{"id":963,"date":"2017-05-25T17:11:49","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T23:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/?page_id=963"},"modified":"2020-09-28T15:06:01","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T21:06:01","slug":"walter-chalaire","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/the-biographies\/walter-chalaire\/","title":{"rendered":"Walter Chalaire"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(New Orleans, March 7, 1895 \u2013 Great Neck, Long Island, New York, November 5, 1971).1<\/a><\/p>\n

Although Chalaire was born in New Orleans, the family had moved to New York City by the time he was five; his father was connected with the theater.2<\/a>\u00a0 Chalaire attended the High School of Commerce, graduating in 1912.3<\/a>\u00a0 He became a reporter for the New York Herald<\/i> and attended New York University, receiving a Bachelor of Law in 1916.4<\/a>\u00a0 When he registered for the draft on May 30, 1917, he was supporting his Dresden-born, widowed mother and was a candidate at Plattsburg, New York, for the Officers\u2019 Reserve Corps. He was selected to attend ground school at M.I.T.<\/a>, from which he graduated on August 25, 1917.4a<\/a><\/p>\n

Along with about one third of his ground school classmates, Chalaire chose or was chosen for flight training in Italy and was thus one of the 150 men of the \u201cItalian\u201d or \u201csecond Oxford detachment\u201d who sailed to England on the Carmania<\/i>. \u00a0They departed New York for Halifax on September 18, 1917, and departed Halifax as part of a convoy for the Atlantic crossing on September 21, 1917.\u00a0 The men of the detachment travelled first class and enjoyed shipboard leisure, including concerts featuring the violinist Albert Spalding, who was on his way to Italy. They also had Italian lessons, conducted by Fiorello La Guardia. Once the convoy entered dangerous waters, the men took turns at submarine watch. Jacob Kirkbride Milnor noted in his diary on September 28, 1917, that \u201cImmediately after dinner the \u2018Sunday Guard\u2019 assembled on the boat deck, in charge of Walter Chalaire, for instructions on \u2018Guard Mount\u2019 and pistol inspection.\u201d There was an easing of tension when U.S. and British destroyers appeared the next day to accompany the convoy through the danger zone.<\/p>\n

When the Carmania<\/i> docked at Liverpool on October 2, 1917, the detachment learned to their initial consternation that they were not to go to Italy, but to remain in England and repeat ground school at the Royal Flying Corps\u2019s No. 2 School of Military Aeronautics at Oxford University. In preparation for this they were, on October 6, 1918, according to the relevant entry in Milnor\u2019s diary, \u201cmarched up to the Museum, where all classes are held, and were divided into squads (working squads) of eight men. Ours was No. 7 with \u2018Charlie\u2019 Chalaire in charge.\u201d\u00a0 There are at least two extant photos from this period that include Chalaire. \u00a0One<\/a> shows him, Harold Kidder Bulkley, and an unidentified cadet with bicycles; in another<\/a> he is standing alongside Bulkley, Donald Elsworth Carlton, and Henry Bradley Frost.<\/p>\n

Chalaire\u2019s R.A.F. service record indicates that, instead of going from Oxford to Grantham with most of the second Oxford men, he set off on November 5, 1917, for the No. 1 Training Depot Squadron at Stamford. He was thus among the twenty men chosen by Elliott White Springs to go to Stamford, even though Chalaire, unlike most of the others Springs selected, had apparently not had any experience in the air.5<\/a>\u00a0 Just two days later, according to an entry in Fremont Cutler Foss\u2019s diary for November 7, 1917, Chalaire, along with Arthur Richmond Taber, Frank Aloysius Dixon, and other men stationed at Stamford were at Grantham for a visit. And at Thanksgiving, Chalaire and many of the second Oxford men from Stamford and other flying schools were once again at Grantham. \u00a0Chalaire wrote a lively description of the festivities, which included a football game between the \u201cUnfits\u201d and the \u201cHardly Ables,\u201d that was published in U.S. papers.6<\/a>\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A
This copy of Chalaire’s article was apparently saved by Payden and appears on p. 37 of Payden, J.R.: Joseph R. Payden, 1915\u20131925. My thanks to Joan Payden for permission to reproduce it. Payden also kept a photo<\/a> of the Thanksgiving banquet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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On January 16, 1918, along with William Ludwig Deetjen, Carlton, and Julian Carr Stanley, Chalaire travelled from Stamford via Grantham to Waddington in Lincolnshire and No. 44 Training Squadron. There they learned that this was, as Deetjen described it, \u201conly a pool squadron\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. where men are held till the upper squadrons are emptied.\u201d Soon thereafter, Chalaire, Carlton, and Stanley were assigned to No. 48 Training Squadron, while Deetjen went to No. 51. Both squadrons were at Waddington where, according to Deetjen, the aircraft available were \u201cRumpeties (Maurice Farmans), Martinsydes, R.E.8s, deH6’s, BE2E\u2019s, and deH4’s.\u201d7<\/a><\/p>\n

On February 9, 1918, Chalaire and Carlton attended the wedding in Lincoln of Annie Courtney Willimott and Sub-Lieutenant Cyril Kay, R.N.R.; Chalaire was best man.8<\/a>\u00a0 Deetjen reports of Chalaire in mid-February that he \u201cgot a straf for hedge-hopping and herding sheep.\u201d9<\/a>\u00a0 Only a few days later, on February 19, 1918, Chalaire and Carlton set off cross country; Carlton crashed and died at Spitalgate. Deetjen wrote in his diary: \u00a0\u201cChalaire saw [the crash] and thought it was a large A.W. [Armstrong Whitworth], and reported so at Spitellgate [sic<\/i>]. He never knew till later that it was Don.\u201d10<\/a><\/p>\n

I have not been able to find information on Chalaire\u2019s training after his time at Waddington. \u00a0By sometime in the latter half of February 1918 he had completed enough flying to qualify for his commission, and Pershing forwarded the recommendation in a cable dated February 26, 1918; the confirming cablegram announcing his appointment as a first lieutenant is dated March 11, 1918.11<\/a> Deetjen reports meeting Chalaire briefly in London in mid-April, and Milnor met him there at least twice in the first part of June.12<\/a><\/p>\n

Chalaire was assigned on June 12, 1918, to No. 202 Squadron R.A.F., which was stationed at Bergues, about five miles south-southeast of Dunkirk.13<\/a>\u00a0 202 had been No. 2 Squadron Royal Naval Air Service prior to the amalgamation of the R.F.C. and the R.N.A.S. on April 1, 1918. Since March of 1917, the squadron had been flying DH.4s, two-seater aircraft used for long-range reconnaissance and bombing.14<\/a>\u00a0 Trevor Henshaw summarized the work of the squadron as follows: \u00a0\u201cIn early 1918 the unit had been providing co-operation with the [British] naval operations for the blocking of [German held] Zeebrugge and Ostend on the Belgian coast. \u00a0Photography, escort work and artillery spotting occupied them during the summer and into the autumn, during the advances of the Allies, and they assisted in this way in the eventual removal of German forces from the coastal areas.\u201d15<\/a><\/p>\n

About a month and a half after joining No. 202 Squadron, on the morning of July 29, 1918, Chalaire was flying was flying DH.4 D8402 on\u00a0an escort and reconnaissance mission when he encountered eight enemy aircraft over German-occupied Tervaete; he and his gunner, Albert Edward Humphrey, were able to shoot two of them down out of control, but both Chalaire and Humphrey were wounded and forced to land at Rousbrugge (Roesbrugge, a village a few miles northwest of Poperinghe) just inside allied territory.16<\/a><\/p>\n

Harold E. Bechtol, European manager of the Newspaper Enterprise Association, interviewed Chalaire about the incident. \u00a0Bechtol reported that a \u201creconnaissance machine was sent to see whether the Germans were trying to put bridges across the Yser canal. Humphrey and Chalaire were sent in a two-seater as escort.\u201d Bechtol then supplies the account he took down from Chalaire:<\/p>\n

Just as the fellows in the observation machine had finished their work, five Hun planes bobbed up. We signalled for our other machine to beat it, and we hung back to keep the Huns from following. We were just \u201ccold meat\u201d for those five Huns\u2013or so we thought. \u00a0Three climbed above us and two got just below our tail, where Humphrey couldn\u2019t get a shot at them. \u00a0Humphrey kept put-put-putting at the Huns above, and he must have winged one. \u00a0Because suddenly one came shooting down right ahead of me. Almost level with my gun he flattened out. \u00a0There was nothing to do but let him have it, and down he went. I couldn\u2019t have missed him. \u00a0Then a broken clip jammed Humphrey\u2019s gun, and those Germans under our tail were getting on my nerves. \u00a0I flopped over to the left and on one side, and opened up. It was just luck\u2013but I pinked one of them and he crashed down. \u00a0That left three.<\/p>\n

Then three more came up. \u00a0I looked around at Humphrey. \u00a0He had been hit several times\u2013he got eight bullets in all. \u00a0But there he was, with a Lewis gun on his shoulder, firing away. \u00a0As I turned a bullet hit the rim of my goggles, but it was a glancing blow. Some luck\u2013what? \u00a0I jiggled the bar a minute, then dropped in a spin about 500 feet. \u00a0This gave Humphrey a chance to shoot at the whole bunch. \u00a0Then I noticed that the engine was going badly. \u00a0The tank was empty. I tried the gravity [reserve tank]. \u00a0It was still working, thank heaven. \u00a0The Germans had dropped below our tail again, so I took another spin down. \u00a0We went so low that about one more flop would have landed us on the ground. \u00a0Then, just as we started to climb again, the Huns turned and beat it back. We were nearing the line and they got cold feet, I guess. \u00a0We came on in and went to the hospital.17<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A
While Chalaire’s goggles figure in his account to Bechtol as well as in other newspaper stories, the focus in the description here is on his cartridge belt. \u00a0This photo is from the series “American Unofficial Collection of World War I Photographs, 1917 – 1918” at the National Archives and Records Administration; its identification number is 165-WW-472B-28.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chalaire was initially admitted to 44 Casualty Clearing Station at Bergues and eventually to U.S. Army Base Hospital No. 37 in Dartford, Kent, England, where the interview with Bechtol presumably took place.18<\/a> News of his injury was passed along; the August 14, 1918, entry in War Birds <\/i>includes the remark \u201cI heard that Walter Chalaire got shot in the leg on a D.H. 4.\u201d \u00a0His gunner, Humphrey (also admitted to No. 44 C.C.S. before being evacuated to England), was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal in September of 1918.19<\/a>\u00a0 The citation reads:<\/p>\n

Aerial Gunner A. E. Humphrey has made 23 trips of 40 hours all told over enemy territory, and has proved himself a capable, cool and resourceful Gunlayer, in particular on 29 July 1918, when escorting a special and important reconnaissance over the Yser River. His machine was attacked by eight enemy aircraft and, after firing several rounds his gun jammed, so he immediately picked up his spare gun and, firing from the shoulder, brought one enemy aircraft down and continued firing on the others until he was severely wounded. His pilot spoke very highly of his conduct during the engagement.<\/p>\n

Milnor, who had visited Chalaire at in hospital Dartford in mid-August, wrote in his diary on September 11, 1918, that \u201c[John Warren] Leach and Chalaire came into the office [in London] after lunch. Both are doing very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chalaire returned to the U.S. on the Mauretania<\/i>, departing Liverpool on November 25, 1918, and arriving at New York on December 2, 1918.20<\/a>\u00a0 Other \u201ccasual officers air service<\/a>\u201d on board included second Oxford detachment members Robert Alexander Anderson, Bonham Hagood Bostick, Raphael Sergius De Mitkiewicz, Alfred August Gaipa, Bradley Cleaver Lawton, Joseph Kirkbride Milnor, Douglas Hersey Mudge, Francis Kinloch Read, Homer Ireland Smith, and Lynn Lemuel Stratton. \u00a0When Chalaire was discharged on April 9, 1919, he was described as ten percent disabled.21<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Clipping
Chalaire’s paper welcomes him home (New York Herald, December 3, 1918, p. 4).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chalaire became an international corporation and estate lawyer. \u00a0\u201cBeginning in 1919 [he] practiced law with Sullivan & Cromwell and spent two and a half years in the Philippines for the firm. \u00a0Later, he was a partner in Chalaire, Franklin in Shanghai. \u00a0He returned to Sullivan & Cromwell in New York in 1927. From 1935 to 1958 he was a partner in Scadrett, Tuttle & Chalaire.\u201d22<\/a><\/p>\n

mrsmcq May 25, 2017; updated August 20, 2020, to reflect Milnor’s diary<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Notes<\/h3>\n

(For complete bibliographic entries, please consult the list of\u00a0works and web pages cited<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

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1<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Chalaire\u2019s date and place of birth are taken from Ancestry.com, U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918<\/i>, record for Walter Chalaire. \u00a0The date and place of his death are taken from \u201cWalter Chalaire, Lawyer, Dies.\u201d \u00a0The photo is a detail from a photo<\/a> of Chalaire, Bulkley, and an unidentified cadet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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2<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See Ancestry.com, 1900 United States Federal Census<\/i>, record for Walter Chalaire; and Ancestry.com, New York, State Census, 1915<\/i>, record for Alcied [sic<\/i>] Chalaire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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3<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See High School of Commerce, New York. Yearbook: Decennial Number 1912<\/i>, p. 77.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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4<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See \u201cWalter Chalaire, Lawyer, Dies.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

4a<\/strong><\/a> \u201cTwenty-five Plattsburg Men to Become Aviators\u201d; \u201cGround School Graduations [for August 25, 1917].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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5<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0The National Archives (United Kingdom), Royal Air Force officers’ service records 1918-1919<\/i>, record for Walter Chalaire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

6<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Chalaire, \u201cThanksgiving Day with the Aviators Abroad.\u201d \u00a0It seems likely that the article appeared in the New York Herald<\/i>, for which Chalaire had worked, but I have not been able to confirm this.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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7<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Deetjen, Diary, entry for January 18, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

8<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See \u201cWedding.\u201d \u00a0I have not discovered what connection there was between Chalaire and the groom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

9<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Deetjen, Diary, entry for February 17, 1918. \u00a0\u201cStraf\u201d presumably means punishment (from German \u201cstrafen\u201d).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

10<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Deetjen, Diary, entry for February 19, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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11<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See cablegram 652-S, and cablegram 900-R, p. 3 (an addendum to a cablegram dated March 9, 1918).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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12<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0Deetjen, Diary, entry for April 17, 1918; Milnor, Diary, entries for June 5 and 8, 1918.<\/p>\n

13<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Sloan, Wings of Honor<\/i>, p. 219; on the squadron\u2019s location, see Philpott, The Birth of the Royal Air Force<\/i>, p. 432.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

14<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Philpott, The Birth of the Royal Air Force<\/i>, p. 432, lists the aircraft flown by the squadron.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

15<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201c202 Squadron.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

16<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See the entry in Henshaw, The Sky Their Battlefield II<\/em>, and \u201cChalaire, W.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

17<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Bechtol, \u201cOne Yankee Aviator Whips 8 Hun Planes in Crippled Machine.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

18<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Chalaire\u2019s RAF service record (see above) supplies \u201c44 C.C.S.\u201d \u00a0MacPherson, Medical Services<\/i>, pp. 266\u201367, establishes that 44 C.C.S. was at Bergues; the location has been sometimes misunderstood and\/or mistranscribed as \u201cBerque\u201d or \u201cBerques.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Bechtol indicates Chalaire was \u201cin the American army hospital at Dartford\u201d; Ford, Administration American Expeditionary Forces<\/i>, p. 664, indicates this was Base Hospital No. 37.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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19<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0The citation transcribed here is from an auction catalogue description for the medal; see \u201cA fine Great War D.F.M.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0,\u201d which also provides some biographical information for Humphrey, including his admission to No. 44 C.C.S. \u00a0It provides slightly more detail than the citation recorded in the Supplement to the London Gazette<\/i> (\u201cAwarded the Distinguished Flying Medal,\u201d p. 11257).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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20<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ancestry.com, U.S., Army Transport Service, Passenger Lists, 1910-1939<\/i>, record for Walter Chalaire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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21<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ancestry.com, New York, Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917\u20131919<\/i>, record for Walter Chalaire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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22<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWalter Chalaire, Lawyer, Dies.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(New Orleans, March 7, 1895 \u2013 Great Neck, Long Island, New York, November 5, 1971).1 Although Chalaire was born in New Orleans, the family had moved to New York City by the time he was five; his father was connected with the theater.2\u00a0 Chalaire attended the High School of Commerce, graduating in 1912.3\u00a0 He became … Continue reading “Walter Chalaire”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":978,"parent":30,"menu_order":22,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-963","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=963"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5889,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/963\/revisions\/5889"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}