Falcons of France
by . Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1929. 8vo. 332 pp. Illus. $2.50.
‘THE unforgettable fragrance of burnt gasoline and castor oil,’ ’the faint crackle and acrid smoke of tracer bullets’ about one’s ears, the intense spiritual exhilaration of the first moments of successful escape from enemy prison — what sensations these phrases will recall to a handful of old pilots!
To those who never played the rôle of either target or marksman in the human duck-shooting phase of the recent general unpleasantness, let it be said that Falcons of France tells with extraordinary accuracy the fascinating story of life in a hard-working French pursuit squadron at the front.
It comes at a particularly fortunate moment. The air needs to be cleared of cloyingly sentimental and grotesquely false pictures of the Foreign Legion and of the Lafayette Squadron as told in movie and adventure story.
Nordhoff and Hall are well qualified to do this. Both were writing men when they enlisted early in the war in Allied armies. Their military careers took them from service to service, and from army to army; Hall’s brilliant record as pursuit pilot was cut short by the extraordinary shooting
down behind the lines exactly as described in the book. Then after the Armistice they produced the official History of the Lafayette Flying Corps.
Old Escadrille Lafayette pilots will be amused to recognize the vivid descriptions of fights, gambols, and escapes in which they took part. Individuals and types are familiar and cleverly sketched: Captain Clermont, the stimulating and appreciative chief; Cartier the mechanician, efficient, impertinent, but utterly devoted; Felix, the old orderly, guardian of the repose of his boy pilots. Small wonder that the action and characterizations of the book are convincing!
It is impossible not to compare the story of Selden’s life in air service and German prison with All Quiet on the Western Front and Sergeant Grischa. In Falcons of France one misses the bitter hopelessness, the occasional revolting detail and episode. This difference is due largely to the author’s choice of subject and character. The detail is painstakingly accurate, although that of a pleasanter game — a refreshing change. All of the Americans in the French Army were not Seldens, but there were many whom Hall, Nordhoff. and the rest of us have not forgotten. Too many of them can never be more than memories.
‘Jim’ Hall’s immensely kind and friendly nature is, I am afraid, going to be disturbed by the reaction of the younger generation to this book. Falcons of France certainly will not make the prospect of war adventures repugnant to them. I shall try to have my own sons read dismal tales of the horrid life of the infantryman, but they will probably read Falcons of France on the sly.
At the front, the French military pilot, particularly the pursuit pilot, lived in a curious world apart, — an oasis, — utterly remote from civilian life at home and detached from many of the experiences and hardships of the other arms. He lived a splendid hard masculine life with only one responsibility — his flying mission. Days of crisp early morning sunlight, the drive of a magnificent motor; sudden combat with great enemy birds; terrifying escapes; the joy of a perfect landing after a hard patrol. At the end the appreciation and understanding of sympathetic chief and comrades — or a clean quick death.
Hall and Nordhoff have told it well. Falcons of France is more than a good yarn — it is a living and consequently better history of the Lafayette Squadron.
HAROLD B. WILLIS