Show aft aft I 1 moo N V t mom t AF A 1 coveted honor gor won anlu after lono lona and N perilous US service C f it 4 0 BECOME becoming a french ace Is not such an easy patter matter it means not only tho the bringing down of five enemy machines but it ii must be Xe remembered kisr that ailiese machines must tall within the allied lines also they must be official there is the rub many a marvel lous IOUs flyer returning to his camp after a valorous day lit III the air during which lie he has sent bent to earth arth e more than one oae enemy will alth his as lie ho nears hla his home grouf grounds ids that officially lie has nothing to show for ills his prowess the great day is still afar off the day when ills fellow airmen already arroyd at tho ace stage will welcome me him as aa 0 one no of themselves when ills his relatives had and friends nt at home and all the world indeed will recognize that he la Is a fighting aviator of france out of tho the amateur class forever constant So uller known as the benjamin of the french aces who has come to this country to show tile the people of the united states just what the fighting airmen of P france artince are able to do in tile the way of flying like mo anost st of the other great french airmen found that winning the ace was not the task of a day but he won it although it took the bringing down of 12 machines actually before the coveted official five were marked to his credit says a writer in the new york herald he does not look like a veteran of tile the western front this hero of many air battles lie he seems much more like a pleasant little military schoolboy he hels Is small with an amazingly youthful face and although he Is se merlou rlou j and dignified it Is with the dignity and seriousness of a boy such as Is quite in keeping with his simple and straightforward manner but on the breast beast of this modest boyish young officer gleam I 1 pedals medals which speak eloquently eloquent lyof of extraordinary valor the Medal lle the croix de la virtu tire of and the croix de guerre guerra of france with seven palms and a golden star these honors the little ace earned before he was waa twenty years old for before that time he be had accomplished hours of flight had fought r 68 battles in the air had killed or wounded a score of enemy aviators and had brought down 15 enemy machines his citations in ili orders and in special government communications cover two closely typewritten pages A student at the ecole polytechnic in paris when tile the war began constant bouller found it impossible nt at first to enter tile the service of hla his country as a 11 volunteer as he wag vas not considered onsIde red la in sufficiently good health by the mili military tarr y authorities also he was but I 1 seventeen years old presently however he succeeded in overcoming these objections and become became a volunteer in ln tile the artillery ile he was placed in the twenty first regiment at gou leme but while in the artillery training camp like so many very young patriots no he became intensely interested in the new arm oi of the service ha felt keenly that his vocation was not for fa r the artillery but must become an airman aier nan he succeeded dd in persuading the authorities to transfer him to the aviation corps find and be canie a student nt the ahe school at Long longvick longvic vic he was transferred to pau in march 1916 and two months afterward obtained the coveted brevet of pilot he had studied devotedly at the school and was a notably promising avla tor cadet while at the school he was much liked by the older men and one day an episode occurred which pleased them greatly young toung found his machine taken in the eddy of another airplane which was flying over oyer him ile he was blown to the earth with violence his machine was wag broken to pieces and the witnesses of the accident without walting waiting to investigate immediately sent in a call for a medical officer imagine their amazement when they saw the student aviator issue from the debris of his ma machine without a sarai scratch ch there are no more superstitious people anywhere than the denof men of the hid aviation corps corp of all the armies and it was after this episode that the older r aviators declared to one another that he be was ko born rn to triumph I 1 the flying school training wa was followed by a course at at the school of at cazeau in june 1810 1910 bouller was appointed to io the escadrille cad rille N 20 under commandant brocard th the aviator r remembers edem bers always his first engage ment for no ab matter extensive his practice has been at the school it takes tabes different person personal onal al qualities to enable a man to hold hla his own against the enemy no matter how well he may have done in practice it afelt Is felt that the actual test of the aviators ability must am come e la in battle bouller had bad no easy task in his first engagement with a comrade like himself a novice he ans was ordered on patrol soon they were enveloped in clouds but ili as they came put out oft orthis lit s snowy bank they were for the first time in the presence of the enemy they were confronted by two cokl Fok fekkers kers ers which were at that time cons considered ery much to be feared soulier opened fire but his was not firmly fastened in place and with the first fire it shifted striking him in the head and almost knocking him out by the sho shock ek but he hereld held his own piloting with one hand and elih the other trying to hold his in 16 place although the gun struck him ath each discharge lie he was waa able to keep in the fight until the adversary hla his cartridges exhausted abandoned the fight the french airmen then regained their lines some bume time after this bouller So uller who bad then become a sergeant ergeant s brought baroug lit down la in two sive elve days two german brachen Dr achens one at the wood of va eaurand the other east of mesnil mesull saint ge I 1 in on both occasions the caucis ies yere well d defended by their i s and antia antiaircraft guris guns also were active against the french scout to get the second seand brachen boulier had to io descend to an altitude of meters ind and attack very close to the enemy his machine was shelled but he succeeded in forcing the enemy to earth the enemy observer sought to escape but was wai killed because his bis parachute failed to work properly october 16 proved to be one of the busiest days of sergeant Scull Soul lers ers career career since entering the service he had been engaged la in working in the region of the somme the wood of saint pierre vast was then a favorite meeting ground tor for aerial combats since starting out in the morning on this particular occasion had engaged in six combats with enemy machines and had forced one of them to make a landing near bour esnes at the conclusion of this series of combats he suddenly encountered three by the adroit manipulation of his machine nin chine for which he Is famous and which has led his government govern menti to send him to this country as an exemplar of stunt flying bouller succeeded in keeping out ot of the way of the other two of these machines while attacking and forcing to earth the third on this occasion luck was with him in every VV way ay for the was brought down within the french alln lines s and the infantry recognized the french scout so that there was no difficulty in obtaining an official confirmation in the course of reconnaissance with a comrade to the east of peronne over enemy territory bouller suffered 6 a reverse of fortune a few days later three airplanes launched themselves in the direction of the two french machines and Soul lers comrade badly wounded was soon obliged to fo abandon the combat As prepared to attack atta ek his ahli machine shivered violently A blade of propeller prop P iler had been broken by a charge barge from the enemy enedey tha encounter i r took place lilace at a height of meters p Soul lers damaged machine spiralled spiral led andrell and tell fell more than a thousand meters feeling himself lost if the motor detached itself the pilot cut off the power corrected thima thema calne and let himself fall vertically so as aa not to involve the motor by good luck a wind from the east east carried fan led him within the french 11 lines pes and he was succored by the abd infantry and brou brought glit back to camp under enemy ene my fire ills his injuries were merty bruises from fr 0 in which he be won soon recovered the good luck of the benjamin of the aces did aid not esert desert d him for some time later in returning to 6 camp bif in the th darkness tit at four in the it was for him to make a i landing banding wl without t beat a lagl light f his machine crashed to the ibe ground but he be again extricated himself from the debris practically uv unhurt khurt in december 1910 1010 bouller was again cited in orders for operations against tile the enemy in champagne including the bringing down of an enemy machine and firing on an enemy column I 1 in the spring of 1017 Bro curds scouts were sent to the environs of and coulter Co uller with the otil other er members of the N 26 went into quarters teri near donne bonne malson A large number of enemy aviators well equipped with new machines machi fies were ere operating 0 p crating in the vicinity may 20 1017 1917 was another busy day for bouller So uller his work began in the morning by starlight while he was patrolling the region of dAni font aln and Pron vals vali seeing an bemy enemy airplane h be e brought it down with a f few charges but M 4 so often happened there bereno were no witnesses and tiding to confirm his success from an official point of view la in the afternoon lie he went up again and by no means discouraged with ills his mornings experience peri ence he be went ent to to look for the enemy in tile the neighborhood of the reservoir helas he was not long in appearing bouller soon sa saw W in ill his s path fin an albatross biplane with three mi traille uses Follow Follo whig tog his usual tactics bouller dropped foni the attitude altitude in which he was flying always very high and aid swiftly pursued the enemy the albatross sought to escape from attack but was overtaken by a light charge and fell spreading itself out on the earth and taking flie fire the deed was done but again tile the pilot ilot looked abou thim tor for spectators who might supply the confirmation necessary to ills his official recognition unfortunately again there was no one who had seen his triumph bouller So uller however hardly had time to indulge in bitter reflections before a new danger a and nd a now new opportunity presented itself some kilometers further on he perceived a magnificent ent observation balloon lighted by the rays of the setting sun where the D arac ens are there are also the bursts of shrapnel and toward the middle of these clouds of black smoke soulier au guided aided his machine carrat carrying n g it through the marv marvellus elbus evolutions of which he la Is master again fate was against him for as he fired his twentieth cartridge his traill euse se stopped and thera here was nothing for the pilot todo to do but to return to his own camp turning with the object of making for home q quarters soulier saw himself beset by new enemies fill es two thousand meters above his head four enemy air airplanes planes circled on one a of them came adm e on at full speed and iii a t meters opened fire on him te it Is at such euch moments as these that the acrobatic batic fly flyer er finds himself at the height of his glory with every nerve tout taut with every bit of skill in play he e turns twists and circles its way out gut of such difficulties and when he comes through them successfully tastes for a moment a glory almost unk unknown to other men I 1 I 1 A slide down the wing a loop chenall then the nall all the gamut of beautifully executed maneuvers whose angst valuable quality Is their faculty of keeping the enemy guessing where the machine will be in tae th e next second and bouller had succeeded in in showing hla his heels heels to the enemy then guiding himself with one hand and repairing bl ini trall with the other while at the same time tim e lie he continued his series of bf acrobatics Soul ller win winged ged his way to fo the french lines succeeding in throwing off the first one and then another of ills his ad versalles ver yer sarles to complete ills his mischance his motor weakened he had only one resource to do the death drop he let himself fall in spirals and the Bosc boscus js believing that he had been sent ent s down beat their wings as if in 6 a dance of joy then suddenly the dead french aviator righted himself began to arm anew his and with a last hist shot at his enemy regained ills his lines able at last to say alone the tolls tolli and dangers of this terrible day had counted for nothing however on the official record of tile the young aviator but the following day although ills his activities were by no means so continuous tini ious was to touring bring him the substantial recognition that every ward war aviator longs for bythe by the same same bright star as that of the day before he be started on a morning adorning flight passi passing fig rapidly lybyer over the enemy trenches eriches tr presently perceiving a D F IV scout machine he attacked it vigorously in these single combats in which only two machines chines s take part the fight Is usually very soon over in three minutes the enemy had been benten the machine efell fell in flames and the two aviators were crushed on n the ground on this occasion observers in a balloon and some infantry broo troops ps had been tible able to follow the duel and reported ajor ted official confirmation so 0 eagerly desired that very night at the bonne malson farm in a a friendly ceremony the new nce ace was nas baptized in champagne |