CHAPTER XXI
SOUS-LIEUTENANT LOUIS NOËL
An Army Order, signed by General Sarrail, describes how Lieutenant Noël, when hardly convalescent from a grave operation, from the effects of which he was still suffering, effected on two occasions the bombardment of an enemy capital, and assured a long-distance link between two friendly armies, covering 1,100 kilometres (roughly 700 miles) there and back, of which 850 kilometres (over 500 miles) were over enemy territory.
Lieutenant Noël is an old pilot, remarkable for his address, his bravery, his coolness, and his modesty. Numerous difficult and perilous missions in France and in the Orient have been successfully carried out by him, and in addition to the Cross of the Legion of Honour he has earned the Médaille Militaire, the Croix de Guerre, and the Russian Cross of St. George.
Describing his remarkable flight from Salonica to Bukarest, a Roumanian journal (September 16, 1916) says: ‘Roumania received yesterday the visit of gracious Allied winged guests, who come to us from Salonique, from the heroic army of Sarrail, from that corner of ground which, right in the heart of the Balkans, sinks in like a vice, to choke in its powerful grip the Bulgars and our common enemies. As legitimate reprisal for the cowardly attack on Bukarest by the Zeppelins, the French aviators had received orders to bombard Sofia and reach Roumania afterwards. Yesterday, Wednesday, at 6.20 a.m., four French avions left Salonique. The first, a Farman biplane, was conducted by the heroic Sous-Lieutenant Noël, one of the best aviators of the French Army, who had already sunk two German avions in the course of seventeen months passed on the German front. The Sous-Lieutenant Noël brought with him Lieutenant Leseur, one of the best observers of the Army of Salonique. The second biplane was mounted by Sergeant Lamprou and the Soldier-Machine-Gunner Masson; the third by the Lieutenant Quillery and an observer, and the fourth by the Sergeant Rohan and a machine-gunner.
‘At 8.40 the Noël biplane arrived above Sofia, where were to be seen several fires lighted by one of the French avions which had just passed. The Lieutenant Leseur let go many bombs. The aviators were perfectly guided by the sparkling dome of the cathedral. Let us say that the bombs thrown contained an explosive newly discovered by the French, and of an extraordinary power of destruction. Some German avions made chase to the French avions, which were soon able to distance them without being touched by their projectiles. At 11.20 a.m. the avions, piloted by the Sous-Lieutenant Noël, arrived at Bukarest, where he descended directly in the aviation field, in the midst of the delirious acclamation of the Roumanian aviators. The biplane Lamprou descended at Alexandria, and the two others landed, according to orders, at Turnu-Magaurele.
‘Six hundred kilometres in a single stage! A hundred and twenty kilometres to the hour! The difficult crossing of the Balkans, with their heights of over 2,900 metres (9,000 feet), their pernicious currents, their thousand and one difficulties, effected without encumbrance, without the least accident! What marvellous exploit of ability, of cool blood, of this legendary and magnificent heroism French! What new and beautiful page of glory to inscribe to the credit of the aviation French! Salutes to you, glorious heroes of the air! Salutes to you, well-beloved colours of France, which in these solemn hours come to unite yourselves to the tricolour Roumanian! Roumania has received you open-armed with legitimate pride, and from the plains of the Danube up to the slopes of the Carpathians, and from the banks of the Olt and of the Muresh, and from those of the Black Sea, to those of the Thass, a sole cry sincere, but which sums up all our sentiments, will hail you, “Vive la France! Vive l’armée française!!”’
High praise, very warmly expressed, and richly deserved!
‘The aviators,’ says one who writes with intimate knowledge of their movements, ‘deserved thoroughly the acclamation. All the French pilots remained for a while in Roumania except Louis Noël, who flew back alone on the nineteenth again without landing. Owing to a head wind after reaching the seaward side of the Balkans, he only just scraped home without a drop of essence.’ It should be added that Lieutenant Noël is well known at Hendon, and has been justly termed one of the most decorated and distinguished of Hendon aviators.