AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT (with an update)

L: Curtiss JN-4H Jenny - R: DH-4

Dorian Walker and I met here in Hollywood 40 years ago because we both had the same agent, the late Dick Sheppard, who thought that having a screenwriter client who was a Vietnam veteran (me) and a director client who was aVietnam veteran (Dorian), he ought to put us together and see if anything happened. Mostly what happened is we became good friends over the fact we were both stone airplane fanatics. Went out and did some flying together at Van Nuys Airport, went out to Planes of Fame for the airshows, etc. We also worked on a script about Mike Novosel, the last WW2 pilot to fly combat, as a helicopter Dust-Off (medical evacuation) pilot in Vietnam, where he won the Medal of Honor for going into the Valley of Death eight times to pull an ambushed ARVN platoon out, under fire. In 1992, the LA riots followed by a run-in with the upper levels of Mauschwitz (Disney) when he was directing a “Home Improvement” episode and had a conversation in the studio cafeteria with his 1st AD about the aesthetics of cartoon art, in which he took the position that Chuck Jones’ Bugs Bunny was superior to Mickey Mouse, and by the time he got back to his office, there was a letter on the desk from studio president Michael Eisner, telling him how much they liked working with him, but he should keep his artistic opinions to himself. Enough! as he said. With that, he moved wife and family back to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and returned to making award-winning documentaries.

The DH-4 at Oshkosh in 2017

In 2011, while making a documentary about aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss, Dorian interviewed a guy in Ohio who had been working for 30 years on the restoration of a Curtiss JN-4H “Jenny.” One thing led to another, and he ended up acquiring the project. A completely new replica was built between June 2012 to October 2013, using only a few parts from the original. Having met some interesting people in all that, “Friends of Jenny” was created and ten years later he has 800 flying hours on the airplane, which has been to airshows in 17 states in the midwest and southeastern United States’

DH-4 at Oshkosh

As Hemingway said about cats, having one antique airplane leads to another. In 2015, Dorin learned through the antique aviation community of an opportunity to acquire an original American DH-4 located in Washington State, which had been restored in the 1950s by movie flyers Paul Mantz and Frank Tallman for use in the feature film “The Spirit of St. Louis.” Importantly, this airframe had a construction plate and the paperwork to verify its history, making it a genuine antique. The airframe was unmodified from its original construction by Dayton-Wright in 1918. They were able to find a Liberty engine that was once part of Cole Palen’s Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome collection. The entire restoration project was accomplished over two years and 10,000 man hours, and was first displayed at the EAA Oshkosh Fly-in (the world’s biggest aviation gathering) in 2017. It finally flew in 2020. It’s the oldest flyable American warplane in existence.

Ready for take off on first flight

First flight

The DH-4 is restored as the airplane flown by Lieutenants Harold E. Goettler and Erwin R. Bleckley who were, respectively, pilot and observer, assigned to the 50th Aero Squadron during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in the fall of 1918. The 50th became known as “The Dutch Girl Squadron” after they adopted the “Dutch Girl” symbol of Old Dutch Cleanser, a popular powdered scouring bathroom cleanser of the time, putting her on the side of their airplanes after stating that they would “clean the skies of German Aircraft.” Goettler and Bleckley were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for their role in what became the most storied event of America’s involvement in The Great War, the “Lost Battalion” (three movies were made about it in the 20s and 30s).

On 2 October, approximately 700 men of one regiment and companies from two other regiments of the 77th were isolated in a ravine and surrounded by the Germans at Charlevaux Mill in the Argonne Forest after they had advanced to and remained on their objective, where - due to poor communications - they did not realize the remainder of the division and the other units involved had been stalled in their advance and retired to the Line of Departure. They quickly became known in newspapers as “The Lost Battalion" a nickname coined by war correspondents, though it was actually an oversimplification of the forces involved. With their communications cut off and with only one day's worth of rations, "The Lost Battalion" endured five days of repeated assaults from the Germans, starvation, and a disastrous “friendly fire” incident on 4 October when American artillery fired on the attacking Germans with faulty information, inflicting many casualties.

Harold Goettler, nicknamed “Dad” in the squadron, since he had turned 28 the previous July, was a graduate of the University of Chicago where he was a lineman for the 1913 co-national championship UC Maroons football team.

Erwin Bleckley, 24, a bank teller with the 4th National Bank of Wichita, Kansas, was the second man to enlist as a private in the Kansas National Guard on 6 June 1917, joining Battery F, 1st Field Artillery. On 5 July he was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Field Artillery, which he had joined despite his desire to become a pilot, due to his family’s objection. Once in France, he volunteered to become an aerial observer.

The 50th Aero Squadron was involved in the effort to pinpoint the location of the Lost Battalion and drop supplies to them. The weather was cloudy with rain; the thick foliage of the Argonne Forest forced them to fly in high enough that most supplies were ending up in German hands instead of the intended recipients, with the Germans taunting the starving Americans when they opened the food packages. Over several days of this effort, the 50th Squadron had lost two DH-4s to German ground fire; most others returned to base riddled with bullets.

“Last Light,” by Russell Thompson, depicting the mission

On the morning of 6 October 1918, Goettler and Bleckley flew another frustrating mission and returned with battle damage. They volunteered for a second mission, to fly at treetop level directly into the teeth of the German machine guns in order to identify the battlefield by drawing fire with Bleckley pinpointing the positions on his map. Borrowing DH-4 No. 32517, “Red 6,”and determined to accomplish their objective, they repeatedly flew into the ravine where the men were trapped. Bleckley located and pinpointed both the Lost Battalion and the surrounding Germans on his map while their airplane was being shot to pieces by enemy groundfire coming from all directions, including down from the bluff towering over the ravine. Undeterred, they spent 20 agonizing minutes on their search before Goettler received a fatal bullet wound to the head. Bleckley managed to use the basic flying controls in his cockpit to fly out of the caldron of fire and crash-land about 200 meters southwest of Binarville. He was violently thrown clear of the crash badly wounded. A rescue party led by an volunteer ambulance driver from the Quakers’ American Field Service found him, but he died on the way to a nearby field hospital.

Late the next day, Bleckley's map was delivered to Remicourt. That evening relieving forces broke through to the position. Goettler and Bleckley hadn't "found the Lost Battalion," but that didn't stop the newspapers from saying so. Their brave and audacious attempt was well “above and beyond the call of duty.” With Frank Luke “The Balloon Buster,” and American Ace of Aces Eddie Rickenbacker, they were the four American flyers awarded the Medal of Honor in World War I.

Dorian Walker

Dorian has made a documentary about the DH-4 and Goettler and Bleckley that will be on PBS this coming Veteran’s Day, “The Liberty Plane.” I’ve seen it - you’ll like it.

UPDATE: “The Liberty Plane” will be available on Kentucky Educational Television (KET). Hopefully other PBS stations will pick it up. For those who want to see it, the following schedule and streaming is provided (remember tat KY is divided between Eastern and Central time for scheduling):

Legends of the Sky: The Liberty Plane

KET Monday, Nov. 7 • 9/8 pm

KET2 Thursday, Nov. 10 • 9/8 pm

Stream at KET.org and the PBS Video app

Comments are for Paid Subscribers.