The Escadrille Lafayette Memorial

The Escadrille Lafayette  Memorial, just outside Paris in Marnes-la-Coquette, is located within the gates of Domaine National de Saint-Cloud and is open to the public. The site commemorates the birth of American combat aviation, and serves as a symbol of the Franco-American comradeship during World War I. This site honors the American volunteer pilots who flew with French squadrons during World War I, and is the final resting place for some of America’s first combat aviators and their French Officers. An escadrille is the French word for squadron. Each year on American Memorial Day a commemorative ceremony is held at 10am.

What was the Escadrille Lafayette ?

Some Americans volunteered their service to France during World War I. They were ambulance drivers (remember Hemingway) and soldiers in the French Foreign Legion. By 1915, many volunteers began to lobby the French government to create a squadron composed of American pilots. The French finally agreed, and on April 20, 1916 the first unit constituting American flyers was placed on front-line duty. The squadron was largely made up of upper-class Americans with little flight experience and yet these early aviators fought in the Battle of Verdun and the Somme Offensive, establishing a reputation for daring maneuvers and highly effective skills. Flying was new and risky business. The planes weren’t very sturdy, and sometimes guns jammed, just when they were needed. Never the less eleven of its members were deemed flying aces, downing five or more enemy planes.

• One Franco-American pilot named Raoul Lufbery is said to have inspected and polished each bullet in his gun’s drum to help avoid jams, a frequent problem of the Lewis gun. Lufbery was also the keeper of Whiskey, the squadron’s mascot lion!
• James Rogers McConnell participated in the unit’s first patrol. The thirty-eight pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille flew Nieuport biplanes that traveled at 110 miles per hour (180 km/h). They operated from Luxeuil Field in eastern France, setting off each day at dawn, clad in fur-lined outfits for two-hour patrols. Only after the Battle of Verdun were the planes equipped with machine guns; prior to this, pilots fired machine guns with one hand while steering with the other hand. Finally the 47-round Lewis machine guns were replaced with 500-round Vickers models which synchronized with the rotating propellers -to avoid shooting up one’ s own propeller. Thank heavens for new technology.
• While on patrol alone, Captain David M. Peterson encountered two enemy planes at an altitude of 5,200 meters. He attacked despite the odds and shot down one of the enemy planes. While thus engaged he was attacked from above by the second enemy plane, and by skillful manoeuvering he succeeded in shooting it down also. Post-war, Peterson was killed in an aviation accident in Daytona Beach, Florida.

In the course of the war more than 200 Americans flew with French squadrons. The men came from various backgrounds, including authors of fiction, a professional polo player, All-American football players, an FBI special agent, and a U.S. ambassador. 38 were assigned to the Lafayette Escadrille. Collectively, all Americans in the French Air Service, were considered to be part of the Lafayette Flying Corps, an unofficial designation. Many of these aviators transferred to American squadrons once the U.S entered the war in April 1917.

After  the Armistice, Lafayette Flying Corps veterans worked with American and French leaders to build a memorial dedicated to those who flew with the Service Aéronautique. The memorial would also serve as a final resting place for many of those who lost their lives during the war.

Dedicated in 1928, the memorial cemetery consists of a central arch, half the size of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, with a French inscription on the façade, and an English translation on the back. The central arch is flanked by wings on either side that include open hallways terminating in pavilions.

The Indian head emblem is reproduced in mosaic under the arch.

 

A reflecting pool runs the length of the structure. Behind the memorial is a semi-circular terrace that forms the roof of the crypt below. Stained-glass windows in the crypt depict the major battles of the Western Front.

In the memorial crypt are 68 sarcophagi, one for each of the aviators of the Lafayette Flying Corps who lost their lives during World War I. Forty-nine of these aviators are entombed in the crypt along with two of their French commanding officers. The remainder rest in other locations, or their remains were never recovered. See the full listing of those who are honored at this site.

For the exact location and directions: link. A visit to the memorial makes a nice outing on a bike via the Parc de St Cloud

A film was made about the Escadrille Lafayette in 1958. Called Lafayette Escadrille and also known as C’est la Guerre, Hell Bent for Glory (UK) and With You in My Arms, the American war film produced by Warner Bros. It stars Tab Hunter and Etchika Choureau and features David Janssen and Will Hutchins, as well as Clint Eastwood, in an early supporting role.

Another film, an adaptation of Lafayette Escadrille called Flyboys was made in 2006. Jean Reno plays Captain Thénault (A character based on lieutenant colonel Georges Thenault – owner of the dog Fram.