First to Fly

by Charles Bracelen Flood

  “Bert climbed into the machine” Gordon, The Lafayette Flying Corps, 204.

  The two agents. BP, 57.

  “A volunteer was called for” BHN, 80–81.

  “Whole columns of Boche” Ibid. 80–81.

  “I never will forget the concierge” Ibid. 21.

  Visit to Mother Pivot. Ibid. 112.

  “Following the trip to the Invalides” Ibid. 29.

  Eleven—New Commanders for a New Form of Combat

  “We are here” Rogers, L’Escadrille Lafayette, Chapter 6, 25.

  “From the point of view” Mason, 128.

  The two pilots who wrote of their appreciation for Thenault’s handling of his pilots were Ned Parsons and Harold Willis. DG, 240–241.

  “Thenault would invariably . . .” DG, 241. A similar account is in E2, 266.

  Thenault at Le Plessis-Belleville. Ibid. 240.

  “in spite of his handicaps” Ibid. 101.

  “Mon Capitaine, it is a new invention” BHN, 150.

  Twelve—Shadows of War in the “City of Light”

  “For a woman to dress brightly” Gordon, 25.

  Holt bumps into Melvin. Ibid. 423.

  “There will be no end of artificial legs needed” DG, 159.

  “Paris is beautiful now” Weeks, 150.

  “The Dance of the Chastity Belts” BHN, 214.

  Pilots, 22 Rue de Berri, and Henry Jones. DG, 25, and Gordon, The Lafayette Flying Corps, 266.

  Thirteen—Things Are Different Up There, and Then on the Ground

  Only four bullets. E5.

  The incident of the French pilot deliberately crashing into the German plane. McConnell, Flying for France, 123.

  “Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye” E2, 132.

  “[They] must have been” Ibid.

  “to whom trouble” DG, 194.

  Campbell. Accounts of the episode of the locked-together planes are in DG, 195–196, E 2, 268–269, and Jablonski, 168–169.

  “did not put the plane” Weeks, 109.

  “unheard-of luxury” and “was delighted to accept” Parsons, E1, 194.

  “Take a ship up” E2, 219.

  High-altitude gear. JHN, II, 58.

  “We also carry oxygen tubes” BH, 99.

  “Feet were twin lumps” E2, 220.

  “When I say necessity” and the half-pint flask. Ibid. 219.

  “the food of the nerves” DG, 19.

  “Few people” E2, 211.

  “I set my wheels” Ibid. 216.

  “I wasn’t sleeping nights” Ibid. 219.

  “Sober, I’m a nervous” DG, 4. This was said by Captain Elliott White Springs, who wrote numerous pieces about his experience, including the book War Birds.

  “None of us had any real idea” E2, 8–10.

  “There was no one” Charles Dolan quotation, on the frontispiece of DG. There he is misidentified as Carl Dolan.

  “Our adversaries in the air” E2, 192.

  Fourteen—Bert Hall Takes Life by the Horns

  “When we passed over” BHN, 86–87.

  “were given orders” Ibid. 191.

  “When we got back to the field” Ibid. 191–192.

  Fifteen—Aces

  “Broad forehead” E2, 73.

  Lufbery’s meeting and association with Pourpe. Jablonski, 98–99.

  “He was a walking encyclopedia” BHN, 162.

  “I only know one” E2, 73.

  Lufbery and mushrooms. DG, 84, quoting Hinkle.

  “He spent hours” E2, 78.

  “He had a happy faculty” Ibid.

  “so thoroughly shot up” McConnell, Flying for France, 102.

  “two bullets went through” E2, 79.

  “four neat bullet holes” Ibid. 82–83.

  “His air work was incomparable” Ibid. 77.

  “To fly high” Thenault, The Story of the Lafayette Escadrille, 124.

  “dominate the situation” DG, 82.

  Incident at Chartres. Rogers, L’Escadrille Lafayette, Chapter 6, 38, citing Journal: Escadrille No. 124; DG, 84; Flammer, The Vivid Air, 140, citing Journal de Marche of June 3–6, 1916; Jablonski, 114.

  “When flames burst” BHN, 177.

  “We hadn’t been in Paris two hours” BHN, 180.

  “Whiskey” In BP, 92–93, there is a different version of how the lion cub got his name.

  “When Whiskey was a year old” E2, 149.

  “They are known” DG, 168–169; the pilot quoted is James Norman Hall.

  “Can I fly that?” through “a mask of horror” Mason, High Flew the Falcons, 118–133.

  “A wonderful chap” DG, 246.

  Nungesser’s aggressive attacking. Mason, 118–133.

  Sixteen—A Bloody Report Card

  “From what I have observed” BHN, 167–170.

  “It seemed to us on the front” E2, 33.

  “. . . Like dueling” Lewis, Sagittarius Rising, 170.

  Udet’s entry into the German Army Air Service. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Udet

  “The fuselage of the Farman” through “You would actually seem ripe for us” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farman_F.30

  Life expectancy of fifteen hours in the air. E2, 32.

  Seventeen—Bert Hall as Thinker, Bartender, and Raconteur

  “It’s bad for the troops” BHN, 166–167.

  Hall’s wound, June 26, 1917. Recorded in Thenault’s logbook of all flights by Lafayette Escadrille pilots. BHN, 154

  Hall sees shot-down pilot. BHN, 326.

  Thaw’s wound. BHN, 141.

  “With me the great trouble is” BH, 3.

  “One afternoon” BHN, 183–187.

  Eighteen—Bad Things Happen to Good New Men

  Indian Head insignia. Jablonski, 137–138; DG, 176.

  “to fly to Chartres” DG,173

  “I tried photographic work” DG, 172.

  “With his trained and intelligent brain” DG, 173.

  “This pilot who” through “a long time afterwards” DG, 173–175.

  Nineteen—Convenient Emergencies

  “just cut out for good and all” E2, 65.

  “hanging head down” Ibid. 65–66.

  “He pushed up all right” through “I was the other” Ibid. 66.

  “That was a great gag” BHN, 172.

  Twenty—Unique Volunteers

  Biographical material on Kenneth Marr. This is a combination of what is to be found in DG, 177, and in Flammer, The Vivid Air, 120. Reading both of these sources leaves unresolved the question of whether it was Marr or his partner who actually delivered the dogs to the French. Since Flammer, 220, cites his having had an interview with Marr in September of 1960 and speaks of Marr as having brought “some dog teams to France for use in the Vosges Mountains,” I favor Marr’s account on this point.

  “I certainly felt sorry” Gordon, 317.

  “I want you all to be good children” Lloyd, Eugene Bullard, 11.

  “never be happy” Ibid. 36.

  “The whole front” Ibid. 43.

  “knew damn well” Ibid. 52.

  The ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe. www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/apjinternational/apj-s/2005/3tri05/chivaletteeng.html

  Twenty-one—The War Changes Men and Women, Some for Better, and Some for Worse

  Rumsey blinds Whiskey in one eye. DG, 99–100.

  Effects of blinding Whiskey, and cumulative effects of alcoholism and combat stress on Rumsey Ibid. 100.

  “You couldn’t walk a block in Paris” DG, 160.

  “No one thinks” Ibid. 52.

  We are very unlucky” Ibid. 51–52.

  Details of this posthumous rivalry are in Ibid. 62, 63, 139, 140.

/>   Oberndorf mission. Jablonski, Warriors with Wings, 128–134.

  Twenty-two—Colorful Men Arrive on the Eastern Front

  “He was with” BHN, 173.

  “Aviators in groups” BP, 104.

  “He was genial . . .” Ibid. 104.

  “After having served” Ibid. 88.

  “Clever, energetic” DG, 75.

  “Early in December . . .” BH, 16.

  ‘show the Russians” Ibid. 108.

  “I hope my messages” BHN, 230.

  “asked me questions” Ibid. 230.

  “We had dinner” through “coming from a Russian Grand Duke” Ibid. 230–231.

  Out of the 1,600 men. BP, 111–112.

  Thousands of Romanians Ibid. 112.

  “The cold was intense” Ibid.

  “lost his job” Ibid. 113.

  “Everyone was arrested about twice daily” Ibid. 116.

  Leon Trotsky. BHN, 253–254.

  Ship’s manifest BP, 117 and 208, n.33. It is possible that the Korea Maru took him to Shanghai, where he boarded another ship, bound for San Francisco.

  Twenty-three—A Letter from Home, to a Young Man with a Secret

  Pilot Ned Parsons. Corrections of this account can be found in the website, www.scuttlebuttsmallchow.com/geneted.html. The account nonetheless faithfully portrays the situation described.

  “The simple truth” DG, 149.

  “with ice all around” Genet, An American for Lafayette, 161.

  “Fine day but” Ibid. 138.

  “Those two I’m convinced” Ibid. 174.

  “If I die” Lafayette Escadrille Memorial Restoration brochure, “Preserving the Legacy, Honoring the Airmen,” 7.

  [This entire account by Norman Hall is cited by Sengupta as being from JHN, II, 16–17.]

  Twenty-four—The United States Enters the War

  “I left the parade . . .” JHN, II, 17.

  “. . . 51 were obsolete” BP, 118.

  Dudley Hill. DG, 101–104.

  Studies concerning placement of squadrons and importance of parity or superiority. “Air Power: United States Participation in World War I” U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, 2. Also, Sando, Major Terrance, “American Fighter Combat During WWI,” Air Command and Staff College, March 1997, Chaper 3, 16.

  Twenty-five—A Lion in the Air Passes the Torch, and the Escadrille Bids Its Own Lions Farewell

  “Luf and Whiskey were great pals” DG, 170.

  Twenty-six—Yvonne!

  Everything Bert Hall recounts about his relationship with Yvonne is from his diary entries in BHN, the 1929 Holt edition in which his collaborator is John J. Niles. The pertinent entries begin on page 300, and the final reference to Yvonne is on page 352.

  “Of all people” Ibid. 287.

  “Everything I learned” DG, 85.

  “They have placed me” BHN, 296–297.

  “They told me” Ibid.

  colored silk stockings. Ibid. 303–313.

  “Bert, that Paulette girl” Ibid. 325.

  “The ground is absolutely smooth” Ibid. 331.

  Twenty-seven—Good-Bye, Luf. And Thank You.

  He leapt. DG, 86.

  “the rolls of bloody bandages” BHN, 349.

  Twenty-nine— The End of a Long Four Years

  Movies being made in Ithaca, New York. BP, 127.

  Rivoli Theatre appearance, NYT. November 11, 1918.

  “This picture is interesting” New York Tribune. BP, 129.

  ‘Truth is stranger than fiction’” New York Tribune. Ibid.

  “At one point in the evening” through “Hermann among them” Flood, Hitler: The Path to Power, 332, citing page 131 of Rohm, Ernst, Die geschicte eines hochverraters. Munich: Verlag Franz Eher Nachfolger, 1928.

  Thirty—L’Envoi—Farewell

  “War is a silly business” BHN, 353.

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