On the
Black Sea on March 27, 1917, during a raid by our seaplanes on Derkas,
one of them was hit by the enemy. The petrol tank being punctured, the
machine was compelled to descend.

"The aviators, Lieutenant Sergeev and Sublieutenant Thur, seeing a
Turkish schooner, attacked it by opening machine-gun fire. The crew
thereupon left the schooner. Our aviators, having sunk their machine
after taking from it the compass, machine gun, and valuable
belongings, boarded the schooner and set sail for our shores.

"They encountered a heavy storm during their adventure, but arrived
with the schooner at the Duarlidatch Peninsula, west of Perekop, on
Sunday. From this place our aviators returned to Sebastopol on a
torpedo boat. The only provisions available on the schooner consisted
of a few pieces of bread and a little fresh water."

Naturally interest in the activities of American airmen in the French
service continued unabated. They continued to cover themselves with
glory. During the second half of May, 1917, members of the Lafayette
Escadrille engaged in twenty-five combats with German machines.
Adjutant Raoul Lufbery was engaged five times, Sergeant Willis
Haviland (Minneapolis) twice, Sergeant Dovell three times, Corporal
Thomas Hewitt (New York) twice, and Corporal Kenneth Marr (San
Francisco) twice.

As a result of these activities an official report announced the
decoration of Adjutant Lufbery with the Military Medal by the King of
England, and cited the meritorious conduct of this aviator and also of
Sergeant Haviland, Sergeant Charles Johnson (St. Louis), and
Lieutenant William Thaw (Pittsburgh).

In June, 1917, the American aviators flying under the French flag
were even more active. In the short period from June 10 to 16, 1917,
they made fifty-four patrol flights and fought nine air battles, of
which Adjutant Raoul Lufbery, Edwin Parsons, and Sergeant Robert
Soubiran each fought two, and Stephen Bigelow, Sergeant Walter Lowell
and Thomas Hewitt each fought one.

Unfortunately death claimed two American flyers. On April 16, 1917,
Pilot Edmond C. C. Genet of Ossining, N. Y., was killed during a fight
with a German aeroplane over French territory. Genet was twenty years
old and was the great-great-great-grandson of Governor Clinton and the
great-great-grandson of Citizen Genet, who was French Minister in the
days of Washington. He had originally fought in the Foreign Legion,
but had later been transferred to the