"ONE MAN'S WAR"

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 108, 2 November 1929, Page 21

"ONE MAN'S WAR"

AMERICAN AIRMAN'S STORY

THE LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE

-. (By '-LSextus Redux.") After a dozen years or so the war of 1914-18 is sliding into a proper per•pective. The ground fog of personal interest; the poison-gas of patriotic propaganda, the hatreds and hostilities are passing, leaving but tho thin haze over all which is the atmosphere of romance. "All Quiet on the Western Front" landed on a world that was ready for it, dispassionate now and tempered by time to hear realities and bear them without resentment. We may expect from now on a series of stories which will carry, more.or loss, the stamp of truth, the genuine article without the spurious admixture of sentiment which invalidated so much of the war "literature" of the past. Suclr an authentic contribution is "One Man's War," the story of an American soldier of fortune and airman, who fought -with the Foreign Legion early in the war and, being already a trained airman, helped to form the famous Lafayette Escadrille of American flyers with the French Army, which lasted until America entered the war and has already become the basis for legend. The author, Bert Hull, was born at Bowling Green, Kentucky. He took up flying as early as 1910, at Bue, near the Pyrenees, where the air was generally calm enough for men to fly tho frail craft of those days with their low-pow-ered, uncertain engines. Hall flew a Maurice Farman with a "fog-cutter" or elevator in front and an air-cooled Beuault engine driving a pusher propeller.1- In his story, part diary and part narrative from memory, he calls it a "mechanical cow," and so it was. When I think back on those days.^iie says, I wonder how many of us came out alive. At the Buc flying Held mechanics, aeroplane manufacturers, newspaper men, and others used to shake hands with the pilots before they took oH for their first tour do Piste—the first loop of.the field. Tho manufacturers and newsPaper men were usually dressed up in formal morning suits,, somo of them with high hats. They looked like theatrical process-servers I used to have trouble in keeping my face sometimes, but it appeared to bo the thing to do— shake hands with them all and then fly. In 1910 flying was a miracle. Anyone who could afford a 'plane and Knew anything about flying it was sure of an engagement. There were lots of small and large prizes offered for spectacular flying achievements, and what was considered spectacular in those days would only be funny in 1925. I must say, however, that ma 3 y of the pilots who arc flying to-day would find it almost impossible to fly the types ot planes wo used from, say, 1910 to 1919. To-day the 'plane almost flies the pilot ; whereas in the early days a pilot either flew the plane, ana flew it skilfully,- or they buried Sim as another of those fools who thought he was kin. to a buzzard. ' THE FIRST AIR SERVICE. In this way Hall learned to fly. He changed from a Farman to a Bleriot monoplane with a Gnome motor and a tractor propeller. So equipped he became the first Air Service engaged in actual war. This was when the Turks were fighting the Bulgarians in 1913. Hall and his Bleriot were the Sultan's Air Service. His pay was 100 American dollars a day, and when the Turks offered him the paper money of their country he did not fly that day. By and-by they "welshed'a bit," says Hall, "and started to pay mo fifty dollars one day and sixty the next and forty-five the next. . . So, in view of the poor quality of the coffee and the unreliability of the Turkish exchequer, Monsieur Andre Piereo (the mechanic) and I packed up and flew into Rumania, stopping at Bucharest." And, like the condottieri of old, true soldiers of fortune, they joined the Bulgarians. The Bulgarians paid according to agreement for about thirty days. Then they welshed. In the meantime I had had news that the Turks were anxious to take us back, so like a fool I Hacked up and was about to start back to the Turkish lines. But I never got off the ground. The Bulgarians arrested me. . Hall was confined in a terrible gaol, like the Black Hole of Calcutta, and only got out when his mechanic bribed the Bulgarians with some of the money they had paid. ; They flew over to Bussia and "gave exhibitions at Rosdiena, Kishinev, and Odessa. Everywhere we took in from 4000 to. 10,000 roubles. . . My little CO-horse power Gnome rotary motor never, missed a lick all that summer. Those early rotary motors were superb pieces of mechanism." Thisvis a rather long prelude to the war—the Great War—but it serves to give an idea of what kind of man Hall ■was-—or is, for he is still alive, running the Nanking Government's air service in China, so they say. It also presents a vivid picture of early flying. - PIGHTING FOR FRANCE. Just before the war broke out, Hall crashed with his Bleriot in a wood near Bucin the Pyrenees. "I managed to extricate the 'plane, but it was a total loss; except the motor. I sold the remains for about twenty-fivo hundred francs, and returned to Paris, just in time to hear the first news of tho impending war." Hall naturally wanted to fight in the air, "but that was a future consideration. The French Government had only a .few 'planes. For the present it would be the infantry, or any old branc of: the service; we didn't care so long as we were fighting for the French Repn.blie." So, with a number of other Americans in' Paris, Hall joined the Foreign Legion. On the 25th August, 1914, the little American detachment of the Foreign Legion entrained at the Gare St. Lazare, and there took place one of those parting which are a characteristic' of Bert Hall and Ms story. I had. just reported to the transportation official, when irom a group of charmingly-dressed people cime Mile, de L.— I shan't give her name, because she has since married and het name'is known to all Paris now. .. I had long been convinced that Mile, de I/, was the most beautiful girl In Paris. .. I was by do means an,amateur judge of such commodities; I had seen female beauty in the South Seas where it grows wild; In Japan and China; in Burma; in Russia; in Germany; in Spain; in Italy; in England; and through the length and breadth of the United States. But Mile, do L. had something else. . . He describes the parting salute: "one of those delicious long kisses, the technique of "which is really only known to French women. It was like being in Asakusa Park, Tokio, in cherry blossom time,' or that very beautiful part of the first act of "La Bohcme," or April morning sunshine on the west side of Fifth Avenue, New York." With the Foreign Legion Hall took part in the Allied advance from the Ziarne to the Aisne, and saw some ',-eavy ifghticg, including hand-to-hand , work in the early trenches, in which * 2 twice killed Ms man. He applied "for work as an aviator in October, but did not get a shift until December of that year. He says: Trom 17th October, 1914, until about 15th December! didn't take my shoes off nor change my clothing in any way. Xot being able to i;tand facial hair, I used to shave in the remnants, of my coffee. . . When Thaw and Bach and I left'the Legion for the aviation section qnr good-byes were pathetic. So many of our Best frlsids were bounced off, and then I never was ona to go in for good-bye 3, anyhow. THE AIRMAN'S LIFE. The rest of the story deals with Hall's experience as a fighting pilot, first in the Morauo Saulnier 38 Escadrille, and then later with the Lafayette ■Escadrille, composed of Americans. It is a most fascinating tale.of aerial combats, ■wounds and accidents, and inter-

vals away a,t' the base or in Paris. Wherever he was, Hall always managed to make the acquaintance of some lady or other. Jt iras all part of the life of a soldier 5f fortune. Strange to say he did not drink, but he managed to enjoy life all tho same. Incidentally, he describes in a most interesting way the. development of the aeroplane during the war and how many good men wero killed in the trial of experimental machines. Then came the little Pounicr aeroplane with an SO-horse power Le itlionc engino . . . tho little 'plane went up about 200 metres, did a short turn or the field, tipped over on its nose, and took a dive at tho ground. There wasn't enough left of the remains to make a.good bouflre. These are the kind of things that happened for a good many years before the principles of aeronautical engineering were discovered. ■ The story of the Lafayette Escadrille will be of more particular interest to American reader's, but of the original seven members of March, 1916, only two, Bill Thaw and Bert Hall, survived to the end of the war. They were a great bunch of flying men, and Hall puts down the greatest as Raoul Lufbery, who was shot down on 20th May. 1918. . '' Early in 1917 Hall was sent on a diplomatic aviation mission to Russia, and his account of the Russian Revolution which he saw is one of the most interesting parts of the story and of genuine historical value. While on the Eastern Front he visited Rumania, and from Galatz flew over Sofia aud bombed the Palace where the Kaiser, the Emperor of Austria, tho King oJ Bulgaria, and the Sultan of Turkey were supposed to be meeting. This was on the 22nd February, 1917. During the month of June Hall was crossing Siberia to escape from the Bolsheviks who had made peace with the Central Powers. He reached the United States across the Pacific at the end of July. BACK IN FRANCE. Hall was back in France in January, 1918, but he was a sick and weary mail, as were many other veterans at that time, but they carried on. Most of his old flying friends had been "bumped off," as he calls it, and he was very lonely. Arid the position was serious, too. Paris was bombed on Ist February. How tlios Boi:he did give us licll. It is the first honest-to-God air raid Paris has ever had. The bombs played hell, not so much in a material way. but with the morale of tlic people. By Cod, the Americans belter hurry up, because this war has censed being a hayride. It is really getting serious. -The Boche has given up snowballing. . . And so on until the end, a diary note on the Rochambeau e"n route for America somewhere about June, 191S, Hall an invalid, for the time being: It seems to be-all over. People salute me and speak very respectfully. They make me feel like somebody, but I'm not here at all I in really back there somewhere, in the Champagne, or up in tho Chemta dcs Dames or boside Jim M'Connell in his little grave at Ham^or down at Nancy with the only honest-to-God aviator the Americans have ever produced—Kaoul Lufbery 1 War is a silly business, but there never was a time when the last bit of manhood.came cut as it came out with bur gang at the front. We can't have our cake and eat it too, therefore tho graves and the crosses and the tin hats hanging on tho crosses. And a moment later the end comes with this expression: The pen ran out of ink, and this is the end of the writing. This is a great story. Of formal literary merit, it has nothing like Remarque's "All Quiet," but it is a true picture of the life of a soldier of fortune in Franco in the Great War, and. gives, tho atmosphere of the aviation side more impressively in its careless simplicity than anything else published so. far. And ifc is cramful of detail which will assist the future historian very materially in presenting a picture of those extraordinary years in tho world's history. Numerous photographs and drawings of aircraft and airmen add to the value of this record. With the hero and author in tho compilation is associated John J. Niles. . The publishers, are Messrs. John Hamilton, Ltd. London.