Words By
Cecil Cherry
On December 17, 1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first powered flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The first flight, flown by Orville, having won a coin toss, lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet. The longest flight on that windswept, cold, December day for the Wright Flyer was made by Wilbur, when he took to the sky for 59 seconds and flew 852 feet.
In 1914 the world found itself at war in no man’s land in the Western front of Europe. In the eleven short years after the Wright Flyer went aloft along the coast of Eastern North Carolina, the new aeroplane would see service in the skies over France in the War to End All Wars. These early aircraft were little more than flimsy, motorized kites made of wood, epoxy, and lacquered linen. They were also extremely flammable and could quickly become a flying funeral pyre for the brave young men in their flying machines. The military planes were state of the art, high performance machines that were initially utilized for reconnaissance missions; however, it was not long before the ingenious airmen began taking pistols and rifles aloft to battle one another. Soon engineers added machine guns and bombs to the planes, changing warfare forever. Life expectancy for a pilot in World War I was two to ten weeks with the average age of most pilots between 18 to 20 years old.
Around 1915 the term ace became associated with fighter pilots when French newspapers dubbed French fighter pilot Adolphe Pegoud “l’as” (“the ace”) after he scored five victories in aerial combat. The term had previously been used when playing cards and tennis to denote the most skilled players. Following the French newspapers’ use of the term, it became common to refer to an airman who shot down five or more enemy aircraft as an ace.
The war became bogged down in stalemate in the muddy, wet, quagmire of trenches along the Western front with the armies of England, France, and Germany slugging away at each other. Casualties mounted on all sides. The United States became involved in the war and established the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) on July 5, 1917. With the battle raging on the ground, the British Royal Flying Corps was pitted against the German Air Combat Forces in deadly aerial combat. The French were in the mix fighting the Germans with their Armee de l’Air. Within the AEF, America had a fledgling air force which was a branch of the United States Army, called the American Air Service.
One of the tens of thousands of pilots that took the skies over Europe was a young American named Frank Luke. Luke was born on May 19, 1897, the fifth of eight children, and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. Growing up, Luke was a good athlete and did well in basketball, football, and track. He enjoyed bare fisted boxing and target shooting. He once refused to leave a different field of battle during a football game. With a broken collar bone, he stayed on the gridiron until the game was over. This doggedness and do not quit attitude would follow the fearless Luke overseas.
Luke was working in the copper mines when he learned America joined the war. It was not long before he enlisted as a private on September 25, 1917, in the Aviation Section of the U.S. Army Signal Corps (which was later renamed the U.S. Army Air Service (USAAS)). Luke was only 20 years old. According to the United States Air Force Museum’s biography of Luke, “The Aviation Section drew him like a magnet, for those who flew were the true adventurers…” Luke went through pilot training in Texas and California and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant between January and March 1918. He was deployed with the AEF to France in late March 1918. In July 1918 he joined the 27th Aero Squadron, known as the Saints.
Luke soon gained a reputation as not having military bearing and chafed at the military rules and discipline. He was known as a loner who tended to disobey orders, rubbing fellow pilots and commanders the wrong way. He was also known as an arrogant braggart that had not seen combat yet, wanting to become an ace. But that would soon change.
Besides the aeroplanes, also in the air were observation balloons which were utilized by both sides during the Great War. The balloons would be deployed behind the lines and artillery observers would be sent aloft so they could see more of the battlefield from high up in the balloon. The artillery observerscould send messages to the artillery crews below and coordinate artillery fire more precisely against the other side. These balloons were very dangerous, as they were filled with highly volatile hydrogen. The balloons were a prized target of opposing artillerymen fighting on the ground. Most pilots stayed away from attacking the balloons because of the danger of the balloons exploding and the ground fire protecting them. The balloons were also kept very far behind enemy lines.
Aviation was changing rapidly with advanced fighter planes being developed and produced every day. From the selection of aircraft available at the time, America chose the French built SPAD XIII. The USAAS purchased and issued this aircraft to 15 out of the 16 operational squadrons in France. Luke was one of the many American pilots that flew the French built SPAD XIII C.I. into combat. (The C.I. stood for Chasseur (fighter plane) and 1, a single seat aircraft.) This aircraft was configured with a two-blade propeller and had a wood frame covered in fabric andarmed with two 400 round Vickers machine guns for aerial fighting. The range of the SPAD was two hours or 185 miles and it could reach a breathtaking, incredible top speed of 131 miles per hour. The top ceiling was 20,000 feet; however, most dog fighting occurred at approximately 10,000 feet. The speed and ceiling of this aircraft are what thrilled Luke. He wanted fame and glory and desired to get in the fight sooner rather than later. Luke decided he would tackle the dangerous targets. He would fly off alone and attack the stationary, but heavily defended targets, many times without authorization.
On September 12, 1918, Luke brought down his first enemy. He used incendiary rounds to shoot down his first balloon kill. To get a confirmed kill on your record, there had to be witnesses. It is believed that Luke preferred attacking the observation balloons because of the fiery destruction that came with the burning and exploding hydrogen that could be confirmed by more than just a limited number of sources.
Soon Luke was teamed up with another pilot, Joseph Frank Wehner. Together they attacked German balloons and fighter planes with reckless abandon. Luke would attack the large balloons directly, machine guns blazing, while Wehner would provide top cover against German fighter planes for Luke. Even flying as Luke’s wingman, Wehner also found success against the dreaded enemy fighter planes and balloons himself. Soon burning and exploding observation balloons were falling form the skies over the Western Front to the duo’s guns. Wehner, in just six days recorded one German Fokker D.VIII aircraft and five balloons. Luke and Wehner soon became a flying duo to be feared. In a short time, they became fast friends.
On September 18, 1918 Luke and Wehner were in their element, flying and fighting in a vicious dog fight. Luke shot down two Fokkers and a German Halberstadt observation airplane during the encounter. Tragedy struck though, when Wehner was shot down and killed by German fighter pilot Georg Von Hartelman. (Hartelman finished the war with 25 kills to his name.) Just two days prior to being shot down, Wehner had been awarded two Distinguished Service Crosses for gallantry in aerial warfare. He died an ace with six victories as a fighter pilot, having claimed one German fighter plane and five balloons.
Luke was inconsolable following the loss of his best friend. For the next eleven days, Luke went on to wage a one-man war, destroying as many enemy aircraft as possible. Luke, sometimes flying alone, fearlessly attacked the enemy with reckless abandon. In just eight days, flying 10 sorties, Luke was able to rack up 18 more aerial victories against the Germans. He was on a reckoning to avenge the death of one of his only friends.
During his service, Luke received many honors and awards for his daring and brave flying against enemy aerial forces. The first medal he received was the Distinguished Service Cross which was awarded for actions between September 12 and 15, 1918 for shooting down eight German observation balloons in four days. He was awarded a second Distinguished Service Cross for actions on September 18, 1918 for destroying two more observation balloons. This happened to be the same day his friend Wehner was killed. During this action, Luke was attacked by an overwhelming flight of German Fokker fighter planes.Luke turned on two of the enemy machines as they were getting in position behind him to attack and shot them down. At this point in the aerial jousting match, and nearly out of fuel, Luke shot down a third German bi-plane.
On September 28, 1918 Luke claimed his 14th and 15th victories. Following this mission, Luke, experiencing mechanical issues,landed at a French aerodrome. He returned to his own base the following day and was soon threatened by his commanding officer with being grounded for disobeying orders and being absent without leave for not returning to his home base insteadof the French aerodrome the day before. A sympathetic group commander rescinded any punishment handed down to Luke and he was approved for combat once again.
Luke took to the skies, flying six miles behind the German linesand scoring his last three victories against German balloons before being severely injured by enemy machinegun fire from a nearby hilltop. He managed to strafe German infantry before landing his stricken SPAD. Luke, grievously wounded by ground fire, landed near a stream and attempted to make cover. He was able to cover approximately 220 yards from his aircraft before collapsing. As he was approached by a German patrol, Luke pulled his service weapon, a Colt model 1911, .45 caliber ACP (automatic colt pistol), and made last stand against the Hun. Luke received a mortal chest wound from a German rifle, and was killed in action not far from where he crashed. For this action, on September 29, 1918, Luke was posthumously awarded America’s highest military honor, the Medal of Honor.
In March 1941, on the eve of America becoming embroiled in the Second World War, an army airfield was being built west of Phoenix, Arizona. It was named Luke Air Force Base in honor of Frank Luke, Jr., the Arizona Balloon Buster, in June 1941. Itis still an operational Air Force base to this day.
America’s top scoring ace of World War I, with confirmed 26 kills and Medal of Honor winner, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker said of Luke, “He was the most daring aviator and greatest fighter pilot of the entire war. His life is one of the brightest glories of our Air Service. He went on a rampage and shot down fourteen enemy aircraft, including ten balloons, in eight days. No other ace, not even the dreaded Richtofen (Manfred von Richtofen, the Red Baron), had ever come close to that.” Very high praise indeed
