This is a collection of excerpts related in one way or the other to Kiffin Yates Rockwell.
During WWI, Pilot Kiffin Rockwell was one of France's deadliest weapons in the fight against the Germans. In July 1916 alone, Rockwell flew in 40 combat missions. The next month, he fought 34 aerial duels. An extraordinarily daring pilot, Rockwell would fly deep into enemy territory, swooping down from great heights to catch the German-manned Boche crafts completely unaware. Another interesting fact about this fierce hero of the French force? He was not French at all, but born and raised in North Carolina. In a letter to his mother, Rockwell wrote: "If I die, you will know that I died as every man should--in fighting for the right. I do not consider that I am fighting for France alone, but for the cause of humanity, the most noble of all causes."
I have take the liberty to extract a number of interesting excerpts from the book"Flying for France with the American Escadrille at Verdun" by James R. McConnell (click here for a direct link to the Kansas University archives). These are listed in no particular order below.
"...Of the other members of the escadrille
Sergeant Givas Lufbery, American citizen and soldier, but dweller in
the world at large, was among the earliest to wear the French
airman's wings. Exhibition work with a French pilot in the Far
East prepared him efficiently for the task of patiently unloading
explosives on to German military centres from a slow-moving Voisin
which was his first mount. Upon the heels of Lufbery came two more
graduates of the Foreign Legion - Kiffin Rockwell,
of Asheville, N. C., who had been wounded at Carency; Victor Chapman,
of New York, who after recovering from his wounds became an airplane
bomb-dropper and so caught the craving to become a pilot. At about
this time one Paul Pavelka, whose birthplace was Madison, Conn., and
who from the age of fifteen had sailed the seven seas, managed to
slip out of the Foreign Legion into aviation and joined the other
Americans at Pau.
There seems to be a fascination to aviation, particularly when it is
coupled with fighting. Perhaps it's because the game is new, but
more probably because as a rule nobody knows anything about it.
Whatever be the reason, adventurous young Americans were attracted by
it in rapidly increasing numbers. Many of them, of course, never got
fascinated beyond the stage of talking about joining. Among the chaps
serving with the American ambulance field sections a good many
imaginations were stirred, and a few actually did enlist, when,
toward the end of the summer of 1915, the Ministry of War, finding
that the original American pilots had made good, grew more liberal in
considering applications..."
"...Thaw, Prince, Cowdin, and the other
veterans were training on the Nieuport! That meant the American
Escadrille was to fly the Nieuport -the best type of avion de
chasse- and hence would be a fighting unit. It is necessary to
explain parenthetically here that French military aviation, generally
speaking, is divided into three groups-the avions de chasse or
airplanes of pursuit, which are used to hunt down enemy aircraft or
to fight them off; avions de bombardement, big, unwieldy
monsters for use in bombarding raids; and avions de réglage,
cumbersome creatures designed to regulate artillery fire, take
photographs, and do scout duty. The Nieuport is the smallest,
fastest-rising, fastest-moving biplane in the French service. It can
travel 110 miles an hour, and is a one-man apparatus with a machine
gun mounted on its roof and fired by the pilot with one hand while
with the other and his feet he operates his controls. The French call
their Nieuport pilot the "aces" of the air. No wonder we
were tickled to be included in that august brotherhood!
Before the American Escadrille became an
established fact, Thaw and Cowdin who had mastered the Nieuport,
managed to be sent to the Verdun front. While there Cowdin was
credited with having brought down a German machine and was proposed
for the Médaille Militaire, the highest decoration that can b
awarded a non-commissioned officer or private. After completing his
training, receiving his military pilot's brevet, and being
perfected on the type of plane he is to use at the front, an aviator
is ordered to the reserve headquarters near Paris to await his call.
Kiffin Rockwell and Victor Chapman
had been there for months, and I had just arrived, when on the 16th
of April orders came for the Americans to join their escadrille at
Luxeuil, in the Vosges.
The rush was breathless ! Never were flying clothes and fur coats
drawn from the quartermaster, belongings packed, and red tape in the
various administrative bureaux unfurled, with such headlong haste. In
a few hours we were aboard the train, panting, but happy. Our party
consisted of Sergeant Prince, and Rockwell, Chapman,
and myself, who were only corporals at that time. We were joined at
Luxeuil by Lieutenant Thaw and Sergeants Hall and Cowdin.
For the veterans our arrival at the front was devoid of excitement;
for the three neophytes-Rockwell, Chapman, and
myself-it was the beginning of a new existence, the entry into an
unknown world. Of course Rockwell and Chapman had
seen plenty of warfare on the ground, but warfare in the air was as
novel to them as to me. For us all it contained unlimited
possibilities for initiative and service to France, and for them it
must have meant, too, the restoration of personality lost during
those months in the trenches with the Foreign Legion.
Rockwell summed it up characteristically. 'Well,
we're off for the races,' he remarked..."
"...Only four days later, however,
Rockwell brought down the escadrille's first
plane in his initial aërial combat. He was flying alone when, over
Thann, he came upon a German on reconnaissance. He dived and the
German turned toward his own lines, opening fire from a long
distance. Rockwell kept straight after him. Then,
closing to within thirty yards, he pressed on the release of his
machine gun, and saw the enemy gunner fall backward and the pilot
crumple up sideways in his seat. The plane flopped downward and
crashed to earth just behind the German trenches. Swooping close to
the ground Rockwell saw its débris burning away
brightly. He had turned the trick with but four shots and only one
German bullet had struck his Nieuport. An observation post telephoned
the news before Rockwell's return, and he got a
great welcome. All Luxeuil smiled upon him-particularly the girls.
But he couldn't stay to enjoy his popularity. The escadrille was
ordered to the sector of Verdun.
While in a way we were sorry to leave Luxeuil, we naturally
didn't regret the chance to take part in the aërial activity of
the world's greatest battle. The night before our departure some
German aircraft destroyed four of our tractor and killed six men with
bombs, but even that caused little excitement compared with going to
Verdun. We would get square with the Boches over Verdun, we
thought-it is impossible to chase airplanes at night, so the raiders
made a safe getaway..."
"...Before we were fairly settled at Bar-le-Duc, Hall brought down a German observation craft and Thaw a Fokker. Fights occurred on almost every sortie. The Germans seldom cross into our territory, unless on a bombarding jaunt, and thus practically all the fighting takes place on their side of the line. Thaw dropped his Fokker in the morning, and on the afternoon of the same day there was a big combat far behind the German trenches. Thaw was wounded in the arm, and an explosive bullet detonating on Rockwell's wind-shield tore several gashes in his face. Despite the blood which was blinding him Rockwell managed to reach an aviation field and land. Thaw, whose wound bled profusely, landed in a dazed condition just within our lines. He was too weak to walk, and French soldiers carried him to a field dressing-station, whence he was sent to Paris for further treatment. Rockwell's wounds were less serious and he insisted on flying again almost immediately..."
"...The escadrille's next serious encounter with the foe took place a few days later. Rockwell, Balsley, Prince, and Captain Thénault were surrounded by a large number of Germans, who, circling about them, commenced firing at long range. Realizing their numerical inferiority, the Americans and their commander sought the safest way out by attacking the enemy machines nearest the French lines. Rockwell, Prince, and the captain broke through successfully, but Balsley found himself hemmed in. He attacked the German nearest him, only to receive an explosive-bullet in his thigh. In trying to get away by a vertical dive his machine went into a corkscrew and swung over on its back. Extra cartridge rollers dislodged from their case hit his arms. He was tumbling straight toward the trenches, but by a supreme effort he regained control, righted the plane, and landed without disaster in a meadow just behind the firing line..."
"...Kiffin
Rockwell and Lufbery were the first to get their new
machines ready and on the 23rd of September went out for the first
flight since the escadrille had arrived at Luxeuil. They became
separated in the air but each flew on alone, which was a dangerous
thing to do in the Alsace sector. There is but little fighting in the
trenches there, but great air activity. Due to the British and French
squadrons at Luxeuil, and the threat their presence implied, the
Germans had to oppose them by a large fleet of fighting machines. I
believe there were more than forty Fokkers alone in the camps of
Colmar and Habsheim. Observation machines protected by two or three
fighting planes would venture far into our lines. It is something the
Germans dare not do on any other part of the front. They had a
special trick that consisted in sending a large, slow observation
machine into our lines to invite attack. When a French plane would
dive after it, two Fokkers, that had been hovering high overhead,
would drop on the tail of the Frenchman and he stood but small chance
if caught in the trap.
Just before Kiffin Rockwell
reached the lines he spied a German machine under him flying at
11,000 feet. I can imagine the satisfaction he felt in at last
catching an enemy plane in our lines. Rockwell had
fought more combats than the rest of us put together, and had shot
down many German machines that had fallen in their lines, but this
was the first time he had had an opportunity of bringing down a Boche
in our territory.
A captain, the commandant of an Alsatian village, watched the aërial
battle through his field glasses. He said that
Rockwell approached so close to the enemy that he
thought there would be a collision. The German craft, which carried
two machine guns, had opened a rapid fire when
Rockwell started his dive. He plunged through the
stream of lead and only when very close to his enemy did he begin
shooting. For a second it looked as though the German was falling, so
the captain said, but then he saw the French machine turn rapidly
nose down, the wings of one side broke off and fluttered in the wake
of the airplane, which hurtled earthward in a rapid drop. It crashed
into the ground in a small field-a field of flowers-a few hundred
yards back of the trenches. It was not more than two and a half miles
from the spot where Rockwell, in the month of May,
brought down his first enemy machine. The Germans immediately opened
up on the wreck with artillery fire. In spite of the bursting
shrapnel, gunners from a near-by battery rushed out and recovered
poor Rockwell's broken body. There was a hideous
wound in his breast where an explosive bullet had torn through. A
surgeon who examined the body, testified that if it had been an
ordinary bullet Rockwell would have had an even
chance of landing with only a bad wound. As it was he was killed the
instant the unlawful missile exploded.
Lufbery engaged a German craft but before he could get to close
range two Fokkers swooped down from behind and filled his aeroplane
full of holes. Exhausting his ammunition he landed at Fontaine, an
aviation field near the lines. There he learned of
Rockwell's death and was told that two other
French machines had been brought down within the hour. He ordered his
gasoline tank filled, procured a full band of cartridges and soared
up into the air to avenge his comrade. He sped up and down the lines,
and made a wide détour to Habsheim where the Germans have an aviation
field, but all to no avail. Not a Boche was in the air.
The news of Rockwell's death was telephoned to
the escadrille. The captain, lieutenant, and a couple of men jumped
in a staff car and hastened to where he had fallen. On their return
the American pilots were convened in a room of the hotel and the news
was broken to them. With tears in his eyes the captain said:
"The best and bravest of us all is no more."
No greater blow could have befallen the escadrille.
Kiffin was its soul. He was loved and looked up to
by not only every man in our flying corps but by every one who knew
him. Kiffin was imbued with the spirit of the cause
for which he fought and gave his heart and soul to the performance of
his duty. He said: "I pay my part for Lafayette and
Rochambeau," and he gave the fullest measure. The old flame of
chivalry burned brightly in this boy's fine and sensitive being.
With his death France lost one of her most valuable pilots. When he
was over the lines the Germans did not pass-and he was over them most
of the time. He brought down four enemy planes that were credited to
him officially, and Lieutenant de Laage, who was his fighting
partner, says he is convinced that Rockwell
accounted for many others which fell too far within the German lines
to be observed. Rockwell had been given the Medaille
Militaire and the Croix de Guerre, on the ribbon of which he wore
four palms, representing the four magnificent citations he had
received in the order of the army. As a further reward for his
excellent work he had been proposed for promotion from the grade of
sergeant to that of second lieutenant. Unfortunately the official
order did not arrive until a few days following his death.
The night before Rockwell was killed he had stated
that if he were brought down he would like to be buried where he
fell. It was impossible, however, to place him in a grave so near the
trenches. His body was draped in a French flag and brought back to
Luxeuil. He was given a funeral worthy of a general. His brother,
Paul, who had fought in the Legion with him, and who had been
rendered unfit for service by a wound, was granted permission to
attend the obsequies. Pilots from all near-by camps flew over to
render homage to Rockwell's remains. Every
Frenchman in the aviation at Luxeuil marched behind the bier. The
British pilots, followed by a detachment of five hundred of their
men, were in line, and a battalion of French troops brought up the
rear. As the slow moving procession of blue and khaki-clad men passed
from the church to the graveyard, airplanes circled at a feeble
height above and showered down myriads of flowers..."