The inspiration for the monument came from former Lafayette Flying Corps pilot Edgar Hamilton. After the Armistice, he was one of those assigned to locate the bodies of fallen airmen. He proposed that the remains of those volunteers who had flown for France be brought together in a memorial that would appropriately honor their spirit and sacrifice. His idea was enthusiastically approved, and in March 1923, an association called the “Mémorial de l’Escadrille Lafayette” was formed to begin the process.
The memorial was a true Franco-American joint effort. France donated the land on which it was built, and it was financed with donations from the families of Lafayette Flying Corps pilots and other private donors. It was not, however, without plenty of controversy. Almost from the outset, a fight erupted between William Thaw and Frederick Prince Sr., the father of Norman and Fred Jr. The wealthy father agreed to contribute $20,000 towards the construction of the memorial, but at a price: he stipulated that his dead son, Norman, be recognized as “originator of the idea and inspirer of the purpose of Escadrille Lafayette.” Organizers agreed, but Thaw—himself, one of the squadron’s originators—challenged the senior Prince’s demand, along with his other history-altering claims. The dispute festered for several years, until Thaw’s death in 1934. Thaw won the battle, however: on April 19, 1929, Prince gave up and defiantly announced his intention not to have Norman’s remains reside in the crypt of the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial. Rather, he decided to move them to a special chapel he funded at the Washington National Cathedral—at a personal cost of more than $200,000.
The second serious controversy erupted, incredibly, on the evening before the July 4, 1928, dedication ceremony. As the attending Lafayette Flying Corps pilots gathered for a dinner at the Hôtel Chatham in Paris, a heated argument arose between some of the men from the Lafayette Escadrille and those of the greater Lafayette Flying Corps, who had served in other French squadrons. The men from the Lafayette Escadrille apparently objected to the names of the fallen Lafayette Flying Corps members appearing along with those from their own squadron. The name on the monument was, after all, “The Lafayette Escadrille Memorial.” Though seemingly petty, this disagreement nearly derailed the dedication, until calmer voices made themselves heard late into the night and resolved the dispute.
Soon after the 1928 dedication, a prominent American lawyer working in Paris, named William Nelson Cromwell, provided a generous endowment of 600,000 French francs—approximately $24,000—for the formation of the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial Foundation to ensure its future upkeep. Unfortunately, it was not enough to provide the comprehensive maintenance necessary to keep the monument—which was built on damp, low-lying land—in acceptable condition. Consequently, over the decades, it gradually deteriorated into a state of general disrepair: mold covered its surfaces, cracks formed in the stone, and water flooded its subterranean crypt.
Finally, in 2003, the US and French governments joined forces with a sum of $3 million to renovate the structure. Unfortunately, during the course of this work, further structural problems were identified. Subsequent studies indicated the need for a significantly greater amount for a proper restoration. Fortunately, at this writing, another Franco-American partnership—led by military and civilian leaders on both sides of the Atlantic—is well on the way to putting this project into action. However, as might be imagined, in spite of numerous substantial contributions, more funds are needed and will continue to be needed in the future. Those who wish to learn more about this effort and possibly contribute to the worthy cause are urged to go to the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial Restoration Working Group webpage at: http://www.worldwar1.com/pdf/Lafayette_Project.pdf
Anyone interested in visiting this historic and still-beautiful memorial can reach it via train from Paris’s Saint-Lazare station to the Garches-Marnes-la-Coquette stop. After exiting the train station at Garches, turn left (west) and walk for 1/2 mile to the park’s entrance. The memorial is open every day of the week and is well worth the effort.
In spite of its aging problems, the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial continues to serve as a tribute to the heroic young Americans who volunteered to fly and fight for France in the early days of World War I. Equally important, it still functions as an important symbol of the bond of friendship the United States and France have shared for more than 200 years. Periodically, representatives of the air forces of France and the United States gather at the monument to pay homage to the men of the Lafayette Flying Corps.
Other Reminders
There is another important part of the Lafayette Escadrille heritage that reflects France’s high esteem for the Americans who served during her hour of need. After the Lafayette Escadrille became the 103rd Aero Squadron of the US Air Service on February 18, 1918, the French Aéronautique Militaire kept the squadron’s name alive by retaining the Escadrille de Lafayette in its operational inventory. During World War II, the squadron operated under the auspices of the US Army Air Forces 12th Air Force. Flying American-built Curtiss P-40 Warhawk and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighters, it served throughout the Mediterranean theatre of the war. Afterward, this elite unit continued to serve in the French Armée de l’Air, and it remains operational to this day. At this writing, the Escadron de chasse 2/4 Lafayette operates from the French air base at Istres-Le Tubé, flying the Dassault Mirage 2000N jet fighter.
Yet another important part of the legacy of the Lafayette Escadrille is the wealth of literature that the squadron inspired. The sheer number of books and articles—this illustrated history included—that have appeared about this fabled unit over the past century is truly astounding. The list of references found in the bibliography section of this book, though by no means exhaustive, hints at the magnitude of all that has been written about the Lafayette Escadrille. Given this voluminous literary response, it is no exaggeration to assert that this unique squadron is among the most famed and revered in the history of aerial warfare. Its unprecedented renown remains undiminished today.
* * *
There is nothing glorious about warfare. Decent young people killing other decent young people—whether on the battlefield, the high seas, or in the clear blue sky—is an abomination that defies description. However, if anything good can be said about any war, it is the spirit and courage exhibited by those who accept the responsibility of fighting it. Their willingness to sacrifice life and limb for a cause in which they believe represents courage and nobility of the highest order. The American volunteers who flew for the Lafayette Escadrille exemplified this unyielding dedication to the principle of right over wrong. They had every reason to hate war and what it meant for them, yet they volunteered, fought, and—too often—died for what they considered the cause of freedom and justice.
Soaring in their open-cockpit biplanes through the hazy skies above the Western Front, the men of the Lafayette Escadrille left in their wake a flaming trail of glory and sacrifice. The tale they wrote during that unique slice of time when men fought to the death in the skies over France is one that will never be repeated—and it will never be forgotten.
* Fourth verse of the World War I poem For the Fallen by Robert Laurence Binyon, which first appeared in the British newspaper The Times on September 21, 1914.
APPENDIX A
Lafayette Escadrille Operating Locations, 1916–1918
APPENDIX B
Lafayette Escadrille Roster
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Listed here are some of the more useful references dealing directly or indirectly with the Lafayette Escadrille that have appeared over the past century. Included are general histories, which provide good overviews of the topic, as well as first-person accounts and biographies. The latter, although sometimes limited in scope, serve to illuminate the human aspect of the young pilots that a factual overview cannot always provide. All are recommended.
Babbitt, George F. Norman Prince: A Volunteer Who Died for the Cause He Loved. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1917.
Bowe, John and
Charles L. MacGregor. Soldiers of the Legion. Chicago: Peterson Linotyping Company, 1918.
Brown, Philip C. “Pavelka of the Lafayette,” Cross & Cockade Journal 19(2), Summer 1978, pp. 97–108.
Cavanaugh, Robert L. “U.S. Army Intelligence Report on l’Escadrille Americaine,” Cross & Cockade Journal 20(1), Spring 1979, pp. 39–65.
Channing, Grace Ellery (ed). War Letters of Edmond Genet: The First American Aviator Killed Flying the Stars and Stripes. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1918.
Chapman, John J. Victor Chapman’s Letters from France, with Memoir by John Jay Chapman. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1917.
Connell, Dennis and Frank W. Bailey. “Victory Logs: Lafayette Escadrille and Lafayette Flying Corps,” Cross & Cockade Journal 21(4), Winter 1980, pp. 351–368.
“The Diary of H. Clyde Balsley,” Cross & Cockade Journal 18(2), Summer 1977, pp. 97–123.
Fisher, Howard G. “Lafayette Escadrille Spad S.VII, S.1777: Whose Aircraft?” Over the Front, Fall 2000, pp. 195–205.
Flammer, Philip M. The Vivid Air: The Lafayette Escadrille. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press 1981.
Flood, Charles Bracelen. First to Fly: The Story of the Lafayette Escadrille, the American Heroes Who Flew For France in World War I. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2015.
Franks, Norman L.R. and Frank W. Bailey. Over the Front: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the United States and French Air Services, 1914–1918. London: Grub Street, 1992.
Genet, Edmund Charles Clinton. An American for Lafayette: The Diaries of E.C.C. Genet, Lafayette Escadrille. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1982.
Gordon, Dennis. “Dudley Hill of Escadrille Lafayette,” Cross & Cockade Journal 24(3), Autumn 1983, pp. 253–259.
Gordon, Dennis. Lafayette Escadrille Pilot Biographies. Missoula, MT: The Doughboy Historical Society, 1991.
Gordon, Dennis. The Lafayette Flying Corps: The American Volunteers in the French Air Service in World War One. Atglen, PA: Shiffer Military History, 2000.
Guttman, Jon. SPA 124 Lafayette Escadrille: American Volunteer Airmen in World War I. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing Ltd., 2004.
Hall, Bert. En l’Air. New York: The New Library, 1918.
Hall, Bert and John J. Niles. One Man’s War: The Story of the Lafayette Escadrille. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1928.
Hall, James Norman. High Adventure: A Narrative of Air Fighting in France. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1918.
Hall, James Norman and Charles B. Nordhoff. The Lafayette Flying Corps in Two Volumes (Volumes I and II). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1920.
Hoskier, Ronald Wood. Ronald Wood Hoskier: Literary Fragments and Remains in Prose and Verse of Ronald Wood Hoskier 1896–1917. Boston: The McKenzie Engraving Company, 1920.
Hynes, Samuel. The Unsubstantial Air: American Fliers in the First World War. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014.
Jablonski, Edward. Warriors with Wings: The Story of the Lafayette Escadrille. New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1966.
Johnson, Terry L. Valiant Volunteers, A Novel: Based on the Passion and the Glory of the Lafayette Escadrille. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2007.
McConnell, James R. “Flying for France,” The World’s Work 33 (November 1916): 41–53; (March 1917): 479–509.
McConnell, James R. Flying for France. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Company., 1917.
Mason, Herbert Molloy. The Lafayette Escadrille. New York: Random House, 1964.
Miller, Roger G. Like A Thunderbolt: The Lafayette Escadrille and the Advent of American Pursuit in World War I. Washington, D.C.: Air Force History Museums Program, 2007.
Nordhoff, Charles and James Norman Hall. Falcons of France. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1936.
Pardoe, Blaine L. The Bad Boy: Bert Hall, Aviator and Mercenary of the Skies. Charleston, SC: Fonthill Media, 2013.
Parks, Dr. James J. “The American Eagle Insignia of the Escadrille Americaine,” Cross & Cockade Journal 15(4), Winter 1974, pp. 374–375.
Parsons, Edwin C. The Great Adventure. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran and Co., 1937. Re-published in 1963 by E.C. Seale & Company, Inc. under the title I Flew With the Lafayette Escadrille.
Rockwell, Paul Ayres. American Fighters in the Foreign Legion 1914–1918. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1930.
Rockwell, Paul Ayres. War Letters of Kiffin Yates Rockwell: Foreign Legionnaire and Aviator France, 1914–1916. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1925.
Rogers, Lt. Colonel Phillippe D., USMC. L’Escadrille Lafayette: Unité Volontaire de Combat Oubliée de l’Amérique (English version), http://www.institut-strategie.fr/?p=726, 2012.
Sengupta, Narayan. The Lafayette Escadrille: America’s Most Famous Squadron. Narayan Sengupta, 2013.
Thénault, Capitaine Georges. Escadrille N.124, Journal de Marche.
Thénault, Captain Georges (Walter Duranty, trans). The Story of the Lafayette Escadrille. Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1921.
Toelle, Alan. “A White-Faced Cow and the Operational History of the Escadrille Americaine N.124 to September 1916,” Over the Front 24(4) Winter 2009, pp. 292–337.
Vezin, Alain. Escadron de chasse La Fayette, 1916–2011: Du Nieuport au Mirage 2000N. Paris, France: Broché, 2012.
Weeks, Alice S. Greater Love Hath No Man. Boston: Bruce Humphries, Inc., 1939.
Whitehouse, Arch. Legion of the Lafayette. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1962.
Winslow, Carroll Dana. With the French Flying Corps. London: Constable & Company, Ltd., 1917.
Wynne, H. Hugh. “Escadrille Lafayette,” Cross & Cockade Journal 2(1), Spring 1961, pp. 1–90.
ARCHIVAL SOURCES
Several archives in the United States and France contain materials relating to the Lafayette Escadrille. The author found the following to be especially useful:
Paul Ayres Rockwell Papers, Washington and Lee University, Leyburn Library, Special Collections and Archives, Lexington, Viginia. This outstanding collection is deserving of special mention. The extensive collection of photographs and documents represents the life’s work of the Lafayette Escadrille’s self-appointed historian, Paul Rockwell. Paul was the older brother of pilot Kiffin Rockwell and an acquaintance of every member of the squadron. He first served in World War I with the French Foreign Legion, and later as a Paris-based war correspondent for the Chicago Daily News. From the first days of the escadrille’s existence until his death in 1985 at age 96, Paul collected and saved photographs, letters, and documents from most of the 38 men who flew for the Lafayette Escadrille. No finer collection relating to the famed squadron exists anywhere.
National Museum of the US Air Force Archive, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio
Carl Dolan Collection, United States Air Force Academy Archives, Colorado Springs, Colorado
The Willis B. Haviland scrapbooks, maintained by his grandson, Mr. Willis Haviland Lamm. This is one of the finest photo collections available relating to the Lafayette Escadrille. Many of the images can be viewed at Mr. Lamm’s excellent website, http://www.wbhaviland.net/index.html
Henry Lockhart, Jr. Collection, Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, Alabama
Blerancourt Musée Franco-Américain Archives, Chateau de Blérancourt, Blérancourt, France. This facility contains many documents and a few photographs that might be of interest to researchers. Most of the documents relate to post-World War I activities, especially relating to the establishment of the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial.
Kiffin Y. Rockwell Papers, Virginia Military Institute, Preston Library Archives and Records Management, Lexington, Virginia
James Rogers McConnell Memorial Collections, Accession #2104, University of Virginia, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, Charlottesville, Virginia
National Air and Space Museum, Archives Division, Washington, DC. Here, researchers can view several collections rela
ting to the Lafayette Escadrille, foremost of which, is the outstanding Robert Soubiran photo collection.
Grinnell College Archives, Special Collections, James Norman Hall Papers
MUSEUMS
The following lists some of the museums having artifacts and/or exhibits relevant to the Lafayette Escadrille, as well as other aspects of World War I aviation:
Blerancourt Musée Franco-Américain, Chateau de Blérancourt, Blérancourt, France
James Rogers McConnell Air Museum, Carthage, North Carolina
Musée de l’air et de l’espace (French Air & Space Museum), Paris-Le Bourget Airport, Le Bourget, France
Musée de la Grande Guerre du Pays de Meaux (Museum of the Great War), Meaux, France
National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, Virginia
National Museum of the US Air Force, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio
New England Air Museum, Windsor Locks, Connecticut
North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh, North Carolina
Vintage Aero Flying Museum: Home of the Lafayette Foundation, Fort Lupton, Colorado
The Lafayette Escadrille: A Photo History of the First American Fighter Squadron Page 22