WAR

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fast as the three machines spun around each other, each looking for an opening. It couldn't last long, of course, and it didn't. One of the German pilots got in a burst that smashed half of his controls and wounded Leps in the chin. His Spad tumbled down in a wild spin. Stunned and unable to co-ordinate, Leps was on his way out. "Une defaite." A ny landing you can walk away from is a good landing. 112
A few hundred feet from the ground, he regained enough control to avoid a "«* ^0^^*" fatal crash, but he was still over enemy territory. He had very little control over ^ m\ *\ his crippled ship and less height, but he decided to try for the French lines rather ^ g ftfW' than land behind the German lines and spend the rest of the war a prisoner. At tree-top height he crossed no-man's-land, having weathered the parting salutes from the rifles and small arms of the troops in the German trenches. He piled up on Mont Cornillet, a devastated hillside between the first and second French lines, his Spad a splintered and jumbled wreck. The commanding officer wanted to have him evacuated, but Leps refused to leave the squadron, for which he was awarded the Voluntary Combattants' Medal. Leps the indestructible. He was back in action in a few weeks, cited for the fourth time on July 23, 1917, for a victory he had achieved in June when he had literally shot an Albatros to pieces in the air. In all, he was cited ten times for his eps service in the Great War. His eleventh citation acknowledges the fact that this distinguished officer, a squadron commander of Groupe de Chasse XXI was grievously wounded on June 6, 1940—one war later. Leps the indestructible. Once, Leps let himself be attacked by two Albatros, calculating their moves to a nicety and judging, correctly, that if he let them make the first move, it would be easy to catch them off guard. He was alone when he caught a glimpse of the two enemy fighters in the sun about 2000 feet above him. He held his course and waited for them to commit themselves. In a moment they were coming down together, supposing, probably, that they had not been seen. Leps knew exactly how much room was needed to loop a Spad and how long the manoeuvre took, and at the right moment he gunned the engine and yanked the stick all the way back. He came down on the rear Albatros and sent a burst into it. It disintegrated. He lost two or three seconds avoiding the debris and the other Albatros pilot managed to get away by diving to the safety of his own lines. About this time Leps found occasion to experiment with a variation on the Immelmann turn which Guynemer had enunciated before him. The manoeuvre was essentially a loop. The power of the Spad made it possible to loop her fast without much slowing down near the top. That slow-down could be fatal. Leps was out alone again on a voluntary patrol when he spotted a big two-seater climbing over the German lines. After having identified it as an enemy artilleryspotter, he dived hard on it. A burst, a zoom into a loop to regain height, taking full advantage of the speed built up in the dive. Completing the loop and coming down again, he was in position to fire another burst. In his own words: "I returned to the attack to finish it off. Unspeakable horror! I perceived the bluewhite-red cockades of France! This was one of the first Dorand machines at the Front, an unfamiliar type. Although badly damaged, the aeroplane was brought to a safe landing by its admirable crew. A glass of champagne set things right between us. ". . . but Guynemer's technique did work." * * * 113
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*»&%gp&iiqfc THE MEN AND MACHINES
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Hanriot H-D 1 • France (here in B
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Photograph by Beverly Lebarrow
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COPYRIGHT © 1965 BY THOMAS R. FUND
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In acknowledging the help he has re
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the great war, as every schoolboy k
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perseverance have been beyond all p
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: ; o COLOGNE MAP Showing the Salie
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"A EUROPEAN WAR" "Never before the
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an American, Charles J. Biddle, of
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From 1300 metres the country is spr
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Pegoud
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In the autumn of 1913 Pegoud gave a
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In layout the new monoplane somewha
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Aviatik B I
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— — grudziadz is a town on the
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Stationed in home country near Bres
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Roland Garros *«« . •—;-*.;-
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twins jean and Pierre navarre were
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One day on a reconnaissance flight
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Pilot and observer/gunner in Halber
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in February of 1915 Roland Garros r
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so became enthusiastic about flying
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them disappeared in the direction o
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one of navarre's closest friends wa
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— CO. condemning the ship the men
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iefed their mechanics and packed th
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although Kriegszeitung stated expli
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ehind the British lines near Arras
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Boelckc returned to Douai in Decemb
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artillery-spotting that they didn't
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an American ace who flew in British
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The same day two other men from the
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observer seized his Parabellum and
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"THE INEVITABLE RESULT" "As I have
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21, 1916, the German Fifth Army beg
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— — * * * since the Germans hel
Page 82 and 83: among the flying personnel assemble
Page 84 and 85: on june 17, 1916, Navarre, Pivolo,
Page 86 and 87: — hnmelmann On June 18, 1916, obs
Page 88 and 89: en route to verdun the end of Febru
Page 91 and 92: 5- 3 a*i& rT& A striking demonstrat
Page 93: late in 1915 the Halberstadt Aeropl
Page 96 and 97: Seven such units were initially pro
Page 98 and 99: the quality of disinterestedness wi
Page 100 and 101: The results were uniformly nil, but
Page 102 and 103: 11,000 and about 7 p.m. saw a hosti
Page 105 and 106: British machines reached their obje
Page 107 and 108: y January 1917 von Richthofen had a
Page 109 and 110: During the summer of 1916, two Nieu
Page 111 and 112: Ball was awarded the M.C. for his e
Page 113: from the beginning of 1917 a warnin
Page 116 and 117: . The aeroplane he had destroyed wa
Page 119 and 120: Bristol F.2 "Brisfit." 99
Page 121: On this day he had just taken off w
Page 124 and 125: The Sopwith Triplane appeared in sm
Page 126 and 127: Naval Ten was formed in February 19
Page 128 and 129: It would appear that the raid was a
Page 130 and 131: 1 "Collishaw led a (second) offensi
Page 134 and 135: — Hermann becker was born in Treb
Page 136 and 137: gilbert sardier of Clermont-Ferrand
Page 138 and 139: — the storks— Groupe de Combat
Page 140 and 141: no. 20 squadron rfc was a two-seate
Page 142 and 143: 122
Page 144 and 145: on the last day of July 1917, the T
Page 146 and 147: the last instant he would tilt his
Page 148 and 149: a powerful one, but that hardly mat
Page 150 and 151: in august 1917 Naval Ten switched f
Page 152 and 153: I "The Germans kept shooting at me
Page 154 and 155: mm me Caudion G.3. ktN erwe
Page 156 and 157: Commandant Brocard. 136
Page 158 and 159: Fonck was the best shot at the Fron
Page 161 and 162: "THE SUPREMACY OF THE AIR" "Despite
Page 163 and 164: "if von richthofen liked a man it w
Page 165 and 166: albert deullin was born in Epernay,
Page 167 and 168: tion, full motor and diving slightl
Page 169 and 170: Pfalz D III In the summer and autum
Page 171 and 172: was of the semi-monocoque method, i
Page 173 and 174: Nodding, von Richthofen turned to g
Page 175 and 176: when the battle of cambrai opened,
Page 177 and 178: Cerisy, a hamlet on the left bank o
Page 179 and 180: As the two machines ahead of him zi
Page 181 and 182: "Balloon strafing became highly dev
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eed Mckinley chambers was born at O
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On March 29, James Norman Hall arri
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Lufbery. Assuming command of the 94
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IN February 1918 Oberleutnant Adolf
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y the end of May both Douglas Campb
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— Brigadier General Everett R. Co
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Biddle.
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177
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of the 95 Congressional Medals of H
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Rickenbackei eddie rickenbacker's o
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when hellmuth von zastrow began fly
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In August 1917 Theobald was posted
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— On October 1, 1917, at five o'c
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Sam, over two feet tall and acquire
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— climb all the way to ceiling go
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A dispatch from the Wolff Telegraph
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Gibbons, Floyd, The Red Knight of G
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43,53, : : : Frantz: ix, 13, 15,26
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Spad 13 • France (here in Italian
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WAR

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