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672 ILLUSTRATED WORLD
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SQUADS OF AMERICANS LIKE THIS GO INTO TRAINING EACH WEEK BEHIND THE FRENCH
LINES; IN SIX WEEKS' TIME THEY BECOME FINISHED WAR AVIATORS
does not go in for the battle-plane. It
likes to do its fighting like the hawk,
swift and swooping.
Captain de Laage, a commander of the
Esquadrille Americaine, who was killed
in May of this year by a fall after his
engine went dead, developed a technique
similar to Boelcke's, the German flyer
who was called "the Hawk". Captain
de Laage, the American commander,
perfected the manoeuvre of climbing
high into the heavens when no enemy
flyers were up, flying above the clouds,
screened by them until such time as he
judged the enemy would be in the air.
Then he would slowly circle down. Picking
out his man as he would begin a
straight volplane for the earth, choosing
an angle that would just take him past
the enemy. As his downward bolt
brought him near the quarry, his machine
gun would open fire, continuing
until he was past. Generally the enemy
would be taken unguarded by the swift
descent from the clouds and would fall
an easy victim to the surprise attack.
Kiffin Rockwell, another of the Esquadrille
Americaine, like Thaw, bagged
three flyers in a single day, but they tell
a story of him that is even more thrilling.
As I heard it, he was once forced to
descend behind the German lines and
one of the Kaiser's aviators who had
been following him at once swooped
down and made him a prisoner. "You
are a brave man," said the German, with
that chivalry of the aerial fighters. "I
shall not have you taken off by soldiers,
but shall ride you back to our flying
camp." And quite pleased at the prospect
of bringing in a prisoner in his machine,
the German made Rockwell climb
into the observer's car in front of him.
"I shall send soldiers to bring in your
machine," the German remarked with an
exasperating smile, "we shall be able to
make good use of it." Rockwell ground
his teeth. The German began his flight.
He was about a thousand meters high
when Rockwell began to shift in his seat,
rocking the machine. In alarm, the German
reached forward to tap him on the
shoulder. "Stop," he shouted, "you'll
upset us." But Rockwell had other ideas.
Having lured the German into reach, he
lunged backward with his arms, turned,
clutched the German around the throat,
choked him into unconsciousness (all the
while the machine was hurtling through
space eighty miles an hour), and then
when he saw him collapse, Rockwell
calmly worked the duplicate control and
brought one German and one German
machine into the French lines as prisoners.
No wonder the French chose the
Esquadrille Americaine for Verdun !