Hall was born near
Higginsville, Missouri, the son of George Hall. Bert Hall learned to fly in 1910 at
Buc,
France, using a "Maurice Farman Biplane Pusher, with a fog-cutter out in front and an air-cooled Renault motor behind." He subsequently acquired a "new 1913
Blériot, equipped with a 60 H.P. Gnome motor", and on February 16, 1913, he along with his French mechanic André Pierce became
soldiers of fortune flying for the
Sultan of Turkey, for 100 American Dollars a day, against the
Bulgarians. On the first day he was paid in Turkish currency and refused to fly, but received "in gold money" from then on. After two months the Turkish Army payments became inconsistent "fifty dollars one day and sixty the next and forty-five the next", so Bert and André "packed up and flew into
Romania (sic), stopping at
Bucharest ... receiving the equivalent of one hundred dollars gold per day in advance.". After 30 days the Bulgarians welshed, but before Bert and his mechanic could depart with their gold, Bert was arrested, leaving André to bribe the jailers for Bert's release. After a brief
barnstorming tour through
Ukraine, his Blériot motor quit over the
Pyrenees Mountains outside of
Tarbes and crashed. He salvaged the motor for 2,500 francs. In early August 1914, Bert met renowned big game hunter René Philezot and both enlisted as infantry in the French Foreign Legion Deuxiéme (Second) Regiment, which had been redeployed from Morocco to France for trench warfare. In early October, 1914,
Bill Thaw, Jimmy Bach, and Bert applied for aviation, and on December 14, 1914, the three entered "into the
French Flying Corps." Bert was one of the seven original members of the Lafayette Escadrille. They included two of the original three applicants—Bill Thaw and Bert Hall, (Jimmy Bach was in the French Flying Corps, but was in a German Prison camp before the LE was organized);
Norman (Nimmie) Prince, Frazier Curtiss and
Elliot Cowdin joined on March 9, 1914; with the final addition of
Raoul Lufbery and
Didier Masson. In the book ''One Man's War: The Story of the Lafayette Escadrille'', Bert Hall recounts how after he was taken off the front lines due to the mumps, he was to recover in the south of France, versus Paris where he had an apartment and female acquaintances. At the train depot he encountered a wounded soldier who was to recover in Paris, versus the south of France where he was from. So they mutually exchanged their destination "tags", Bert gave him all his cigarettes, and then shook his hand very gently. In this he admitted that he circumvented the French Army, and that he "always did object to doing things by the numbers anyhow". He also tells of forcing a German
Albatros down in French territory, and contrasts his own style versus his mechanic, Leon Mourreau, who also deserved credit as a gunner in his early two-seat Nieuport: "... my mechanic came in for no small part of this catch, and he deserved it too. But he was a modest fellow, and not nearly as good a talker as I was. Talking up one's exploits had its advantages, even in a big caliber war. And finally, Bert Hall persistently refers to his fellow pilots and commanders in glowing and respectful terms, with rare exceptions. And if some were envious and sought to discredit his achievements, he did not reciprocate. Later on, Hall was contracted by the Chinese government to buy surplus planes from the U.S. government and return to China to set up an air service for them, but failed to obtain permission from the State Department. He was charged with violating export restrictions and convicted. Bert Hall was released from
McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary in May 1936. His effort anticipated the July 7, 1937
Second Sino-Japanese War wherein
Claire Chennault assessed the
Chinese Air Force and received Washington approval of the
American Volunteer Group ("
Flying Tigers"). Deployment of aircraft, aircrews, and supplies to China began in the spring of 1941. He lived in
Seattle for a few months before heading to
Hollywood to work for
Twentieth Century Fox studios. Weary of Hollywood, in 1940 he moved to
Dayton, Ohio and in 1944 settled in
Castalia, Ohio, where he started the Sturdy Toy Factory. On December 6, 1948, he died of a massive heart attack while driving down the highway near
Fremont, Ohio. His ashes were scattered over his hometown of
Higginsville, Missouri on January 20, 1950. ==Bibliography==