Lafayette Escadrille: Pacific Aero Club Medal of Valor Awarded Posthumously to Lafayette Escadrille Pilot Douglas MacMonagle.... (Total: 3 Items)

Description

Lafayette Escadrille: Pacific Aero Club Medal of Valor Awarded Posthumously to Lafayette Escadrille Pilot Douglas MacMonagle.

Douglas MacMonagle was born February 19, 1892, in San Francisco, California. He enlisted in French Aviation on October 3, 1916 and was assigned to the Lafayette Escadrille. He was killed in combat on September 24, 1917, near Verdun. This lot includes a bronze Pacific Aero Club Medal of Valor, 39 mm, captioned on the obverse PACIFIC AERO CLUB, and on the reverse For Valor / to / Douglas MacMonagle / Who Offered Up / His Life in the / Great Cause / 1917. Included with the medal is a 6 ½ x 9 ½-inch portrait of MacMonagle mounted on studio board and a circa 1928 Lafayette Escadrille Memorial dedication program.

Condition: Excellent.

More Information: In August of 1914, when World War One broke out between France and Germany, young American citizens who were residing in France rushed to the aid of the French Republic. The first volunteers joined the French Air Service and soon engaged German squadrons in aerial combat over the front lines. Other young Americans volunteered to serve with the French Ambulance Corps and drove Ford Ambulances to the front to recover wounded from the battle lines and transport them back to the hospitals.

This vanguard of American volunteers was small in number. Only 38 American pilots flew in the Lafayette Escadrille. Two-hundred-thirty-one other young Americans flew heroically in other French Squadrons. These American pilots flew and fought in French uniforms. The Ambulance drivers wore their own distinctive uniform. The following offerings represent these young heroes' service to France in the Great World War.