Don
Martin diary entry for Tuesday, May 7, 1918:
Spent the day with [Lt.] Parks, chiefly sightseeing. Went to Epinal where we
met [Lincoln] Eyre of the [New York] World. Had lunch together. Then went to Vittel where we stayed
for an hour on account of a terrific rainstorm, reaching Neufchateau at 6:30.
Found story about Capt. [Norman] Hall, author and flier, who was forced to
descend inside the German lines. Wrote 700 words for Paris and 350 for N.Y.
giving an interview I had had with Hall. Spent evening at club with crowd which
sang army songs.
Weather wretched.
Don Martin's story about Captain Hall, written the night of May 7 and dated May 8, was published in the New York Herald on Thursday, May 9.
"IT'S A
GREAT LIFE; WE NEVER THINK OF PERIL," SAID CAPTAIN HALL JUST BEFORE LAST FLIGHT TO
HUN LINES
American Who is
Captive or Dead Hoped
“Good Luck Would Continue”
PRAISED FOR BRAVERY
BY OTHER AVIATORS
All Mourn His Loss,
but Declare Misfortune
“Is Merely a Part of the Game”
By DON MARTIN
Special Correspondent of the Herald with the American Army in France
[Special cable to the Herald]
WITH
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE, Wednesday
“Oh, it’s just part of the game. We
can’t win always, but the Boches got a good one when they got Norman Hall,”
said a prominent American flyer, with the approval of others, as the official
news was brought by returning Americans who participated in the battle which
resulted in the capture and possible death of Captain Hall.
This was only an echo of a
statement Captain Hall made to me the day before he started on his last flight.
He was strapped in his favorite machine, going out to seek a Boche airman said
to be flying close to the American line.
“You are getting plenty of first
hand material for stories when the war is over,” said I, and he replied:--
“Yes, if I’m around then. We’ve
been lucky so far and I hope the luck will continue, but flying is like
roulette—sure loss if you keep at it long enough—so does the Boche when we come
together on the mat.
Predicts Long Casualty List
“Poor Chapman had tough luck. He’s
the first. Now it’s a gamble who will be next, but no one here is worrying.
It’s a great life while it lasts—three’s nothing like it. We never think of
danger. You see an enemy machine and get it or it gets you. It’s as certain for
one as the other.
“If the war lasts long enough we’ll
have a long casualty list. That can’t be helped. I wish Chappie was alive, but
there’s no chance.”
With which Hall whirred off,
scanning the sky for trace of the foe. He knew the Germans were preparing for a
furious air drive against the Americans. The insignia of a Star Spangled hat in
a ring on Hall’s machine was emblematic of Theodore Roosevelt’s 1912
declaration when he entered the fight for the Presidency—“My hat’s in the
ring.”
All the Americans are aware that
another flying circus, similar to the Richthofen group, has been rehearsing for
an attack on the Americans, who in a short period have given the Boches a
smashing defeat in the air, getting five machines, officially, and three
unofficially, which is against two Americans lost, not including Captain Hall.
Americans Not Disconcerted
Evidences of the new flying circus
have been unmistakable. However, this had not disconce3rted the Americans, who
daily have crossed into German territory looking for fight.
Captain Hall was one of the most
daring American fliers and was highly adept. He knew all the tricks. Three days
ago I saw him give an exhibition flight for distinguished visitors which
thrilled the spectators for miles around. He was idolized by all Americans and
beloved by the French also. His intention was to fly until the end of the war
and then to devote his life to literature. To-day, when I was talking to his
companions they were depressed, but all the more eager to match their skill
with the new air circus and avenge the loss of Chapman and Hall.
“When we play for big stakes we
must expect losses, but it’s tough to lose Hall,” said one of them.
More detail was provided in an
Associated Press report published the same day:
‘Captain Hall, with two
others, was patrolling this morning between St. Mihiel and Pont-a-Mousson. When
they were over Pagny-sur-Moselle four enemy Albatross airplanes, painted with
black and white stripes, were seen. The Americans attacked, Captain Hall singling out one of the enemy and driving his downward while firing with his machine gun. The pair made a spiral dive from six thousand metres to four thousand, when the German quickly reversed his machine and started to rise. In a quick turn he poured a deadly stream of machine gun bullets into the bottom of Hall’s machine. Captain Hall promptly came out of the spiral and made a dive for the earth. He was last seen attempting to complete his manoeuvre.
The Captain’s flying companions are all certain he would have knocked out his opponent had it not been for a manoeuvre unheard of, so far as American and French pilots in this section of France are concerned. It has been considered dangerous to the last degree to bring up a machine sharply from a downward plunge, because the strain is almost certain to cause the collapse of some vital part of the plane.'
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