I thoroughly enjoyed this huge book. There was a large newly affluent American population in Paris before the Great War, and American born Dr Edmond Gros founded an American Hospital for them. After the Battle of the Marne, he was moved to start an American Ambulance Hospital for the thousands of wounded poilus who flooded back to Paris, and also an Ambulance Service to get them there. This was largely staffed by young Americans, some of whom wished to take a more active combatant role. Dr Gros was ideally situated to facilitate this, and started an all American Squadron for the French Flying Service. By mid June 1916, there were too many volunteers for the Squadron, so the surplus were placed in other squadrons throughout the Air Force. Hence there was the Lafayette Squadron and the Lafayette Flying Corps, so named to pacify the Germans who objected to neutral America lending its name to warriors. Sadly, there always appears to have been conflict between the two groups, which came to a head when the Lafayette Memorial was dedicated, and an intriguing story of plot and omission orchestrated very largely by Dr Gros, unfolded, which makes fascinating reading.
The book begins with a brief history of the origins of the Lafayette Flying Corps, and then goes on to deal with their training. Following are excellent essays about the enemy, the Front they served on, and Paris in wartime. Then the major part of the work: a list of all members of the Lafayette Flying Corps, and individual details of each one, right up to his death - of the Corps' 269 volunteers, 42 were killed in action, 21 in aeroplane accidents, 4 died in service from illness and 2 committed suicide. The book concludes with a description of the erection and maintenance of the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial in the outskirts of Paris up to the present time. Throughout there are many excellent photographs, and the whole is on lovely paper, beautifully bound.
When I reached the main part of the book, the list of all members, I turned immediately to 'George Miller'. I find that he enlisted in France's Service Aeronautique on 29 December 1916, and was released on 10 June 1917 because of inaptitude. There is a group photograph with him in it at the bottom of the page. I mention this to indicate the amount of research and information to be found in the book. Raoul Lufbery has seven pages including eight photographs devoted to him, and so on.
I have got to find some fault: the author seems unhappy with the French language, and 'Arch de Triumph' does not sound good. There are also quite a lot of proof reading errors - 'monituers' for 'moniteurs' frequently in the chapter about Training, although perhaps the former is more apt, having read the way pupils were trained! And the location of the Memorial seems to change; it is either at St Cloud, near Paris, just outside Paris, Villeneuve, and so on. I mention this because I have just visited and it is difficult enough to find even if you know where it is, but so worth while when you do. Why are some of the tombs empty? Why are some of the names excluded? What about the one African-American aviator in the Great War? Disregard my minor criticisms and read this wonderful book to find out.
