First to fly : the story of the Lafayette Escadrille, the American heroes who flew for France in World War I

Summary: Tells the story of 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.

Record details

ISBN: 9780802191380
ISBN: 0802123651
ISBN: 9780802123657
Physical Description: xvii, 266 pages : illustrations, map ; 22 cm
print
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York, NY : Atlantic Monthly Press, [2015]
Copyright: ©2015

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-264).

Formatted Contents Note:

Two deaths trigger thirty-seven million more -- By God I know mighty well what I would do! -- How the new thing grew -- Aspects of the great new dimension -- What manner men? -- Contrasts -- The odds are never good : Clyde Balsley -- The oddsmaker is impersonal : Victor Chapman -- Women at war : Alice Weeks -- More American eagles take to the sky -- There was this man named Bert Hall -- New commanders for a new form of combat -- Shadows of war in the "City of Light" -- Things are different up there, and then on the ground -- Bert Hall takes life by the horns -- Aces -- A bloody report card -- Bert Hall as thinker, bartender, and raconteur -- Bad things happen to good new men -- Convenient emergencies -- Unique volunteers -- The war changes men and women, some for better, and some for worse -- Colorful men arrive on the Eastern Front -- A letter from home, to a young man with a secret -- The United States enters the war -- A lion in the air passes the torch, and the Escadrille bids its own lions farewell -- Yvonne! -- Good-bye, Luf. And thank you -- Different American wings in French skies -- The end of a long four years -- L'envoi = Farewell.