Great War>The War in the Air

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Lafayette Escadrille    Lafayette Escadrille was a French Air Force Squadron manned mainly by American pilots, it was originally called Escadrille Americaine. If you can provide any additional information, please add it here. Want to know more about Lafayette Escadrille? There are:0 items tagged Lafayette Escadrille available in our Library   These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War. Those known to have served with Lafayette Escadrille during the Great War 1914-1918. Baker Croix de Guerre. Hobart Amory Hare. Capt. (d.22nd Dec 1918) All names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List Records of Lafayette Escadrille from other sources. The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website. 1st of September 2023 marks 24 years since the launch of the Wartime Memories Project. Thanks to everyone who has supported us over this time. Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the Great War? Our Library contains many many diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. Looking for help with Family History Research?    Please see Family History FAQ's Please note: We are unable to provide individual research. Can you help? The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web. If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation. Announcements 22nd April 2024     Please note we currently have a massive backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 263973 your submission is still in the queue, please do not resubmit. Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to the Great War. If you have any unwanted photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them. The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted. We are now on Facebook. Like this page to receive our updates, add a comment or ask a question. If you have a general question please post it on our Facebook page. World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great battalion regiment artillery Did you know? We also have a section on World War Two. and a Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations. 213762 Capt. Hobart Amory Hare Baker Croix de Guerre 103d Aero Squadron Lafayette Escadrille (d.22nd Dec 1918) Hobey Baker entered the U.S. Army in May 1917, just after the United States declared war on Germany. Three months later, he was sent to France, where, after superb marks in aerial gunnery training, he was accepted into the fabled Lafayette Escadrille, a combat pilot unit that later became the 103rd Aero Squadron (8th Feb. 1918). With an insatiable spirit for adventure, he was a natural at flying planes, maneuvering them as athletically as he did his body when dodging tacklers on the football field at Princeton. As a combat pilot, he had scraps in the sky with enemy gunners that resulted in three kills. After each one, he observed the code by which combat pilots lived: He honored his fallen foes with a toast of cognac. Baker was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for gallantry and was cited by Gen. John Pershing, the American Expeditionary Force commander, for distinguished service. At home, newspapers heralded him as a war hero. When the war ended, in November 1918, he felt a sense of loss. He loved being a pilot and simply had not had his fill of flying and fighting. On Dec. 21, the day he was scheduled to leave Toul for Paris and then return to civilian life in the United States, he told his airmates he was going to go for "one last flight." Capt. Baker took off during a heavy rain. At 600 feet, the engine quit. Instead of trying to crash-land, Baker, with his typical I-can-get-through-this mind-set, tried to bring the plane back to base. But he didn't have enough altitude to regain flying speed and pull the nose of the plane back up. He crashed, nose down, near the air-base hangar. His air mates freed him from the wreckage. Minutes later, he died in an ambulance. sflynn Add to this record. Recomended Reading. Available at discounted prices.

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