Escadrille N.471

USAWWI · 27 August 2009, 11:32 AM

Hi Greg, Mike and Everyone,

There is an interesting topic here:

Black Buffalos, US Squadron

about N.471. The topic is closed, so I can't add to it. But I did want to add that

Wings of Honor mentions that the pilots came from Issoudun. The unit was thrown into the defense of Paris and the pilots busied themselves running interdiction and strafing missions in the area of Coulommiers which is where 1st PG was operating. And then after on 7/23 or thereabouts IIRC a good number of them including Avery were sent to 1st PG. So I don't know if I would call them shirkers. In fact, I know that I would not.

Narayan

ONEALM · 30 August 2009, 11:03 PM

Narayan -

The shirkers term came from some of the American's who thought the French assigned to the unit were less than enthusiastic about combat. That's primarily due to the American's not having any experience and still being full of the excitement of war and the French pilots probably having seen a little too much of it having been atit for four years already. Us saying it today would be presumptuous, but I think those who were there had a little more authority.

I'm certain Denny Holden used the term embusque (sorry for the grammatical flaw - I'm sure the last "e" needs an accent...) to describe some of the pilots.

IIRC Charley Woolley did an article for the old Cross and Cockade about the unit and I'm almost positive that one of the early Over the Front Issues had two articles - one about Holden one about Avery - in which Holden uses the "e"-word. I'm busy packing all my reference material so I dont have the issue number at hand - it was before they went to color covers though !

I probably posted this photo on the other thread, but it bears repeating here. From the album of Larry Cauffman who was with N.471 and later the 103rd Aero.

Mike

USAWWI · 31 August 2009, 05:03 AM

Hi Mike,
Ah.... that makes a lot more sense.

Nice picture.
Merci,
Narayan