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A Year for France: War Letters of Houston Woodward.
1st Ed., [v]+196pp., portrait frontis., 8 photos., 4 illus. from documents (one fldg.). New Haven: Conn: The Yale Pubg. Assoc., Inc.
1919
#66490
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Henry Howard Houston Woodward was born in 1896, Ed. at Taft & Yale: he left the latter institution early to join the American Ambulance Field Service, sailed for France (where he became an ambulance driver) in Feb. 1917 & after participating in several actions ("in the hellish Mt. Cornillet district") he tired of the A.A. ('The crowd who have come out since America declared war are a wretched bunch of ‚mbusques, have disgraced themselves & America in Paris... I consider the time I served at the front the best I have ever lived... but it grieves me terribly to see how the A.A. has gone to the dogs...') joined the Franco-American Aviation Schl. at Avord, where he trained as a pilot, & joined the La Fayette Escadrille, No. 94 S.P., in December 1917. He explained: 'We are in the Foreign Legion, aviation branch, regular members of the French Army.' He flew Nieuport scouts, constantly raiding & patrolling over the German lines for the next few months ('We rule the air in this sector. In some sectors Fritz is king... but here we are the undisputed bosses of the third element. For several weeks now very few Boches have crossed to our side & gotten back to tell the tale... He's going to bring up some crack escadrilles surely, & then the fur's going to fly...'). Woodward was posted missing in action on 1st April 1918 & his grave was located after the war by Mr. Edmonds, an American with the YMCA in Paris, whose personally inscribed copy this is, presented by the aviator's parents: 'Mr & Mrs Charles Payson With Love Dr & Mrs Woodward. 1919.' Orig. blue cloth, gilt, VG. Note: in 1963 Houston Woodward's remains were re-interred in the crypt of the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial at Marnes-la-Coquette. See illustration on our website.
£145
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