CHAPTER XXVI
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!_