NEW BEDFORD - Frank Baylies was a product of this fishing city, but as a young adult he fought for the French, winning their adoration for his deft piloting skills in the earliest of aerial dogfights during World War I. He shot down 12 German fighter planes and earned numerous French medals, including the "Legion of Honor," the "Croix de Guerre," and the "Médaille Militaire."
Yesterday, nine decades after the 22-year-old decorated ace was killed in aerial combat while fighting for the foreign power, the consul general of the French Embassy in Boston gave those medals to the pilot's descendants during an hourlong ceremony at Fort Tabor Park.
"France will never forget the sacrifices of Frank Baylies," said François Gauthier, as he handed the medals to Frank Baylies, 74, whose father was the fighter pilot's cousin.
Gauthier added, "He was a wonderful soldier, a hero, whose remembrance will be kept forever, a true friend of France."
The event was held on the 91st anniversary of the US entry into the war and the 90th anniversary of the end of the war.
Baylies stepped off the podium moments after receiving the medals, pinned inside three small red boxes. He showed them to relatives and many of the 60 people who had turned out for the afternoon event. Several elderly veterans remarked on the craftsmanship of the medals, and a relative of the fighter pilot pointed out that the Croix de Guerre had 12 palms affixed to the ribbon, for the total number of kills Baylies recorded. The awards, the highest attainable in France, were for bravery and heroism in war, Gauthier said.
Mayor Scott Lang of New Bedford spoke during the event, noting the loss to the Baylies family, the city of New Bedford, and the United States. Later, as six relatives of the Baylies family sat at a banquet table covered with blue paper and ate small sandwiches stuffed with tuna or chicken salad, Lang congratulated the family.
Baylies joined the American Field Service in 1916, driving an ambulance during the war, and serving in France and Serbia. A year later, he signed up for France's Service Aéronautique, and after only a year out of flight school he was flying with France's Escadrille SPA 73 squadron into combat. Baylies was commissioned a second lieutenant in the US Army Air Service, but he remained on detached service with the SPA 73.
On June 17, 1918, he was killed during a dogfight with two (four) German Triplanes (from Jasta 19). He is buried in the Mémorial de l'Escadrille Lafayette in Paris.
Last year, Joseph Langlois, president of the Fort Taber Historical Association, contacted Gauthier and told him that the Baylies family had never received the awards. Gauthier immediately started the process that would put the medals in the family's hands.
The ceremony had an international touch, as the French flag was hoisted along with Old Glory, and the French national anthem was sung after the "Star Spangled Banner." France is holding events throughout the year to celebrate the end of World War I. The nation's longest living veteran of the war, Lazare Ponticelli, died last month.
Lang told the audience, "The French government was our first ally. There is a debt on both sides of the Atlantic that will always be honored."
Of special note. Baylies refused a captaincy in the USAS to remain with the Storks and Spa 3. Quite a pilot and a real man.
