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National Chicle Chewing Gum card of Major Raoul Lufbery, an American Ace who flew with the Lafayette Escadrille. Credited with 18 victories, he was killed on May 19, 1918.
Text:
Maj. Raoul Lufbery
Reverse:
No. 22
Maj. Raoul Lufbery
Early in the Great War, Raoul Lufbery, the great American Ace, enlisted as a mechanic in the French Foreign Legion. Later he transferred to the Escadrille Lafayette. Flying and fighting to avenge the death of a friend, he was a model of coolness and courage. He was officially credited with 18 victories. On May 19, 1918, his machine fell to the ground a mass of flames. Raoul Lufbery was dead.
This is a series of 48 cards
Sky Birds
National Chicle Company
Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.
Makers of Quality Chewing Gum
Copr. 1933

National Chicle Chewing Gum card of Major Raoul Lufbery, an American Ace who flew with the Lafayette Escadrille. Credited with 18 victories, he was killed on May 19, 1918.

Image text

Maj. Raoul Lufbery



Reverse:

No. 22

Maj. Raoul Lufbery



Early in the Great War, Raoul Lufbery, the great American Ace, enlisted as a mechanic in the French Foreign Legion. Later he transferred to the Escadrille Lafayette. Flying and fighting to avenge the death of a friend, he was a model of coolness and courage. He was officially credited with 18 victories. On May 19, 1918, his machine fell to the ground a mass of flames. Raoul Lufbery was dead.



This is a series of 48 cards

Sky Birds

National Chicle Company

Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.

Makers of Quality Chewing Gum

Copr. 1933

Other views: Larger, Back

Sunday, May 19, 1918

"On Whit-Sunday evening, 19 May [1918], an aircraft was heard circling off the North Foreland on the Kent coast. British observers were puzzled as it hovered in the moonlit sky without flying inland. The mysterious machine left a flare burning brightly over the sea, and its drone faded away. The lull was brief, for German bombers were already winging their way towards England. The flickering light was a signal telling them that the weather to the west was clear.

The first warning reached London at 10.42 P.M. From that hour, German aircraft kept coming in at five-minute intervals until long past midnight. Hundreds of observer reports jammed the telephone lines to the defence sub-commands and the Horse Guards. An ominous roar filled the warm night air throughout Kent and Essex. The bomber's courses crossed and recrossed as some passed out to sea, and still more came in."

Quotation Context

The Whit-Sunday Raid, on London the night of May 19–20, 1918, was the largest raid of the war on London and the last. Thirty-eight Gotha bombers; two small planes, and three Staaken Giants dropped an estimated eleven tons of bombs on London and the counties of Essex and Kent leaving 49 dead and 177 injured. Whit-Sunday is Pentecost, the seventh Sunday after Easter.

Source

The Sky on Fire by Raymond H. Fredette by Raymond H. Fredette, page 208, copyright © 1966, 1976, 1991 by Raymond H. Fredette, publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press, publication date: 1991

Tags

1918-05-19, 1918, May, London, raid, Gotha, Gotha bomber, Raoul Lufbery