Kiffin Rockwell and Lufbery were the first to get their new machines
ready and on the 23rd of September went out for the first flight since
the escadrille had arrived at Luxeuil. They became separated in the air
but each flew on alone, which was a dangerous thing to do in the Alsace
sector....
Just before Kiffin Rockwell reached the lines he spied a German machine
under him flying at 11,000 feet. I can imagine the satisfaction he
felt in at last catching an enemy plane in our lines. Rockwell had
fought more combats than the rest of us put together, and had shot down
many German machines that had fallen in their lines, but this was the
first time he had had an opportunity of bringing down a Boche in our
territory.
A captain, the commandant of an Alsatian village, watched the aërial
battle through his field glasses. He said that Rockwell approached
so close to the enemy that he thought there would be a collision.
The German craft, which carried two machine guns, had opened a rapid
fire when Rockwell started his dive. He plunged through the stream of
lead and only when very close to his enemy did he begin shooting. For
a second it looked as though the German was falling, so the captain
said, but then he saw the French machine turn rapidly nose down, the
wings of one side broke off and fluttered in the wake of the airplane,
which hurtled earthward in a rapid drop. It crashed into the ground
in a small field--a field of flowers--a few hundred yards back of the
trenches. It was not more than two and a half miles from the spot where
Rockwell, in the month of May, brought down his first enemy machine.
The Germans immediately opened up on the wreck with artillery fire.
In spite of the bursting shrapnel, gunners from a nearby battery
rushed out and recovered poor Rockwell's broken body. There was a
hideous wound in his breast where an explosive bullet had torn through.
A surgeon who examined the body, testified that if it had been an
ordinary bullet Rockwell would have had an even chance of landing with
only a bad wound. As it was he was killed the instant the unlawful
missile exploded.
Lufbery engaged a German craft but before he could get to close range
two Fokkers swooped down from behind and filled his aeroplane full of
holes. Exhausting his ammunition he landed at Fontaine, an aviation
field near the lines. There he learned of Rockwell's death and was told
that two other French machines had been brought down within the hour.
He ordered his gasolene tank filled, procured a full band of cartridges
and soared up into the air to avenge his comrade. He sped up and down
the lines, and made a wide détour to Habsheim where the Germans have an
aviation field, but all to no avail. Not a Boche was in the air.
The news of Rockwell's death was telephoned to the escadrille. The
captain, lieutenant, and a couple of men jumped in a staff car and
hastened to where he had fallen. On their return the American pilots
were convened in a room of the hotel and the news broken to them. With
tears in his eyes the captain said: "The best and bravest of us all is
no more."
No greater blow could have befallen the escadrille. Kiffin was its
soul. He was loved and looked up to by not only every man in our
flying corps but by every one who knew him. Kiffin was imbued with the
spirit of the cause for which he fought and gave his heart and soul
to the performance of his duty. He said: "I pay my part for Lafayette
and Rochambeau," and he gave the fullest measure. The old flame of
chivalry burned brightly in this boy's fine and sensitive being. With
his death France lost one of her most valuable pilots. When he was
over the lines the Germans did not pass--and he was over them most of
the time. He brought down four enemy planes that were credited to him
officially, and Lieutenant de Laage, who was his fighting partner,
says he is convinced that Rockwell accounted for many others which
fell too far within the German lines to be observed. Rockwell had been
given the Médaille Militaire and the Croix de Guerre, on the ribbon of
which he wore four palms, representing the four magnificent citations
he had received in the order of the army. As a further reward for his
excellent work he had been proposed for promotion from the grade of
sergeant to that of second lieutenant. Unfortunately the official order
did not arrive until a few days following his death.
The night before Rockwell was killed he had stated that if he were
brought down he would like to be buried where he fell. It was
impossible, however, to place him in a grave so near the trenches. His
body was draped in a French flag and brought back to Luxeuil. He was
given a funeral worthy of a general. His brother, Paul, who had fought
in the Legion with him, and who had been rendered unfit for service by
a wound, was granted permission to attend the obsequies. Pilots from
all nearby camps flew over to render homage to Rockwell's remains.
Every Frenchman in the aviation at Luxeuil marched behind the bier. The
British pilots, followed by a detachment of five hundred of their men,
were in line, and a battalion of French troops brought up the rear. As
the slow moving procession of blue and khaki-clad men passed from the
church to the graveyard, airplanes circled at a feeble height above and
showered down myriads of flowers.
Rockwell's death urged the rest of the men to greater action, and the
few who had machines were constantly after the Boches. Prince brought
one down. Lufbery, the most skillful and successful fighter in the
escadrille, would venture far into the enemy's lines and spiral down
over a German aviation camp, daring the pilots to venture forth. One
day he stirred them up, but as he was short of fuel he had to make for
home before they took to the air. Prince was out in search of a combat
at this time. He got it. He ran into the crowd Lufbery had aroused.
Bullets cut into his machine and one exploding on the front edge of
a lower wing broke it. Another shattered a supporting mast. It was a
miracle that the machine did not give way. As badly battered as it was
Prince succeeded in bringing it back from over Mulhouse, where the
fight occurred, to his field at Luxeuil.