Few more thrilling and heroic deeds in the air have been recorded than that accomplished on Thursday [July 27] by the French aviator, Sergeant de Terline, who, unable to use his machine-gun in an encounter with a German machine, gave his life rather than let his adversary escape him. The story of Sergeant de Terline’s supreme heroism is related briefly in yesterday’s [July 29] aviation communiqué.
The aviator, flying alone, encountered the German machine, with two men on board, over Chalons and immediately flew above it and opened an attack. After a battle lasting only a few minutes, Sergeant de Terline’s machine-gun went wrong. The Germans were already retreating before their now defenceless antagonist, who, in order that the enemy should not escape, made the sacrifice of his life. He described a few circles above the German machine and then swooped down and crashed into it. The two aeroplanes fell to earth behind the French lines, and the dead bodies of the three men were extricated from a heap of débris. — The New York Herald, European Edition, July 30, 1916