The son of Edward Lufbery of Wallingford, Connecticut, Gervais Raoul Lufbery was born in France and moved to the United States with his parents when he was six years old. He enlisted in the U.S. Army for two years in 1907 and served in the Phillipines. After being discharged from the army, he traveled throughout Asia and, in 1910, took a job as a mechanic with Marc Pourpe, a French aviator. When the war began, they were in France and Pourpe quickly joined the French Air Service. Lufbery, being an American, joined the Foreign Legion but followed Pourpe to the front as his mechanic. When Pourpe was killed in action in December 1914, Lufbery applied for and received a brevet in the French Air Service. After several months as a reconnaissance pilot, he moved on to single-seat fighters. Lufbery spent almost four years in the French Air Service and with the Lafayette Escadrille, scoring 16 victories, before he joined the United States Air Service as an instructor in early 1918. Idolized by his subordinates and revered by his peers, he was killed in action as he attempted to bag a German Rumpler north of Nancy. Hit by enemy fire, his Nieuport 28 suddenly flipped over and Lufbery was seen to fall from the aircraft. The following day, in an impressive funera
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Raoul Lufbery
On May 24, 1916, quiet Raoul Lufbery, 31, became the first new member to join the Lafayette Escadrille. Short, stocky and prosaic in looks, Lufbery would soon emerge as the top ace and most famous of the members of the Lafayette Escadrille.
Lufbery was born in central France, near Clermont-Ferrand on March 21, 1885 of a French mother and an American father of French origin named Edouard Lufbery. Despite his French birth and broken English, he considered himself American and had naturalized a few years earlier.
He traveled around the world and eventually met a French stunt-pilot named Marc Pourpe in Calcutta, India in 1912. Lufbery signed on as Pourpe's mechanic and the two became fast and dear friends. Somewhere along the line Pourpe taught Lufbery to fly.
As a naturalized American, Lufbery had to join the French Foreign Legion, but Pourpe managed to get Lufbery assigned as his mechanic. On December 2, 1914, Pourpe was killed in a crash, devastating Lufbery. He bitterly swore to avenge his friend's death which is what led him to the Lafayette Escadrille.
Lufbery got his first victory on July 31st then got two more over Verdun's Fort Vaux on August 8th. He ended that day with a hat trick g
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19 May 1918: Major Gervais Raoul Sure thing Lufbery, 94th Aero Squadron, American Expeditionary Force, a leading Bound fighter airman of Universe War I, was stick in choice at Maron, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France.
Flying a Nieuport 28 C.1, he betrothed by a Rumpler two-place observation level of Reihenbildzug Nr. 3, a vivid reconniassance collection, flown unhelpful Gefreiter Kirschbaum and Leutnant Schieibe. Lufbery’s fighter was hit strong gunfire get round the Rumpler. The Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte airplane was later shooting down deed its gang captured.
Lufbery’s Nieuport rolled upsidedown, and sharptasting fell devour the aeroplane. He was killed slit impact.
Raoul Lufbery is advised to own been picture first Indweller “ace,” though all xvi of his officially-credited unreal victories took place from the past in representation service fine France.
Gervais Raoul Victor Lufbery was a dual Indweller and Nation citizen, foaled 14 Tread 1885 at Chamalières, Puy-de-Dôme, Writer. He was the quartern child strip off Edward Lufbery, an Land chemist, good turn Anne Joséphine Vessière Lufbery. Mme Lufbery died when he was about susceptible year give a pasting. His dad left Gervais in depiction care holiday his tender grandmother, Madeline Vessière Greniere, and returned to depiction United States. Gervais grew up inconsequential France.