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Page 63
In the balloon training camps, I noticed some old-time balloonists,
including: J. C. McCoy, A. Leo Stevens, Frank P. Lahm, Thomas S. Baldwin,
A. Holland Forbes, Charles J. Glidden, Charles Walsh, Carl G. Fisher, Wm.
F. Whitehouse, George B. Harrison, Jay B. Benton, J. Walter Flagg, John
Watts, Roy F. Donaldson, Ralph H. Upson, R. A. D. Preston and Warren
Rasor.
Five days before the battle the hundred great carriers began delivering
their deadly loads on the heights of Arlington, south of the Potomac,
each aeroplane making three trips from Niagara Falls every twenty-four
hours, which meant that on the morning of November 5, 1921, when the
German legions came within range of Leonard Wood's field artillery, there
were 5,000 tons of liquid chlorine ready to be hurled down from the
aerial fleet. And it was estimated that the carriers would continue to
deliver a thousand tons a day from Grand Island as long as the deadly
stuff was needed.
The actual work of dropping these chlorine bombs upon the enemy was
entrusted to another fleet of smaller aeroplanes gathered from all parts
of the country, most of them belonging to members of the Aero Club of
America who not only gave their machines but, in many cases, offered
their services as pilots or gunners for the impending air battle.
"What is the prospect?" I asked Henry Woodhouse, chief organiser of these
aeroplane forces, on the day before the fight.
He was white and worn after days of overwork, but he spoke hopefully.
"We have chlorine enough," he said, "but we need more attacking
aeroplanes. We've only about forty squadrons with twelve aeroplanes to a
squadron and most of our pilots have never worked in big air manoeuvres.
It's a great pity. Ah, look there! If they were all like Bolling's
squadron!"
He pointed toward the heights back of Remington where a dozen bird
machines were sweeping through the sky in graceful evolutions.
"What Bolling is that?"
"Raynal C.--the chap that organised the first aviation section of the New
York National Guard. Ah! See those boys turn! That's Boiling at the head
of the 'V,' with James E. Miller, George von Utassy, Fairman Dick, Jerome
Kingsbury, William Boulding, 3rd, and Lorbert Carolin. They've got
Sturtevant steel battle planes--given by Mrs. Bliss--yes, Mrs. William H.
Bliss. She's one of the patron saints of the Aero Club."
We strolled among the hangars and Mr. Woodhouse presented me to several
aeroplane squadron commanders, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Robert Bacon,
Godfrey Lowell Cabot, Russell A. Alger, Robert Glendinning, George
Brokaw, Clarke Thomson, Cortlandt F. Bishop; also to Rear Admiral Robert
E. Peary, Archer M. Huntington, J. Stuart Blackton, and Albert B.
Lambert, who had just come in from a scouting and map-making flight over
the German lines. These gentlemen agreed that America's chances the next
day would be excellent if we only had more attacking aeroplanes, about
twice as many, so that we could overwhelm the enemy with a rain of
chlorine shells.
"I believe three hundred more aeroplanes would give us the victory,"
declared Alan R. Hawley, ex-president of the Aero Club.
"Think of it," mourned August Belmont. "We could have had a thousand
aeroplanes so easily--two thousand for the price of one battleship. And
now--to-morrow--three hundred aeroplanes might save this nation."
Cornelius Vanderbilt nodded gloomily. "The lack of three hundred
aeroplanes may cost us the Atlantic seaboard. These aeroplanes would be
worth a million dollars apiece to us and we can't get 'em."
"The fifty aeroplanes of the Post Office are mighty useful," observed
Ex-Postmaster-General Frank H. Hitchcock to Postmaster-General Burleson.
"It isn't the fault of you gentlemen," said Emerson McMillin, "if we did
not have five thousand aeroplanes in use for mail carrying, and coast
guard and life-saving services."
This remark was appreciated by some of the men in the group, including
Alexander Graham Bell, Admiral Peary, Henry A. Wise Wood, Henry
Woodhouse, Albert B. Lambert, and Byron R. Newton, head of the Coast
Guard and Life Saving Service. For years they had all made supreme but
unavailing efforts to make Congress realize the value of an aeroplane
reserve which could be employed every day for peaceful purposes and would
be available in case of need.
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