Horses Don't Fly

The Memoir of the Cowboy Who Became a World War I Ace

Frederick Libby

• Publisher: Arcade
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9781611457100
• eBook ISBN:
  9781611454499
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

From breaking wild horses in Colorado to fighting the Red Baron's squadrons in the skies over France, here in his own words is the true story of a forgotten American hero: the cowboy who became our first ace and the first pilot to fly the American colors over enemy lines. Growing up on a ranch in Sterling, Colorado, Frederick Libby mastered the cowboy arts of roping, punching cattle, and taming horses. As a young man he exercised his skills in the mountains and on the ranges of Arizona and New Mexico as well as the Colorado prairie. When World War I broke out, he found himself in Calgary, Alberta, and joined the Canadian army. In France, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps as an "observer, " the gunner in a two-person biplane. Libby shot down an enemy plane on his first day in battle over the Somme, which was also the first day he flew in a plane or fired a machine gun. He went on to become a pilot. He fought against the legendary German aces Oswald Boelcke and Manfred von Richthofen, and became the first American to down five enemy planes. He won the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry in action. Libby's memoir of his cowboy days in the last years of the Old West evokes a real-life Cormac McCarthy novel. His description of World War I combines a rattling good account of the air war over France with captivating and sometimes poignant depictions of wartime London, the sorrow for friends lost in combat, and the courage and camaraderie of the Royal Flying Corps. Told in charming, straightforward vernacular, Horses Don't Fly is an unforgettable piece of Americana.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Preface
• 1 Sunrise
• 2 An Antelope, a Rope and a Small Boy
• 3 School and Sis, Wild Horses and the Stinkenest Hog Wallow in the World
• 4 My First Big Battle
• 5 Our Home Ranch and a Man with a Gun
• 6 A Girl, a Jug of Whiskey and Sheepherders
• 7 Wild Horse Roundup for Polo Ponies
• 8 Phoenix, Wild Horses, Wild Steers and a Broken Leg
• 9 Christmas Eve, with Hundreds of Dead Cattle
• 10 Denver, Where I’ m Rolled of My Loot by a Pimp
• 11 More Wild Horses and a Big Gray Outlaw
• 12 Fourth of July Celebration, Susie, Cyclone and a Wild Beautiful Brown Stallion
• 13 God’s Country — Imperial Valley
• 14 Calgary, Investment in Oil and a Soldier of the King
• 15 Loss of Citizenship, Sergeants Moose and Little Moose and the Motor Transport
• 16 An Operation, an Examination, Mutiny and War
• 17 I Join the Royal Air Forceto Get out of the Rain
• 18 First Flight over German Lines, One Enemy Plane Confirmed
• 19 Recommended for My Commission and Trying to Live, I Have a Great Idea
• 20 Back to France as an Officer, Where I Meet and Become Friends with the Royal Flying Corps’ Greatest Fighting Ace, Lieutenant Albert Ball
• 21 In a Drinking Bout, Price and I Lose a Battle to Our Own Artillery
• 22 Boelcke, the Great German Ace, and His Boys Cause Us Our Greatest Loss in Any Single Engagement
• 23 Captain Price Returns to England — I Follow Shortly — We Are Both Decorated at Buckingham Palace by His Majesty King George V
• 24 Thank God for America’s Ambassador Page and His Military Attache, Captain Chapman
• 25 A Great Major, a Sick Observer and a Forced Landing In Our Trenches
• 26 Dinner at the Savoy in London to Honor Our Old Commanding Officer — Back to France, Where We Lose Captain Harold Balfour in a Dogfight
• 27 Two Americans Who Lost Their Citizenship Return to America at General Mitchell’s Recommendation
• 28 Two Weeks with My Family In Boston — Then Texas, Where Space Began — A Hospital That Was a Morgue
• 29 New York to See a Great Specialist — The Auctioning of the First American Colors to Cross the German Lines
• 30 A Free Man, Lucky Beyond Belief
• Acknowledgments
• Afterword