This silent historic newsreel contains two segments dealing with air power. The first shows footage of the Lafayette Escadrille, an escadrille of the French Air Service, the Aéronautique Militaire, during World War I composed largely of American volunteer pilots flying fighters. It was named in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the American and French revolutions. The footage was shot at the base at Luxeuil, not far from the French border with Switzerland. The second film shows Billy Mitchell bombing warships. This shows events of 1923, when two surplus navy battleships were bombed and sunk by aircraft under the command of Brig. Gen. William “Billy” Mitchell off Cape Hatteras to determine the effectiveness of air power against heavy surface ships. The target vessels, which were to be scrapped under postwar naval limitation treaties, were the 14,949-ton New Jersey and Virginia, built between 1902 and 1906 at a cost of $6 million each and anchored 18 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com