File:Eddie August Schneider (1911-1940) in The Herald-News of Passaic, New Jersey on 21 May 1937.png

Summary[edit]

DescriptionEddie August Schneider (1911-1940) in The Herald-News of Passaic, New Jersey on 21 May 1937.png	English: Eddie August Schneider (1911-1940) in The Herald-News of Passaic, New Jersey on 21 May 1937
Date	21 May 1937
Source	The Herald-News of Passaic, New Jersey on 21 May 1937
Author	Art McMahon       Alternative names Arthur McMahon Description American sportswriter Authority file : Q84649543 creator QS:P170,Q84649543
Other versions	https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36146037/the_heraldnews/

Annotated text[edit]

Spanish War Flying Risk In Planes, Not Guns, Says Pilot. Eddie Schneider Hops Passengers in Delawanna as Change. Flew for Loyalists On Civil War Front For Seven-Week Period By Art McMahon. From dropping eggs on the Spanish rebel front to passenger hopping for $1 per head is a sever letdown in the thrill department, but blond Eddie Schneider welcomes the change.

$1,500 Per Month. Six months ago he was in the employ of the Spanish Government, flying antiquated, air weary ships over the sturdy fortifications of the rebels while a frozen faced observer pulled a lever end dumped 30-pound bombs on tho objective of the attack. It was those antiquated, creaky ships that decided Eddie Schneider. The pay was good $1,500 per month and $10,000 life insurance - but the modern, speedy fighting equipment that had been promised when he signed was just a well punctured dream. The low wing, powerful pursuit planes were there all right, but they were rebel planes and they chased Eddie Schneider and his fellow loyalists. Schneider turned from his instrument board one day to see one of his companions, a young Englishman named Holland, go into a frenzied spin and crash to death, tho victim of good rebel marksmanship. They held a consultation that night when they got home - Schneider, Bert Acosta, the two other Americans and a surviving Englishman. They wanted better flying ships, good enough to stand and fight or fast enough to fly to safety. The Spanish commandant and the Russian commander shrugged shoulders and turned out palms. What could be done? The fliers could see for themselves, the rebel planes were speedy German Heinkles pursuits, [and] Junkers bomber. The fliers knew that. They had spotted the proud swastikas of Germany, the bright colored flag of Italy on the pursuing ships. There was only this to do - the fliers could quit. The Spanish government consented and after a technical delay at the border, where they languished in jail while a minor official debated the wisdom of permitting their release, they found their way into France. Schneider spent seven weeks on the Spanish front and paints an authoritative picture of condition. The loyalists were flying 1924 French Bréguet machines, and were no match for the Italian and German airmen. Six Russian planes escorted them on their bombing expedition but they were more for a bluff at numbers than effective fighting. Each plane carried 20 thirty-pound bombs and sixteen incendiary bombs. The loyalist stationed themselves at Bilbao, recent objective of the rebels. They were commended, technically, by a Spaniard, but the attack was plotted by a Russian.

Acostas Mistake. "I remember" smiles Schneider, "our first attack was on Victoria Airdrome. They told us that there would be no opposition. We had just to dump out bombs and fly leisurely home. Well, when we got over the Airdrome, we spotted the Heinkles and Junkers on the ground and knew we were in for trouble. We dumped a fast as we could and high tailed for home." "The Hinkles wasted no time in getting off after us and, say, they could move fast. It is funny now, but it wasn't then, I mean about Bert Acosta. Everything was confusion up there and when he saw the Heinkel, he flaw right into them, thinking they were our planes." "The Heinkles had heard report of new Boeings bought by the Loyalist and they thought this crazy guy coming right into them flew a Boeing. Acosta was piloting a Miles Hawk sport plane, flashier looking than ours. They dived madly to get out of the way and Acosta, not wishing to be caught alone and believing they were friends, dived with them. It was some time before he brightened up and when he did, he put out for home a fast as that crate of his would carry him. Another of Schneider's companions was Captain Gordon Berry, an air adventurer who had flown for the British Royal Air Corps. He was coming back from a raid one night when the calm of the flight was disturbed by a metallic sound. He peered over his instruments, revved up his motor and found everything working right."

Thought It Was Easy. Suddenly a streak of white flashed by a Hinkle circling lo get better range. The metallic sound was the clank of bullet in the machine. Berry ducked under the cockpit and barely got across his own lines without being shot down. Schneider, Acosta and the other American were persuaded to fly to Spain by Major Fred Lord, an ace of the Royal Air Corp. Lord had fought in several South American uprisings and said they were fakes, with both sides earning good money and pulling phony casualties to make believe that a serious battle was going on. The equipment. Lord said, would be modern, the surroundings gay and the pay good. So Schneider, till disheartened by the loss of the Jersey City Airport, which he had managed after Clarence Chamberlin, only to see it converted Into a baseball stadium, accepted. It wasn't bad enough risking his own life, but his wife came over later to visit him and narrowly missed being shot as a spy. Her first name is Gretchen and Gretchen sounded very German and therefore, very suspicious to the Loyalist. It took some high explaining by Schneider and his officers to save her from a trial. "Things weren't too awful In Spain," insist Schneider. "I think reports reaching her are garbled. I know that when we were given an objective, the commandant always warned us that we were to bomb military ports only. Any bombing of cities where women and children were, would result in court martial, he said."

Red Celebrates Christmas. 'You hear that it is a religious war. Well, we had open churches on the Loyalist side. The Red angle was overworked. I remember on Christmas Eve, just at midnight as we were toasting the duty with champagne, the high Red official got up, pushed back his chair and said: 'Excuse me, friends it is Christmas Eve and I must go home to celebrate the occasion with my children'," "That doesn't sound much like a heartless, church wracking Red, does it?" Schneider, 28, slim and quiet, is chief pilot and field manager at the new Delawanna Airport. He still lives In Jersey City but intends to move to Clifton. He has been flying for more then ten years and he has 1,100 hours in the air to his credit. He first became interested In aviation when he took a plane hop while on a visit to Germany. When he returned to America, he chucked his bank job and worked his way into Roosevelt Field, where he toiled as a mechanic. He holds a transport pilot's license and a mechanic's licence. It is within his jurisdiction to ground any plane for a structural or mechanical defect and he has Department of Commerce authority to approve for flight any plane that had undergone a major repair job. Schneider was seventeen when he bought his own plane, a Spartan. In 1929 [sic] he won the junior transcontinental race from New York to Los Angeles and return in another of his planed, a Cessna he made the Western flight in 21 hour elapsed time, despite the fact that he scraped a tree top in Pennsylvania and had to put in for repairs and then ran into a mild cyclone out West. His return flight was made on a two-stop schedule and his elapsed time made him an easy winner.

Win Ford Trophy. He won the Great Lakes trophy in the 1931 Ford tour for single engines, beating fliers like Jimmy Doolittle and Frank Hawks. He met with trouble on that trip, too, his propeller broke lose and carried the engine with it and he was forced to make a deadstick landing in a field. Schneider has visited, by air, every State In the Union and cross-country hopping remain his favorite to this day. He is enthusiastic about aviation's future had within two years predicts that trans-Atlantic freight and passenger service will be a reality. He never had more than a scratched finger as an air injury and says that the time he was frightened the most was on the ground, inside a cafe in the very heart of anti-Fascist, brooding Spain. He had turned on the radio and dialed around for dance music. Something that sounded breezy came in and Eddie settled back to enjoy it. A waiter frantically waxed to him and Eddie, working the sign language, obligingly tuned in louder. With a rush the welter was over and in broken English said. "Mister, mister, turn that off If you would live. That is the Italian Fascist national anthem coming In from Rome!"

Notes[edit]

In the original text Heinkel aircraft are erroneously referred to as "Hinkles" and Bréguet Aviation airplanes as "Bruget". The transcontinental air race that he participated in was in 1930 not in 1929.

People[edit]

• Eddie August Schneider (1911-1940)
• Frederic Ives Lord (1897-1967)
• Clarence Duncan Chamberlin
• Bert Acosta

Licensing[edit]

This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1929 and 1963, and although there may or may not have been a copyright notice, the copyright was not renewed. For further explanation, see Commons:Hirtle chart and the copyright renewal logs. Note that it may still be copyrighted in jurisdictions that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works (depending on the date of the author's death), such as Canada (70 years p.m.a.), Mainland China (50 years p.m.a., not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 years p.m.a.), Mexico (100 years p.m.a.), Switzerland (70 years p.m.a.), and other countries with individual treaties. العربية ∙ Deutsch ∙ English ∙ español ∙ français ∙ galego ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ 한국어 ∙ македонски ∙ português ∙ português do Brasil ∙ русский ∙ sicilianu ∙ slovenščina ∙ українська ∙ 简体中文 ∙ 繁體中文 ∙ +/−

Works copyrighted before 1964 had to have the copyright renewed sometime in the 28th year. If the copyright was not renewed, the work is in the public domain. No renewal notice was found for this periodical for issues published in this year. For instance, the first New York Times issue renewed was from April 1, 1928. Some publications may have renewed an individual article from an earlier time, for instance the New York Times renewed at least one article published on January 9, 1927. If you find any contrary evidence, or the renewal database has been updated, please notify me.