#s.e.5a

1/2: Painting l did in 2018

The confused action on 7 May 1917 over Annoeullin, France in which 40-victory British ace, Albert Ball lost his life at the age of 20. Although his loss was officially credited to Lothar von Richthofen by the Germans, it appears likely Ball’s death-

100 years ago today, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, sparking what became known as World War I.

The United States came into that war a little later – April of 1917, but that didn't keep some American pilots from volunteering to fight along their RAF brethren.

Source: The First Eagles

“You ought to see the gadgets!” Elliot Springs wrote his father after taking delivery of his first S.E.5a and peering inside the cockpit.

Elliot White Springs is one of the daring pilots profiled in The First Eagles: The Fearless American Aces Who Flew with the RAF in World War I, by Gavin Mortimer.

After many, many actual war stories in the main text, Mortimer includes this "whatever happened to…" wrap-up at the end of the book:

In 1921 Springs and Larry Callahan traveled to France to lay the ghosts of old friends to rest. On the ship across the Atlantic, Springs fell in love with Frances Ley, the daughter of a prosperous New York businessman. The pair were married a year later, and the union sparked a decade of feuding between Springs and his father. During that time Springs wrote War Birds: Diary of an Unknown Aviator, largely based on the diaries of John McGavock Grider. The book became a bestseller but provoked a row with Grider’s sister, who threatened legal action if she wasn’t given a share of the profits. Springs eventually paid out $12,500 in return for the right to use the diary, even though he always maintained that Grider had given him permission to quote from it in the event of his death.