eugenegilbert

French aviator Eugene Gilbert (b. 1889 - d. 1918) who was the subject of some controversy during the First World War. - First there was the imposter... query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0813FC3D5C13738... POSED AS FRENCH AVIATOR - Mme. Gilbert Exposes Impostor - Airmen Escape After Breakdown New York Times September 3, 1914 PARIS, Sept. 2. - Mme. Gilbert, wife of the famous aviator, was recently arrested near Clermont-Ferrand at the Village of Parlay-le-Monial, where she was informed her husband was being feted on his return from a successful raid. On her arrival she found her alleged husband an imposter - a warrant has been issued for his arrest, since the real Gilbert is at Dole - and she was challenged by a gendarme when trying to return home. Finding her without papers and carrying German uniform buttons, which she bought from prisoners as souvenirs, he promptly arrested her. Release was obtained with difficulty on the arrival of her father-in-law with the necessary information. - Then there was his internment in Switzerland... Gilbert engaged in a bombing mission on June 27, 1915, when he dropped five bombs from his aircraft upon the Zeppelin works at Freidrichshafen, Germany on Lake Constance. It was during this raid, however, that his aircraft was struck by anti-aircraft fire. Gilbert was then forced to land his crippled aircraft near Rhinefelden, in neutral Switzerland, where he was interned as a belligerent (See: Flying, Volume 4, August 1915, Page 634, books.google.com/books?id=st1LAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA634&d... query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30C11F83C5D17738... RETURN PRISONER TO SWISS; French Order Their Aviator Who Escaped to Give Himself Up. New York Times August 29, 1915 PARIS, Aug. 28. -- Eugene Gilbert, the French aviator who recently escaped from Switzerland after being interned there, returned to Switzerland and gave himself up to night by order of the French Government. query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20811F63E5D16738... SWISS THANK FRANCE FOR GILBERT'S RETURN; Say Aviator Who Escaped Had Not Been Released from Terms of Promise. New York Times August 31, 1915 PARIS, Aug. 30. -- Eugene Gilbert, the French aviator whose return to Switzerland after his escape from internment in that country was ordered by the French Government, arrived in Berne yesterday escorted by Captain Dufour of the Swiss Army, according to a Havas News Agency dispatch from Berne. - Although Gilbert was returned to Switzerland for internment, he would once more escape Switzerland and rejoin the French air service later in the war. However, he would soon thereafter perish in a plane crash at Chilacoublay Aerodrome on May 16, 1918. (See: Navy air pilot and military aeronautic review, Volume 4, June 1918, Page 116, books.google.com/books?id=GUNTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA116&l... See also: Eugene Gilbert - Early Aviators earlyaviators.com/egilbert.htm

The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current, October 18, 1914, SECTION FIVE, Image 57 used this photo with the caption: "Aviator Gilbert has been decorated with the Legion of Honor for his splendid conduct in the fighting near Muhlhausen. He had flown over German territory to throw a bomb when, through an accident to his motor he was compelled to alight. The Germans had seen him alight and hurried to capture him, but before they could reach the spot where his disabled aeroplane lay, he had repaired the break in his motor and he rose in the face of the German fire and escaped with his aeroplane to the French lines. He was wounded but not disabled by the German bullets. The decoration was handed to him by General Pau." oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83045782/1914-10-18/ed-1/se...

Thanks B-59, this gives us a better date for this photo and is an interesting article.

Eugène Gilbert flying a Morane-Saulnier N. I assume this is a postcard or something, since he was captured in June 1915.

Aviator, Eugène Gilbert, killed while test flying an aircraft at Villacoublay on May 17, 1918. See notes under: www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/6197567523/ See also: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Gilbert www.earlyaviators.com/egilbert.htm

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