On this Day (WWI aviation news)

[Rookie]

Nice find Paul!

Willem

[PJ Fisher]

American First
This front-page article from rural Oklahoma on 17 May 1918, unwittingly reports America's first aerial victory of the war (which occurred one month earlier).  A quote from the Wikipedia page on the 94th Aero Squadron tells the tale in hindsight: 

"On a cloudy Sunday morning, 14 April, an alert was given and Lieutenants Douglas Campbell and Alan F. Winslow took off. A few minutes later, two enemy aircraft were seen moving through some clouds, and after a brief combat, Lt Campbell shot down one of the enemy and Lt Winslow forced the other down out of control. Both crashed on the ground. These were the first American air combat victories of World War I."

P.S. The two headlines at the bottom of the clipping suggest that there was also plenty action happening on the homefront.
(from the Guthrie Daily Leader):

[PJ Fisher]

Aerodrome Braggadocio After Fighting the 'Flying Circus'
(from the Bridgeport Evening Farmer, 18 May 1917):

[PJ Fisher]

Side-by-side Spotlights on High Society Aviators
Left: Theodore Marburg Jr. joined the RFC and nearly died on a recon mission in 1915 when his plane crashed and a wing strut pierced his knee. He became a one-legged flight instructor, and was imfamously denied entry to the US while attempting to procure a prosthetic replacement because he had previously sworn allegiance to the Crown in order to fight while the US maintained neutrality.  He married a baroness (shown below) and, after the war, attempted life as a cattle rancher.  He shot himself in the head after she abandoned him shortly thereafter.

Right: Elliott C. Cowdin, co-founding flyer of the Lafayette Escadrille at the late age of 30, became the first American to receive France's Medaille Militaire. However, the Escadrille's official historian later noted that his fellow pilots claimed 'Most of his flying was done in bars' and that he "obtained citations for work he had not done and victories he had not gained, by buying champagne for his Captains".  In early 1917 Cowdin was discharged for being unfit to fly.  His postwar years were spent playing polo and pursuing the playboy life. 

(from the Wauwatosa News, 19 May 1916). 

[PJ Fisher]

The Art of Bombing
(from the Diamond Drill, Crystal Falls, Michigan, 20 May 1916):

[PJ Fisher]

***BREAKING NEWS***
(from the Evening Edition of the West Virginian, 20 May 1918 [more headlines to follow tomorrow]):

[PJ Fisher]

More on Lufbery's Demise
(from the Hawaaian.Gazette):






p.s. Here's a shoutout to forum member 'coyotemagic' and his 2012 1/48 scale build of Lufbery's Nieuport N111: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=632.45

[PJ Fisher]

Triple Header: Two Aces and an Olympian
Today's first report features American Aviator Stephen Potter who was shot down in flames by a plane piloted by Friedrich Christiansen, Germany's only seaplane pilot to earn the Pour le Merite.  Potter was assigned to the British Royal Naval Air Station at Felixstowe.  He has been credited as the first American naval aviator to shoot down a German seaplane.  The US Navy honored Potter in 1943 by christening a Fletcher-class destroyer in his name (DD-538) ; it served beyond WWII, being mothballed in 1958.  Christiansen went on to join the Nazi Party and was ultimately imprisoned for war crimes; dying only two days after the USS Stephen Potter was officially scrapped.  The second report entwines the high-altitude victory of US athelete William H. Taylor, and the longwinded behind-the-lines victory of American ace David McKelvey Peterson, Flight Commander of the 95th Aero Squadron.  Peterson died in a flying mishap just four months after the armistice.

(from the New York Tribune, 23 May 1918):

[PJ Fisher]

First Blood: Austrian Airplanes Attack Arsenal, Ancoma and along Adriatic
The first fighting between Austria and Italy occurred on this day in 1915 with coordinated bombing, though little damage occurred.  Upon entering the conflict Italy had only 86 airplanes and 70 pilots at the ready; by war's end they had produced about 12,000 aircraft.
(from the Toledo News-Bee, 24 May 1915):

[PJ Fisher]

Men vs. Machines
Two incidents, a year apart, prove reminders that sometimes an airman's greatest foe was his own airplane and mechanical failure.  The first involves two slightly differing dispatches about the British rescue of two German 'aeroplanists' sent to sea by engine trouble (respectively from the Star-Independent and the Perth Amboy Evening News, 1915):




The second reports on how Bert Hall, of the Lafayette Escadrille, managed to fell a German plane after his own propeller started to fail, causing him to descend.  Hall's backstory is interesting- he flew for the Sultan of Turkey against Bulgaria, barnstormed through Ukraine, and served with the French Foreign Legion in Morocco... all before the Great War.  More on his adventurous life here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Hall
(from the New Britain Herald, 1916):

[PJ Fisher]

Guynemer - Boy Hero of France
An early American article focusing on France's newfound fascination with this legendary ace.
(from the Klamath Falls Evening Herald, 26 May 1916):



p.s. Here's a shout-out to rfindly who shared his 2020 1/48 scale build of the Nieuport Ni11, which Guynemer would have been flying at time this article was published: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=11688.msg217829#msg217829

[PJ Fisher]

Giving Up 3.5 Miles Up?
Tales of derring-do brought to you by the Toronto World (from 27 May 1918):

[PJ Fisher]

Navarre et Navarre - Twin Eagles Fighting For France
It is seldom remembered that the great French ace Jean Navarre's twin brother, Pierre, also flew in the Aéronautique Militaire.
     

This great read (from the Washington Sunday Star, 28 May 1916) shares their exploits and documents Pierre's hospital recovery following wounds sustained during an aerial victory while piloting a Nieuport 11 Bébé with Escadrille Spa.69. For this action he earned the Médaille militaire with the citation, "Le 8 mars 1916, a attaqué successivement à bout portant deux avions ennemis et a forcé le premier a atterrir précipitamment : au cours du second combat, a reçu trois blessures graves".  The Frères Navarre seemed destined to become twin aces, but Pierre would be dead only 6th months later from a solo flying accident... the same manner in which Jean would die three years later:

     

Sidebar:
Speaking of twins, this newspaper image of the American Ambulance Hospital depicts a man standing aside Jean Navarre bearing an uncanny resemblance to a young Ernest Hemingway, who served as an ambulance driver on the Western Front; however, a quick study suggests the dates and locations do not align.
        

[PJ Fisher]

A Busy Day Up in the Skies
(from the Deseret News, 1918)

[PJ Fisher]

In Memoriam

Nine million combat personnel died during the Great War.  Five million civilians died from military operations, occupation, hunger, and disease.  Those events directly shaped this world we now share, and the model aircraft we build are miniature mementos of our collective human experience from part of that conflict.  Today the United States honors its fallen veterans by celebrating Memorial Day.  This simple two-sentence article offers a fitting parallel, as it tells of soldiers using an airplane's remnants to mark the final resting place of a lost comrade - a memorial happening in real time.  His name is unknown, but he is remembered.

(from the Richmond Palladium and Sun-Telegram, 29 May 1918):