U.S. Aviator Loses His Life

Paris, June 28 - According to a report received from the front today James Hall of Boston, American aviator in the Lafayette estadrille was killed in an air fight against seven German adversaries. Hall made his first flight as a Lafayette aviator Sunday. On that day he courageously attacked an enemy place. the Boche struck back and Hall fell a thousand yards but finally gained control of his machine. Details of the encounter in which he is reported to have lost his life are lacking. A list of the Lafayette escadrille personnel as furnished the United press by the Paris war office does not list a James Hall of Boston and a complete list of Americans training at French camps does not list such an aviator. It is possible he was a civilian aviator who paid his own training expenses and then enlisted. James Normal Hall of Colfax, Iowa, appears on the list of the Lafayette escadrille. He was attached to this squadron June 23, 1917 after training at Camp D'Avord and is the Normal Hall who wrote "Kitchener's Mob". He was formerly with the British army.


~ source: news item, Iowa City Daily Citizen, Iowa City, Johnson co., Iowa, June 28, 1917

~ transcribed for Iowa In The Great War by Sharyl Ferrall http://iagenweb.org/iowaoldpress/

~note: a previous news article gave his middle name as 'Norvall'