The Lafayette Escadrille: A Photo History of the First American Fighter Squadron

by Ruffin, Steven

  STEPHEN BIGELOW returned home from the war suffering from the residual effects of his facial wound and subsequent infection. Even worse was his mental anguish from the bad memories of lost friends and close calls. The happy-go-lucky piano player never seemed to get past these crippling effects of the war. He married twice, the second union producing a daughter, but, according to Lafayette Escadrille Pilot Biographies author, Dennis Gordon, “a listlessness seemed to permeate him….” His health grew steadily worse, and on January 6, 1939—three years after his only daughter’s birth—Bigelow died in Boston of tuberculosis, compounded by alcohol abuse. He was 44 years old.

  WALTER LOVELL excelled at his administrative position in the US Air Service and, by war’s end, was married with a daughter and had attained the rank of major. During the postwar years, he worked at a variety of businesses in both France and the United States. Like so many of his fellow pilots, however, he was not destined to live a long life. He died on Long Island, New York, of a brain abscess on September 9, 1937—his 53rd birthday.

  EDWARD HINKLE recovered from the pneumonia that forced him to leave the Lafayette Escadrille, but when he did, no pilot slots were available in SPA.124. Consequently, he served as a ferry pilot and instructor, until returning to the United States to work with the Bureau of Aircraft Production. Like other Lafayette Pilots, he was involved in several different pursuits in the years after the war, but he eventually resumed his career in architecture and engineering design. The resilient Hinkle died on January 20, 1967, in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, at the age of 90. The oldest man to fly for the Lafayette Escadrille also had the longest life and outlived all but a handful of his fellow members.

  HAROLD WILLIS ended up in the POW camp at Villingen, Germany, after his unfortunate August 18, 1917, encounter with Leutnant Schulz. He found the conditions there deplorable—filthy and vermin-infested, with barely enough food to stay alive. He immediately decided he had to get out, so he joined with fellow prisoners to stage a mass escape. On October 5, 1918, Willis and several other men walked out of the camp while the guards were distracted with another escape that was in progress. While on the lam, Willis met up with a fellow prisoner, US Navy Lieutenant Edouard Victor Isaacs. Isaacs, a US Naval Academy graduate from Iowa, had been captured after his ship was torpedoed. The two men waded through swamps and streams and climbed hills and mountains for four days until they reached the Rhine River that formed the border between Germany and Switzerland. They plunged into the swift, icy water and nearly drowned before successfully reaching the opposite bank, free men. Isaacs, who later became a US Congressman, received the Medal of Honor and wrote the book Prisoner of the U-90 about his experiences. Willis resumed his career as an architect, married, and started a family. At the outset of World War II, he, Paul Rockwell, and Ted Parsons unsuccessfully attempted to organize a new Lafayette Escadrille. Willis later served in the US Army Air Forces, attaining the rank of colonel. After the war, he gained recognition as one of the country’s top ecclesiastical architects. He died of cancer on April 17, 1962, in Weston, Massachusetts, at age 73.

  KENNETH MARR flew first for the 103rd Aero Squadron, but was soon named the commanding officer of the 94th “Hat in the Ring” Aero Squadron. He ended the war with the rank of major. Afterward, Marr worked for film director John Ford at Paramount Pictures, and while there, met and married actress Alice Ward. Marr later formed a lucrative oil drilling company that enabled him to buy a 5,000-acre sheep ranch in Humbolt County, California. He died at age 78 on December 28, 1963, in Palo Alto, California.

  WILLIAM DUGAN served with 103rd Aero Squadron before being assigned to the American Aviation Acceptance Park. After the war, Dugan, now married, returned to Costa Rica and resumed his prewar job as a plantation manager with the United Fruit Company. In January 1921, a son was born to the couple, but a few days later, Mrs. Dugan developed complications and died. The grieving Dugan left his baby son in the care of a nurse and accompanied his wife’s body back to New York for burial. He returned to Costa Rica to find that his newborn son had also fallen ill, and on April 29, his three-month-old baby died in his arms. Despondent, he took a job exploring the jungles of Central America for suitable future plantation sites. In 1924, he contracted a fever and returned to New York to recuperate. There, he developed septicemia and died on September 4, 1924. William Dugan, 34 years old, was buried next to his wife and son.

  JERRY HEWITT ended the war as an artilleryman in the US Army. He later obtained a law degree but still managed to get into legal trouble. He became involved in a series of shady schemes that resulted in prison terms for embezzlement and larceny. His only defense was, “It is only when I am drinking that I do these things.” He died in Washington, DC, on May 24, 1936, an alcoholic vagrant. A group of concerned citizens, upon learning the fate of this former member of the Lafayette Escadrille, rescued his unclaimed body from the morgue and arranged for it to be interred in Arlington National Cemetery. Hewitt was 41 years old.

  Hank Jones proudly displays a Sioux Indianhead insignia that was cut from a 103rd Aero Squadron Spad and given to him when he left the squadron. Jones later donated this insignia to the National Museum of the US Air Force, where it is displayed today. It is one of the few surviving examples in existence. (US Air Force)

  RAY BRIDGMAN served with the 103rd and 139th Aero Squadrons, before becoming the commanding officer of the 22nd Aero. He ended the war with four confirmed victories. After the war, he completed his studies at Yale, married, and began his career as an educator. He spent most of his life teaching European history at New York University. By 1951, the increasingly reclusive pacifist had become despondent over the state of world affairs, as well as his declining health. On November 9, 1951, he fell or deliberately jumped from the deck of a New York Ferry and drowned. He was 56 years old.

  CARL DOLAN served with the 103rd Aero Squadron, and after the war, resigned from the Air Service to become the American Air Advisor to China. Over the years, he continued to serve in a wide variety of government and civilian positions, while remaining in contact with his friends of the Lafayette Escadrille. In November 1981, the 86-year-old Dolan attended a special reunion in France to honor the surviving aces of World War I. This trip affected his health, and Dolan—the last living pilot of the Lafayette Escadrille—died on December 31, 1981, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

  JOHN DREXEL was commissioned a major in the US Air Service after his short service with the Lafayette Escadrille. He then occupied high-level military positions until the Armistice, ending the war as a lieutenant colonel. His former squadron mates resented his rank and the key positions to which he was assigned, believing—rightly so—that they were due only to the interventions of his wealthy and influential father. After the war, Drexel moved to England and entered into banking. He lived the rest of his life there and died of a heart attack on March 4, 1958, at the age of 66.

  Ted Parsons (left) and Hank Jones in their later years, having an animated discussion, possibly about some event that occurred in the skies over France in 1917. (US Air Force)

  A military map of Northern France, showing the location of all the aerodromes from which the Lafayette Escadrille operated. The irregular red line, extending diagonally from lower right to upper left, represents the front as it existed in 1917. It varied only slightly from this during the 22 months the squadron existed. (US Military Academy, modified by author)

  An exceptionally clear panorama of a typical Lafayette Escadrille flying field. This photograph, scanned from an original Paul Rockwell negative, was taken on a busy day at Chaudun, early summer, 1917. The view is looking towards the north. Most of the airplanes pictured are Spad VIIs, some of them with their engines running, in preparation for a patrol, while a single Nieuport can be distinguished at the center of the photograph. The official squadron designation had, by this time, changed from N.124 to SPA.124. (Washington and Lee University Archives)

  “The Valiant 38” Americans who flew for the Lafayette Escadrille
. (Washington and Lee University Archives)

  Esc. N.124 Nieuport 16 N.1281

  Kiffin Y. Rockwell

  ca. July 1916

  Tomasz Gronczewski © 2015

  Esc. N.124 Nieuport 17 N.1844

  Harold B. Willis

  ca. 6 - 31 March 1917

  Tomasz Gronczewski © 2015

  Esc. N.124 Nieuport 17 N.2551

  Ravenel/Saint-Just

  ca. 25 February - 23 May 1917

  Tomasz Gronczewski © 2015

  Esc. SPA.124 Spad VII S.1615

  Harold B. Willis

  ca. 25 May - 18 August 1917

  Tomasz Gronczewski © 2015

  Esc. SPA.124 Spad VII S.1660

  Ray C. Bridgman

  ca. 27 August - 18 December 1917

  Tomasz Gronczewski © 2015

  Spad XIII S.525

  Lt. William Thaw of Esc. SPA.124

  ca. 1 October 1917 - 12 December 1917

  Alan D. Toelle © 2015

  HENRY SWEET JONES flew with the 103rd Aero Squadron until June 1918, when he was reassigned to instructor duties in the United States. After the war, he worked for a railroad and an airline, before signing on with the F.W. Woolworth Company, for which he worked for the rest of his career, managing several different stores. He died, on March 29, 1972, at the age of 79, in Clearwater, Florida.

  JAMES NORMAN HALL collected his second and third confirmed victories while serving with the 103rd Aero Squadron, and his fourth, as a flight commander in the 94th Aero. On May 7, 1918, while patrolling over enemy lines, his Nieuport 28 fighter was hit by an antiaircraft shell. Miraculously, it failed to explode but hit with enough force to knock him down, almost completely out of control. In the ensuing crash landing, Hall injured both ankles and broke his nose; worse yet, he became a prisoner of war. After repatriation, he was assigned the task of writing a history of all the American pilots who had flown for France in the war. Assisting him was Charles Nordhoff, an American who had flown for Escadrille SPA.99. Their work culminated in the comprehensive two-volume history The Lafayette Flying Corps. It was also the start of a productive literary collaboration that would last for the next 28 years, until Nordhoff’s death in 1947. Together, they penned such classics as Falcons of France, Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea, and Pitcairn’s Island. James Norman Hall, a soldier, pilot, and author who had served under three different flags, died in his beloved Tahiti of heart disease on July 6, 1951. He was 64 years old.

  Captain James Norman Hall’s crashed Nieuport 28. Hall had transferred from the Lafayette Escadrille to the US Air Service and eventually became a flight commander in the 94th Aero Squadron. On May 7, 1918, he was hit by an antiaircraft shell as he patrolled over enemy lines. Fortunately for him, the shell failed to explode but it still knocked him out of the sky. He was lucky to survive. (US Air Force)

  Here, Hall sits in a German staff car, after his May 7, 1918, crash—with a broken nose, two injured ankles, and a much-needed new canine friend. A German officer took pictures of Hall and his crashed plane and gave them to him while he was still in the hospital. He spent the rest of the war as a prisoner but later enjoyed a highly successful literary career. (US Air Force)

  DAVID PETERSON served in the 103rd, 94th, and 95th Aero Squadrons, the latter as squadron commander. An exceptionally accomplished fighter pilot, he ended the war with six confirmed victories, placing him in the exclusive Lafayette Escadrille “ace club” with Raoul Lufbery, William Thaw, and Ted Parsons. On March 16, 1919, the 24-year-old US Air Service pilot crashed near Daytona Beach, Florida, after his flight controls jammed. He was buried in his hometown of Honesdale, Pennsylvania. When plans were made to move his body to the crypt of the newly built Lafayette Escadrille Memorial, the citizens of Honesdale lobbied against it. As a result, the sarcophagus that bears his name there remains empty.

  CHRISTOPHER FORD flew with the 103rd and the 213th Aero Squadrons. He excelled as a fighter pilot, downing three German planes before being brought down by ground fire and made a prisoner of war on October 15, 1918. After the Armistice, he remained in the Air Service and served in various capacities until his retirement in 1941. He died of cancer on April 9, 1945, at the age of 52, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

  After World War I, Paul Rockwell once again served in the French Foreign Legion. Here, he is pictured as a captain. In 1925, he served in Morocco during France’s participation in the Rif War. He later served in the US Army Air Forces and retired as a colonel. As the historian of the Lafayette Escadrille, he left behind a treasure trove of precious documents, correspondence, and photographs relating to the squadron and its men that he accumulated throughout his long life. This priceless collection is carefully maintained in the library archives of his alma mater, Washington and Lee University. Rockwell died at the age of 96 and is buried in the Emma Jarnagin Cemetery, Morristown, Tennessee. (Washington and Lee University Archives)

  PAUL AYRES ROCKWELL continued his profession as a writer, and in 1925, published War Letters of Kiffin Yates Rockwell, in memory of his fallen brother. That same year, he saw action in Morocco as a Foreign Legion aerial observer, during France’s participation in the Rif War. In 1930, he published American Fighters in the Foreign Legion, 1914–1918, one of the best books ever written on the subject. After he and comrades Willis and Parsons failed in their attempt to establish a new Lafayette Escadrille in France at the beginning of World War II, Rockwell joined the US Army Air Forces, where he served until his retirement in 1946 as a colonel. For the rest of his long and productive life, he remained in close contact with the men of the Lafayette Escadrille, collecting photographs, exchanging correspondence, and hosting reunions. Through his role as historian for the squadron, an unofficial position he took seriously, he became the ultimate authority on all matters having to do with the Lafayette Escadrille. He also became the squadron’s harshest critic, often castigating former members—in particular, Bert Hall—who did not measure up to his high standards. Unfortunately his characterization of these men, which was sometimes unfair, painted a false picture of them that still exists today. Later in life, he expressed regret for his unforgiving attitude toward these men, but the damage had been done. Undoubtedly, Paul Rockwell’s greatest legacy is his voluminous collection of photographs, letters, and documents that now make up the fabulous Paul Ayres Rockwell collection at the Washington and Lee University Archives. Rockwell died at the age of 96 in Asheville, North Carolina, on August 22, 1985.

  WHISKEY AND SODA, like some of their human friends, did not fare well after they left the Lafayette Escadrille. Some of the men visited the beloved mascots at the zoo whenever they were in Paris, and Whiskey in particular, was always glad to see his old comrades. However, the frigid 1916–1917 winter weather, to which the cubs had been subjected in the cold, damp huts at the aerodromes, had ruined their health. Both developed rheumatism and died soon after the war ended.

  EPILOGUE

  LEGACY

  They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

  Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

  At the going down of the sun and in the morning

  We will remember them.*

  On July 4, 1928, a large crowd gathered in a wooded park on the western outskirts of Paris. Present were former wartime aviators, their families, and numerous dignitaries from both France and the United States. The guests of honor for this solemn occasion included French Minister of War Paul Painlevé and US Ambassador to France Myron T. Herrick. A French honor guard stood at rigid attention and all others in attendance solemnly observed, as biplanes passed low overhead and the bugler sounded taps. The occasion that brought them all together at this time and place was the dedication of an impressive white marble monument that had been several years in the making.

  The Memorial

  It has now been 100 years since the young American pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille first roared through the skies over war-torn France. Even so, memor
ials of all shapes and sizes, honoring their deeds and their sacrifices, can still be found in France and the United States. The most important monument, however, is the one that was dedicated on that Independence Day, 1928. The Mémorial de l’Escadrille Lafayette—the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial—lies in the Parisian suburb of Marnes-la-Coquette. Situated on a 10-acre plot in the beautiful, wooded Parc de Villeneuve-l’Etang, it honors not only the pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille, but all the men of the greater Lafayette Flying Corps who flew for France in World War I. More than just a monument, this imposing creation of French architect Alexandre Marcel, is hallowed ground: it serves as the final resting place for 49 of the approximately 70 American airmen who flew for France and died during or soon after the war. Their remains, along with those of two of their French commanders, Georges Thénault and Antonin Brocard, are entombed in a row of stone sarcophaguses. These coffins, illuminated by 13 ornate stained-glass windows, lie in the semicircular sanctuary, or crypt, that exists below the monument.

  The memorial arc—half the size of the famed Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile—is flanked on either side by a columned wing, and all of this is centered behind a fountained pool. Carved into the monument’s stone are an array of symbolic images and inscriptions, both in English and French. The most prominent of these reads, “In Memory of the Heroes of the Escadrille Lafayette Who Died in Defense of Right and Liberty.” Also inscribed are the names of the fallen pilots, the battlefields in which they participated, and images of Washington and Lafayette—the latter, to emphasize the friendship that has existed between France and the United States since the American Revolution. The Lafayette Escadrille Memorial remains, today, the most important monument in Europe honoring American airmen of World War I.