WAR

Commanding the Morane-Saulnier division at Villacoublay was a professional
soldier from the artillery, Capitaine Le Reverend, who was known to be
as good a judge of men as he was of machines. Largely through his good reports
to French Army Headquarters (Grand Quartier General, hereafter GQG) the
Chief of Aviation, Colonel Bares, had urged the formation of additional Morane-
Saulnier escadrilles for all army corps. Navarre had staged his pardonable deception
at the opportune moment when more M-S pilots were needed.
Sent to the M-S division at Villacoublay to take the usual conversion course
(a spot of special instruction is de rigueur when one switches from a moving van
to a racer), Navarre soon came to the attention of Capitaine Le Reverend. Le
Reverend's keen intuition told him that Navarre could be a great pilot and he
insisted on passing him through against the opposition of the instructor who
predicted glumly that Navarre would never achieve anything but to break his
own neck because he was over-confident and over-eager. For all his close calls,
Navarre didn't break so much as a wire during training. He had a feel for the
aeroplane, and when his rash enthusiasm got him into a jam he always managed
to find the right thing to do and so lived to make more mistakes and profit by them.
Assigned to M-S 12 at Muizon near Rheims, Navarre bid adieu to Villacoublay
with an exhibition of stunting.
The new squadron, commanded by Capitaine
P. de Bernis, flew Morane-Saulnier parasols on photography and reconnaissance
missions. The parasol was so named because the wing, supported by struts,
shaded the front seat like a parasol.
By April 1915 Navarre had won the Medaille militaire for two confirmed victories
and had established a reputation as a stunter among the infantry of the
sector. The poilus watched for Navarre because he never failed to put on a little
stunting show over the
trenches.
23