“The adventures of a renowned American fighter pilot-in his own words After initially enlisting as an ambulance driver during the Great War, American born Wellman transferred into the French Foreign Legion. By the end of 1917 he had earned his wings as a fighter pilot and had joined N. 87 escadrille of the Lafayette Flying Corps. The ‘Black Cats’ flew Nieuport ‘pursuit’ aircraft-first 17s and latterly 24s. Wellman named his own plane Celia-after his mother. In his career as a fighter pilot Wellman chalked up three confirmed ‘kills’ and five ‘probables’ before eventually being shot down by German anti-aircraft fire in March 1918. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre with two palms. Due to his crash injury he was invalided out of French service and returned to the United States where he began a highly regarded career as a film director. This book, published in 1918, recounts Wellman’s wartime experiences while they were still fresh in the mind, as such it is an invaluable first-hand account of the aerial war over the Western Front from the first days of air combat. Recommended.”—Leonaur Print Version Author — Wellman, William Augustus, 1896-1975 Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in Boston, The Page company, 1918 Original Page Count – 284 pages Illustration — 16 illustrations.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XVIII TWO MIRACLES It is not every man who can say that, in one day, he was the victim of one miracle, and had his life saved by another. I can, truthfully; but the combination put a sudden end to my flying -- temporarily, at least. This happened on the twenty-first day of March, just about four months after I had started my real work. The day dawned gloriously, giving no premonition that it had anything out of the ordinary in store for me, and I completed an uneventful morning patrol and was up in the air again about four in the afternoon. Over the American trenches and No-Man's-Land I flew with no particular object in view, other than to keep a sharp lookout for Boche machines. None were in sight, which was not at all unusual, for at this time we had a fair control of the air in our sector and they seldom bothered us, unless there was some special reason for so doing. In fact everything was quiet, above and below, and the earth seemed wrapped in Springtime somnambulance. Back and forth I flew at an altitude of fifty-three hundred meters, guiding my plane by instinct as you might a bicycle, and thinking of almost everything but war, and personal danger. There was no enemy in the air to attract my attention, and I had long since ceased to worry about the "Archies." These anti-aircraft guns were a standing joke with us, as I have said. As a method of keeping airplanes at a respectable distance from earth by means of a barrage of bursting shrapnel they are of some value; but an actual hit by them is nothing short of a miracle, which is hardly strange when one considers the diminutive size and the tremendous speed of the airy target at which they have to fire. Then, with the utmost unexpectedness, occurred the first miracle. Out of...