spadxiii

I like his drawing with the plain white background. They used to sell his prints at the USAF museum where I went as a kid pretty often.

This has got to be from the '94th' Aero Squadron, 'Hat-in-the-Ring' symbol which was based at Toul France in 1918. Think the aircraft is a SPAD XIII

This is not Lt. Rene Fonck. This is one of the last photographs taken of Capt. Georges Guynemer during a forced landing at Les Moeres airfield. He is shown working on the 200 h.p. Hispano-Suiza geared engine (carburetor possibly). He landed on this Belgian air service airfield in his new Spad XIII fighter aircraft, one of the first examples to the front. This photo was taken on Sept. 10, 1917. He was killed the next day on Sept. 11, 1917 near Poelcapelle, Belgium. He was found by the Germans but the area was heavily shelled. His identity card and a few personal items were recovered. There is some controversy as to what happened next. Some evidence suggest that the body was recovered, stored in a barn for a day or two... and then buried in an unmarked grave in the town cemetery. Others say he was obliterated in the shelling that followed his crash landing. He was to have died by a bullet wound through the head.