High Honor Won by French Airman.
Official announcement is made that Adolphe Pegoud, the famous French aviator, has received the military medal, the highest honor within the gift of the government.
The announcement says that Pegoud “on several occasions pursued enemy aëroplanes, and on February 2d attacked at a great height and caused the fall of a German machine. Soon afterward he attacked two other aircraft, causing the first to fall and the second to land.”
Pegoud first came into fame in 1913, while making experiments for obtaining safety in the air, as the originator of the feat of flying upside down in an aëroplane. A short time later he enhanced his reputation for daring by performing for the first time the feat of looping the loop. For his experiments Pegoud received the decoration of the legion of honor.
Several times since the outbreak of the war Pegoud has come into notice. On August 20th he returned to Paris from the front to get a new aëroplane, his old one having been riddled by bullets. He was mentioned in dispatches for valor in November, and later, in January, was reported to have destroyed a German explosive depot by dropping bombs on it.