Identifier: NewEnglandaviatVol1Tick (find matches)
Title: New England aviators 1914-1918; their portraits and their records
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: Ticknor, Caroline, 1866-1937, ed
Subjects: Biography Aeronautics World War, 1914-1918
Publisher: Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin Company
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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Text Appearing Before Image:
*RAOUL LUFBERY
LAFAYETTE ASCADRILLE; MAJOR, A.S., U.S.A.
Killed in action, May 19, 1918
SON of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Lufbery, of Wallingford, Conn.; was
born in France in 1886; his father being an American and his
mother a Frenchwoman. At the age of seventeen he ran away from
his home, and began his career of travel and adventure. During
the next four years he journeyed over France, Algiers, Tunis,
Egypt, Turkey, and the Balkans, working at anything that came
his way. In 1906 he returned to the U.S., and in 1907 entered the
Regular Army; he spent the next two years in the Philippines,
where he distinguished himself as a marksman (holding first
place as rifleman in his regiment).
Leaving the army at the end of his two years' service, he con-
tinued his travels; he roamed over China and Japan, finally reaching
India, where at Saignon, Cochin China, he saw his first aeroplane
in 1910, and made the acquaintance of Marc Pourpe. This famous
French trick-flyer, who was exhibiting in the Far East, engaged
Lufbery as his mechanic, and soon found him an invaluable aid.
For three years they travelled and worked together, and 1914
found them in France at the outbreak of the war. Pourpe at once
enlisted in the Air Service, with N 23, and Lufbery wished to do
the same, but being an American was forced to join the Foreign
Legion; following which he was allowed to accompany Pourpe to
the front as his mechanic.
On Dec. 2, 1914, Pourpe was killed, and Lufbery, longing to
avenge his death, at once applied for permission to fly. After a few
days he was given his brevet, and was enrolled in the celebrated
Escadrille of Bombardment, the V 102. Six months later he was
transferred to the newly organized Lafayette Escadrille, where he
began those heroic exploits in the air that eventually won for him
the title of American Ace of Aces.
From this time on his success was rapid. On July 30, 1916, he
brought down his first plane, over Etain, and a week later van-
quished another; these successes won him his first citation from
the French Government, which read:

Model of address, of coolness, and of courage. He has distinguished
himself by numerous long-distance bombardments, and by daily combats

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Text Appearing After Image:

RAOUL LUFBERY

he has had with enemy aeroplanes. On July 30 he unhesitatingly attacked
at close range a group of four enemy machines. He shot one of them down
near our lines. Succeeded in bringing down a second on the 4th of Aug.,
1916.

A third plane was brought down in flames a few days later, and
shortly after, a fourth. Lufbery was promoted to Adjutant, and
on Oct. 12, 1916, won his fifth victory over a huge three-seater
Aviatik, shot down in flames during a bombing expedition against
the munition factories at Karlsruhe. It was during this expedition
that Norman Prince was mortally wounded.
Lufbery was now an Ace, and according to the French customw
as given a citation for each subsequent victory. He continued his
successes, and on Dec. 27 shot down two planes in one day, only
one of which, however, was officially credited to him; in one of
these combats he narrowly escaped death. For these and other
exploits he was awarded the Croix de Guerre with ten Palms, the
Medaille Militaire, and named a Chevalier in the Legion of Honor
He was the first American to receive from England the British.
Military Cross, which was bestowed upon him on June 12, 1917;
he also received three other English medals.
He was commissioned 1st Lieut, in June, 1917. During this
month he brought down his tenth enemy plane; on this occasion,
when flying alone at 18,000 feet altitude, he saw seven Boches at
a distance, but observing that one of them was cut off from the
others, he dived upon him, firing as he approached; after twenty-
five or thirty shots, his gun jammed, but he had already accom-
plished his purpose, as his foe wavered and crashed into the
German trenches.
When the U.S. entered the war, and began to prepare her own
Air Service, the experienced fighting pilots, who had been doing
their part for France, were given charge of the new American es-
cadrilles. Both Lufbery and William Thaw, who had been original
members of N 124, were commissioned Majors in the A.S., U.S.A.
Lufbery's commission was received Nov. 7, 1917, and he was made
Commanding Officer of the Lafayette Escadrille.
During the time of his service in France, Lufbery suffered much
from severe attacks of rheumatism, which at times kept him in
hospital, but although often enduring acute suffering, which was<br
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RAOUL LUFBERY

increased by the inclement weather, he continued to work with
his Squadron, carrying on with unabated enthusiasm his active
patrolling, and exposing himself to every risk.
On Sunday, May 19, 1918, Lufbery went aloft over Toul
with his fighting Squadron. Enemy machines were at this time hovering
over the American line. Seeing a German Fokker (a great armored
plane, a single-seater triplane, the first of its kind that had been
used) deep enough within the Allied territory to be cut off before
it could escape, Lufbery darted swiftly to the attack. The exact
details of the combat will probably never be known, but the Ameri-
can "Ace" was seen to fall in flames, and when 2000 feet from the
ground, he was seen to jump from the blazing mass to instant
death. When Lufbery's body was picked up, it was found to have
been practically uninjured by enemy bullets, and it has been
stated that had he been provided with a parachute attachment,
his life might have been spared for further victories. Moreover,
had his plane been equipped with a non-inflammable fuel tank, he
would no doubt have scored his nineteenth victory. As it was,
he stood officially credited with eighteen enemy planes, and was
known to have brought down many more.
At Lufbery's death the title of "American Ace" passed to Lieut.
Frank L. Baylies, upon whose death it was accorded to Lieut.
David Putnam, of Brookline.
Lufbery's body was found where he fell, in a flower garden in
the village of Maron. His machine crashed to earth in flames half
a kilometre away and was burned to ashes. The American aviators
who rushed to the spot where Lufbery lay, found him already
covered with flowers by the peasants who had seen him fall. He
was unwounded save by a bullet which had passed through the
hand that held the control lever, and set his petrol tank on fire.
Lufbery's funeral was held on May 20, 1918, and he was buried
with full military honors on the hillside back of the American
lines. Six of his fellow flyers dropped roses on the bier and an
eloquent tribute was paid by the French General, who said that
Lufbery's work was typical of the union of America and France in
the common cause. He closed his address with the simple words,
"Au revoir."

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