WAR

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