Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 62480-h.htm or 62480-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/62480/62480-h/62480-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/62480/62480-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/abovefrenchlines00walc Transcriber’s note: Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. [Illustration: STUART WALCOTT IN HIS AEROPLANE] ABOVE THE FRENCH LINES Letters of Stuart Walcott, American Aviator: July 4, 1917, to December 8, 1917 Princeton University Press Princeton London: Humphrey Milford Oxford University Press 1918 Copyright, 1918, by PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS Published April, 1918 Printed in the United States of America [Illustration: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS] CONTENTS PAGE Introduction (from the _Princeton Alumni Weekly_) 1 From Princeton to France 7 Stuart Walcott’s Letters 14 The Final Combat 89 Stuart Walcott (a biographical note by his father) 90 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Stuart Walcott in His Aeroplane Frontispiece Stuart Walcott at the Front Facing page 38 War Cross with Palm, Awarded in Recognition of Walcott’s Service Facing page 66 ABOVE THE FRENCH LINES INTRODUCTION [From the _Princeton Alumni Weekly_ of January 30, 1918.] It is now seven weeks since the dispatches from Paris reported that Stuart Walcott was attacked by three German airplanes and brought down behind the German lines, after he himself had brought down a German plane in his first combat on December 12, 1917, and that it was feared he had been killed; but even now, after the lapse of nearly two months, it is not definitely known whether his fall proved fatal, or whether the earnest hope of his friends that he is still alive may be realized. The reports are conflicting. A cable message of January 7 said that in Germany it was reported that S. Walcott had been killed by a fall on December 12 near Saint Souplet; but Dr. Walcott received a letter on January 19 which holds out some hope that the fall was not fatal and that his son may be a prisoner in Germany. This letter, dated December 17, is from a young aviator named Loughran,[A] who was Stuart Walcott’s roommate at the flying station. He gives this report of what was told to him by an observer and pilot who saw the combat: