Lt. "Billy" Schauffler, pilot, First Aero Squadron, is writing this story. His letters add a fascinating human perspective to historic events. Young men of the era, Billy among them, eagerly joined the "Great Adventure" in the air over the Western Front. It was not all flying and fighting. He writes of French hospitality, fine wine and knee-deep mud and prays on the eve of battle for the safety of his men and the day when the sky will be silent and nightingales sing.
Major "Billy" Mitchell and civilian "Billy" Schauffler were both learning to fly in 1916 at the Curtiss Aeronautical Station, Newport News, Virginia. Student pilot "Billy" Schauffler badgered student pilot "Billy" Mitchell about getting into military flying. Captain Thomas Milling, a fellow student pilot, told Schauffler to write a letter of application which he would carry to Army Headquarters in Washington, D. C.
Billy's letter writing saga began.
The Army fashioned an application form based on Billy's letter and Milling suggested that all five civilian student pilots fill them in. They did. And within a month they were in the Army.
Lt. Schauffler tells of joining America's only operational "Air Force" equipped with eight underpowered Curtiss "Jenny" JN-3, biplanes on the Mexican border.
In France he writes with humor about flying obsolete "hand-me-down" French aircraft. He tells of Squadron camaraderie, "La vie en Escadrille." A squadron visitor wrote, "The aviator at the front regards life in a lighter vein. When it is party time their high jinks have the elements of a Wild West Show. At mealtime it is a banquet without pretty girls."
Behind the lines he delivered the first airmail to Army Divisions scattered across France. On the battle line he describes hedge-hopping, guns blazing, across no-man's-land and enduring the muzzle blast of friendly artillery to deliver messages.
Billy was a pioneer pilot in the development of aerial reconnaissance. His letters, often written within minutes after returning from battle, stir the imagination. As he describes attacks we find meaning in the motto, "Beware of the Hun in the Sun." You are there.
First Over the Front
By WILLIAM G. SCHAUFFLER, JR.AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2011 Stan Walsh
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4670-2641-3Contents
Chap. 1 Ordered to Active Duty April 26, 1917.......................................................................1Chap. 2 In France At Last Paris, September 11, 1917.................................................................19Chap. 3 French hospitality – Rain and Mud October 5, 1917.....................................................33Chap. 4 Big Guns Grumbling November 3, 1917.........................................................................43Chap. 5 Air Mail Delivery – Barney's Air Show December 2, 1917................................................49Chap. 6 Crash Landing – Guest of the Regiment December 27, 1917...............................................65Chap. 7 Dawn of a New Year January 7, 1918..........................................................................73Chap. 8 Squadron's First Victory February 7, 1918...................................................................81Chap. 9 Plessis – Belleville – Pick up New S.P.A.D.s March First, 1918..................................91Chap. 10 Cazaux – French Aerial Gunnery School April 2, 1918..................................................97Chap. 11 First Flight over the Trenches April 17, 1918..............................................................105Chap. 12 Squadron Honored – French Croix de Guerre May 5, 1918................................................119Chap. 13 A Nightingale Singing May 30, 1918.........................................................................127Chap. 14 Commanding Officer – "Pair - O - Dice" Squadron June 23, 1918........................................143Chap. 15 Sick Leave – Lt. Harold M. "Buck" Gallop Temporary C.O. July 26, 1918................................149Chap. 16 St. Mihiel Salient Campaign – Meuse – Argonne Offensive September 13, 1918.....................157Chap. 17 Third Observation Group Commander October 28, 1918.........................................................179Chap. 18 Tails Up and Flying – In Any Weather November 4, 1918................................................187Chap. 19 Fokker Bend –Citations for the Men Thanksgiving Day 1918.............................................199Chap. 20 U. .S. Air Service Staff – Action Summaries December 7, 1918.........................................211Epilogue.............................................................................................................227Glossary.............................................................................................................237Appendix A – Family Profiles...................................................................................241B – Military Profiles..........................................................................................249C – Military Airplanes.........................................................................................263D – Happy Landings Essay.......................................................................................269E – Decorations and Citations..................................................................................277Bibliography.........................................................................................................283About the Author.....................................................................................................287
Chapter One
Ordered to Active Duty (on Hotel stationary)
The Hotel St. Anthony San Antonio, Texas
First Aero Squadron Columbus, New Mexico April 26, 1917
My dear Mrs. Robinson,
I have intended to drop you a line before this, but honestly I've been so darn busy, I haven't had a chance. Of course, on the train I had all the time in the world, but the train rolled and pitched like a ship at sea, and my few experiments on postal cards were too much of a scrawl.
It's been just a week since I left you all, and it seems like a hundred years. My, how I hated to leave you all, and you can imagine how hard it was to leave the family at home. Father and Mother were just great, cheery and happy as could be on the surface, but I could see what a battle was going on under it all. Believe me, we fellows haven't half the worry and anxiety that people at home have to go through.
Buck and Maxine met me last night at the station, and it was certainly good to see them. I've just come back from reporting to Major Dodd, and now I am waiting for Buck to come for me in a car to take me out to camp.
I've got several other letters to write, so I must stop. This letter is meant for all of you, and takes my thanks to you for everything you all did for me to make my stay in Newport News such a happy one. I'll never be able to thank you enough for allowing me to make your home my home in so many ways. Cordially yours, Billy
Editor's Note:
Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Robinson (Perle) opened their home in Newport News, Virginia to young student pilots at the Curtiss Aeronautical Station.
It was more than a Bed and Breakfast; it was a home away from home. Mrs. Robinson, (Perle), and her children, Ellen, Julia and others became Billy's extended family. Perle offered gracious southern hospitality and was affectionately called "Mother" Robinson by the young airmen. They made lasting friendships.
During his busy days with mounting responsibilities Billy always included the Robinsons in his correspondence. He never forgot the good times he had at their home and expressed his appreciation with affection for their friendship and prayers.
Headquarters First Aero Squadron, Signal Corps Columbus, New Mexico May 27, 1917
Dear Family,
Your last Bulletin came just before we got our orders at San Antonio to join the First Aero Squadron here in Columbus "At Once" and prepare for foreign service. I was certainly glad to hear about all the different members of the family and about the trip to Princeton under military escort. Also, about the sock factory. Gee! I'll bet nobody in the whole United States Army has a pair of socks like the ones I received from Aunt Ray a few days ago. They are simply wonderful and I will appreciate them over on the other side, where they say good heavy socks are at a premium.
Everything is in first-class shape with me down here. Four of us at San Antonio received orders Tuesday to report here at once and here we are. We left San Antonio about 8:00 P.M. and arrived at El Paso the next day a little after five. That evening after a good meal at the Hotel Sheldon (sounds like Atlantic City) we wandered around town a bit and then wrote letters. The following day a friend of Buck Gallop's took us all over the place and the surrounding country and we saw everything that was to be seen. El Paso is quite a place.
We left El Paso at 2:50 P.M. and arrived here in Columbus at 5:30 P.M. and here we are in the most God-forsaken place on the face of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona or any other desert place. Why Villa wanted to raid this place a year ago is more than anyone, except Villa, will ever know.
The town is nothing but a Post Office and a few adobe huts and a military post of a few thousand men. There is one movie in the place that makes a fortune every night showing pictures three years old at $.15 per seat and $.25 per seat if you are an officer. Some graft. Down the main street you can see holes where Villa's outfit plunked into barricaded doors and now and then on a side street you see several crosses, marking places where Mexicans fell. On the way out to our camp you see the remains of trenches and machine gun pits and many crosses.
I'm glad Villa is behaving himself these days. Off to the south, just a short distance is the boundary line. I've been in Mexico twice now, once in El Paso when I walked across the line while the sentry had his back turned and yesterday when we took a machine and a few rifles and crossed over just to say we'd been there.
I am lucky to be in this outfit. Every officer in the outfit is a prince and a wonderful pilot, but to my surprise we five Reserve Corps men hold our own when it comes to flying with any of these men who have had a great deal of experience down here on the border. They have been mighty fine to us and the whole outfit works together in great shape. The 1st Squadron is a bunch of picked men from all the other squadrons and so you can imagine how pleased I am to be in it. It certainly makes up for all the hard work I've gone through and the waiting.
Now I must run along to chow. That is the one thing down here that is very good. We've got a jewel of a Chink cook and a Chink mess boy, and we live in fine shape. I wish we could take them along to France with us, but they are on paper with the immigration people and we can't work it. The wind is going down and we are going to have a pleasant evening, I think. The wind and the sand are the worst enemies down here. All day long from 9 A.M. to sunset the wind blows at a rate of forty or fifty miles an hour and of course the sand goes right along with it. About an hour ago I looked across the street toward the mess shack, about seventy-five feet, and I could just make out the building and then only once in a while. Whenever we walk around we have to wear goggles and of course the flying is very hard down here because of the high winds, the high elevation and the sand storms. This is a letter to all you people in Lakewood especially, and whatever others whom you think would be interested.
Billy
Headquarters First Aero Squadron Columbus, New Mexico June 3, 1917
Dear Family.
Still here as you will note above, but thank heavens there aren't many more days in this place. Troop trains are going through here every day now, seven or eight a day, bound East and for France and we'll soon be moving too. We do not take as much time on the road as a regiment so I guess we are going to bring up the rear of the procession. The worst part of that is we won't have much time in New York before we sail. By the time this reaches some of you, we will probably be on transport "somewhere on the ocean."
There has been absolutely nothing to this past week. Except eat, sleep, and hunt jack-rabbits. All of our stuff is packed up ready to move so the whole outfit is taking a rest. That's what makes this waiting so long and tedious, nothing to do until tomorrow and then the same thing over again.
At Christmas I thought it would be a good idea for us of the younger generation to have a "Round Robin" letter system so that we could keep in touch with the doings of each other.
Aunt Ray has given us a medium through her "Christian Fiends" Exchange, so let's keep it up, for the Exchange letters are a great source of interest to all of us. I am sure they've saved my life down here already.
Tuesday is "Draft Day" and I sure am glad that there aren't any Schaufflers who have to register. I guess we are really well represented in all different branches of the service, aren't we? Beany, how do you like life on the Hammond's yacht ? Do you ever get a chance to navigate? And Ridge, how do you like Plattsburg? Some difference between the way things are run up there and in the Seventh. I'll bet you've learned more about soldiering in a week than you did in all the time you were down here on the border last summer.
This is a great bunch of fellows in this outfit. Captain Robertson is C.O. and is a wonder. He is the chap who had an accident last summer and was blown way south into Mexico and had to go almost four days without anything to eat, and walking at that. He left the man who was with him with all the food but one orange, and started to hike across the desert in search of aid. The rest of the men are all "Pointers", 1st Lieutenants in the line, but Captains in the Aviation Corps. I say the rest of the men; by that I mean all but the five of us who have come in from the Reserve Corps. The "Dirty Five" are together again. We've been through examinations in Washington last fall, enlistment and training at Newport News, and now we're going across together. Isn't it lucky we haven't been split up? The dope is that as soon as we get to France, we'll be made Captains, and the men who are Captains now in the outfit will be Majors. Then we'll be split up, I guess, in pairs and be given command squadrons.
Billy
Editor's Note:
During the summer of 1916 the 7th Regiment New York National Guard was deployed to the Mexican border at McAllen, Texas while General Pershing mounted a Punitive Expedition from his base in Columbus, New Mexico.
When Billy asked Beany if he ever navigated the Hammond yacht, he may have been referring to John Hays Hammond's steam yacht "Atreus" in Gloucester, MA or, more than likely, it was John Hays Hammond, Jr.'s yacht "Natalia" a 60-foot power cruiser on loan to the Navy.
To buy time while the war effort ramped up, the Navy acquired private yachts and fishing boats, bolted guns to the decks, and put them on U-boat patrol along the Atlantic coast.
Mr. Hammond, a gold mining engineer colleague of Cecil Rhodes in Africa, lived in Lakewood, N. J. between 1904 and 1910 before moving to Gloucester. During that period he was a friend and perhaps patient of Billy's father, Doctor William G. Schauffler, Sr.
Thanks to John Dandola of West Orange New Jersey, author, playwright screen writer, mystery novelist and historian, we learn that Mr. Hammond's son John protégé of Thomas Alva Edison and Alexander Graham Bell contributed to the war effort scientifically. He is lauded as the "Father of Radio Control." Other home-front scientists perfected items like the electrically heated flight suit called the "teddy bear", bulky but comfortable on high altitude reconnaissance flights.
Headquarters 1st Aero Squadron Columbus, N.M., June 10, 1917
Dearest Family:
Bulletin #5 has just arrived and I have read and re-read it several times. Aunt Ray, you certainly are a wonder to keep us all in touch with each other this way. (You bet I am for doing it several times running! It takes the War to put system into R. C. S. – Rachel Capen Schauffler)
The last time I heard from Ed he was Sgt. Major down here on the Border somewhere and I was in Newport News. Believe me, I never thought at that time that I'd be down here in so short a space of time. I can't agree with Ed on the subject of the alluring Border, Mandalay and all that. I haven't seen a good looking girl since I left El Paso, and as for senoritas with wonderful eyes and all that bosh you read about, they don't grow around Columbus. I guess they are too much in the habit of squinting their eyes to avoid the sand. Ed, you certainly haven't changed much since the old Lakewood days. Sounds just like you to make up a name for the Post Commander's daughter (if it is his daughter) and all the rest of the wild ramblings. I sure wish you were in this outfit to help us pass the time away with wild ideas. I guess the old saying about "In the spring a young man's fancies," etc.
So Joffre slapped you on the back did he, Allen? Well, I'll return it the next time I see him and ask him whether he remembers you.
I sure was mighty sorry to hear about old Col. Joy's death. Who takes his place?
I was very much surprised and shocked to hear about Uncle Harry's sudden sickness. I'd write Aunt Grace if I knew her address, but it's left me. Please let both of them know how sorry I am and give them my love. I certainly did enjoy my visit with them last spring in Lakewood. Also send word to Janet that some one of these days I'll certainly take her up in a machine with me as I promised her.
I guess all of you fellows in the training camps are being put through some pretty stiff courses. We had about the same thing in Plattsburg in 1915, but of course it didn't mean so much to us at that time; but, believe me, I have never regretted a minute of that month since. I learned more things in that one month that have helped me along down here with regular troops than I'd have learned in many years in the Guard. You fellows with three months of it will certainly be able to do things up in fine shape when you get your tickets. And Leonard, your work at the present time will mean an awful lot to you just as soon as you are old enough to go to Plattsburg or any of the other training camps.
I've just got back from El Paso where I've been for two days' leave. There wasn't very much to do there, – went to a couple of shows and chased around with Bruno Richmond in his machine quite a bit. He is a school friend of Buck Gallop's . We went out to the Country Club last night and had a few dances, but there were about ten men to every girl and a big crowd, and we didn't stay very long. The poor civilians must have had a pretty hard time, for they could not get within a mile of any girl.
As to where and what we are going to do, I can't say. It's a mystery to us all. We may be here a day, and yet again a month (the latter I doubt), but at any rate, I wouldn't be able to say. However, PLEASE NOTE: send all mail to me in the future addressed:
Lt W. G. Schauffler, Jr. 1st Aero Squadron U. S. A. c/o The Adjutant General of the Army Washington, D. C. – Please forward to proper station
Now I have to give somebody else a chance at this machine. Good luck to everybody. Here's hoping the ocean is smooth.
We had pistol practice on Friday. I made 186 out of a possible 299. I like the automatic pretty well.
Many thanks for the pine plate. It certainly smells good down here in this treeless land of sand and wind.
Just loads and loads of love, and believe me, I'll be looking forward to the next edition.
Billy
If you ever see Francis Cooley or any of his family, give them my best regards and tell him where I am and what I am doing.
War Department Washington, D.C., June 1, 1917
General Orders No. ___
It has become apparent, through the ill-considered action of certain officers in sending private telegrams, that information as to the movement of troops for service abroad, whether publication is desired or not, will become public. In order to prevent such information becoming public, officers of the army are directed not to transmit, by telegraph or otherwise, information as to the movement of troops which, it is desired not to make public or in advance of the publication of the information by the War Department.
By order of the Secretary of War, Tasker H. Bliss, Maj. Gen. Acting Chief of Staff
Official E. F. McCain The Adjutant General.
Headquarters First Aero Squadron Columbus, N. M., June 17, 1917
My Dear Aunt Ray:
The above letter will explain itself, so you will know why I am not able to write or telegraph when we expect to leave here or where we are to go when we leave here for a port of embarkation. Send letters to me as I said last week in my letter, for we may be here some time yet, and yet again we may not. The address given will reach me sure and will be the safest.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from First Over the Frontby WILLIAM G. SCHAUFFLER, JR. Copyright © 2011 by Stan Walsh. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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