WILLIAM THAW
William Thaw was born in Pittsburgh, in 1893. His father was a wealthy businessman. His mother was an heiress and a prominent art collector. He enrolled in Yale University in 1911 but left two years later to pursue a career in aviation. Thaw first learned to fly at the Curtiss School of Aviation at Hammondsport. From a generous allowance bestowed upon him by his father he purchased a Fiat runabout which he used to shuffle himself and his fellow students from the boarding house where they stayed to the flying school grounds.
With funds from his father he purchased a Curtiss Model E Hydro flying boat, and upon delivery from the company, he had it shipped to Newport, Rhode Island to Beachmound," the senior Thaw's summer home which overlooked the beach clubs there. This large structure with a portico supported by Grecian columns had been named "the cottage" by Mrs Thaw. Soon young William Thaw was carrying Newport's social elite on flights in his Curtiss aircraft out over Narragansett Bay. Stephen MacGordon, Thaw's Curtiss School classmate, joined his friend in Newport. Thaw and MacGordon flew the first of several trips from Newport to New York City in less than four hours. Once there, they began transporting the social set as passengers above the city and made headlines by flying under the four East River bridges before circling the Statue of Liberty. They also attempted one of the first shore-to-ship deliveries by dropping a bundle of newspaper from Thaw's aircraft onto the German ship Imperator as she entered New York Harbor.
On 13 October the two aviators participated in the Round-Manhattan Race before heading for the warmer climate of Palm Beach. There, MacGordon purchased a flying boat and he and Thaw carried the resort's vacationers out over the sea, taking them "as high as they wanted to go" for $20. They also operated an aerial ferry, carrying visitors across Lake Worth. In the spring of 1914 Thaw and MacGordon left the United States for Great Britain where they purchased a Deperdussin monoplane which they intended to enter in the Schneider Trophy competition to be held at Monaco on the French Riviera. Thaw withdrew from the competition, knowing their aircraft would be unable to challenge a faster plane.
Thaw left for Paris with MacGordon and his younger brother Alexander Blair, where they intended to enter his 100-horsepower Curtiss Model R Hydro airplane in the "Securité en Aéroplane" Competition. Blair Thaw had invented an automatic stabilizer, and they hoped to win a portion of the $ 100,000 safety competition prize offered by the French Government. Before the Competition, Thaw secured Aero Club of France F.I. Hydro License No. 2. Then Thaw took his plane in a tour along the Mediterranean, to Juan-les-Pins and other resorts, fine-testing the stabilizer. Following this stint, he thereafter became known to his friends as "the playboy of the Riviera". By the time the Thaws and MacGordon had returned to Paris for the pending competition, hostilities between France and Germany had forced its cancellation. Thereupon, Thaw had offered his services to the French Service Aeronautique but was turned down. In the early stages of World War One the French military had farless aircraft than men needed to fly them. However, Thaw and MacGordon were determined to serve France. Thaw turned his Curtiss Hydro airplane over to the French Government for its use, then on 21 August 1914 he and MacGordon and forty-one other Americans marched to the Hotel des Invalides in Paris and enlisted in the French Foreign Legion as common infantry privates. Thaw was given L.M. no. 5.503.
Following four weeks of drill at Rouen and Toulouse Thaw and his American comrades left in boxcars for the Front. Thaw's first assignment in the Chemin des Dames Sector was to act as scout for his seventeen-man squad. This meant that with his company on the march Thaw had to walk three times as far and as fast as the moving ranks over rough terrain in order to warn of the nearness of any enemy concentrations. His American comrade Bert Hall remembered how Thaw's feet would swell up "like sausage balloons".
Thaw soon realized he could not maintain such a pace. And he still retained his hope and desire to enter French aviation. In early October 1914 he related to Paul Ayres Rockwell his hope of forming "a squadron of American volunteers" to fly for France. This marked the earliest date that any American had spoken of such a concept, a full month prior to Norman Prince's conversation with Frazier Curtis at Marblehead, Massachusetts when Prince had told Curtis of his dream of forming an all-American squadron of aviators. Thaw, to this end, that same month of October had secured permission to hike the thirty-two kilometers to the aerodrome of Escadrille D.6 to see if he could arrange a transfer to that same French squadron for himself, Bert Hall, and James Bach. It was there that Thaw made the acquaintance of senior pilot, Lieutenant Brocard, later Commandant Brocard, Chief of French Air Service. James Bach having received his orders for transfer to French aviation and before him, Thaw again trekked the thirty-two kilometers to Escadrille D.6. There, Lieutenant Brocard assured him his transfer orders were on the way and on 24 December 1914 he was ordered to join the squadron. Bert Hall left the trenches four days later, for the Pau flying school. Before Thaw departed from his Legionnaire comrades, he assured fellow Americans Kiffin Rockwell and Charles Trinkard, among others, that he would work hard for their transfers into aviation. He then departed again for Escadrille D.6 where he joined the roster as a soldat-mitrailleur, thus becoming the first American to actually serve in a French squadron at the Front. Armed with a pistol and carbine, Thaw flew as an observer-gunner in a Deperdussin bi-plane on raids and reconnaissance missions over German territory until 1 February 1915. On that date he was sent to the aviation school at Saint-Cyr, having convinced the French Service Aeronautique that he was a qualified pilot. Thaw trained and received his brevet militaire #714 on the Caudron G.2 on 15 March 1915, the first American to be so licensed by the French Government. He received further training at Buc before being assigned to C.42 on 26 March. Thaw had run into Norman Prince in Paris six days prior to his assignment to the Front. Thaw had been using the period between the end of his training and forward assignment to press the cause of his American Legionnaire comrades in the trenches, among them Kiffin Rockwell and Victor Chapman, in order that they might join him in French aviation. Prince had been in Paris since early January of 1915, using his influence with prominent members of the American colony in Paris to push his concept of an allAmerican squadron of aviators. This same concept had long been in Thaw's mind, and while he and Prince did not unite in purpose, the two recognized this shared desire. Thaw served with distinction as a pilot with C.42 at Nancy and Luneville. He was promoted to Sergent on 18 May and was cited and awarded France's Croix de Guerre, with Palm on three occasions. Meanwhile Norman Prince had completed his aviation training and had arrived at the Front, joining V.B. 108 on 20 May 1915. Another American, Elliot Christopher Cowdin, had been serving with that squadron since 3 May. Whenever free time from their duties allowed. Thaw and Prince had separately pressed their efforts at forming an all-American squadron. Then in December of 1915 they and Elliot Cowdin were granted a thirty-day Christmas leave to the United States. Sailing home aboard the Rotterdam, the three Americans had agreed to unite their efforts. As soon as the Americans had exited the ship at New York, the press fell on their heels. The pilots were reluctant to give specifics on their service in French aviation, but reporters pursued them and built them to heroic proportions for their reading audience. While this caught the interest and sympathy of the American public, it simultaneously brought out the ire of both neutralist and pro-German factions who jointly called for the confinement of the three Americans for their "gross violation of American neutrality." In fact Count von Bernstorff, Germany's Ambassador to the United States, personally warned Thaw in a New York barbershop that it would be best if he and his two American comrades remained in the United States. Thaw scoffed at the ambassador's veiled threat and walked out of the establishment. Following an eight-day stay in the United States, the three Americans with Norman Prince's older brother, Frederick, whom Norman had recruited, returned to France to rejoin their squadrons. The French government had closely observed the press reports on the three Americans while visiting their homeland, and had noted the positive reaction by a potentially valuable ally. They also recognized that considerable propaganda value and a bonding between the two nations might arise through the formation of an all-American squadron of aviators. Following their trip to America, Thaw, Prince and Cowdin now discovered a favorable atmosphere existing in Paris. They redoubled their efforts. Thaw's friend, Lieutenant Brocard, had left the old Deperdussin squadron for a position of influence in Paris which Thaw could now exploit. Dr. Edmond Gros of the American Ambulance Service and Jarousse de Sillac, under secretary of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, formed a Franco-American committee to further promote the Americans' concept. When Sergent Thaw had returned to France following his visit to the United States, he continued to serve with C.42 at the Front until 29 January 1916. After that date he returned to Paris and stayed with his sister, Mrs. Lawrence Slade, at his mother's apartment at 148 rue de Longchamp. The Slade home soon became a favorite hangout for Thaw's American comrades, among them Victor Chapman, Elliot Cowdin, Norman Prince, and Bert Hall. Out of gratitude for the Slade's hospitality, Bert Hall later dedicated his book "En 1'air " to them. While Thaw stayed at his sister's apartment, during the day he attended the Reserve Générale Aéronautique at nearby Plessis-Belleville. There, through February and most of March he was retrained from bi-place to chasse pilot and was frequently in Paris lobbying for the cause of an all-American squadron. Twice he approached Colonel Barres, Chief of French Aeronautics in the Zone des Armees and was finally able to gain his official sanction for the formation of this new squadron and to win for Capitaine Georges Thenault, his old squadron commander with C.42, the position as commanding officer.

On 14 March 1916 Colonel Henri Regnier, director of French Military Aeronautics, issued a statement to the Franco-American Committee that an American squadron was to be organized. William Thaw, Norman Prince, and Elliot Cowdin were to be included in its roster. On 28 March Thaw joined Cowdin at Escadrille N.65 while Norman Prince completed chasse school. Thaw remained there until 15 April 1916 when he and Cowdin were ordered to Luxeuil-les-Bains, the little resort town southeast of Paris to join the roster of N.I 24, the designation assigned the new American squadron. Americans Victor Chapman, Weston Bert Hall, James McConnell, and Kiffin Rockwell soon joined Thaw, Prince, Cowdin, squadron commander Capitaine Thenault, and his adjutant, French Lieutenant deLaage.

On 13 May Sergent Kiffin Rockwell had led the squadron's first regular patrol over the lines southwest of Mulhouse. Capitaine Thenault, Sous-Lieutenant Thaw, Sergent Victor Chapman, and Sergent James McConnell had accompanied Rockwell. On 24 May 1916 William Thaw led the morning patrol over the lines north of Verdun and shot down a Fokker E fighter. He made a second patrol at 9:30 a.m. and ran into three enemy aircraft near the lines. He immediately engaged and shot down a second Fokker fighter before his Lewis gun jammed and he was forced to turn back toward allied lines with two Aviatiks in hot pursuit. They immediately opened fire upon Thaw's Nieuport. A round struck him in the left elbow and continued on into his gasoline tank, making a hole there the size of a fist. Petrol poured out over Thaw's legs and feet. When he reached forward to throw the engine switch, he realized that his arm had been broken. Thaw volplaned down between the second and third allied trenches near Fort Travennes and pancaked to earth. Dizzy from loss of blood, he threw off his harness and staggered to safety. Ambulance men removed his gas soaked combination before placing him on a stretcher. The gasoline in his clothes had evaporated so quickly that it had burned and blistered his body. He was immediately evacuated to the American Hospital at Nieully where his wounds were treated. He finished his recuperation at his sister's residence in Paris. The history and service of the Lafayette Escadrille can serve as a record of the history and service of William Thaw. The two are inseparable, bonded in time and history. Thaw alone of its thirty-eight pilots served from the Squadron's inception on 20 April 1916 until its men were transferred to the 103rd Aero Pursuit Squadron, the American Lafayette, on 18 February 1918. Promoted to full Lieutenant on 22 May 1916, two days before he was wounded in combat. Thaw soon became the American commander of the Escadrille under French Capitaine Thenault. As Edwin Parsons, his Lafayette colleague, would later write of Thaw, his American C.O : "Most of the time he was in practical, if not nominal, command and handled with unfailing tact and good humor one of the toughest jobs ever thrown on the shoulders of one man. It is reasonable to suppose, since he seemed to be doing all right before there was any such thing, that he could have gotten along without the Escadrille. But most certainly the Escadrille could never have gotten along without Bill. Many times he must have been seething inside, but he never showed it. He made a brilliant success of a job where most men would have gone mad." William Thaw was revered by the pilots who served with him. And for good reason. He had an innate ability to lead men. This was complemented by his diplomatic abilities which he fully utilized when serving as liaison and buffer between his roisterous American pilots and their stoical French commander. He led the best way possible, by winning the pilots' devotion and respect. Thaw never asked them to do anything which he was unwilling to do himself. And his heroic record bore this out. During the course of his French and U.S. service Thaw was seriously wounded through the left arm in aerial combat. He was officially credited with the destruction of five enemy aircraft. He was awarded France's Croix de Guerre, with nine citations (one bronze Star, one Silver star, seven Palms). He was awarded the Chevalier and Officer grade of the Legion d'Honneur. He was awarded the Montenegro Military Medal First Class, a special AEF citation, and the U.S. Distinguished Service Cross with Bronze oak leaf, indicating two citations for extraordinary heroism. He was also awarded the Medals of Valor from the Aero Club of France and America and the Harmon Trophy medal. But the welfare of his pilots was always first and foremost in William Thaw's mind, whether he was commanding the Lafayette Escadrille, the U.S. 103rd Aero Pursuit squadron, or the Third U.S. Pursuit Group. He had an unflappable personality. He ignored what stood in his way and used a disarming smile and a soft-spoken demeanor to win his point rather than resort to his intimidating physical attributes. Only twenty-one years old when he had joined the Squadron, he nevertheless won the loyalty of pilots older and more worldly than he, and carried his duties with a maturity far beyond his years. By walking a delicate line between the disciplinary restrictions of the French and the unruly antics of his brash but often heroic American pilots, he was thus able to preserve their unique identity and elan. But Thaw himself was hardly the grim stoic. Beneath his French tunic beat the heart of a fun-loving young American. He worked hard at commanding his men but played just as hard when the opportunity allowed. Edwin Parsons again noted this side of Thaw's character: "If there was any drinking or gambling, he wanted to be in on it. If there wasn't anything doing, he started something. He didn't care where you went or what you did or how much you drank, just so you could show up for patrols and at least make a pretense of getting into the air. "There was never a dull moment in his company. No matter where we were sent. Bill had generally been in that sector before. He always knew a houseful of more or less alluring young wenches in the next village or an attractive widow who owned a chateau with a grand wine cellar, and he was most generous about letting his friends in on his soft spots. "Many times, through a dim haze, I have seen Bill led off to bed leaning heavily on Percy's* shoulder at two o'clock in the morning when he was scheduled for a show at four. In the gray dawn, eyes red rimmed, and weaving a bit on unsteady legs, he'd be on his way to the hangars with a cheerful grin and an encouraging word for everybody, all set to hop in and lead a patrol. He would never ask anyone to do what he wouldn't do himself, and he'd do two men's work if necessary."

Attending the funerals of his fallen pilots was Thaw's hardest task. No fewer than eleven of his Escadrille comrades would die in the Great War, including French officer deLaage and Sous-Lieutenant Norman Prince. But the most painful funeral he had to attend was that of his nineteen-year-old brother. First Lieutenant Alexander Blair Thaw, killed in a plane crash en route to Orly Field, Paris. At the time of his death young Thaw was the commanding officer of the U.S. 135th Aero Observation Squadron. Lieutenant Alexander Blair Thaw had been considered "an ideal commanding officer" despite his youth. Tall, handsome, his youthful features hidden beneath a mustache, he flew more than his share of missions to prove himself to his older officers.

On the day of his death Lieutenant Thaw was flying a Dehavilland DH 4 to Orly Field where it was to be turned over on loan to the 55th Royal Air Force Squadron at Ozelot for test purposes. The day prior to Thaw's flight a pilot who had flown the DH 4 had warned of a loose and vibrating throttle and a low-slung pilot's seat. But Thaw evidently had ignored the warnings in an eagerness to make the trip to Paris which would also allow him the opportunity to visit his mother and sister. Accompanying Thaw in the observer's cockpit was First Lieutenant Cord Meyer who had been a pilot with the U.S. 103rd and 93rd Pursuit Squadrons. Sharing Thaw's pilot cockpit was an Irish Terrier," Bronco", the squadron mascot. "Bronco" had been Lieutenant Thaw's pet prior to his overseas service. Thaw's mother had brought "Bronco" overseas with her on one of her trips to Paris. Since that time "Bronco" had flown regularly with Lieutenant Thaw on missions. While on the flight to Orly the DeHavilland had either run low on fuel or had developed motor trouble. Thaw had attempted to put the plane down at Fere-Champenois but had snagged his wheels on telephone wires and was instantly killed in the crash. Meyer escaped with a broken leg but was so severely injured he would spend the rest of his overseas service in hospital. Bronco was unhurt, but fled the accident scene. He was found a few days later near the wrecked plane and was turned over to Mrs. Thaw. Again William Thaw found himself in the sad position of attending another funeral. Prior to his brother's death, on 26 January 1918, William Thaw had left the French Air Service to accept a commission as Major in the U.S. Air Service. However his many months of hard service had taken their toll, and he required a personal waiver from General Pershing before his commission was granted.

On 5 November 1917 Pershing recommended "William Thaw as Major, waiving defective vision left eye, 20/80 ophthalmoscopic left shows atrophy plus pig mentation in focal area, hearing defective 15/20, and recurrent knee injury with limitation of motion." In spite of these defects, Major Thaw took command of the U.S. 103rd Pursuit Squadron on 18 February and served in that capacity while actively flying missions until 10 August 1918. On that date he turned over command to his former Lafayette colleague, Captain Robert "Doc" Rockwell. Major Thaw left the 103rd to become Group commander in the 1st Army Air Service for the newly formed 3rd Pursuit Group which included the 103rd, 28th, 93rd, and 213th U.S. Pursuit Squadrons. An active commander who always got the most from his pilots, by war's end his group had been credited with the official destruction of 96 enemy aircraft. In recognition of his exemplary service he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel three months after his twenty-fifth birthday on 12 November 1918.

Thaw had been blessed with an ability to extract the best from his pilots. Because they idolized him they performed what he asked and worked hard to please him. One pilot stated unequivocally that he was "the most striking and popular figure on the front,"

and that his warm personality and generous nature were recognized by one and all from Dunkerque to the Vosges.
All rights reserved « The Lafayette Flying Corps »:
The American Volunteers in the French Air Service in World War One
Written by Dennis GORDON
A SCHIFFER MILITARY HISTORY BOOK - (Schifferbk@aol.com)