First to Fly: The Story of the Lafayette Escadrille, the American Heroes Who Flew For France in World War I

by Charles Bracelen Flood

If the Wright brothers’ 1903 flights in Kitty Hawk marked the birth of aviation, World War I can be called its violent adolescence—a brief but bloody era that completely changed the way planes were designed, fabricated, and flown. The war forged an industry that would redefine transportation and warfare for future generations. In First to Fly, lauded historian Charles Bracelen Flood tells the story of the men who were at the forefront of that revolution: the daredevil Americans of the Lafayette Escadrille, who flew in French planes, wore French uniforms, and showed the world an American brand of heroism before the United States entered the Great War.

As citizens of a neutral nation from 1914 to early 1917, Americans were prohibited from serving in a foreign army, but many brave young souls soon made their way into European battle zones: as ambulance drivers, nurses, and more dangerously, as soldiers in the French Foreign Legion. It was partly from the ranks of the latter group, and with the sponsorship of an expat American surgeon and a Vanderbilt, that the Lafayette Escadrille was formed in 1916 as the first and only all-American squadron in the French Air Service. Flying rudimentary planes, against one-in-three odds of being killed, these fearless young men gathered reconnaissance and shot down enemy aircraft, participated in the Battle of Verdun and faced off with the Red Baron, dueling across the war-torn skies like modern knights on horseback.

Drawing on rarely seen primary sources, Flood chronicles the startling success of that intrepid band, and gives a compelling look at the rise of aviation and a new era of warfare.

Genres: History, Aviation, Nonfiction, World War I, Military Fiction, Audiobook, Military History

288 pages, Paperback

First published June 2, 2015

About the author

Charles Bracelen Flood was born in Manhattan, and graduated from Harvard, where he was a member of Archibald MacLeish’s noted creative writing seminar, English S, and was on the literary board of the Harvard Lampoon. (In 2001, Flood was honored with the Lampoon’s Clem Wood Award; past recipients have included George Plimpton, John Updike, and Conan O’Brien.)

Love is a Bridge, Flood’s first novel, received nationwide critical attention, and was on the New York Times Bestseller list for 26 weeks. It won the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award. The twelve books he has written include the novels A Distant Drum and More Lives Than One. Praising Flood’s The War of the Innocents, his account of his year spent in Vietnam as a correspondent, John Updike said of him, “This brave and compassionate reporter’s account of a year spent with our armed forces in Vietnam tells more of the physical actualities and moral complexities of the American involvement than any other book I have read.” Flood’s Rise, and Fight Again won the American Revolution Round Table Annual Award for 1976, the Bicentennial Year, and his Hitler - The Path to Power, a History Book Club selection, was among the successful studies in history and biography that followed. All his books have also appeared in paperback.

Flood’s first venture into the Civil War era was Lee - The Last Years, which was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection and won the Colonial Dames of America Annual Book Award. Lee was followed by Grant and Sherman - The Friendship That Won the Civil War, a work that the Washington Post described as “beautifully defined and explored…a powerful and illuminating study of the military collaboration that won the war for the Union.” Salon.com named it as one of the ”Top 12 Civil War Books Ever Written.” Of his 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History, published in 2009, Lincoln’s Bicentennial Year, Kent Masterson Brown, author of Retreat from Gettysburg, said, “Lincoln walks off the pages as in no other book,” and in the New York Times Janet Maslin wrote, “Mr. Floods versatility is impressive …1864 compresses the multiple demands upon Lincoln into a tight time frame and thus captures a dizzying, visceral sense of why this single year took such a heavy toll.”

This writer’s short pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, and other magazines, and a number of his books have been translated into foreign languages. Flood’s journalistic experiences have taken him to many countries, including being a reporter for the Associated Press at the Olympics held in Melbourne, Rome, Tokyo and Mexico City. He has been a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan, and taught World Literature for two years at Sophia University in Tokyo.

Charles Bracelen Flood is a past president of the American Center of PEN, the international writers’ organization, and has served on the governing bodies of the Authors League and Authors Guild. He and his wife Katherine Burnam Flood live in Richmond, Kentucky, in that state’s Bluegrass region.

Reviews

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the Escadrille’s story, an account of what one of its surviving American volunteer pilots later called “the startling success of that intrepid band.” It is not a history of the First World War, nor a comprehensive account of that war’s aerial battles. It is not a linear history that records events in the order they occurred. This is more of a mosaic, an emotional portrait, a testament to human courage and ingenuity.

So says Charles Bracelen Flood in his Introduction.

The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk was in 1903 and the first world war began a short 11 years later. Already the Germans had seen the potential of powered flight for the prosecution of war. The Allies were not yet of that thinking, but even before the war, Americans of every sort sensed that with the airplane, something tremendously forceful and challenging had come to them. When war did come to France, there were Americans who wanted to go help France. The US was a neutral nation, and, as such, Americans could not legally don the uniform of another country. But they joined the French Foreign Legion, they drove ambulances, they doctored and nursed. And they found a way to pilot airplanes.

They flew in flimsy contraptions with faulty engines and machine guns that frequently jammed and stopped firing. Such an adventure these men had. They wanted the thrill of flying, of the dog fight, even though they knew that each time they flew they might breathe their last. There were many crashes and many of them injured and many of them did die. The author quotes letters and diaries. It seems though they knew the dangers, none of them would have avoided serving in the air service.

It would soon be renamed the Lafayette Escadrille, in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, the young French nobleman who crossed the Atlantic to fight beside George Washington during the American Revolution. I couldn't help but recognize how appropriate was this name for the American Squadron. The US would likely not have won the Revolution without the help of Lafayette. The French were of the belief they would not prevail without the help of the Americans.

I am so glad I "discovered" this book telling of this part of the war. I continue to learn more about The Great War. This is history, but very readable. Is it worth 5-stars? Probably not, but it certainly hovers near that 4-/5-star line.

[Sarah Seele · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book read like how i find out stuff about history--little fragments of primary sources here, there, & everywhere, adding up (sometimes surprisingly) to wholes over time. i enjoyed it, it was comfortable to read...it also wasn't exactly entirely...cohesive.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a cast of characters!

"... for them it was all about flying. The skies drew those men to them like moths to a flame. The idealists loved to fly. The adventurers loved to fly. The gamblers, engineers, race car drivers, writers, athletes, they all loved to fly."
Charles Bracelen Flood, First to Fly

"O! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laughter's silvered wings.
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sunsplit clouds and done a hundred things
you have not dreamed of.
Wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.
Hovering there, I've chased the shouting wind along and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious burning blue, I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace where never lark or even eagle flew.
And while, with silent lifting mind I've trod, the high untrespassed sanctity of space, put out my hand and touched the face of God."
High Flight by Pilot John Gillespie McGee, Jr. (Killed at age 19)"
Charles Bracelen Flood, First to Fly

>>Narrated by Tom Perkins
app 5.75hrs

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book about the men or at some of the men that flew with the Lafayette Escadrille. Some of the stories are men who went and joined the French foreign legion others moved to France, and still some were rich and payed the way to fly and to fight years before the U.S. entered the First World War. Some men already knew how to fly but all did not know how to fight in the air. Plus the German planes were much more advanced than either the French or the British at the beginning. Even their guns on their planes were better. The stories of how these men ended up over in Europe and the ones that made it through the entire war were amazing. Some stories were funny and of course there were sad stories as well. Pilots that would make it through the battle in the air but not make the landing. Overall this was a good book with a lot of research. I got this book from net galley.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Flood was the unofficial library scholar at our university. His breadth of knowledge of history and many other areas was impressive, and he was an extremely charismatic speaker. But even more he was a charming, kind and very thoughtful man who could relate to everyone, regardless of their background or level of education.

First to Fly offers personal insights into the aviators who first took planes into battle. It's a very engaging read.

[Lonny Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was initially disappointed with this book. It's a bit of a slow starter, describing how the Lafayette Escadrille, a group of American men flying as members of the French Army was created. Once it got going, it became a fascinating glimpse into the lives of WW1 pilots. It is not an historical record of the group. Rather it is anecdotes drawn from diaries, biographies, and military records that tell the stories of the young Americans who felt compelled to fight for France. These were primarily wealthy, highly educated men, though as the war progressed the squadron became more varied. Many went on to successful post war careers, but of course more died. They were flying planes made of wood and fabric. No armor plating to protect the pilot, no parachutes until late in the war. There are little details throughout, like how the French aristocracy welcomed them into their homes. They always got the best food, the best drink. The French were delighted to have Americans fighting alongside them. In the air however, the Germans did not care who was flying against them. What do you choose when the choices are: stay with the plane and be burned before crashing, or jump out with no chute several thousand feet in the air? They battled freezing temperatures, sucked oxygen from a tube attached to a pressurized bottle and often flew while recovering from wounds. If you would like to open a window into the first air war 100 years ago, I highly recommend this book.

[Julian Douglass · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a complete waste of my time reading this. Nothing in this book was remotely interesting, the chapters were basically character descriptions of some of the men who were in the group, no real historical narrative or anything like that. Mr. Flood describes in the first chapter that this is a "linear history" when it is really not that at all, more like him publishing the diaries of veterans from the Lafayette Escadrille. When you have 2 and a half pages of one persons account from the war, that means that either it was a story not worth telling or that there wasn't enough research done. Really disappointed that this book didn't turn out the way I wanted it too, was hoping for something better.

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Bracing tale of the exploits of the first American pilots to fly for France in the early years of World War I.

Occasionally becomes patriotic overly romanticized and almost preachy about the American flyboys, but this is only a momentary distraction for this otherwise excellent narrative based but not necessarily chronological tale. Filled with marvelous insights on their everyday lives and ably sifts through conflicting sources to give the best probable truth.

Deceptively light in tone and yet dense in subject matter, an excellent stating point for those looking for more info on the Escadrille.

[The Nutmeg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this immensely--it was filled to the brim with fun (and heartbreaking) anecdotes about WWI flyboys, so how could I not?

However, I did feel the book lacked focus in places.

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 4 out of 5]

First to Fly: The Story of the Lafayette Escadrille, the American Heroes Who Flew For France in World War I by Charles Bracelen Flood is a collection of short informative true stories of Americans at war, before America was at war. Flood was born in Manhattan and graduated from Harvard, where he was a member of Archibald MacLeish’s noted creative writing seminar, English S, and was on the literary board of the Harvard Lampoon. He is a past president of the American Center of PEN, the international writers’ organization, and has served on the governing bodies of the Authors League and Authors Guild.

Growing up I was fascinated with World War I, especially with the development of combat aircraft. While other kids were talking about F-111s and F-14s I was much more interested in SPADs and Sopwith Camels. I read about the war and still regularly re-read Ernest K Gann's In the Company of Eagles. As a middle-aged adult, I am still fascinated by the war and how it shaped the twentieth century.

Flood bases his book on the members of the Lafayette Escadrille, Americans who volunteered to fight for France in the first world war. America was still neutral and its citizens could not legally fight in the war, but joining the French Foreign Legion was a viable loophole. Some Americans joined the Legion and eventually found their way to pilot training. Other Americans volunteered to fly, and entrance into the into the program was rather lax as Flood tells of a one-eyed American passing the eye exam. France needed help and Americans were willing to step up with visions of glory. Thirty-nine Americans flew for the Lafayette Escadrille and ten would die in service including Kiffin Rockwell who scored the squadron’s first victory.

There were colorful pilots. Bert Hall was a con man and a liar, but also produced some of the most interesting stories including of how he got caught up in the Russian Revolution while training new Russian pilots. He tried to escape back into Europe, but was turned back and crossed Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, jumped a freighter to the US and ended up back in France. Edward Genet, tired of waiting for the US to enter the war, deserted the US Navy to fight for France. Genet said, “If I die wrap me in the French flag, but place the two colors upon my grave to show I died for two countries.” On April 17, 1917 he was killed by anti-aircraft fire and buried according to his wishes. Ironically, dying for two countries is what happened. Although Genet was still in the Lafayette Escadrille, America had entered the war on April 2nd making Genet the first official American casualty. Bigger than life people also had bigger than life pets like Whiskey and Soda, two lion cubs, the mascots of the squadron.

War is hell and life in planes though romanticized was also hell. Freezing at altitude facing a fiery death was a more probable outcome than glory. Even worst of time pilots were able to make the best of it. Stories of pilots flying behind enemy lines to ferry back wine or capturing a downed German pilot before he could burn his plane by punching him in the face. The German was outraged not by being shot down, but that another pilot resorted to using his hands in a fight. Flood brings the story of the horrors and the lighter side of the war to light. I wish I had this book while I was growing up. It would have made a great addition to my collection. First to Fly is a great read for all ages interested in World War I.

[Dan Keefer · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's very difficult to find readable yet informative books about World War I. There must be close to a 50-1 ratio between WWII and WWI books available, so when a good book is written about "The War to End all Wars", I recommend you check it out . . . or even buy it.

America under Woodrow Wilson is theoretically neutral (See my Dark Invasion review.), but many Americans are NOT neutral, even theoretically. America was not in the war, but many young Americans felt they should be supporting the cause of England and France, not sitting back and watching from the sidelines.

Even though it was illegal due to the US official neutrality, many men and women travelled at their own expense to fight under the English or French flags.

This book tells the stories of Americans who began by fighting in the trenches under a French flag and later volunteered to become pilots in the Escadrille (French Air Force) prior to the American entry into the war.

As their numbers grew, the Lafayette Escadrille was created for American pilots fighting under the French command. The squadron got it's name from the men's belief that they were paying back General Lafayette for his support of American revolutionaries in their time of need.

This is a short work of history (242 pages) filled with interesting insights into the day-to-day lives of number of these pilots, drawn from letters, diaries and interviews. It gives you a look behind hero embellishments where real men can be seen, warts and all.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

First to Fly: The Story of the Lafayette Escadrille, the American Heroes Who Flew For France in World War I deserves points for being one of the most succinct World War I books I've read. It is the story of Americans fighting in the war prior to the U.S.'s entry in 1917. Specifically, it's a brief history of the Lafayette Escadrille, or the French army's flight squadron that was comprised almost entirely of Americans. (In that sense, it is complementary to Over the Top, which is the memoir of an American fighting with British forces in the trenches.)

Author Charles Bracelen Flood does a great job of presenting not only, as I mentioned, an incredibly succinct rendering of the entire war, but especially of creating full-bodied portraits of each of the men who served in the Lafayette Escadrille. For what it's worth, Bert Hall and Raoul Lufbery particularly stand out.

Flood also brings home the reality of wartime flight, which was both cold and terrifying, seeing as it was conducted from open cockpits. As he notes, the war began a mere decade after the Wright Brothers took to the air. I was actually surprised at what a quick read this was, particularly in comparison to so many other war-related books. I enjoyed that it focused on a relatively obscure part of the war, given that this was a war of trenches, but the development of which was arguably the most important warfare advancement since the invention of the wheel.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating true stories of the men who took warfare into the skys in the early days of flight. Starting from primarily using aircraft to spot and report troop movements on the groung to dropping bombs by hand to having mounted machine guns, the technology, equipment, and tactics were changing too fast for anyone to even write them down, much less publish a book about it. The author follows the lives of Americans who volunteered to serve as fighter pilots in an American unit of the French air service before America entered the war. Known as the Lafayette Escadrille to honor the French Marquis de Lafayette who came to America and provided valiant service to George Washington and the American Army during our Revolutionary War. There are descriptions of heroism, horror, honor, chivalry, and more from the early days of aireal warfare. Great read for those interested in the early days of flight, the First World War, and the evolution of warfare.

[Mark Luongo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good beginning to any study of the famous flyers of the Lafayette Escadrille because it is full of anecdotes about many of those who served. Pilots like Raoul Lufbery, Bill Thaw, Bert Hall, Kiffin Rockwell, James Norman Hall and Eugene Bullard.
The thing that startled me was the reluctance of the United States Air Service to take in these flyers when the US entered the war. You think that they would have been glad to have this well of experienced flyers to draw from. But despite the hoops they made them jump through, these pilots flew, trained and prepared US pilots for combat over the Western Front. Lufbery was a tremendous influence on Captain Eddie Rickenbacker. the highest scoring American "ace" of the war with 26 "kills".
Got to love the Escadrille's mascots, two lions named Whiskey and Soda. They ended the war in a Paris zoo.

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

One Hundred years after this war was fought, it is incredible how detailed and clear the accounts of these dogfights seem. The book is written more in a series of short vignettes of the pilots experiences, rather then on a sequential timeline of the great war. The author brings these air battles back to us as if we were in the cockpit or on the ground watching these skirmishes happen right before our eyes. He also brings to life the dashing and rough characters who filled the special American lead squadron of flyers, the famed Lafayette Escadrille, as these Americans were really itching for a fight, and not waiting for their own country to join the war. It is a story told with much humor and sadness and narrated very nicely by Tom Perkins.

[Janis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book reads like a collection of short stories, roughly in chronological order. Those American flyers were quite a bunch of characters. Airplanes were barely even invented but were already a war machine. Mind boggling that these mostly wealthy young men volunteered to fight for France years before America entered the war. They didn't have a long life expectancy, yet they kept at it. I loved reading their stories even though I knew many of them had a sad ending.

[David Sims · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m glad the author eschewed the temptation to tell a straight chrono history of the Lafayette Escadrille. This is a great collection of individual stories and anecdotes that, as a whole, give a much more vibrant and personal feel for these folks who chose to volunteer ahead of America’s entry into World War I. Great stories, and very personal as much is taken from their letters and diaries. And you pick up the history of the unit and the war along the way. Very enjoyable.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about the American volunteer pilots that formed The Lafayette Escadrille, a unit of the French Air Force during World War I. It is more about the American flyboys, what motivated them, insights stories from their lives and lies, and their acts of courage or insanity. This book illustrates how, even amidst the horrors of war, life finds a way to persist and people still find power to overcome the devastation of the battle.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disappointed that author did not make more use of McConnell papers at University of Virginia. Amused that author snuck in the story of Eugene Bullard who was not in the Lafayette Escadrille, and that he never found Jamie Cockfield's article on Bullard. Good account of some of the group tensions involving Prince and Hall that show up in McConnel's papers.

[John Ritchie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as his Civil War biography of Grant and Sherman. Rather than following a chronology, Flood has chapters in a loose chronology that reads as a collection of short stories instead of a single narrative about the LE. The individual chapters worked well, but the whole doesn’t come together.

[Horia Calborean · Rating 3 out of 5]

You will not learn a lot of history from this book and it was not intended to teach you. I forgot all the names of the people in this book 5 seconds after they were mentioned. But it describes the war, the people during a war. It describes actions and behaviors during a war that sound alien to me. How can you actually live knowing that you have a high chance of death in the next few days?

[Wally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting stories about the beginning of the famed Lafayette Escadrille and the founding members. Mostly American men who entered the War to End all Wars when it was illegal for Americans to fight. Incredible hardships were daily affairs. Very interesting stories.

[Jwt Jan50 · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my crossover to 'real' books was Quentin Reynolds They Fought For the Sky. Ditto Falcons of France. Try to revisit WW1 periodically. This is a great read. Lots of detail that I either didn't know or had forgotten. Canvas. Hard to believe.

[Jeff Koslowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

It bounces all over the place. It feels topical but is sort of linear in its layout. The research is good but again doesn't have a smooth flow. If you watch the movie "Flyboys" you will see many of the same topics and stories included but no references to it in the acknowledgements or introduction.

[Eric Monson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing, the stories are interesting but everything seems disjointed. It was hard to stay on track as the author jumped around a lot.

[Kent · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of WWI's Lafayette Escadrille.

[August · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has some good information, but overall is disjointed and poorly organized. More a collection of random stories concerning these pilots than an actual history.

[Wayne R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Portrayal of first American flyers in WW I in the Lafayette Escadrille.

[Eva Seyler]

Absolutely held my attention but not very cohesive in a narrative nonfiction sense.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting slice of early WWI, where brave American flew for the French over the battlefields of France.