Lafayette Escadrille


The La Fayette Escadrille was a unit constituted in 1916 under French command, made up of volunteers who fought for France during World War I. The escadrille of the Aéronautique Militaire was composed largely of American volunteer pilots flying fighters. It was named in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, French hero of the American Revolutionary War.
. Chief Sitting Bull N124 was conserved by EC 2/4 La Fayette of the French Air Force.

History

Dr. Edmund L. Gros, a founder of the American Hospital of Paris and organizer of the American Ambulance Field Service, and Norman Prince, a Harvard-educated lawyer and an American expatriate already flying for France, led the attempts to persuade the French government of the value of a volunteer American air unit fighting for France. The aim was to have their efforts recognized by the American public and thus, it was hoped, the resulting publicity would rouse interest in abandoning neutrality and joining the fight. Authorized by the French Air Department on March 21, 1916, the Escadrille de Chasse Nieuport 124 was deployed on April 20 in Luxeuil-les-Bains, France, near Switzerland's border. Despite the unit's weak notorious status in the United States, the Escadrille proved useful for the French and Americans, taking into consideration that before the First World War, aircraft were not considered combat units. Initially, there were seven Americans pilots: Victor E. Chapman, Elliot C. Cowdin, Weston Hall, James R. McConnell, Norman Prince, Kiffin Rockwell, and William Thaw; full roster included 38 pilots.
The unit's aircraft, mechanics, and uniforms were French, as was the commander, Captain Georges Thénault. Five French pilots were also on the roster, serving at various times in command positions. Raoul Lufbery, a French-born American citizen, became the squadron's first, and ultimately their highest scoring flying ace with 16 confirmed victories before the pilots of the squadron were inducted into the U.S. Air Service.
Two unofficial members of the Escadrille Américaine, the lion cubs named Whiskey and Soda, provided countless moments of relief from battle stress to fliers.
A German objection filed with the U.S. government, over the actions of a supposed neutral nation, led to the name change to La Fayette Escadrille in December 1916, as the original name implied that the U.S. was allied to France rather than neutral.
American members of the La Fayette Escadrille transferred into the United States Army Air Service on 18 February 1918, as the 103d Aero Squadron. The French personnel formed the Escadrille SPA.124 Jeanne d'Arc.
Not all American pilots were in Lafayette Escadrille; over 200 American fliers fought for France as part of the La Fayette Flying Corps. On 3 April 1918, eleven American pilots from the Air Service of the American Expeditionary Force were assigned to Escadrille N.471, an air defense squadron stationed near Paris. American flyers served with this French unit until 18 July 1918, and it is sometimes referred to as the Second Escadrille Américaine.
The Escadrille ceased to exist on February 18, 1918. Later, and actually, it is the Escadron de Chasse 2/4 La Fayette which retook the unit designation of "La Fayette", this time however in the French Air Force.
During the existence of the Escadrille, 224 Americans served in the unit. Of those, fifty-one died in combat, an additional eleven died in non-combat. Fifteen became prisoners of war. A total of eleven pilots became aces.

Combat

The first major action seen by the squadron was 13 May 1916 at the Battle of Verdun and five days later, Kiffin Rockwell recorded the unit's first aerial victory. On 23 June, the Escadrille suffered its first fatality when Victor Chapman was shot down over Douaumont. The unit was posted to the front until September 1916, when the unit was moved back to Luxeuil-les-Bains in 7 Army area. On 23 September, Rockwell was killed when his Nieuport was downed by the gunner in a German Albatross observation plane and in October, Norman Prince was fatally injured after crashing on final approach to his airfield. The squadron, flying Nieuport and later, Spad scouts, suffered heavy losses, but it received replacements until a total of 38 American pilots eventually served with the squadron. So many Americans volunteered to fly for France that they were eventually farmed out to other French squadrons. As a group, the Americans who flew in the war for France's air service, the "Aéronautique militaire," are collectively known as the La Fayette Flying Corps. Altogether, 265 American volunteers served in the Corps.
On 8 February 1918, the squadron was disbanded, and 12 of its American members inducted into the U.S. Air Service as members of the 103rd Aero Squadron. For a brief period, it retained its French aircraft and mechanics. Most of its veteran members were set to work training newly arrived American pilots. The 103rd was credited with a further 45 kills before the Armistice went into effect on 11 November. The French Escadrille SPA.124, also known as the Jeanne d'Arc Escadrille, continued Lafayette Escadrille's traditions in the Service Aéronautique.
while with escadrille N.3 during the battle of the Somme, late 1916
EquipmentBeginningEnd
Nieuport 11 - BébéJanuary 1916March 1916
Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés SPAD VIIMay 19161928
Nieuport 17January 1916November 1928

Rif War

In the mid-1920s, France recruited some 16 former American fliers with World War I combat experience for service in the French Army of Africa, aiming to forestall American public and diplomatic support for the Rif tribes rebelling against Spanish and French colonial rule. Charles Sweeny, organizer of the RAF Eagle Squadrons, proposed to reconstitute the Lafayette Escadrille. However, Paul Ayres Rockwell, a brother of fallen Escadrille Américaine's pilot Kiffin Rockwell, wrote that "the attempt to call the unit the Lafayette Escadrille had been abandoned almost before we left Paris, as there was not one former pilot of the famous World War squadron in our group." The pilots were inducted into the French Foreign Legion in July 1925, where they formed the Escadrille de la Guarde Chérifienne in the Sultan's Guard Escadrille of the French Air Force. The rogue American squadron carried out the bombardment of Chefchaouen on September 17, 1925 against warnings from the US Department of State. Public protests in the United States led to the Chérifienne Escadrille dissolution in 1925.

Casualties

Nine pilots died in the Lafayette Escadrille while others perished after leaving the unit. More sustained non-fatal injuries. The planes flown were flimsy, and not as safe as those of later years. Engines and other parts failed, and machine-guns often jammed when they were needed. One man asked to be moved back to his infantry unit, where "he could be safe." The first pilot to be killed in action was Victor Chapman. Edmond Genet became the first American casualty of World War I following the U.S. entry into the war. Other Americans had died previous to the U.S. declaration of war, but since Genet had been active in the Escadrille since before the U.S. entry into the war, his death only a few days after the U.S. declaration of war made him the first official U.S. casualty.

Members

After the Great War, membership in the Escadrille Lafayette was claimed by over 4,000 people, "including a dozen well-known Hollywood personalities and several high government officials.
Also, from the beginning there was a great deal of confusion between American pilots who were members of the Lafayette Escadrille, a designated all-American aviation squadron of the French Service Aeronautique; and the Lafayette Flying Corps, an unofficial paper organization highlighting in its roster published during the war the names of approximately 231 American volunteer aviators who flew with more than 90 French operational escadrilles. Already existing confusion was exacerbated after a screening of the film Flyboys'' in 2006.
Five French officers and 38 American pilots, also known as "The Valiant 38", were members of the Lafayette Escadrille.

French officers

A † symbol indicates that the individual was killed in action, including those who subsequently entered the Air Service, or died of wounds received.

  1. 1Lt. Stuart Emmet Edgar
  2. Horace Clyde Balsley
  3. Stephen Sohier Bigelow
  4. Ray Claflin Bridgman
  5. Eugene Bullard* NOT in Escadrille. WAS in Flying Corps
  6. Andrew Courtney Campbell, Jr.†
  7. Victor Emmanuel Chapman†
  8. Elliott Christopher Cowdin II
  9. Charles Heave Dolan
  10. James Ralph Doolittle†
  11. John Armstrong Drexel
  12. William Edward Dugan, Jr.
  13. Christopher William Ford
  14. Edmond Charles Clinton Genet†
  15. James Norman Hall
  16. Bert Hall
  17. Willis Bradley Haviland
  19. Dudley Lawrence Hill
  20. Edward Foote Hinkle
  21. Ronald Wood Hoskier†
  22. Charles Chouteau Johnson
  23. Henry Sweet Jones
  24. Walter Lovell
  25. Raoul Lufbery†
  26. James Rogers McConnell†
  27. Douglas MacMonagle †
  28. Kenneth Archibald Marr
  29. Didier Masson
  30. Edwin C. "Ted" Parsons
  31. Paul Pavelka†
  32. David M. Peterson
  34. Norman Prince†
  35. Kiffin Yates Rockwell†
  36. Robert Lockerbie Rockwell
  37. Laurence Dana Rumsey, Jr.
  38. Robert Soubiran
  39. William Thaw
  40. Harold Buckley Willis

Citations

The Group La Fayette totalized eight citations at the orders of Air Army, bearing the right to wear the Fourragere with ribbon colors of the Croix de guerre 1914–1918, as well as the Fourragere with ribbon colors of the Médaille Militaire.

Summary

At the disappearing of the unit on January 1, 1918, the following registry noted:

World War II

La Fayette Escadrille became the third flight unit of the Groupe de Chasse 2/5 La Fayette.
NomCommandment StartCommandment End
Captain MonraisseSeptember 1939Octobre 3 1940
Lieutenant VillacèqueOctober 4, 1940January 19, 1944
Lieutenant de MonplanetJanuary 20, 1944May 8, 1945

EquipmentBeginningEnd
Curtiss H75September 1939November 1942
Curtiss H75A1July 1940September 1940
Dewoitine D.520October 1942November 1942
Curtiss P-40 WarhawkFNovember 1942March 1943
Curtiss P-40 WarhawkLMarch 1943March 1944
Republic P-47 ThunderboltDMay 1944May 1945

Tributes

The story of the Lafayette Escadrille has been depicted in three feature films:
The Lafayette Escadrille also appears in "Attack of the Hawkmen", an episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles in which Indy is temporarily assigned to the group as an aerial reconnaissance photographer.
The exploits of the Lafayette Escadrille are also captured in several works of historical fiction including: Falcons of France by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall and To the Last Man by Jeffrey Shaara.

Citations