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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Monday, October 14, 1918

"At 5 A.M., it was too dark to leave the ground. The sky was overcast and a damp mist lay across Flanders. Our aeroplanes were brought out, but were almost invisible in the half-light. At 5:30 A.M., the preliminary artillery bombardment opened with terrible intensity in the east, where a red glow now heralded the day.

I thought of Alfred Mouton's remark, and said to Kervyn de Meerendré, who was standing by my side: 'Is this what they call the end of the War?' Never had the guns fired so fiercely in our sector.

At 5:35 A.M., Gusto de Mévius came from the office and handed me a telephoned appeal from our artillery asking for the Thourout balloon to be destroyed. The observer in this balloon, it appeared, was directing the enemy's batteries on to our own, and seriously interfering with our preparation."

Quotation Context

Excerpt from the memoir of Willy Coppens describing the morning of October 14, 1918 on which the Belgian Army Group, under the command of Albert, King of the Belgians, resumed the offensive in Flanders. The day before, Coppens met Alfred Mouton, another Belgian pilot who had told Coppens he was lucky as the war would 'be over in a day or two and you will have come through unscratched.' After downing an observation balloon over Praet-Bosch at 6:00 AM, his thirty-sixth victory, Coppens was seriously wounded by an incendiary bullet through his left shin in the course of downing a second balloon over Thourout. He made it back to the Belgian lines and began a months-long convalescence that included multiple surgeries, the loss of his leg, and life threatening infections.

Source

Flying in Flanders by Willy Coppens, page 227, publisher: Ace Books, publication date: 1971

Tags

1918-10-14, 1918, October, balloon, observation balloon, Flanders, Coppens, Willy Coppens