Fighting the Flying Circus |
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94 Squadron aero aerodrome ahead Albatros altitude American Archy Army attack aviators balloon began Boche boys burst Campbell Château-Thierry chine climbing combat command Coolidge crash direction discovered dive doughboys Douglas Campbell dropped Dun-sur-Meuse enemy aeroplanes enemy machines field fighting machines fire Fismes flaming bullets flew flying Fokker formation France Frank Luke French front fusilage German German lines ground gunners guns hangars head hour Huns Jimmy Hall Jimmy Meissner knew landed Lieut Lieutenant looked Luke machine-gun Major Lufbery maneuver Metz Meuse Meuse River Mihiel miles minutes morning motor Nieuport night nose o'clock observation balloons observer officers passed patrol Pfalz photographs pilots Pont-à-Mousson position Quentin Quentin Roosevelt rear Reed Chambers Rickenbacker G. O. road Rumpler sector seen shells shot side sight Spad speed Stenay strafing straight suddenly tail Thiaucourt tion Toul Touquin troops turned two-seater Verdun victories wings yards zoomed
Popular passages
Page 361 - finis de la Guerre!" It was the finis d'aviation. It was to us, perhaps unconsciously, the end of that intimate relationship that since the beginning of the war had cemented together brothers-inarms into a closer fraternity than is known to any other friendship in the whole world. When again will that pyramid of entwined comrades — interlacing together in one mass boys from every State in our Union — when again will it be formed and bound together in mutual devotion?
Page 119 - From the frequency of accidents to our Nieuport it may be wondered why we continued to use them. The answer is simple; we had no others we could use. The American Air Forces were in dire need of machines of all kinds. We were thankful to get any kind that would fly. The French had already discarded the Nieuport for the steadier, stronger Spad, and thus our Government was able to buy from the French a certain number of these out-of-date Nieuport machines for American pilots — or go without. Consequently,...
Page 119 - Nieuport it may be wondered why we continued to use them. The answer is simple; we had no others we could use. The American Air Forces were in dire need of machines of all kinds. We were thankful to get any kind that would fly. The French had already discarded the Nieuport for the steadier, stronger Spad, and thus our Government was able to buy from the French a certain number of these out-of-date Nieuport machines for American pilots — or go without. Consequently, our American pilots in France...
Page 337 - Liberty machines (DH-4's) which, with their criminally constructed fuel tanks, offered so easy a target to the Incendiary bullets of the enemy that their unfortunate pilots called this boasted achievement of our Aviation Department their
Page 9 - one formation of five Spads crossed under us before we passed the lines and another flight of five Spads went by about fifteen minutes later and you didn't see them, although neither one of them was more than 500 yards away.
Page 360 - How can one enjoy life without this highly spiced sauce of danger? What else is there left to living now that the zest and excitement of fighting aeroplanes is gone? Thoughts such as these held me entranced for the moment and were afterwards recalled to illustrate how tightly strung were the nerves of these boys of twenty who had for continuous months been living on the very peaks of mental excitement. In the mess hall of Mitchell's Squadron...
Page 41 - In a trice I was on his tail. Down, down we sped with throttles both full open. Hall was coming on somewhere in my rear. The Boche had no heart for evolutions or maneuvers. He was running like a scared rabbit, as I had run from Campbell. I was gaining upon him every instant and had my sights trained dead upon his seat before I fired my first shot. At 150 yards I pressed my triggers. The tracer bullets cut a streak of living fire into the rear of the Pfalz tail. Raising the nose of my aeroplane slightly...
Page 89 - Kurtz had confided to him that he was subject to 108165—22 3 fainting spells when exposed to high altitudes, and the only thing he was afraid of was that he might be seized with such a fit while in the air. Alas, his fear had been only too well founded. But what a pity it was he had not confided in me, his flight commander.
Page 42 - There is a peculiar gratification in receiving congratulations from one's squadron for a victory in the air. It is worth more to a pilot than the applause of the whole outside world.
Page 14 - ... planes, both testified before the committee confirming conditions graphically contained in the book, and Rickenbacker said that statements set forth in his book were absolutely true and based on accurate data made by him at the time. On page 14 he says (p. 196 of the record) : The Germans * • • had seen the spring months pass, and Instead of viewing with alarm the huge fleet of 20,000 aeroplanes sweeping the skies clear of German Fokkers they had complacently witnessed the Fokkers occupying...