Great War Aviation Memorial Committee

[stephen]

FYI - letter to Lillian of the American Battle Monuments Commission, Paris, dated 2/25/00, in response to her letter of this week:

Hi Lil!

Glad to hear you had a nice vacation... in France, how can you help it? thanks for getting back with me. every time you've said you'd get back with me you have... its a shame that's so rare anymore, isn't it? anyway, thanks.

the wording of the plaque should be exactly the same with two small exceptions:

1) the words "United States Air Service" should be inserted after his name. Did you know that there was nothing on the original plaque to indicate he was American?!! Go figger.

2) "Plaque restored by the Great War Aviation Memorial Committee and the town of Murvaux, November(?), 2000" should be in smaller letters, in both languages, possibly italicized if the inscriber thinks it looks better, at the very bottom of the plaque.

we really didn't want to mess with the wording a lot. everybody would want something different; and what was wrong with the original wording, anyway? we just wanted it put back the way it was to start with, so those two changes are all i want to make. so, with the exception of substituting for my lousy french and the obvious removal of the question mark on the date, here is the inscription:

"MEMORY OF LT. FRANK LUKE, UNITED STATES AIR SERVICE
BALLOON BUSTING ACE OF W.W. I
CRITICALLY WOUNDED
LANDED HIS SPAD 700 YARDS NORTH AND
WAS KILLED BY GERMAN SMALL ARMS
FIRE 29 SEPTEMBER 1918

ICI, LE 29 SEPTEMBRE 1918,
SOUS LE FEU DES MITRAILLEUSES ENNEMIES
TOMBA LE LT FRANK LUKE, ("UNITED STATES AIR SERVICE" in french)
HEROS DE L'AVIATION ALLIEE

If it is more appropriate to move "United States Air Service" to another part of the sentence to be grammatically correct in French, please do so. Again, thank you so much. Is this exactly what you required? Pass along my thanks to Mr. Rivers as well. ALSO!!! The mayor should know that we are putting together some material for the official archives of his town. this may take several months or maybe a year, but we want to provide him with leaflets to hand out to tourists so they can appreciate the site, copies of original source documents describing the events of 29 Sept 1918, and the names of the members of the GWAMC with contact information, hopefully to be archived somewhere in Murvaux equivalent of a city hall. 100 years from now, we'd like someone to have some idea of what happened there, and the town's official records are the likely place any historian or tourist would start. please pass that along to the mayor if the opportunity presents itself. of course, we would pay for all the above and replace the leaflets as needed (we don't expect a sudden rush!). and all this depends on the existence of a town hall or some equivalent.

thank you again. hope to hear from you soon.

ps- i believe Luke was a 2Lt., not a Lt., but I hate to say so strictly from memory. that would require inserting the number "2" at the appropriate spot in the text.

stephen

[mike_baram]

"SOUS LE FEU DES MITRAILLEUSES ENNEMIES
TOMBA LE LT FRANK LUKE, ("UNITED STATES AIR SERVICE" in french)"
Stephen,
I regret that my French is not what it once was, but I believe that "mitrailleuses" refers to machine guns or submachine guns. I assume the Germans were using carbines or rifles, which would be "carbines" or "fusils" in French.
"United States Air Service" would most likely be "Service de l'air des Etats Unis", but the French term for "Air Force" is "Armée de l'air". I think they'd use the most descriptive term rather than a direct, word-for-word translation.
VBR,
Mike

UNITED STATES AIR SERVICE= armée de l'air des états-unis
SOUS LE FEU DES MITRAILLEUSES ENNEMIES is absolutly correct!
I am a french speaker (I am belgian!) You text is nearly perfect!
Good bye

Remember that 'tomba' is the narrative past of the verb 'tomber' = to fall. Fall is the word the Jerries used to indicate that ssomeone had died in combat: So and So fell on the 14th of July, etc. The French use the same term to describe the same event, which is to say that Luke died as a result of automatic fire...Also recall that that inscription was put up by the local American fighter squadron, members of which were present when that plaque was placed on the pedestal. This was the squadron that Royal Frey flew with; he took the second affidavit in 1961, from witnesses whe stated that at no time did German ground troops fire at Luke, after he landed. This accounts for the fact that there is no mention of this on the plaque. Wouldn't the witnesses Frey spoke to have mentioned that he was killed by rifle fire?

[stephen]

If they knew, yes, they likely would have. But as you know, Frey's affidavit, while in some respects much better, also contains several fatal flaws comparable to the affidavit it was supposed to "contradict" (which it doesn't). First of all, Frey never established the location of his witnesses at the time of the event, which will forever conceal what they actually knew and saw as opposed to what they concluded or heard. Secondly, the language barrier was again a major detracting factor. Thirdly, no individual statements are given, only summaries of their collective opinions. He also failed to sufficiently separate the testimony of a 4 year old boy, who's statements are given the same credence as the rest of the witnesses. He also accepts as gospel their assumption (it must be an assumption, because they weren't in the plane with Luke) that FL was hit while in the air. When properly viewed, its been my contention that the affidavits complement each other, not contradict each other. But that's another arguement and can only be solved when the entire, original Frey affidavit is dug up (which as you know, I'm working on), and maybe not even then.

This is why I chose to stick with the original wording. It gets the plaque back up, keeps us out of eternal debates and simplifies life in general. I don't even necessarily argue your premise; I just want the plaque back up.