King Albert of Belgium decorates Willy Coppens, Belgium's Ace of Aces. Coppens describes this June 30, 1918 ceremony, in which he was awarded the Ordre de la Couronne in his memoir Flying in Flanders.

Caption: Le Roi décore l'As Belge Coppens. - Le Roi le félicite. (The King [Albert] decorates the Belgian Ace Coppens. The King congratulates him.)

Reverse:

Carte Postale

Service photographique de l'armée Belge.

Phot. Belge, r. Ma Campagne, 30, Brux

Logo PhoB

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Friday, February 1, 1918

"On February 1 [1918], a thick fog lay over the aerodrome. . . .

Lieutenant Vertongen, wishing to keep his appointment at Furnes, left the ground at Beaumarais in a machine that had to be taken up to the front. Georges took off in another, but landed again at once, because of the fog. René Vertongen went on, flying practically at ground-level along the mouth of the channel there and its two breakwaters. He was at once enveloped in the fog, and turning a little left-handed, estimated that he had passed the second breakwater, and came down. Had he still been over the shore he would have seen the ground, but he was over the glassy water and, seeing nothing in the uncertain light, flew straight into it. Alas, that such a skilled pilot as Vertongen should have braved death—and met it thus!"

Quotation Context

Willy Coppens, Belgium's greatest ace in World War I with 37 victories, all but two of them observation balloons, on the death of Lieutenant René Vertongen on February 1, 1918. A pilot before the war, Vertongen had trained several of the pilots in Coppens's squadron. Earlier in the war, he had gotten lost in fog, and landed in neutral Netherlands, where he was interned, but later escaped. Furnes was the wartime seat of the Belgian government.

Source

Flying in Flanders by Willy Coppens, page 131, publisher: Ace Books, publication date: 1971

Tags

1918-02-01, 1918, February, Coppens, Willy Coppens