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THE AVIATORS OF NEW ENGLAND WHO WHETHER IN FRANCE OR IN AMERICA FELL IN THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY |
THE Committee takes this opportunity of expressing to Miss Caroline Ticknor its appreciation of her work in compiling and editing these records. She has been untiring in her devotion and has given her ability with great sympathy and interest. Without her assistance this memorial of faith and courage could not have been achieved.
MRS. CHARLES FROST ALDRICH
MRS. J. RANDOLPH COOLIDGE, JR.
MRS. J. BERTRAM WILLIAMS
Publishing Committee
IN December, 1918, there was held in Boston a notable exhibition of portraits of New England Aviators; a collection so inspiring as to create a demand for its permanent preservation. And in response to this demand these volumes have been compiled. The Committee in charge of this project has striven to enlarge the original group, so as to include as many as possible of the New England Flyers, to be placed with their records in the accompanying volumes. It is too soon to attempt to offer any complete list of the New England Aviators; therefore, these volumes offer only a representative group of the flower of New England manhood whose courageous work in the air proved so vital a factor in the Great War.
Founded, as this work is, upon the original collection, which was thrown open to all New England Flyers, it necessarily includes many whose military service may seem of minor importance, yet all must realize, that, measured by true standards, no less fine service was rendered by the men who did their best in the American flying-fields, while longing to "get across," than by those who performed glorious service at the front. The heavy toll of life taken upon "inglorious" fields is voiced in the words of an aviator who wrote last January from Texas: "Since this field was opened about a year ago, there have been over forty men killed in crashes, and probably five times that number wounded. Of the sixteen men who came here to learn to fly with me, four are dead; six have crashed and been hurt more or less seriously. There are not many outfits which have contended for democracy on the shell-whipped fields of France which can show as high a percentage of killed and wounded."
In presenting the records included in this work, the Committee desires to state that it has had to contend with numerous obstacles. Questionnaires were sent out while the majority of the Flyers were still abroad, which made it difficult for their families to secure accurate data; some questionnaires brought back but scanty information; others failed to return at all. In calling for letters of especial interest, the Editor elicited, in many instances, a more ample response from those whose service seemed of lesser importance, while, on the other hand, but fragmentary items came in from many of those who had earned numerous citations. Moreover, in regard to the inclusion of the citations themselves the same problem arose; it was the desire of the compilers to tabulate them all, but only a portion could be obtained.
The aim of the Committee has been to make, out of dry military records, something like human documents, embodying the spirit of the men who served, as well as the outward facts concerning them. And if the letter of this work offers some unavoidable errors, the spirit, embodied in extracts from many sincere and beautiful documents, must atone for any faults in tabulation of data, and in the translation of certain questionnaires that needed a skilled interpreter.
There are a few men included in these volumes who technically belong outside of New England, but these either were in the original collection or were linked to New England by their traditions or associations. Portraits of some important Flyers could not be secured, and lack of space has made it necessary to omit others received after the assigned limit had been reached. The placing of some pictures two on a page is not significant of any distinction in value or importance, but merely the result of necessary economy of space, attained by putting in close proximity a number of the shorter records.
Had there been time and space, it would have added greatly to the value of this work to have included many more special articles dealing with various groups and branches of the Air Service. The compilers are very grateful for those which have been kindly contributed by interested Flyers.
Almost one hundred men included in these volumes gave their lives in the Service. One fifth of the contents of this work belongs to them, and to their families, to whose brave hearts these books, it is hoped, will bring comfort and satisfaction. To these heroic parents of brave sons, high tribute should be paid. They are worthy of every winner of a "gold star" and of that highest decoration, the "White Wooden Cross." They have been proud and patient, and, with a smile upon their lips, have given their best, believing that what they have given still remains theirs, bright and immortal; to them each "gold star" is a star of hope, and every "Croix de Guerre" a cross transfigured.
MODERN warfare, with the vast number of men engaged, with its, organization and its efficiency, has tended to efface the individual as compared with the action of the mass; but in this war a new weapon developed which brought back the personal exploit of the individual warrior.
The range and precision of modern guns had, at the time this war broke out, rendered inadequate the former methods of observing operations on the field of battle. But just at that time aviation had been developed as a practical art to such a point that it could be used for observing the effects of artillery and the movements of the enemy. Airplanes became an essential means of information ---the very eyes of the army. They could be used also to drop bombs upon the enemy's dépôts far to the rear.
All this involved on the part of the other army the need of interference with hostile observation and bombing planes; and as that could be done with very limited effect from the ground, armed planes were required that could attack and destroy the machines of the enemy. In accordance with the ordinary progress of warfare, the fighting planes of both sides became organized forces, trained to do battle with each other, manoeuvring in squadrons with regular formations to give the greatest strength by mutual support. Although under the command of a leader of the squadron, the individual machines --- like the separate ships in a fleet --- were handled with a far greater independence than is possible with the small units of a land force; even more so, in fact, than is the case with warships; for in an encounter in the air the suddenness of the attack, the frequent surprises, the unexpected and rapid movements of the enemy, render necessary quick movements of attack and escape by single planes that leaves much to the personal skill, self-reliance, and decision of the aviator. He was the officer and crew of his own craft, for at most there were in ordinary fighting planes only two men, the pilot and the observer.
Conditions like this appealed strongly to young men of enterprise, initiative, and daring. The risk was, of course, exceedingly great; for to be beaten in an encounter meant almost certain death; and often that was true of a serious accident to the machine. Although death came quickly, it came in a form that to most people is peculiarly terrifying; but no such dangers deterred these young men. As Philip Washburn Davis, who was afterwards killed, wrote in a letter quoted in the following pages, "Once I had determined to get into the army, I wanted to get into something where individuality counts; and it does in aviation more than anywhere else. Even if the danger is greater, the value of the service is greater, too." Were it not that the large number of aviators distracts attention from the individual exploit, these men would appear as paladins of romance; and their spirit, their adventures, and their feats would abundantly justify their being so treated.
As compared with other arms, the proportion killed was large; the more so considering that a great part of the men were in active service only a few months, some only a few weeks. There are gold stars against 95 out of the 542 names.
Some facts about the history of these aviators are interesting. A very large proportion of them were college men, some having graduated and others having left before their academic course was completed. A number of them served with the British and French forces in the line or in the air before the United States entered the war; while others were members of one or other of the ambulance corps before that date. These were men who saw clearly from the early days of the war that it was a conflict for all that is most precious in civilization; and they felt keenly the longing to aid those who were fighting for moral standards in the world.
To gather and publish the records of the aviators from New England who took an active part in the war was an excellent project, which one may hope will be followed in the rest of the country; for whether they be dead or living, their deeds are worthy of any commemoration and honor that can be given.
A. LAWRENCE LOWELL
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
November, 1919
[This article, reproduced by the kind permission of the author, was written on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition of the Aviation pictures. Mr. Chamberlin's only son, Raymond Chamberlin, of the 102d Machine Gun Battalion, U.S.A., was killed in action in August, 1918.]
WONDERFUL faces of bravest boys! In the whole world there is nothing more significant than these photographs. We are told that God sifted three kingdoms to find the wheat for the planting of our American Nation. If that is so, here is another sifting of our whole Nation (in this collection mostly a sifting of our New England corner of it) to find this golden grain of buoyant adventure, of skill, of matchless courage, of willing sacrifice for the greatest end, that we see on these walls.
Faces and faces--- faces of New England boys --- faces all of boys, for the men of forty that we see among the French aviators0 are wanting here; faces, all of them, marked abundantly with that "sweet attractive kind of grace" that the old poet described as "continual comfort in a face"; not a hard face among them; faces of boys that look out on the world with that sort of expression that one would wear in opening a morning window on a sun-flooded world on a holiday; expectation of and confidence in a good world written in all these eager eyes, yet seriousness and devotion in every face.
In many of these young flyers' faces one sees, indeed, the smile. It is the native smile of that same "attractive grace." But always underneath it there lies the serious, achieving purpose, the consciousness of a great duty instantly assumed and cheerily borne. It is (so noted the observer of the aviators0' faces who now writes these words) very like the expression that one sees on the graduates' faces on Commencement Day. There is the confident smile, but there is also the look of one fronting a big world in which there is but one thing to do, and that to acquit one's self a man; it is joy in the duty, but the duty unforgotten.
Certainly the Yankee race has never produced a handsomer type of young manhood than is shown by the photographs of these aviators0. Old-time rolled velvet collars, purple broadcloth and brocaded waistcoats, with ambrosial locks to frame the faces, might have been more becoming than these stern khaki uniforms, reducing a man to his lowest terms, but the faces themselves were never, among our people, surpassed in beauty and expressiveness.
As far as the photographs of these aviators0 reveal the facial type of the young American of to-day of the best race, one would say that our evolution has produced in us a rounder, gentler face than that of the New Englander of old. The Puritan, on the whole, fades away; our picked men verge toward the Cavalier. For in spite of the return of the Puritan type here and there, few stern and no forbidding lineaments are to be seen. Nor is the Roman nose at all preponderant. The nose seems to be rather oftener a little retroussé than otherwise. Foreheads are not unduly high, nor the pale cast of thought very much in evidence.
No hollow cheeks, no sunken eyes; these are well-nourished sons of well-nourished parents, who for the most part have been sheltered from any other hardships or hard knocks than those which they have themselves sought in their sports. These are the faces that peace and plenty and comfort produce.
But what a vindication of our modern life, that it should produce no weakness as the result of all this kindly shelter, but should actually advance the race in strength! Nathan Hale could not have offered his life with a purer or less ostentatious spirit than you will find written in every one of these countenances.
Of those among the Missing who will never come back, and among those of the Golden Star, we should not, if they had absolutely known what was coming, have been fronted to-day with one smile the less, nor with a shadow on a single brow. Each one has the joyous look. He would have had it if he had known. He will wear it forever; it is always the same.
| Brave,
good, and true, I see him stand before me now, And read again on that young brow, Where every hope was new, "How sweet were life!" Yet, by the mouth firm-set, And look made up for Duty's utmost debt. I could divine he knew That death within the sulphurous hostile lines, In the mere wreck of nobly-pitched designs, Plucks heart's-ease and not rue! |