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Campbell, Douglas (DSC w/4 OLC), 1LT.
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Contact Info
Home Town San Francisco
Last Address San Francisco
Date of Passing Dec 16, 1990
Location of Interment Memorial Garden of First Presbyterian Church - Greenwich, Connecticut
Wall/Plot Coordinates Cremated remains are interred in the Memorial Gard
World War I Flying Ace. Born the son of astronomer William Wallace Campbell, head of the Lick Observatory, in San Francisco, California. He attended Harvard University, leaving his senior year after the U.S. entered the First World War, and enlisted in May 1917, in the United States Signal Corps, Aviation Section, training at the School of Military Aeronautics. He shipped out to France in July 1917. He took additional training at the Army Flying School in early 1918 at Issoudun and Casaux, and was then assigned to the 94th Aero Squadron, known as the "Hat in the Ring" squadron, of the First Pursuit Group. Six days after being assigned to the western front, he and fellow pilot, Alan Winslow, engaged in their first aerial dogfight with enemy aircraft, the first Americans to do so. In a battle fought over the Allied Squadron Aerodrome at Toul, France, they succeeded in shooting down two German Albatross on April 14, 1918. He shot down a second enemy flier in his first dogfight flying with American Expeditionary Forces. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French. He downed a third enemy flier on May 19 and a fourth on May 27. The following day, he attacked another plane, but its destruction was not confirmed. On May 31, the 22-year-old lieutenant was credited with his fifth confirmed kill, and earned the designation of ace, the first American-trained pilot to be so designated. He shot down a sixth plane on June 5. During this last mission, he was wounded by an exploding shell, and was sent back to the U.S. to recuperate. He was reassigned to his squadron in November 1918, but saw no further action before the Armistice of November 11,1918, less than a week later. He received the American Distinguished Service Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster. After the war, he went to work for W. R. Grace & Company. In 1935, he was named assistant treasurer of Pan American Grace Airways (Panagra). He was named a Vice President in 1939, and became its General Manager in 1948. He retired in 1963. His wartime exploits were recounted in the 1984 book 'Let's Go Where The Action Is: The Wartime Experiences of Douglas Campbell,' by Jack Eder. He succumbed to respiratory failure at age 94.
Other Comments:
CAMPBELL, DOUGLAS
(First Award)
First Lieutenant (Air Service), U.S. Army
Pilot, 94th Aero Squadron, 1st Pursuit Group, Air Service, A.E.F.
Date of Action: May 19, 1918 Citation:
The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Douglas Campbell, First Lieutenant (Air Service), U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action on May 19, 1918. First Lieutenant Campbell attacked an enemy biplane at an altitude of 4, 500 meters, east of Flirey, France. He rushed to the attack, but after shooting a few rounds his gun jammed. Undeterred by this accident he maneuvered so as to protect himself, corrected the jam in midair, and returned to the assault. After a short, violent action, the enemy plane took fire and crashed to the earth.
Other Award: Five Total Awards: Distinguished Service Cross (WWI)
CAMPBELL, DOUGLAS
(Second Award)
First Lieutenant (Air Service), U.S. Army
Pilot, 94th Aero Squadron, 1st Pursuit Group, Air Service, A.E.F.
Date of Action: June 5, 1918 Citation:
The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Douglas Campbell, First Lieutenant (Air Service), U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action on June 5, 1918. Accompanied by another pilot, Lieutenant Campbell attacked two enemy battle planes at an altitude of 5, 700 meters over Epley, France. After a spirited combat he was shot through the back by a machine-gun bullet, but in spite of his injury he kept on fighting until he had forced one of the enemy planes to the ground, where it was destroyed by artillery fire, and had driven the other plane back into its own territory.
CAMPBELL, DOUGLAS
(Third Award)
First Lieutenant (Air Service), U.S. Army
Pilot, 94th Aero Squadron, 1st Pursuit Group, Air Service, A.E.F.
Date of Action: May 31, 1918 Citation:
The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Douglas Campbell, First Lieutenant (Air Service), U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action on May 31, 1918. Lieutenant Campbell took the offensive against two German planes at an altitude of 2, 500 meters over Lironville, France, shot down one of them, and pursued the other far behind the German lines.
CAMPBELL, DOUGLAS
(Fourth Award)
First Lieutenant (Air Service), U.S. Army
Pilot, 94th Aero Squadron, 1st Pursuit Group, Air Service, A.E.F.
Date of Action: May 28, 1918 Citation:
The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Douglas Campbell, First Lieutenant (Air Service), U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action on May 28, 1918. Lieutenant Campbell saw six German Albatross aeroplanes flying toward him at an altitude of 2, 000 meters, near Bois Rata, France. Regardless of personal danger, he immediately attacked, and by skillful maneuvering and accurate operation of his machine gun he brought one plane down in flames and drove the other five back into their own lines.
CAMPBELL, DOUGLAS
(Fifth Award)
First Lieutenant (Air Service), U.S. Army
Pilot, 94th Aero Squadron, 1st Pursuit Group, Air Service, A.E.F.
Date of Action: May 27, 1918 Citation:
The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Douglas Campbell, First Lieutenant (Air Service), U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action on May 27, 1918. Lieutenant Campbell encountered three enemy monoplanes at an altitude of 3, 000 meters over Montsec, France. Despite the superior strength of the enemy, he promptly attacked, and fighting a brilliant battle, shot down one German machine, which fell in three pieces, and drove the other two well within the enemy lines.
He was the first American aviator flying in an American unit to achieve the status of ace.
Although Campbell's official victory count stands at six, Eddie Rickenbacker in his autobiography Fighting the Flying Circus credited his fellow ace with downing at least seven aircraft during the war. He also concluded that had he remained healthy, Campbell could have surpassed him and become America's leading ace of the war.
World War I/Meuse-Argonne Campaign
From Month/Year
September / 1918
To Month/Year
November / 1918
Description Meuse-Argonne, 26 September - 11 November 1918. At the end of August Marshal Foch had submitted plane to the national commanders for a final offensive along the entire Western Front, with the objective of driving the enemy out of France before winter and ending the war in the spring of 1919. The basis for his optimism was the success of Allied attacks all along the front in August. Furthermore, he pointed out, the Allies already had active operations in progress between the Moselle and Meuse, the Oise and Aisne, and on the Somme and Lys Rivers. Foch acknowledged that the Germans could stave off immediate defeat by an orderly evacuation combined with destruction of materiel and communications. Therefore the overall aim of the fall offensive would be to prevent a step-by-step enemy retirement. As Foch anticipated, the Germans eventually contributed to the success of his strategy. Their High Command could not bring itself to sacrifice the huge stores collected behind the front lines, and so delayed the withdrawal of its armies.
Foch's great offensive, planned to begin in the last week of September, called for a gigantic pincers movement with the objective of capturing Aulnoye and Mézières, the two key junctions in the lateral rail system behind the German front. Lose of either of these junctions would hamper seriously the German withdrawal. Despite grumbling from the English that they lacked the necessary manpower, a chiefly British army was assigned the teak of driving toward Aulnoye. The A.E.F. was designated for the southern arm of the pincers, the thrust on Mézières. Simultaneously the Belgian-French-British army group in Flanders would drive toward Ghent, and the French armies in the Oise-Aisne region would exert pressure all along their front to lend support to the pincers attack.
Pershing decided to strike his heaviest blow in a zone about 20 miles wide between the Heights of the Meuse on the east and the western edge of the high, rough, and densely wooded Argonne Forest. This is difficult terrain, broken by a central north-south ridge that dominates the valleys of the Meuse and Aire Rivers. Three heavily fortified places-Montfaucon, Cunel, and Barricourt-as well as numerous strong points barred the way to penetration of the elaborate German defenses in depth that extended behind the entire front. This fortified system consisted of three main defense lines backed up by a fourth line less well-constructed. Pershing hoped to launch an attack with enough momentum to drive through these lines into the open area beyond, where his troops could then strike at the exposed German flanks and, in a coordinated drive with the French Fourth Army coming up on the left, could cut the Sedan- Mézières railroad.
The task of assembling troops in the concentration area between Verdun and the Argonne was complicated by the fact that many American unite were currently engaged in the St. Mihiel battle. Some 600,000 Americans had to be moved into the Argonne sector while 220,000 French moved out. Responsibility for solving this tricky logistical problem fell to Col. George C. Marshall, Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3 (Operations), First Army. In the ten-day period after St. Mihiel the necessary troop movements were accomplished, but many untried divisions had to be placed in the vanguard of the attacking forces.
On the 20-mile Meuse-Argonne front where the main American attack w to be made, Pershing disposed three corps side by side, each with three divisions in line and one in corps reserve. In the center was the V Corps (from right to left the 79th, 37th, and 91st Divisions with the 32d in reserve), which would strike the decisive blow. On the right was the III Corps (from right to left the 33d, 80th, and 4th Divisions with the 3d in reserve), which would move up the west aide of the Meuse. On the left was the I Corps (from right to left the 35th, 28th, and 77th Divisions with the 92d in reserve), which would advance parallel to the French Fourth Army on its left. Eastward across the Meuse the American front extended in direct line some 60 miles; this sector was held by two French Corps (IV and II Colonial) and the American IV Corps in the St. Mihiel sector. Pershing had available to support his offensive nearly 4000 guns, two-thirds manned by American artillerymen; 190 light French tanks, mostly with American personnel; and some 820 aircraft, 600 of them flown by Americans.
The Meuse-Argonne Offensive falls into three phases. During the initial phase (26 September-3-October) the First Army advanced through most of the southern Meuse-Argonne region, captured enemy strong points, seized the first two German defense lines, and then stalled before the third line. Failure of tank support, a difficult supply situation, and the inexperience of American troops all contributed to checking its advance.
In the second phase (4-31 October) the First Army, after the inexperienced divisions had been replaced by veteran units, slowly ground its way through the third German line. The enemy was forced to throw in reserves, drawn from other parts of the front, thus aiding the Allied advances elsewhere. In the face of a stubborn defense, American gains were limited and casualties were severe, especially as a result of the newly devised enemy tactic of attacking frontline troops with airplanes. First Army air unite retaliated with bombing raids which broke up German preparations for counterattacks. By the end of October the enemy had been cleared from the Argonne and First Army troops were through the German main positions. Two notable incidents of this phase of the campaign were the fight of the "Lost Battalion" of the 77th Division (2-7 October), and the feat of Corp. (later Sgt.) Alvin C. York, who single-handedly killed 15 Germans and captured 132 on 8 October.
In mid-October the organization of the Second Army was completed, at Toul in the St. Mihiel sector, to provide means for better control of the lengthening American front and solutions of the diverse tactical problems that it presented. Pershing assumed command of the new army group thus formed.
Before the third and final phase (1-11 November) of the offensive got under way, many of the exhausted divisions of the First Army were replaced, roads were built or repaired, supply was improved, and most Allied units serving with the A.E.F. were withdrawn. On 1 November First Army units began the assault of the now strengthened German fourth line of defense. Penetration was rapid and spectacular. The V Corps in the center advanced about six miles the first day, compelling the German units west of the Meuse to withdraw hurriedly. On 4 November the III Corps forced a crossing of the Meuse and advanced northeast toward Montmédy. Elements of the V Corps occupied the heights opposite Sedan on 7 November, thus finally accomplishing the First Army's chief mission-denial of the Sedan- Mézières railroad to the Germans. Marshal Foch, at this juncture, shifted the First Army left boundary eastward so that the French Fourth Army might capture Sedan, which had fallen to the Prussians in 1870. American units were closing up along the Mouse and, east of the river, were advancing toward Montmédy, Briny, and Metz, when hostilities ended on 11 November.
General Pershing authorized the results of the Meuse-Argonne Campaign, the greatest battle in American history up to that time, in his Final Report: "Between September 26 and November 11, 22 American and 4 French divisions, on the front extending from southeast of Verdun to the Argonne Forest, had engaged and decisively beaten 47 different German divisions, representing 25 percent of the enemy's entire divisional strength on the western front.
The First Army suffered a loss of about 117,000 in killed and wounded. It captured 26,000 prisoners, 847 cannon, 3,000 machineguns, and large quantities of material." More than 1,200,000 Americans had taken part in the 47-day campaign.
