Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974), known as "Lucky Lindy" and "The Lone Eagle", was a pioneering United States aviator famous for piloting the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. Lindbergh is regarded as a controversial figure because of his sympathy with the Nazi German government, and his leadership in the isolationist movement to keep the US out of World War II.
Early life
Lindbergh was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Swedish immigrants. He grew up in Little Falls, Minnesota. His father, Charles August Lindbergh, was a lawyer and later a U.S. congressman who opposed the entry of the U.S. into World War I; his mother was a chemistry teacher. Early on he showed an interest in machines. In 1922 he quit a mechanical engineering program, joined a pilot and mechanics training program with Nebraska Aircraft, bought his own airplane, a WW1-surplus Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny", and became a stunt pilot. In 1924, he started training as a pilot with the United States Army Air Corps. During this time he also held a job as an airline mechanic in Billings, Montana working at the Logan International Airport.
After finishing first in his class, Lindbergh took his first job as lead pilot of an airmail route operated by Robertson Aircraft Co. of Lambert Field in St. Louis. He flew the mail in a DeHaviland biplane known as the Spirit of St. Louis to Springfield, Peoria, and Chicago, Illinois. During his tenure on the mail route, he was renowned for delivering the mail under any circumstances. He even salvaged stashes of mail from his burning airplane and immediately phoned Alexander Varney, Peoria's airport manager, to advise him to send a truck.
In April 1923, while visiting friends in Lake Village, Arkansas, Lindbergh made his first ever night-time flight over Lake Village and Lake Chicot.
First solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean
Lindbergh gained sudden great international fame as the first pilot to fly solo and non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean, flying from Roosevelt Airfield (Nassau County, Long Island), New York to Paris on May 20-May 21, 1927 in his single-engine airplane The Spirit of St. Louis which had been designed by Donald Hall and custom built by Ryan Airlines of San Diego, California. He needed 33.5 hours for the trip. (His grandson Erik Lindbergh repeated this trip 75 years later in 2002.) The President of France bestowed on him the French Legion of Honor and on his arrival back in the United States, a fleet of warships and aircraft escorted him to Washington, D.C. where President Calvin Coolidge awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Although Lindbergh was the first to fly from New York to Paris nonstop, he was not the first aviator on a Transatlantic heavier-than-air aircraft flight. That had been done first in stages by the crew of the NC-4 in May 1919 although their flying boat broke down and had to be repaired before continuing. The NC-4 flights took 19 days to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
The first truly non stop Transatlantic flight was achieved nearly seven years previously by two British fliers, John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown in their Vickers Vimy IV modified bomber on June 14/15th 1919. They flew from Lester's Field near St. Johns, Newfoundland to Clifden, Ireland and in doing so won the London Daily Mail prize of 10,000 pounds sterling which was presented to them by Winston Churchill. A statue celebrating this first non stop Transatlantic flight is to be seen at London's Heathrow airport.
Lindbergh's accomplishment won him the Orteig Prize of $25,000 on offer since 1919. A ticker-tape parade was held for him down 5th Avenue in New York City on June 13, 1927.[1] His public stature following this flight was such that he became an important voice on behalf of aviation activities until his death. He served on a variety of national and international boards and committees, including the central committee of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in the United States. On March 21, 1929 he was presented the Medal of Honor for his historic trans-Atlantic flight.
Lindbergh is recognized in aviation for demonstrating and charting polar air-routes, high altitude flying techniques, and increasing aircraft flying range by decreasing fuel consumption. These innovations are the basis of modern intercontinental air travel.
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Marriage, children, kidnapping
- Main article: Lindbergh kidnapping
He married Anne Morrow Lindbergh, an author and daughter of diplomat Dwight Morrow, in 1929. He taught her how to fly and did much of his exploring and charting of air-routes with her. The two had six children: Charles Augustus, Jr.(1930-1932), Jon (1932), Land (1937), Anne (1940), Scott (1942) and Reeve (1945).
Their son Charles Augustus, 20 months old, was abducted on March 1, 1932, from their home. The boy was found dead on May 12 in Hopewell, New Jersey, just a few miles from the Lindbergh's home, after a nation-wide ten week search and ransom negotiations with the kidnappers. More than three years later, a media circus ensued when the man accused of the murder, Bruno Hauptmann, went on trial. Tired of being in the spotlight and still mourning the loss of their son, the Lindberghs moved to Europe in December 1935. Hauptmann, who maintained his innocence until the end, was found guilty and was executed on April 3, 1936.
Did Lindbergh Sympathize with Nazis?
One book examining Lindbergh's Nazi sympathies and pre-war isolationism is The American Axis, written by Holocaust researcher and investigative journalist Max Wallace. Wallace argues that, while Lindbergh was troubled by some of the excesses of the Nazi regime, he ultimately saw Hitler as a necessary defense against the greater evil, Communism, and saw the Nazis as the ultimate defenders of the White race. This fit into Lindbergh's eugenic beliefs which saw him write an article for Reader's Digest, called "Aviation, Race & Geography," in which he described aviation as a priceless possession to be shared exclusively by the Western nations, permitting "the White race to live at all in a pressing sea of Yellow, Black and Brown." Wallace finally concludes that he "discovered no smoking gun proving that Lindbergh was motivated by anything but sincere--albeit misguided--motives for this prewar isolationist activities or that he was disloyal to America" (p. 378).
Pre-war activities
In Europe during the pre-war period, Lindbergh traveled to Nazi Germany several times at the behest of the U.S. military, where he reported on German aviation and the Luftwaffe (air force). Lindbergh was intrigued, and stated that Germany had taken a leading role in a number of aviation developments, including metal construction, low-wing designs, dirigibles, and Diesel engines. Lindbergh also undertook a survey of aviation in the Soviet Union in 1938. Full reports were made to the United States military upon his return from each of these trips.
The Lindberghs lived in England and Brittany, France during the late 1930s in order to find tranquility and avoid the celebrity that followed them everywhere in the United States after the kidnapping trial. In 1938 the American ambassador to Germany, Hugh Wilson invited Lindbergh to a dinner with Hermann Göring at the American embassy in Berlin. The dinner included diplomats and three of the greatest minds of German aviation, Ernst Heinkel, Adolf Baeumaker, and Dr. Willy Messerschmitt. Göring decorated Lindbergh with German medal of honor (the Verdienstkreuz Deutscher Adler) for his services to aviation and particularly for his 1927 flight. Lindbergh's decoration later caused an outcry in the United States, when Lindbergh's closeness to the Nazis was criticized. Lindbergh's letters and diaries of the time indicate that he approved of Nazi policies and of Hitler's leadership.
Lindbergh declined to return the medal to the Germans because he claimed that to do so would be "an unnecessary insult" to the German Nazi government. He would return to the United States as war broke out in Europe.
Lindbergh and the Munich Crisis
Lindbergh went to Germany at the urgent request of the US Military Attaché in Berlin, who was charged with learning everything possible about Germany's new warplanes. Thus Lindbergh travelled repeatedly to Germany, touring German aviation facilities, where the Luftwaffe Chief tried to convince Lindbergh that the Luftwaffe was far more powerful than it actually was. Lindbergh used his prestige to gain far more knowledge of German warplanes than any American. As historian Wayne Cole explains:
"Of particular importance were the Junkers 88 and, again, the Messerschmitt 109. With the approval of Goering and Udet, Lindbergh was the first American permitted to examine the Luftwaffe's newest and best bomber, the JU-88. And he got the unprecedented opportunity to pilot its finest fighter, the ME-109. He was highly impressed by both airplanes and knew "of no other pursuit plane which combines simplicity of construction with such excellent performance characteristics" as the ME‐ 109. In his visits to Germany from 1936 through 1938, Colonel Lindbergh closely inspected all the types of military aircraft that Germany was to use against Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and England in 1939 and 1940. The ME-109 and JU-88 were first-line German combat planes throughout World War II. And Lindbergh's findings about those various planes found their way into American air intelligence reports to Washington long before the European war began." [Cole p 39-40]
At the urging of US Ambassador Joseph Kennedy, Lindbergh wrote a secret memo for the British arguing that if England and France attempted to stop Hitler's aggression, it would be military suicide. Most military historians argue that Lindbergh was basically accurate and that his warnings helped save Britain from likely defeat in 1938. Britain barely survived the German air attack in 1940, and then only because it got its radar defenses in operation at the last minute. Without radar in 1938 it might not have survived. Other historians suggest that Lindbergh's estimates gave Chamberlain the excuse he was looking for to seek what he called "peace in our time." In any case, Chamberlain's policy at Munich was endorsed by Roosevelt, who himself at the time pledged to stay out of any European war. Wallace argues that Lindbergh's complicity was more naive than sinister and that he was never actually a Nazi spy, as was alleged by many of his enemies in the USA. Rather, he believed that a Nazi-dominated Europe could live in peace with the United States and that there was no reason for America to get involved in Europe's quarrel.
Outbreak of war
As Nazi Germany began World War II, the Republican Lindbergh became a prominent speaker in favor of isolationism and pro-German policies, going so far as to recommend that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Germany during his January 23, 1941 testimony before Congress. Lindbergh was also the major spokesman for America First providing many speeches during 1940-1941. Lindbergh stated he would publicly name "the groups that were most powerful and effective in pushing the United States towards involvement in the war". At an America First rally in Des Moines, Iowa, on September 11, 1941, he made an infamous speech titled: "Who Are the War Agitators?". In it, he claimed that Americans had solidly opposed entering the war when it began, and that three groups had been "pressing this country toward war" -- the Roosevelt Administration, the British, and the Jews, and complained about what he insisted was the Jews' "large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government." In the same speech, Lindbergh clearly communicated that he considered British and Jewish-Americans to not be patriotic when he said; "But I am saying that the leaders of both the British and Jewish races, for reasons which are understandable from their viewpoint as they are inadvisable from ours, for reasons which are not American, wish to involve us in the war. We cannot blame them for looking out for what they believe to be their own interests, but we also must look out for ours. We cannot allow the natural passions and prejudices of other people to lead our country to destruction." He also made an implicit threat against them, stating: "Instead of agitating for war, the Jewish groups in this country should be opposing it in every possible way for they will be among the first to feel its consequences. Tolerance is a virtue that depends upon peace and strength. History shows that it cannot survive war and devastation."
Lindbergh resigned his commission in the U.S. Army Air Corps when President Franklin D. Roosevelt openly questioned his loyalty.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Lindbergh attempted to return to the Army Air Corps, but was denied when several of Roosevelt's cabinet secretaries registered objections. He went on to assist with the war effort by serving as a civilian consultant to aviation companies and the government, as well as flying about 50 combat missions (again as a civilian) in 1944 in the Pacific War. His contributions include engine-leaning techniques that Lindbergh showed P-38 Lightning pilots. This improved fuel usage in cruise, and enabled aircraft to fly longer range missions such as the one that killed Admiral Yamamoto. He also showed Marine F4U pilots how to take off with twice the bomb load that the aircraft was rated for. He shot down one enemy aircraft [2].
Later life
After World War II he lived quietly in Connecticut as a consultant both to the chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force and to Pan American World Airways. His 1953 book The Spirit of St. Louis, recounting his non-stop transatlantic flight, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1954. Dwight D. Eisenhower restored his assignment with the Army Air Corps and made him a Brigadier General in 1954. In that year, he served on the congressional advisory panel set up to establish the site of the United States Air Force Academy. In the 1960s, he became a spokesman for the conservation of the natural world, speaking in favor of the protection of whales, against super-sonic transport planes and was instrumental in establishing protections for the primitive Filipino group the Tasaday.
From 1957 until his death in 1974, Lindbergh had an affair with a woman 24 years his junior, German hat maker Brigitte Hesshaimer. On November 23, 2003, DNA tests proved that he fathered her three children: Dyrk (born 1958), Astrid (born 1960), and David (born 1967). The two managed to keep the affair completely secret; even the children did not know the true identity of their father, whom they saw when he came to visit one or twice per year. Astrid later read a magazine article about Lindbergh and found snapshots and more than a hundred letters written from him to her mother. She disclosed the affair after both Brigitte and Anne Morrow Lindbergh had died.
It is speculated that Lindbergh had may have also fathered two children by Brigitte’s sister Marietta (Vago, born 1962; and Christoph, born 1966), and two more children with his private secretary Valeska (a son, born 1959, and a daughter, born 1961). This has been connected with his statement after the murder of his son, "that there will still be many Lindberghs".
Lindbergh spent his final years on the Hawaiian island of Maui, where he died of cancer on August 26, 1974. He was buried on the grounds of the Palapala Ho'omau Church in Hana Maui. His epitaph, which quotes Psalms 139:9, reads: Charles A. Lindbergh Born: Michigan, 1902. Died: Maui, 1974. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea. — CAL
The Lindbergh Terminal at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport was named after him and a replica of The Spirit of St. Louis hangs there. He also lent his name to San Diego's Lindbergh Field, which is also known now as San Diego International Airport. The airport in Winslow Arizona has been renamed Winslow-Lindbergh Regional. Lindbergh himself had designed the airport in 1929 when it was built as a refueling point for the first coast to coast air service. The airport in Little Falls Minnesota where he grew up has been named Little Falls/Morrison County-Lindbergh Field.
In 1952, Grandview High School in St. Louis County was renamed Lindbergh High School. The school newspaper is the Pilot, the yearbook is the Spirit, and the students are known as the Flyers. The school district was also later named after Lindbergh.
Lindbergh is a recipient of the Silver Buffalo Award, the highest adult award given by the Boy Scouts of America.
References
- Berg, A. Scott. Lindbergh (1999), the best biography.
- Cole, Wayne S. Charles A. Lindbergh and the Battle against American Intervention in World War II (1974)
Lindbergh in fiction
A fictional version of Lindbergh is a major character in Philip Roth's 2004 counterfactual alternative history novel, The Plot Against America. In Roth's narrative, Lindbergh successfully runs against Roosevelt in the 1940 US presidential election, and aligns his country with the Nazis. This portrayal engendered considerable controversy.
Another alternative history novel, Robert Harris' Fatherland, published in 1992, has Lindbergh as the American Ambassador in 1964 Nazi Germany.
The Agatha Christie book and movie Murder on the Orient Express begin with a fictionalized depiction of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping.
James Stewart played Lindbergh in the biographical The Spirit of St. Louis, directed by Billy Wilder. The film begins with events leading up to the flight before giving a gripping and intense view of the flight itself.
Shortly after Lindbergh made his famous flight, the Stratemeyer Syndicate began publishing the Ted Scott Flying Stories by Franklin W. Dixon wherein the hero was closely modeled after Lindbergh.
See Also
- Alcock and Brown (the very first non-stop flight across the Atlantic in a heavier-than-air aircraft)
- List of famous Minnesotans (Hidden Hometown Heroes)
- List of people on stamps of Ireland
External links
- Lindbergh foundation
- Pat Ranfranz: CharlesLindbergh.com
- Woody Guthrie on Lindbergh
- FBI History - Famous cases: The Lindbergh kidnapping
- PBS companion site to The American Experience program on Charles Lindbergh
- The Lone Eagle: 75 Years Later
- Lindbergh's Public Statements Were More Troubling Than His Private Affairs
- Charles A. Lindbergh at IMDb
Sources
- Gerd Kröncke: "Der Amerikaner und die Hutmacherin", Süddeutsche Zeitung, August 2, 2003 (German).