Victor Chapman Killed in Verdun Air Fight -- June 24, 2016

New York Evening World, 24-June-1916

This article from the 24-June-1916 New York Evening World is about the first American aviator to be killed in action during World War One, Victor Chapman of the Lafayette Escadrille:
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VICTOR CHAPMAN, N.Y.FLIER, KILLED IN VERDUN AIR FIGHT, WRECKED THREE AEROPLANES

Dashed Fearlessly to Aid of Fellow Aviators Confronted by Superior Force.
BULLETS RIDDLED HIM.
In His Dash, However, He Destroyed Three Planes and Routed Two More.

PARIS, June 24. Sergeant Victor Chapman of New York, a member of the Franco-American flying corps, was killed yesterday at Verdun after bringing down throe German aeroplanes.

An air squadron consisting of a French captain and the American flyers Prince and Berry were engaged by five German machines. Chapman darted to the rcscue and headed straight into the center of the circling Germans.

His machine gun brought down three of the Germans. Their comrades swooped down upon Chapman, turning blasts of machine gun fire at his plane. Chapman fell to the ground, his body riddled with bullets. He had died instantly.

The three other flyers whose lives he had saved returned safely to the French lines.

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Victor Chapman was the son of John Jay Chapman, a prominent lawyer with offices at No. 60 Wall Street and living at No. 325 West Eighty-Second Street. He was a student in the Beaux Arts in Paris when the war began, and he volunteered at once, Joining tho French Foreign Legion. Young Chapman was assigned to the flying corps after serving four months in the first firing line and fighting through the battle of the Vosges. With six others he formed last April the American Flying Corps.

The Now Yorker soon became an expert aviator. He was recommended for promotion a mouth ago when, with Lieut. William K. Thaw of Pittsburgh, he went in pursuit of two German war planes near Uffholtz. The Germans came out to got revenge for the destruction of one of their aeroplanes destroyed the day before by Capt. Kiffin Rockwell of Atlanta, Ga.  For his attack on one of the German planes Chapman was made a sergeant.

Mr. and Mrs. John Jay Chapman served with the French Red Cross from the beginning of the war.  Returning to New York last August for a brief visit, Mr. Chapman told of his son's joining the French army.

"If Victor is to be killed in battle I am resigned," he said then. "I am proud that he has joined the French army. Every American boy ought to do the same. Their fight is our fight.  If it were not for the British fleet I feel that the Germans would have been dropping bombs on Long Island long ago."

Chapman Is tho first American aviator killed in the European war. He was twenty-two years old and a graduate of Harvard. He had been twice wounded, once while in the Foreign Legion, and again last Saturday at Verdun when a bullet glanced off his head.

Mr. and Mrs. Chapman are now at their summer home at Barrytown, N. Y. They received the news of their son's death with great calmness, according to a message from that town. When told that his son's
aeroplane fell within the French lines, Mr. Chapman said: "Good." He added: "My son's llfe was given to a good cause." 
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Battle of Verdun, Day One -- February 21, 2016

Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, 22-February-1916

German attacks on French positions around the fortress of Verdun launched the Battle of Verdun, which would continue until December. "Mitrailleuse" is a generic French term for a machine gun.  

GERMANS SMASH FRENCH FIRST AND SECOND LINES AT GIVENCHY AND NEAR VERDUN

Ejght Hundred Yards of Trenches in Artois Captured by Teutons 

Seven Battalions Take Part in Attack That Sweeps French From Positions Gained East of Souchez Last Spring

Paris Admits Loss -- Guns First Demolish Entrenchments -- Terrific Losses Suffered by Kaiser's Troops, but Newly Won Lines Are Held Fast 

PARIS, Feb. 22

Sevcn German battalions, by a most violent attack against the French front in the Boies Givenchy region, in Artols, carried more than half a mile of French first line trenches and also second line trenches in many places, the French War Office admitted this afternoon.

The Teutons occupied first line French positions on a front of more than 800 yards. By heavy French counter-attacks they were repulsed from practically all the second-line positions.

The War Office leported that the German losses were very heavy.

The attack, which was a very strong one, was carried out after a violent bombardment which virtually wiped out the French defense works. Enormous losses have been suffered by the Germans in
their attacks north of Verdun.  In that region the invaders captured some advanced trenches and some supporting trenches, but were afterward driven from the latter.  Heavy forces of men are being thrown forward by the Germans, who have resumed the massed formation attacks.

 The text of the communique follows:

"In Artois after the violent bombardment of the Germans, which was referred to in the communiques on Monday, the enemy carried out a strong attack on our positions in tho forest of Givenchy and
succeeded in penetrating our first line over a front of 800 yards.

"The trenches taken by the Germans had been practically destroyed by the German cannonade. The Germans also succeeded In entering at several points our second line works, but after a counter attack they were ejected from some of the positions which they had wrested from us. At the conclusion of the fighting the holdings of tho Germans were small.

"The enemy, whose troops in this attack numbered at least seven battalions, suffered heavy losses from our hand grenades and the fire of our infantry and mitrailleuse.

'To the southeast of Malincourt the enemy exploded a mine, the crater of which was occupied by us.

"In the region of Verdun the activity of the artillery has continued without abatement.  The Germans attacked on Monday about the hour of sunset, the assault being directed against our position east of Brabant-sur-Meuse between the Haumet wood and Hebe-Bois.

"They succeeded in gaining a foothold in some of our advanced trenches and pushed forward to our second-line trenches, but our counter-attacks ejected them from the latter (the supporting trenches) and forced them to retire, leaving in our hands 50 prisoners. To the east of Seppois (Upper Alsace) two German attacks were repulsed.

"There has been great activity by the artillery upon the Chapelotte-Ban-de-Sept front."

Virtually every important military critic In Paris today called attention to the heavy German attack which is developing north of Verdun. For 48 hours there has been a violent artillery duel, with each side hurling a tornado of shells upon the trenches of the enemy.

The cannonade is compared with the French cannonade in the second battle of Champagne when the German trenches were literally blasted to pieces.

If Verdun falls, the road from Metz to Rheims will have been opened and the menace removed from tho southern lines of communication of the Germans in France.

It would naturally compel the retirement of the French in the Argonne, in Champagne, in the Woevre district, on the heights of the Meuse and in Alsace-Lorraine.

It Is believed by some military experts that the attacks by the Germans In West Flanders and Artois were more or less of a blind to mask the concentration of troops in the region north of Verdun for
the big offensive which is opening there.

Although it has been said that Crown Prince Frederick William has been put in command of the German troops between Rheims and Alsace-Lorraine, it is believed that the attacks north of Verdun are really being directed by General Von Strantz, who was recently decorated by the Kaiser.

FRENCH LINES CAPTURED BY STORM, SAYS BERLIN

BERLIN, Feb. 22.

The capture of 800 yards of trenches from the French, east of Souchez, after a bombardment, was announced today by the German war office. Violent fighting is reported from Champagne.

Following is the text of the official report:

"The weather cleared up on Monday and this led to lively artillery actions at many points on the front between the La Bassee canal and Arras. After a bombardment we captured by storm 800 yards of French trenches east of Souchez.  Seven officers and 319 men of the rank and file were made prisoners.

"Between the Somme and Aisne rivers at several points in Champagne the fighting activity has increased. Northeast of Tahure (In Champagne), an attempt of the French to make an attack with hand grenades failed. In the hills on both banks of the Maas, particularly above Dun, an artillery duel of great violence was in progress all night."