United States. An Extensive Service Photo Album of an 27th Aero Squadron Pilot KIA

This is an extremely extensive service time photo album belonging to an unnamed American pilot of the 27th American Air Service Squadron. The album consists of hundreds of photographs spanning over 68 double sided pages. The photo album shadows the 27th Aero Squadron from its training stages to active duty, while also depicting the 27th Aero Squadron in more casual settings, such as at the pool or racing cars. Depicted in this photo album are two identifiable aces, Frank Luke with 18 confirmed kills, and John MacArthur with 6 confirmed kills, along with a variety of iconic airplanes, such as British SE5’s, Nieuports, Handley Pages, Camels, Curtis’, Spad XII, an a captured German Fokker DR7, along with a series of unidentifiable prototype and experimental planes. This album also depicts multiple crashed and wrecked planes, airplane factories, early parachute trials, a naval battle onboard an allied naval vessel and areal photographs. Select pages are missing photographs, and some photographs have become loose, although he vast majority of photographs are well secured via corner stickers. The album itself has a stiff cardstock cover, with a dark brown dark leather (leatherette) exterior. The obverse depicts an embossed image of the statue of liberty, with the reverse being completely blank. It is tied together via strings and two holes on the far side of each page, with only one page loose overall. It measures 288 mm (w) x 183 mm (h) x 70 mm (d). An exceptional photo album, showing a first person account of the 27th Aero Squadron. Footnote: Frank Luke (19.3.1897 - 29.9.1918) was an American Pilot Ace within the 27th Aero Squadron, having shot down 18 enemy balloons and planes within just 18 days. After shooting down 3 German balloons on 29.9.1918, his SPAD XIII was shot down by ground fire. He shot at approaching German soldiers from his crash site, and was killed in by enemy fire. He was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross, a War Cross, as well as a Medal of Honor posthumously. John Knox MacArthur (14.1.1891 - 20.7.1918) was the 27th Aero Squadron’s first ace, and scored a total of 6 aerial victories in total, before going missing in a storm on July 20th, 1918. The 27th Aero Squadron was formed on May 8, 1917 and trained at Kelly Field (England), but was not mobilized and moved to France until June 2, 1918, where it became part of the 1st Pursuit Group. It scored a total of 34 victories against enemy planes, and 22 victories against enemy balloons.