Raoul Lufbery: America's Lafayette For France

You might think that if a municipal park, a street, and a VFW home in a small city in Connecticut were named after a local war hero, that his name and fame would be well known throughout the entire state. That is not the case with (Gervais) Raoul Lufbery, former resident of Wallingford, CT. Born in France in 1885 to an American father and a French mother, Lufbery became one of the most skilled, effective, feared, and respected fighter pilots of World War I. However, few people know about his extraordinary record, the honors bestowed upon him by the French government, and the bitterly ironic nature of his violent death, which occurred 93 years ago this week on May 19, 1918.

Members of Raoul Lufbery’s family emigrated to Connecticut in 1891, though Raoul himself did not get here until he was about 19 in 1904, as he was under the care of his grandmother in France until that time; consequently, Lufbery was actually more fluent in French than in English. He worked in Wallingford for two years, then eventually joined the U.S Army, serving in the Philippines. As a result of his army service, Lufbery became an American citizen. After leaving the army, he then left for the Far East—a decision that was to change his life forever.

While in the Far East in 1909, Lufbery met the French exhibitionist pilot, Marc Pourpe, who was barnstorming in that area in his Bleriot aircraft. Pourpe taught Lufbery to be his mechanic, a skill that became very important to Lufbery’s later success as a pilot in the war. When war broke out in August of 1914, Lufbery joined the French Foreign Legion but was then promptly transferred to a French aviation unit to be Pourpe’s pilot there. Within four months, Pourpe was killed in an aviation accident, and Lufbery decided to apply for flight training, driven by a desire to avenge his friend’s death.

After finishing his training, Lufbery joined a group known as the Lafayette Escadrille on May 24, 1916. The Lafayette Escadrille was a group of American aviators—largely from Ivy League colleges such as Yale—who volunteered to assist the French in the Great War, in a manner similar to the way that Lafayette had volunteered to assist America during the American Revolution. Lufbery, however, differed from other American volunteers in several ways. First, he was more conversant in French than in English. Also, he was several years older than most of his comrades. Finally, his experience as a mechanic for Pourpe drove him to take a personal, hands-on interest in the maintenance of his own fighter plane—a Nieuport 28 (see photo). In fact, Lufbery the mechanic, aware that the machine guns on the Nieuport often jammed, made it a point to personally inspect each bullet for defects and to polish each one so as to minimize jamming. None of the other pilots took such an active role in the maintenance of his aircraft.

Success came quickly for Lufbery. He shot down two German planes over Verdun on July 30, 1916. By October 12 of 1916, he had shot down three more, making him an “ace.” By January of 1917, he had seven confirmed kills. In addition, though he probably did not invent it, Lufbery popularized a defensive tactic that came to be called the “Lufbery Circle.” It is a defensive aerial tactic involving formation flying in a circle in such a manner that each plane protects the tail of the plane in front of it. By February, 1918, Lufbery had shot down nine more planes, giving him 16 kills.

By March 1918, the Lafayette Escadrille pilots became absorbed into a unit of the United States Army known as the 94th Aero Pursuit Squadron. The 94th was the most accomplished air unit during the war and at one time was attached to the 26th Division—famously known as the “Yankee Division”- as it consisted almost entirely of New England regiments, including many men from Connecticut. The 94th also had the most famous American aviator of the war, former race car driver, Eddie Rickenbacker. A multiple ace, Rickenbacker was credited with at least 26 kills. He was Lufbery’s star pupil. Rickenbacker himself once said: “Everything I learned, I learned from Lufbery.” Major Raoul Lufbery scored one more confirmed kill with the 94th, giving him a confirmed total of 17, though he and everyone who flew with him knew that he had many more unconfirmed kills than officially recorded.

On May 19, 1918, near the Toul sector, a German Albatross two-seat reconnaissance plane flew over the 94th’s airfield. Lufbery raced to a plane to engage the Albatross. Since his plane was under repair, Lufbery took up someone else’s Nieuport. On his first pass at the German invader, the guns on the borrowed plane appeared to jam, and as Major Lufbery pulled away to fix the problem, German bullets tore into his fuel tank and set the Nieuport on fire. Some believe that another bullet tore off one of Lufbery’s thumbs. Ablaze and out of control, Lufbery’s plane turned upside down, pitching Lufbery out from 2,000 feet. Some speculate that he may have tried to jump into a nearby body of water to save himself; unfortunately, if that was the case, he missed and was impaled upon a picket fence.

Lufbery’s untimely, violent death was bitterly ironic in at least two ways. First, as a meticulous mechanic who inspected his own bullets for his Nieuport to prevent jams, he was a victim of a jammed gun from someone else’s plane. Secondly, Lufbery had always forcefully advocated staying with a burning plane, as he believed it might be maneuvered in such a way to keep the flames away from the pilot or even to be able to put out the flames. Lacking parachutes in those early days of aviation, pilots had nothing but bad choices: jump or burn to a crisp. (Having watched the footage of people jumping from the upper floors of the World Trade Center on 9/11 rather than burn, the urge to jump away from intense heat seems to dominate in people in those awful situations. Perhaps it did too with Lufbery.)

His body was recovered and buried with high honors the next day. Hundreds of French and American officers attended the funeral and burial, including then Colonel Billy Mitchell, who had personally witnessed the accident. Lufbery’s body was disinterred ten years later and placed in the Lafayette Escadrille memorial near Paris, where it remains today in a place of high honor. A bronze tablet in the village of Maron near the Moselle River marks the spot where he fell to earth.

It is likely that Major Raoul Lufbery shot down as many as 42 German aircraft, though “only” 17 met the full criteria for a “confirmed” kill. This widely respected and skilled American aviator has been largely forgotten, as his record number of confirmed kills was eclipsed by his much more famous pupil, Eddie Rickenbacker. In fact, the U.S. Army never awarded Lufbery a Purple Heart. Realizing this omission, the U.S. Air Force belatedly made the award in 2005. His reputation in France, however, has always been more widely known and recognized. The French regard this highly skilled American with strong Connecticut connections with a level of appreciation that rivals the way most Americans see Lafayette—quite a tribute!

Notes, Sources, and Links:

1. neam.org
2. findagrave.com
3. eyewitnesstohistory.com
4. acepilots.com
5. According to earlyaviators.com members of the Lufbery family still live in Wallingford, where the VFW post bears his name.
6. Bill and Sheila Jackson have done a lot of research on Lufbery. Go to Raoullufbery.com.
7. Go to this youtube link to watch a 32 second silent movie taken of Lufbery's burial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o48zJzqSiQE
8. An "escadrille" is a unit of a French aviation command. There were 38 members of the Lafayette Escadrille; 10 died in the war or shortly after it of wounds from combat.
9. US Air Force Museum