BIOGRAPHY

Escadrille Americaine Left to Right:VICTOR CHAPMAN, ELLIOTT COWDIN, BERT HALL, WM. THAW, LT. DELAAGE, NORMAN PRINCE, J.R. MCCONNELL, K. ROCKWELL, CAPT. THENAULT Library of Congress Collection, 9-20-07

 

Southern Aviators Do Daring Work in France, The Cordele Dispatch, Wednesday, May 21, 1916, Transcribed by Bob Davis - June, 2004       Paris, May 18. - The American aviators forming the Franco-American flying corps took part in an expedition over the German lines the first time as a separate unit. They sustained particularly heavy shelling as they recrossed the front, but landed safely.       The flotilla, including the craft piloted by Corporal Kiffen Rockwell, of Atlanta; Corporal James Rogers McConnell, of Carthage, N. C.; Sergeant Elliott Cowdin, of New York; Lieutenant William K. Thaw, of Pittsburg; Sergeant Norman Prince, of Boston; and Sergeant Hall, of Galveston, started at daybreak and spent nearly two hours reconnoitering under a hot fire but encountered no German machines.       Corporal McConnell was flying at a height of 12,000 feet but German shells burst all around him, showing that the range of the German anti-aircraft guns had lengthened.       Corporal Victor Chapman's machine was hit and driven out of its course, returning so late to its base as to cause anxiety regarding Chapman's fate. The aeroplane piloted by Lieutenant Thaw lost part of its tail piece and the propeller was damaged by a shell.       Three more Franco-American flotillas are to be organized from the forty additional American volunteers now in training.

 

Used with permission of The University Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

 

E. Cowdin - N. Prince - Wm. Thaw Library of Congress Collection, 9-22-07

 

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