On July 25, 1918, a cumbersome, three-engine Caproni Ca.5 biplane bomber lumbered down the sod runway at Turin, Italy, lifted off and headed west toward the towering Cottian Alps. The three bundled-up crewmen knew they would have to climb well above 10,000 feet to clear that rugged barrier. And at that early stage in the development of heavy bombardment aircraft, there was no oxygen aboard and no heating equipment in their open cockpits.

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in Aviation History magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

Seventeen of the big Italian-made Ca.5s had been purchased by the U.S. Navy for use in France, three of them assigned to this initial effort to ferry heavy bombers across the Alps to France. One of the three had already crashed before reaching Turin.

The flight was not intended to set any records. But if this wartime ferry flight was a success, it would be the first crossing of the Alps by an American-owned airplane flown by an American crew. Aboard the Caproni was a crew of two U.S. Army Air Service (USAS) lieutenants with some experience in the Capronis, and one U.S. Navy ensign who was new to heavy bombers. Their destination was Paris.

One of the USAS pilots, 27-year-old 1st Lt. George M.D. Lewis, recorded the details of that flight — and his career as a member of what became known as ‘Fiorello’s Foggiani — in a series of letters to his sweetheart, Bertha Bert Harsch, in Narbeth, Pa. Today Lewis’ photographs, journal and letters to his beloved Bert, recently published in the book Dear Bert: An American Pilot Flying in World War I Italy, give a firsthand look into a fascinating and little-known aspect of World War I aviation.

Born in Philadelphia, George Lewis grew up in Scranton, Pa. Employed as a photographer, he worked his way through the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Architecture, completing work on his master’s degree in April 1917. The United States declared war on Germany on April 6, and Lewis promptly enlisted in the USAS. He was immediately ordered to Ohio State University for eight weeks of intensive ground school, thus missing his graduation ceremonies in Philadelphia. His mother, attired in cap and gown, accepted his diploma for him.

Completing ground school in mid-August, Lewis’ group of aviation cadets was sent to Fort Wood, near the base of the Statue of Liberty on New York Harbor’s Bedloe’s Island, where they would await shipment overseas. On September 11, Lewis and his fellow cadets left their tent city on the island and boarded SS Mongolia, a 200-foot-long, lightly armed converted passenger ship. Arriving off Halifax, Nova Scotia, two days later, he recalled, they waited for their convoy. On September 21 he recorded: Left port at sunset. The banks of the harbor were lined with cheering people and flags flying. Salutes from British and Canadian battleships, band playing ‘Star Spangled Banner’ and ‘God Save the King.’ The S.S. Kroonland and S.S. Carpathia are on our left side. Carpathia was the same ship that had come to the belated rescue of Titanic’s survivors in April 1912.

After 13 days of rotating watches for submarines, Mongolia docked at Liverpool. The group traveled to Southampton by train, then crossed the English Channel to rain-shrouded Le Havre and Paris. There they were joined by feisty 35-year-old Captain Fiorello H. LaGuardia, a U.S. representative on unpaid leave from Washington who would later become the fabled three-term mayor of New York City. Working through General John J. Pershing, LaGuardia was authorized to organize a group of several hundred American volunteers for aviation training in Italy, men who would then serve alongside Italian army troops.

In Paris the cadets entrained for a four-day journey to Foggia, Italy, where at last they would begin flight training — under American command, with Italian and American instructors. From the station, we were marched about two miles to the Campo Scuola Aviazione, Foggia Sud, Lewis wrote. We were well met and assigned to quarters in permanent barracks. We have the luxury of spring beds, sheets and wool blankets, too. The quarters have tile floors. There are shower baths and peculiar European latrines where you stand up….The camp is laid out in a comprehensive scheme with buildings radiating from the main gate and the flying field beyond. There are some 150 U.S. students here now. All speak well of the Italian officers. Major William Ord Ryan is our commanding officer.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to