Adjutant-Chef Antoine Laplasse was a World War I

balloon buster Balloon busters were military pilots known for destroying enemy observation balloons. These pilots were noted for their fearlessness, as balloons were stationary targets able to receive heavy defenses, from the ground and the air. Seventy-seven fl ...

and

flying ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...

credited with eight aerial victories, six of which were against

observation balloon An observation balloon is a type of balloon that is employed as an aerial platform for intelligence gathering and artillery spotting. Use of observation balloons began during the French Revolutionary Wars, reaching their zenith during World War ...

s. He was a pioneer aviator who earned his civilian pilot's license on the eve of World War I. As a result, he soon was assigned aviation duty, and defended his country throughout the war. He was killed in action less than three months before war's end.

Early life and service

Antoine Laplasse was born on 16 May 1883 in Vernay,

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

, France. He was a pioneer aviator, receiving his Civil Pilot's Brevet, No. 1655, on 11 July 1914. France's declaration of war on 3 August 1914 sparked Laplasse's entry into military service. He was initially assigned to clerical work.''Over the Front'', p. 182.

Aviation service

His civil pilot's license was noted, and he was quickly transferred into aviation service. He earned a military pilot's license on a Morane and was assigned to Escadrille 461. On 22 June 1916, he forced a German airplane into an involuntary landing. In May 1917, he repeated the feat. His distinguished service in Escadrille 461, earned him the ''Médaille militaire''; as the award citation said, he was noted for "...strafing the German trenches and batteries at a low altitude, and returning often with his plane riddled by bullets." He was "promoted" to flying

Nieuport Nieuport, later Nieuport-Delage, was a French aeroplane company that primarily built racing aircraft before World War I and fighter aircraft during World War I and between the wars. History Beginnings Originally formed as Nieuport-Duplex in ...

fighters with Escadrille 75, joining the squadron on 20 October 1917. Once the unit re-equipped with

Spad XIII The SPAD S.XIII is a French biplane fighter aircraft of the First World War, developed by ''Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés'' (SPAD) from the earlier and highly successful SPAD S.VII. During early 1917, the French designer Louis Béc ...

s, he began to score his aerial victories. He downed two German two-seater reconnaissance planes; then, he began the highly hazardous practice of balloon busting. On 22 August, with four wingmen flying top cover for him, he destroyed three enemy

observation balloons An observation balloon is a type of balloon that is employed as an aerial platform for intelligence gathering and artillery spotting. Use of observation balloons began during the French Revolutionary Wars, reaching their zenith during World War I ...

. As he attacked a fourth one, a quintet of German

Fokker D.VII The Fokker D.VII was a German World War I fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz of the Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. Germany produced around 3,300 D.VII aircraft in the second half of 1918. In service with the ''Luftstreitkräfte'', the D.VII qu ...

s attacked him and sent him down in flames, killing him.''Spad XII/XIII Aces'', p. 66.

List of aerial victories

Endnotes

Sources of information

* ''Over the Front: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the United States and French Air Services, 1914-1918'' Norman L. R. Franks, Frank W. Bailey. Grub Street, 1992. , . * ''SPAD XII/XIII Aces of World War 1: Volume 47 of Aircraft of the Aces: Volume 47 of Osprey Aircraft of the Aces''. Jon Guttman. Osprey Publishing, 2002. , . {{DEFAULTSORT:Laplasse, Antoine 1883 births 1918 deaths People from Rhône (department) French World War I flying aces French military personnel killed in World War I