Knights Without Parachutes

The End of Aerial Duels Last week’s post explained how the summer 1917 Gotha attacks on London caused Arthur Gould Lee’s squadron to be in England. Though they didn't get to fight any Gothas, they comforted the population while developing their skills at formation flying. The practice in formation flying was itself the beginning of a major change. The period that WWI aviation is best remembered for was the aerial fighting in 1916 and 1917: “when enemies in the air could fight without mercy but without hate, could even respect and admire each other’s skill and valour.” But when, on the formation of...

Attack in the Third Dimension But now wheeling swiftly across [the river], like shadows of untimely night, he saw in the middle airs below him five birdlike forms, horrible as carrion-fowl yet greater than eagles, cruel as death. Now they swooped near, venturing almost within bowshot of the walls, now they circled away. But now the dark swooping shadows were aware of [Gandalf]. One whirled towards him; but it seemed to Pippin that he raised his hand, and from it a shaft of white light stabbed upwards. The Nazgul gave a long wailing cry and swerved away; and with that...

My Great Friend, "Rick" Richthofen That's the impression Frederick Libby decided to leave when he returned to America, after a couple years of flying for the British, when Billy Mitchell requested he go teach American pilots how to fly. (Which didn't actually happen, but that's another story.) Libby didn't enjoy being asked about the war all the time (his audiences wanted gruesome stories, and as he put it, "We only were killed, not butchered.") So with one group, he inquired whether they had ever heard of the great Baron von Richthofen. "I launch forth and give the great baron his biggest buildup, how...

How to Pronounce Ypres, As Recorded by Lafayette Escadrille Pilot James Norman Hall How do you pronounce Ypres? It’s an important name in WWI history, but worrying to the non-French-speaking American afraid to appear ignorant or insulting to an ally. Ee-prez? Eye-pray? Yip-ress? The British, however, had no such worries. Part of James Norman Hall’s introduction to trench warfare (before he returned to the US, wrote Kitchener’s Mob, and then became a Lafayette Escadrille pilot) was instruction in the proper British pronunciation of French words. Hall had pronounced Ypres the French way “which put me under suspicion as a ‘swanker.’” One of...

Manfred and Lothar Wounded Lothar was wounded back in May one hundred years ago, but was still recovering when one hundred years ago last week, on the 6th of July, the Red Baron too was seriously wounded. The Red Baron had been fighting alongside his brother Lothar, who was doing quite well in aerial victories, and had tricks such as a fake fall out of the sky: "Then suddenly his airplane looped and the red machine plunged straight down, spinning all the while. Not an expected movement, but a regular fall. This is not the nicest of all feelings for the watching...