can travel 110 miles an hour, and is a one-man apparatus
with a machine gun mounted on its roof and fired by the pilot with one
hand while with the other and his feet he operates his controls. The
French call their Nieuport pilots the "aces" of the air. No wonder we
were tickled to be included in that august brotherhood!
Before the American Escadrille became an established fact, Thaw and
Cowdin, who had mastered the Nieuport, managed to be sent to the
Verdun front. While there Cowdin was credited with having brought down
a German machine and was proposed for the _Médaille Militaire_, the
highest decoration that can be awarded a non-commissioned officer or
private.
After completing his training, receiving his military pilot's brevet,
and being perfected on the type of plane he is to use at the front, an
aviator is ordered to the reserve headquarters near Paris to await his
call. Kiffin Rockwell and Victor Chapman had been there for months,
and I had just arrived, when on the 16th of April orders came for the
Americans to join their escadrille at Luxeuil, in the Vosges.
The rush was breathless! Never were flying clothes and fur coats drawn
from the quarter-master, belongings packed, and red tape in the various
administrative bureaux unfurled, with such headlong haste. In a few
hours we were aboard the train, panting, but happy. Our party consisted
of Sergeant Prince, and Rockwell, Chapman, and myself, who were only
corporals at that time. We were joined at Luxeuil by Lieutenant Thaw
and Sergeants Hall and Cowdin.
For the veterans our arrival at the front was devoid of excitement;
for the three neophytes--Rockwell, Chapman, and myself--it was the
beginning of a new existence, the entry into an unknown world. Of
course Rockwell and Chapman had seen plenty of warfare on the ground,
but warfare in the air was as novel to them as to me. For us all it
contained unlimited possibilities for initiative and service to France,
and for them it must have meant, too, the restoration of personality
lost during those months in the trenches with the Foreign Legion.
Rockwell summed it up characteristically.
"Well, we're off for the races," he remarked....
On our arrival at Luxeuil we were met by Captain Thénault, the French
commander of the American Escadrille--officially known as No. 124, by
the way--and motored to the aviation field in one of the staff cars
assigned to us. I enjoyed that ride. Lolling back against the soft
leather cushions, I recalled how in my apprenticeship days at Pau I had
had to walk six miles for my laundry....
Rooms were assigned to us in a villa adjoining the famous hot baths
of Luxeuil, where Cæsar's cohorts were wont to besport themselves. We
messed with our officers, Captain Thénault and Lieutenant de Laage
de Mux, at the best hotel in town. An automobile was always on hand
to carry us to the field. I began to wonder whether I was a summer
resorter instead of a soldier.
Among the pilots who had welcomed us with open arms, we discovered the
famous Captain Happe, commander of the Luxeuil bombardment group. The
doughty bomb-dispenser, upon whose head the Germans have set a price,
was in his quarters. After we had been introduced, he pointed to eight
little boxes arranged on a table.
"They contain _Croix de Guerre_ for the families of the men I lost on
my last trip," he explained, and he added: "It's a good thing you're
here to go along with us for protection. There are lots of Boches in
this sector."
I thought of the luxury we were enjoying: our comfortable beds, baths,
and motor cars, and then I recalled the ancient custom of giving a man
selected for the sacrifice a royal time of it before the appointed
day....