ANOTHER LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE MEMBER

Lafayette Escadrille

Just two days until Veterans Day, formerly called Armistice Day, which marked the end of World War One on “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918. Last year I posted about the first 7 pilots in the Lafayette Escadrille HERE. Here is another. 

QUICK FACTS: The French Foreign Legion connection to this storied squadron of American pilots came about because the United States did not enter the First World War until April of 1917 even though it began in 1914. Many American flyers volunteered to fight for the Allied Powers against the Central Powers.

*** Originally called the Escadrille Americaine, the unit had to drop that name when Germany, the Ottoman Turks and other Central Powers nations complained to the U.S. stating such a name indicated a violation of its official neutrality at that point in the war. The new name was the Lafayette Escadrille in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, the French aristocrat who served in America’s Revolutionary War. 

*** This unit was active from March 1916 to February 1918, at which time it was disestablished, and its pilots were absorbed into the official United States armed forces because America had by then been one of the belligerent nations for nearly a year.

*** Two lion cubs became the escadrille’s mascots. The pilots named them Whiskey and Soda.

*** Officers of the escadrille were French, which was standard for the French Foreign Legion.

*** 224 Americans served in the Lafayette Escadrille, with 51 slain in battle and 11 more dying from other causes. 15 pilots became Prisoners of War and 11 became Aces.

Here is another member of the group:

RAOUL LUFBERY – This future legend was born to an American father and a French mother on March 14th, 1885. He worked in everything from a chocolate factory to silver plating works before joining the United States Army from 1907–1909 as a rifleman. Lufbery served in the Philippines, where the U.S. was still fighting slave-owning Moro Muslims.   

After being honorably discharged from the army, Raoul adventured in India, Japan and China. 

In 1912, Lufbery began working in French Indochina as an airplane mechanic under the tutelage of French aviation pioneer Marc Pourpe. When the World War started in 1914, Pourpe enlisted in the French Air Force. Because America had not yet entered the war, Raoul joined the French Foreign Legion.

By late 1914, Lufbery was flying reconnaissance missions. From there he moved on to becoming a fighter pilot, then on May 24th, 1916 became a member of the Lafayette Escadrille.

Raoul – older than many of the early 20-something fighter pilots – gained a certain mystique. The fictional, idolized older pilot in the Lafayette Escadrille movie Flyboys was based partly on Lufbery.

The mascots Whiskey and Soda were trained and often cared for by Raoul, and Whiskey especially would, according to Escadrille members “follow Lufbery around the aerodrome like a pet dog.”

Our man got his first kill as a Lafayette Escadrille fighter pilot over Verdun on July 30th, 1916 and became an Ace with his fifth plane shot down on October 12th that same year. Lufbery ended the war with 17 kills and at least 8 probables.   

Raoul trained many pilots during the war, including Eddie Rickenbacker, America’s greatest Ace of World War One. On May 19th, 1918 Raoul Lufbery was shot down and killed by an Imperial German fighter pilot over Maron, France.