WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.759 Welcome to another custom tailored deep dive 00:00:02.759 --> 00:00:06.780 crafted specifically for you. We are we're really 00:00:06.780 --> 00:00:08.599 thrilled to have you with us today because we 00:00:08.599 --> 00:00:11.160 are looking at a piece of history that reads 00:00:11.160 --> 00:00:14.019 exactly like a Hollywood script. But it's entirely 00:00:14.019 --> 00:00:16.920 true. Right. Hundred percent true. Today's mission 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:20.140 is to explore the history, the heroism and the 00:00:20.140 --> 00:00:22.920 truly fascinating public relations campaign behind 00:00:22.920 --> 00:00:26.500 a legendary World War One aviation unit, the 00:00:26.500 --> 00:00:29.070 Lafayette Escadrille. And to do this, we're pulling 00:00:29.070 --> 00:00:31.410 from a comprehensive historical text that details 00:00:31.410 --> 00:00:34.109 the origins, the combat records, the casualties, 00:00:34.229 --> 00:00:37.030 and of course the lasting legacy of this pioneering 00:00:37.030 --> 00:00:39.590 fighter squadron. Exactly. And, you know, we 00:00:39.590 --> 00:00:41.609 really need to establish the stakes here right 00:00:41.609 --> 00:00:43.549 from the jump. Yeah, because the context of the 00:00:43.549 --> 00:00:45.929 era, it changes everything. I mean, before World 00:00:45.929 --> 00:00:47.950 War I, aircraft weren't even considered combat 00:00:47.950 --> 00:00:50.509 units. They were novelties. Basically just motorized 00:00:50.509 --> 00:00:53.250 kites. Yeah. Barely more than that. So what we 00:00:53.250 --> 00:00:55.409 are going to explore today is how a group of 00:00:55.409 --> 00:00:58.270 American volunteers not only fundamentally changed 00:00:58.270 --> 00:01:01.630 the concept of aerial warfare, but also actively 00:01:01.630 --> 00:01:04.290 tried to shift global politics in the process. 00:01:04.430 --> 00:01:06.489 They were fighting in the skies, but. They were 00:01:06.489 --> 00:01:08.629 simultaneously fighting for headlines back home. 00:01:09.090 --> 00:01:11.349 OK, let's unpack this. OK. Because the origin 00:01:11.349 --> 00:01:15.090 story of this unit is completely wild. It didn't 00:01:15.090 --> 00:01:17.890 start with a military general drawing up battle 00:01:17.890 --> 00:01:20.510 plans in some war room. It started with essentially 00:01:20.510 --> 00:01:22.489 two civilians. Two very connected civilians, 00:01:22.629 --> 00:01:25.939 yeah. You have Dr. Edmund L. Gross, who was a 00:01:25.939 --> 00:01:28.159 founder of the American Hospital of Paris, and 00:01:28.159 --> 00:01:30.019 he was an organizer of the American Ambulance 00:01:30.019 --> 00:01:32.859 Field Service. And alongside him, you have Norman 00:01:32.859 --> 00:01:35.620 Prince. A Harvard -educated lawyer. Exactly. 00:01:35.799 --> 00:01:38.319 An American expatriate who happened to already 00:01:38.319 --> 00:01:41.819 be flying for France. These two men spearheaded 00:01:41.819 --> 00:01:43.719 the attempt to persuade the French government 00:01:43.719 --> 00:01:46.780 that a volunteer American air unit fighting for 00:01:46.780 --> 00:01:49.719 France would be highly valuable. And their core 00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:52.079 motivation was incredibly calculated. I mean, 00:01:52.079 --> 00:01:53.900 it was... It wasn't simply about getting Americans 00:01:53.900 --> 00:01:56.239 into the fight to shoot down enemy planes. It 00:01:56.239 --> 00:01:59.859 was a PR stunt. A deliberate, high -stakes publicity 00:01:59.859 --> 00:02:02.560 stunt. Gross and Prince wanted the French government 00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:05.500 to formally recognize an all -American volunteer 00:02:05.500 --> 00:02:07.719 unit specifically to grab the attention of the 00:02:07.719 --> 00:02:10.360 American public. You have to remember, the United 00:02:10.360 --> 00:02:12.879 States was fiercely isolationist at this point. 00:02:13.080 --> 00:02:16.319 and strictly neutral, strictly neutral. The organizers 00:02:16.319 --> 00:02:19.360 hoped that by feeding these highly romanticized 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:22.280 stories of brave American boys flying in combat 00:02:22.280 --> 00:02:25.360 to the neutral U .S. press, they could basically 00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:28.520 create the first modern media celebrities of 00:02:28.520 --> 00:02:31.719 the war. They wanted to sway isolationist voters. 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:34.439 Yeah, persuade the U .S. to abandon neutrality 00:02:34.439 --> 00:02:37.259 and drag a superpower into a global conflict. 00:02:37.419 --> 00:02:40.560 Wait, so two random civilians thought they could 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:42.500 single -handedly force the president of the United 00:02:42.500 --> 00:02:44.919 States out of neutrality just by starting a flying 00:02:44.919 --> 00:02:47.419 club? Well, it sounds absurd when you put it 00:02:47.419 --> 00:02:49.729 that way. But the French Air Department actually 00:02:49.729 --> 00:02:51.969 saw the potential in the PR campaign. They knew 00:02:51.969 --> 00:02:54.349 how powerful American newspapers were. That is 00:02:54.349 --> 00:02:57.750 a massive diplomatic gamble. It was. Yeah. But 00:02:57.750 --> 00:03:00.169 it worked. The unit was officially authorized 00:03:00.169 --> 00:03:03.930 on March 21st, 1916. And by April 20th of that 00:03:03.930 --> 00:03:06.110 same year, they were officially deployed in Luxembourg. 00:03:06.469 --> 00:03:08.810 That's a town in France right near the Swiss 00:03:08.810 --> 00:03:11.449 border, right? Yes, exactly. And initially, there 00:03:11.449 --> 00:03:13.270 were just seven American pilots kicking things 00:03:13.270 --> 00:03:16.069 off. This included Norman Prince himself, along 00:03:16.069 --> 00:03:18.229 with guys like Victor Chapman, Kiffin Rockwell, 00:03:18.409 --> 00:03:21.020 and William Thaw II. Wow, just seven guys to 00:03:21.020 --> 00:03:23.900 start. Yeah. And what's fascinating here is the 00:03:23.900 --> 00:03:26.740 immediate diplomatic tension this caused on the 00:03:26.740 --> 00:03:29.719 world stage. The unit was originally called the 00:03:29.719 --> 00:03:32.520 Escadrille American. Which is pretty on the nose. 00:03:32.780 --> 00:03:35.319 Right. And Germany paid very close attention 00:03:35.319 --> 00:03:38.259 to this. They actually filed a formal diplomatic 00:03:38.259 --> 00:03:41.360 objection with the US government. And legally 00:03:41.360 --> 00:03:44.039 speaking, Germany had a totally valid point. 00:03:44.180 --> 00:03:46.199 Because they were supposed to be neutral. Exactly. 00:03:46.379 --> 00:03:48.419 Germany complained that a supposedly neutral 00:03:48.419 --> 00:03:51.629 nation had a named active military unit fighting 00:03:51.629 --> 00:03:54.189 against them on the front lines. The original 00:03:54.189 --> 00:03:56.689 name practically implied that the United States 00:03:56.689 --> 00:03:59.830 was already allied with France. Yeah, I can totally 00:03:59.830 --> 00:04:02.509 see how having the word American painted on planes, 00:04:02.889 --> 00:04:05.069 dropping bombs on your troops, would make you 00:04:05.069 --> 00:04:07.469 question a country's neutrality. A pivot was 00:04:07.469 --> 00:04:10.370 completely necessary to avoid a massive international 00:04:10.370 --> 00:04:13.400 incident. And the French were quick. By December 00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:17.259 1916, they cleverly changed the name to the Lafayette 00:04:17.259 --> 00:04:19.860 Escadrille. Which is such a brilliant move. It 00:04:19.860 --> 00:04:22.000 honored the Marquis de Lafayette, the famous 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:23.939 French hero who came over to help the Americans 00:04:23.939 --> 00:04:26.699 during the Revolutionary War. It was a very subtle 00:04:26.699 --> 00:04:29.779 nod to a shared history without officially stamping 00:04:29.779 --> 00:04:32.120 the word America on the side of the plains. Right. 00:04:32.160 --> 00:04:36.360 It was a very elegant loophole to a thorny diplomatic 00:04:36.360 --> 00:04:39.420 problem. It allowed the unit to continue operating 00:04:39.720 --> 00:04:43.160 and growing under the banner of a shared Franco 00:04:43.160 --> 00:04:45.680 -American heritage. Keeping the PR engine running 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:48.480 perfectly without technically violating international 00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:50.879 neutrality laws. By the way, for those wondering, 00:04:51.319 --> 00:04:53.720 escadrille is simply the French military term 00:04:53.720 --> 00:04:56.480 for a squadron. Looking at the actual makeup 00:04:56.480 --> 00:04:58.939 of this particular squadron, while it was famous 00:04:58.939 --> 00:05:01.399 for being American, it was heavily French in 00:05:01.399 --> 00:05:03.620 its foundation. Oh, absolutely. There were exactly 00:05:03.620 --> 00:05:06.160 five French officers assigned to the group, and 00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:08.439 that included their commander, Captain George 00:05:08.439 --> 00:05:10.740 Thineau. On the American side, the full roster 00:05:10.740 --> 00:05:13.819 eventually included exactly 38 American pilots. 00:05:14.120 --> 00:05:16.199 Who would later become known in history as the 00:05:16.199 --> 00:05:19.220 Valiant 38. The Valiant 38. And everything about 00:05:19.220 --> 00:05:21.339 their operation was French. They flew French 00:05:21.339 --> 00:05:23.980 aircraft, they relied on French mechanics, and 00:05:23.980 --> 00:05:26.600 they wore French uniforms. The Americans essentially 00:05:26.600 --> 00:05:29.439 provided the manpower and the highly marketable 00:05:29.439 --> 00:05:32.339 faces for the newspapers, but the infrastructure 00:05:32.339 --> 00:05:34.500 was entirely supplied by the French military. 00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:37.949 It was a true joint operation in practice. Here's 00:05:37.949 --> 00:05:40.730 where it gets really interesting. Because you'd 00:05:40.730 --> 00:05:42.829 think a military airfield near the front lines 00:05:42.829 --> 00:05:46.430 of a global war would be strictly business. But 00:05:46.430 --> 00:05:49.129 this squadron had two unofficial members that 00:05:49.129 --> 00:05:51.490 you absolutely wouldn't expect to find. Oh, the 00:05:51.490 --> 00:05:55.629 lions. Yes. They kept two live lion cubs roaming 00:05:55.629 --> 00:05:58.230 around the base. They named them Whiskey and 00:05:58.230 --> 00:06:01.009 Soda. Which is just incredible. Right. They functioned 00:06:01.009 --> 00:06:03.370 as mascots purely to provide the pilots with 00:06:03.370 --> 00:06:05.850 a little bit of psychological relief from the 00:06:05.850 --> 00:06:07.860 extreme stress of battle. And we really need 00:06:07.860 --> 00:06:10.199 to pause and emphasize why that stress was so 00:06:10.199 --> 00:06:13.459 unbelievably extreme. The aircraft of that era, 00:06:13.600 --> 00:06:16.120 planes like the Newport 11, the Newport 17, and 00:06:16.120 --> 00:06:18.980 later the SAF -P days, they were not just flimsy. 00:06:19.160 --> 00:06:21.160 Flimsy is an understatement. To give you an idea, 00:06:21.259 --> 00:06:23.680 the Newport 11 was essentially a wooden frame 00:06:23.680 --> 00:06:26.720 wrapped in doped linen. It didn't even have a 00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:29.439 throttle, as we know it today. No throttle. No. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:33.519 The engine was a rotary engine, meaning the entire 00:06:33.519 --> 00:06:36.759 engine block spun with the propeller. And as 00:06:36.759 --> 00:06:40.660 it spun, it spewed unburned castor oil right 00:06:40.660 --> 00:06:43.420 into the pilot's face. Oh, that's awful. And 00:06:43.420 --> 00:06:45.540 because there was no throttle, the engine was 00:06:45.540 --> 00:06:48.199 either fully on or completely off. So pilots 00:06:48.199 --> 00:06:50.980 had to constantly kill their own engines midair 00:06:50.980 --> 00:06:54.019 just to slow down or maneuver. Wait, they turned 00:06:54.019 --> 00:06:56.779 off the engine while flying? Yes. They'd hit 00:06:56.779 --> 00:06:59.920 a blip switch, cut the ignition, make their turn, 00:07:00.019 --> 00:07:01.819 and then pray the engine would catch again when 00:07:01.819 --> 00:07:04.569 they turn it back on. That is terrifying. You 00:07:04.569 --> 00:07:06.649 were thousands of feet in the air in a linen 00:07:06.649 --> 00:07:09.250 box, deliberately turning off your own engine 00:07:09.250 --> 00:07:11.649 during a dogfight. Exactly. And if the engine 00:07:11.649 --> 00:07:14.129 didn't fail, vital structural parts would often 00:07:14.129 --> 00:07:16.750 just snap during tight maneuvers. On top of that, 00:07:16.829 --> 00:07:19.110 their machine guns, usual Vickers or Lewis guns, 00:07:19.370 --> 00:07:21.410 constantly jammed right at the exact moment they 00:07:21.410 --> 00:07:23.810 were needed most in combat. Because the technology 00:07:23.810 --> 00:07:26.350 was so new. Right. The synchronization gear, 00:07:26.389 --> 00:07:28.290 which was supposed to let the machine gun fire 00:07:28.290 --> 00:07:29.990 safely through the spinning propeller blades, 00:07:30.089 --> 00:07:33.449 was notoriously unreliable early on. Pilots sometimes 00:07:33.449 --> 00:07:35.800 shopped own propellers to pieces. That paints 00:07:35.800 --> 00:07:38.639 an entirely different picture than the glamorous 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:40.860 Knights of the Sky narrative the PR campaign 00:07:40.860 --> 00:07:43.160 was selling to the folks back home. There is 00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:45.860 a massive disconnect between the shiny headlines 00:07:45.860 --> 00:07:49.500 in America and the horrific reality these pilots 00:07:49.500 --> 00:07:51.860 were waking up to every day in France. There's 00:07:51.860 --> 00:07:53.939 this one story from the records that really stuck 00:07:53.939 --> 00:07:56.420 with me. Yeah. One of the American men in the 00:07:56.420 --> 00:07:59.220 unit actually begged to be transferred out of 00:07:59.220 --> 00:08:01.839 the Glamorous Flying Squadron and sent back to 00:08:01.839 --> 00:08:04.500 his infantry unit in the muddy trenches, just 00:08:04.500 --> 00:08:08.079 so, in his own words, he could be safe. The trenches 00:08:08.079 --> 00:08:11.040 of World War I are universally recognized as 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:13.240 some of the most horrific combat environments 00:08:13.240 --> 00:08:16.300 in human history. To think someone would rather 00:08:16.300 --> 00:08:19.199 face mustard gas and artillery shells than get 00:08:19.199 --> 00:08:22.019 back into an airplane is deeply unsettling. I 00:08:22.019 --> 00:08:24.230 want to address you directly on this point. Imagine 00:08:24.230 --> 00:08:26.589 the sheer terror of early flight where the mud, 00:08:26.709 --> 00:08:28.810 the disease, and the artillery fire of the Western 00:08:28.810 --> 00:08:31.129 Front actually looked like a safer option to 00:08:31.129 --> 00:08:33.750 you than climbing into a cockpit. What stands 00:08:33.750 --> 00:08:36.529 out to you about that level of risk? It's just 00:08:36.529 --> 00:08:38.649 hard to wrap your head around. The psychological 00:08:38.649 --> 00:08:40.629 fortitude required just to start the engine, 00:08:40.789 --> 00:08:43.450 let alone fly into combat against an enemy, is 00:08:43.450 --> 00:08:45.710 staggering. And that fortitude was put to the 00:08:45.710 --> 00:08:48.909 test immediately. The unit racked up incredible 00:08:48.909 --> 00:08:52.250 firsts, but they also suffered heavy tragic tolls. 00:08:52.299 --> 00:08:54.860 If we look at their combat timeline, they saw 00:08:54.860 --> 00:08:59.000 their first major action on May 13, 1916 at the 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:01.519 Battle of Verdun. One of the worst battles of 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:04.720 the war. Right. And just five days later, on 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:07.759 May 18, a pilot named Kiffin Rockwell recorded 00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:11.000 the unit's very first aerial victory. But the 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:13.399 reality of this war caught up incredibly fast. 00:09:13.960 --> 00:09:16.100 By September of that same year, Rockwell was 00:09:16.100 --> 00:09:18.220 killed when his plane was downed by a gunner 00:09:18.220 --> 00:09:20.960 in a German Albatross observation plane. And 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:23.240 Rockwell wasn't the first fatality, unfortunately. 00:09:23.559 --> 00:09:25.700 That heartbreaking milestone went to Victor Chapman. 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:28.139 He was shot down over Dumont a few months earlier 00:09:28.139 --> 00:09:31.740 on June 23, 1916. Even the unit's founder, Norman 00:09:31.740 --> 00:09:33.799 Prince, the man who helped engineer this entire 00:09:33.799 --> 00:09:36.059 media campaign, he didn't survive to see the 00:09:36.059 --> 00:09:38.740 end of the war. No, he didn't. In October 1916, 00:09:38.779 --> 00:09:41.120 he was fatally injured after crashing his plane 00:09:41.120 --> 00:09:43.899 on a final approach to his own airfield. It wasn't 00:09:43.899 --> 00:09:45.899 even a dogfight that took him. It was just the 00:09:45.899 --> 00:09:49.580 sheer everyday danger of flying these early machines. 00:09:49.789 --> 00:09:51.950 But amidst all this tragedy, there were some 00:09:51.950 --> 00:09:54.929 incredible feats of skill. Take Raoul Loughbury, 00:09:55.049 --> 00:09:57.409 for instance. He was a French -born American 00:09:57.409 --> 00:09:59.629 citizen who joined the squadron and ultimately 00:09:59.629 --> 00:10:02.350 became their first and highest scoring flying 00:10:02.350 --> 00:10:05.269 ace. And for those who might not know, an ace 00:10:05.269 --> 00:10:07.710 is a military designation for a pilot who has 00:10:07.710 --> 00:10:10.129 shot down five or more enemy aircraft. Right. 00:10:10.169 --> 00:10:13.129 And Loughbury wrapped up 16 confirmed victories. 00:10:13.549 --> 00:10:15.669 Because of the constant machine gun jams we talked 00:10:15.669 --> 00:10:18.529 about earlier, Loughbury was famous for personally 00:10:18.529 --> 00:10:20.840 inspecting and polishing every single bullet 00:10:20.840 --> 00:10:23.059 before it went into his gun's drum. Every single 00:10:23.059 --> 00:10:24.879 one. That shows you the level of detail required 00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:27.299 just to survive. Exactly. He developed specific 00:10:27.299 --> 00:10:29.860 meticulous tactics that made him a master of 00:10:29.860 --> 00:10:32.779 a very deadly, very new art form. Then there 00:10:32.779 --> 00:10:36.019 is the story of Edmund Genet. His story represents 00:10:36.019 --> 00:10:38.179 exactly what the founders had been hoping for 00:10:38.179 --> 00:10:40.980 diplomatically, but it came with a tragic personal 00:10:40.980 --> 00:10:43.970 end. When the United States finally entered the 00:10:43.970 --> 00:10:46.590 war against Germany, the geopolitical goal of 00:10:46.590 --> 00:10:49.429 the unit was essentially achieved. They got what 00:10:49.429 --> 00:10:52.370 they wanted. They did. But Genet had already 00:10:52.370 --> 00:10:54.590 been active in the escadrille long before the 00:10:54.590 --> 00:10:57.549 U .S. declared war. Because he died in combat 00:10:57.549 --> 00:10:59.649 just a few days after the U .S. official entry 00:10:59.649 --> 00:11:02.269 into the conflict, Edmund Genet became the first 00:11:02.269 --> 00:11:04.850 official U .S. casualty of World War I. And his 00:11:04.850 --> 00:11:07.809 death made massive headlines back home, cementing 00:11:07.809 --> 00:11:10.110 the emotional connection the American public 00:11:10.110 --> 00:11:13.730 had with the war effort. If we connect this to 00:11:13.730 --> 00:11:17.009 the bigger picture, the statistics really outline 00:11:17.009 --> 00:11:20.549 a brutal reality of what this group and the broader 00:11:20.549 --> 00:11:22.950 network of American volunteers went through. 00:11:23.350 --> 00:11:25.309 Yeah, looking at the total registry of Americans 00:11:25.309 --> 00:11:27.570 who volunteered in French aviation at the time, 00:11:27.970 --> 00:11:31.330 51 died in combat. Another 11 died of other causes, 00:11:31.629 --> 00:11:34.750 mostly accidents. 15 of these men became prisoners 00:11:34.750 --> 00:11:37.190 of war. Those are heavy numbers for such a small 00:11:37.190 --> 00:11:40.370 community. They really are. But amidst all that 00:11:40.370 --> 00:11:43.649 loss, 11 of those pilots achieved that coveted 00:11:43.649 --> 00:11:47.019 status of ace. It was a high -risk, high -reward 00:11:47.019 --> 00:11:49.740 environment where survival was genuinely a daily 00:11:49.740 --> 00:11:52.980 roll of the dice. As the war progressed and America 00:11:52.980 --> 00:11:55.720 fully mobilized, the structure of the unit had 00:11:55.720 --> 00:12:00.419 to change. On February 18, 1918, the Escadrille 00:12:00.419 --> 00:12:02.940 was officially disbanded. But the American personnel 00:12:02.940 --> 00:12:05.759 didn't just pack up and go home. No. They were 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:08.159 transferred into the United States Army Air Service, 00:12:08.419 --> 00:12:10.379 which had finally arrived in Europe under the 00:12:10.379 --> 00:12:13.440 new designation of the 103rd Aero Squadron. And 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:15.220 for a brief period, they even kept their French 00:12:15.220 --> 00:12:17.500 planes and mechanics. Their veteran experience 00:12:17.500 --> 00:12:20.059 was absolutely invaluable to the U .S. military 00:12:20.059 --> 00:12:22.179 at that point. Most of these battle -hardened 00:12:22.179 --> 00:12:24.200 survivors were immediately put to work training 00:12:24.200 --> 00:12:26.700 the fresh, newly arrived American pilots who 00:12:26.700 --> 00:12:29.159 had never seen aerial combat. Which makes perfect 00:12:29.159 --> 00:12:31.879 sense. But the 103rd still fought, and they were 00:12:31.879 --> 00:12:34.860 credited with a further 45 kills before the armistice 00:12:34.860 --> 00:12:37.440 finally went into effect on November 11, 1918. 00:12:37.980 --> 00:12:39.860 Meanwhile, the French personnel formed their 00:12:39.860 --> 00:12:42.360 own unit, carrying on the traditions of the original 00:12:42.360 --> 00:12:45.440 group within the French military. So the war 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:49.559 ends, the unit is cemented in history, and then 00:12:49.559 --> 00:12:52.940 things get incredibly muddy. This is where the 00:12:52.940 --> 00:12:55.539 Hollywood confusion starts. Oh, the myth -making. 00:12:55.779 --> 00:12:58.740 After the Great War, over 4 ,000 people suddenly 00:12:58.740 --> 00:13:01.299 started claiming they were members of the legendary 00:13:01.299 --> 00:13:04.080 Lafayette escadrille. We aren't just talking 00:13:04.080 --> 00:13:06.299 about regular veterans exaggerating their service 00:13:06.299 --> 00:13:09.240 in local bars. This included a dozen well -known 00:13:09.240 --> 00:13:11.840 Hollywood personalities and even several high 00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:13.720 -ranking government officials claiming they flew 00:13:13.720 --> 00:13:16.159 with the unit. It's a massive historical mix 00:13:16.159 --> 00:13:18.919 -up, and honestly, it really speaks to how incredibly 00:13:18.919 --> 00:13:21.240 potent the original public relations campaign 00:13:21.240 --> 00:13:24.490 was that Gross and Prince designed. The brand 00:13:24.490 --> 00:13:26.730 of the Lafayette escadrille was so glamorous, 00:13:27.309 --> 00:13:29.309 so universally revered in the press that everyone 00:13:29.309 --> 00:13:31.289 wanted to associate themselves with it. But the 00:13:31.289 --> 00:13:33.769 math just doesn't lie. No, it doesn't. The actual 00:13:33.769 --> 00:13:35.909 Lafayette escadrille, that specific frontline 00:13:35.909 --> 00:13:38.590 unit, consisted of exactly five French officers 00:13:38.590 --> 00:13:41.370 and 38 American pilots. That's it. Just the valiant 00:13:41.370 --> 00:13:44.649 38. How does a myth grow so large that thousands 00:13:44.649 --> 00:13:46.490 of people successfully claim to be part of a 00:13:46.490 --> 00:13:49.690 38 -man unit? Well, from the very beginning, 00:13:49.750 --> 00:13:52.210 there was a huge public blurring in the press 00:13:52.210 --> 00:13:55.230 between the official Lafayette Escadrille, which 00:13:55.230 --> 00:13:58.090 was a designated specific squadron, and something 00:13:58.090 --> 00:14:00.490 completely different called the Lafayette Flying 00:14:00.490 --> 00:14:03.269 Corps. Right. The Lafayette Flying Corps wasn't 00:14:03.269 --> 00:14:05.850 a military unit at all. It was essentially an 00:14:05.850 --> 00:14:08.879 unofficial paper organization. It was an umbrella 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:11.679 term used in a published roster to highlight 00:14:11.679 --> 00:14:15.019 all the American volunteer aviators, about 231 00:14:15.019 --> 00:14:17.759 of them in total, who flew across more than 90 00:14:17.759 --> 00:14:20.559 different French operational squadrons. So they 00:14:20.559 --> 00:14:23.559 were real pilots. Yes, they were brave men doing 00:14:23.559 --> 00:14:25.960 incredible things, absolutely. But they were 00:14:25.960 --> 00:14:28.220 spread out all over the French military. They 00:14:28.220 --> 00:14:30.620 were not flying with the specific Lafayette Escadrille 00:14:30.620 --> 00:14:33.330 unit. But the general public. And certainly the 00:14:33.330 --> 00:14:35.809 newspapers didn't care about military semantics. 00:14:35.929 --> 00:14:38.250 They just blurred it all together. Over the decades, 00:14:38.470 --> 00:14:40.490 films only made the confusion worse. Hollywood 00:14:40.490 --> 00:14:43.049 rarely lets facts get in the way of a good story. 00:14:43.649 --> 00:14:45.870 Exactly. Movies like The Legion of the Condemned 00:14:45.870 --> 00:14:49.230 in 1928, or Lafayette Esquidril starring Tab 00:14:49.230 --> 00:14:52.370 Hunter in 1958, heavily romanticized the history. 00:14:52.789 --> 00:14:55.990 And definitely the 2006 film Flyboys, directed 00:14:55.990 --> 00:14:59.799 by Tony Bill. Flyboys in particular heavily exacerbated 00:14:59.799 --> 00:15:02.620 the already existing confusion about who was 00:15:02.620 --> 00:15:04.580 actually in the unit, how many of them there 00:15:04.580 --> 00:15:07.379 were, and what they actually did. Pop culture 00:15:07.379 --> 00:15:10.600 just grabbed the myth and ran away with it, prioritizing 00:15:10.600 --> 00:15:13.059 a cinematic spectacle over the factual roster. 00:15:13.220 --> 00:15:15.320 Which is somewhat inevitable when a true story 00:15:15.320 --> 00:15:18.100 is this naturally dramatic. But even if you strip 00:15:18.100 --> 00:15:20.320 away all the Hollywood embellishments and the 00:15:20.320 --> 00:15:23.220 thousands of fake veterans, the factual legacy 00:15:23.220 --> 00:15:26.220 and the genuine tributes to this unit are profound. 00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:28.679 The cultural impact lasted for decades after 00:15:28.679 --> 00:15:30.860 the armistice. The name carried so much cultural 00:15:30.860 --> 00:15:33.700 weight that in 1932, just a couple of days after 00:15:33.700 --> 00:15:36.000 she became the first female aviator to fly solo 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:38.779 across the Atlantic, Amelia Earhart was actually 00:15:38.779 --> 00:15:40.899 made an honorary member of the Escadrille Lafayette. 00:15:40.980 --> 00:15:43.419 That's a huge honor. It is. And the unit's lineage 00:15:43.419 --> 00:15:45.679 didn't just stay in the history books. It continued 00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:48.480 right into World War II. The Lafayette Escadrille 00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:51.059 became the third flight unit of a French fighter 00:15:51.059 --> 00:15:54.940 group. By late 1942 and early 1943, they were 00:15:54.940 --> 00:15:57.580 flying American -made Curtiss P -40 Warhawks 00:15:57.580 --> 00:16:00.720 and Republic P -47 Thunderbolts alongside the 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:03.480 Allies. But perhaps the most moving tribute is 00:16:03.480 --> 00:16:06.379 the physical one. Just outside of Paris, in Marne 00:16:06.379 --> 00:16:09.139 -le -Coquette, sits the Lafayette Escadrille 00:16:09.139 --> 00:16:12.299 Memorial Cemetery. It was the final work of French 00:16:12.299 --> 00:16:15.480 architect Alexandre Marcel, completed and dedicated 00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:18.100 in 1928. It's supposed to be stunning. It is 00:16:18.100 --> 00:16:21.279 a majestic, sweeping monument designed to serve 00:16:21.279 --> 00:16:23.740 as a permanent physical reminder of what happens 00:16:23.740 --> 00:16:26.340 when two nations bleed for the same cause. Just 00:16:26.340 --> 00:16:28.299 picturing it based on the architectural descriptions 00:16:28.299 --> 00:16:30.759 of the source text is striking. It features a 00:16:30.759 --> 00:16:33.139 massive, ornate central arch that is actually 00:16:33.139 --> 00:16:35.529 half the size of the Arc de Triomphe. Paris. 00:16:35.710 --> 00:16:37.629 It's massive. There's a beautiful reflecting 00:16:37.629 --> 00:16:39.789 pool running the length of the structure and 00:16:39.789 --> 00:16:42.149 stunning stained glass windows in the crypt below 00:16:42.149 --> 00:16:44.789 that vividly depict the major battles of the 00:16:44.789 --> 00:16:47.649 Western Front. And that crypt is the truly sacred 00:16:47.649 --> 00:16:51.549 part of the memorial. It contains 68 sarcophagi. 00:16:51.820 --> 00:16:54.740 one for each of the aviators of the broader Lafayette 00:16:54.740 --> 00:16:56.700 Flying Corps who lost their lives during the 00:16:56.700 --> 00:17:00.840 war. Wow. Today, 49 of those aviators are entombed 00:17:00.840 --> 00:17:03.440 right there in that crypt, resting alongside 00:17:03.440 --> 00:17:06.700 two of their French commanding officers. In 2017, 00:17:07.000 --> 00:17:09.680 the American Battle Monuments Commission actually 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:11.779 assumed ownership and responsibility for the 00:17:11.779 --> 00:17:13.799 site to ensure it is preserved and maintained 00:17:13.799 --> 00:17:16.470 forever. So what does this all mean? When we 00:17:16.470 --> 00:17:18.269 look back at the Lafayette escadrille, we aren't 00:17:18.269 --> 00:17:20.829 just looking at a list of aerial dog fights or 00:17:20.829 --> 00:17:23.670 early wooden plane models. We are looking at 00:17:23.670 --> 00:17:26.329 a master class in political maneuvering executed 00:17:26.329 --> 00:17:28.430 by civilians who understood the power of the 00:17:28.430 --> 00:17:30.750 press. And we are looking at the raw, almost 00:17:30.750 --> 00:17:33.750 incomprehensible bravery of men who climbed into 00:17:33.750 --> 00:17:35.990 fabric boxes knowing their engines might fail, 00:17:36.170 --> 00:17:38.289 their guns might jam, and they might have to 00:17:38.289 --> 00:17:40.549 shoot their own propellers just to survive. We 00:17:40.549 --> 00:17:42.950 are looking at how the intense danger they faced 00:17:42.950 --> 00:17:45.849 succeeded in its ultimate goal, capturing the 00:17:45.849 --> 00:17:48.109 imagination of a neutral nation and helping it 00:17:48.109 --> 00:17:50.329 alter the course of a world war. This raises 00:17:50.329 --> 00:17:52.930 an important question, one that pushes past the 00:17:52.930 --> 00:17:55.109 history books and right into our modern world. 00:17:55.690 --> 00:17:57.690 Think about what Dr. Edmund Gross and Norman 00:17:57.690 --> 00:18:00.609 Prince actually accomplished here. They bypassed 00:18:00.609 --> 00:18:02.569 their own government's stated foreign policy 00:18:02.569 --> 00:18:06.140 to force a global shift. a completely grassroots 00:18:06.140 --> 00:18:09.720 diplomatic push. Yes. So ponder this. Can the 00:18:09.720 --> 00:18:12.480 actions of a few rogue volunteers fighting under 00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:15.720 a foreign flag ever truly force the hand of a 00:18:15.720 --> 00:18:19.019 neutral superpower today? In an age of immediate 00:18:19.019 --> 00:18:21.799 global communication, if a handful of citizens 00:18:21.799 --> 00:18:24.420 can shift public opinion enough to drag a nation 00:18:24.420 --> 00:18:27.140 into a conflict, who really holds the ultimate 00:18:27.140 --> 00:18:30.150 power of diplomacy? Is it the government signing 00:18:30.150 --> 00:18:32.410 treaties behind closed doors, or is it the people 00:18:32.410 --> 00:18:34.269 willing to put their lives on the line for a 00:18:34.269 --> 00:18:36.470 headline? That is exactly the kind of question 00:18:36.470 --> 00:18:38.650 that makes digging into these sources so rewarding. 00:18:39.190 --> 00:18:40.849 We want to thank you for joining us on this deep 00:18:40.849 --> 00:18:43.450 dive. We hope this exploration of the Lafayette 00:18:43.450 --> 00:18:45.190 Escadrille has given you a shortcut to being 00:18:45.190 --> 00:18:47.670 well informed on a truly incredible piece of 00:18:47.670 --> 00:18:50.390 history. Until next time, keep questioning the 00:18:50.390 --> 00:18:52.230 history you thought you knew, and keep diving 00:18:52.230 --> 00:18:52.549 deep.