Victor Chapman's letters from France

the long version

Excerpt from Victor Chapman's Letters From France: With Memoir: Victor Emmanuel Chapman, a member of the Franco-American Aviation Corps, was killed at Verdun on June 23, 1916, and fell within the German lines. He was in his twenty-seventh year; was born in New York, spent two years at the Fay School, went for several years to St. Paul's School, Concord, lived abroad for a year in France and Germany. On his return, he spent a year at the Stone School in Boston and then went to Harvard, where he graduated in 1913; immediately after graduation he went to Paris and studied architecture for one year in the atelier of M. Gromort, in preparation for admission to the Beaux Arts. This made him a Beaux Art student, - for the ateliers are a part of the school, - and thus it came about that in 1914 he joined the Foreign Legion. Victor spent a year in the trenches at a point in the lines where there were no attacks, but where inaction and the continual "sniping" severely tried the nerves. Kohn, an accomplished Polish mathematician was shot, as he and Victor were leaning over the talus. He died in Victor's arms. For over one hundred consecutive days Victor was in the front trenches as aide-chargeur to a mitrail. He was slightly wounded once, and one half of his squadron were either killed or seriously hurt.