Valor Friday

Airco DH.4

Ralph Talbot was born in 1897 in Massachusettes, and would use natural gifts for both academics and athletics to eventually attend Yale. There he received some basic military officer training as part of the school’s artillery corps. These programs to train Ivy League men in the ways of military officership were the immediate predecessor to the ROTC program we still have today. They were started as a response to the ongoing World War in Europe. Should America enter the war, these young men would already be trained and ready to put on uniforms and lead our boys into action. Robert Robinson was born in 1894 and hailed from Wayne, Michigan. Talbot and Robinson would both end up in the Marine Corps as officers, but both took unconventional approaches to get there.

Ralph Talbot

Talbot enlisted into the Navy in October 1917, just a few months after the US entered the war, as a seaman second class. Robinson enlisted into the Marine Corps as a private. From these humble beginnings, both men would earn the nation’s highest honor, becoming the first Marine flyers to do so.

Talbot had already started receiving flight instruction before he enlisted, so he was fast tracked for the Navy’s nascent air service. He went through training at NAS Pensacola (at the time the only naval air station) and become one of the service’s pioneers, receiving Naval Aviator number 456.

While US Navy aviation was still in its infancy, the Marine Corps had an even smaller presence in the air. With America’s entry to the war, the Marines were looking to fill their ranks with pilots and aircrew to fit out the 1st Marine Aviation Force, which was to include the Northern Bomb Group. The Northern Bomb Group was to include four squadrons of day and four squadrons of night bombers. These land-based Marines would attack German U-boat pens in Germany and Belgium.

The strategic bombing plan that the Northern Bomb Group undertook was hampered by chronic difficulties in procuring aircraft and keeping the ones they had flying. Entering combat in August 1918, by the end of the war in November, the group had only twelve DeHavilland DH.4s and nineteen DH.9s of a planned fleet of 108 bombers.

Military aviation being in its infancy, these dedicated bombers couldn’t carry a heavy bomb load. The first mission entirely undertaken by the group was on 14 October. The daylight raid by day wing squadron 9 dropped seventeen bombs with a total weight of 2,218 pounds onto the Tielt railway yard. By World War II, even single-engine aircraft like the P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bomber were routinely carrying 2,500 pounds of bombs (in addition to their guns).

With the Marine Corps hard up for pilots to fill out that bomb group, Talbot reasoned that he might see action sooner if he were a Marine. He resigned his commission in the Navy and the next day was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marines on 18 May 1918. Two months later, he was embarking New York with the other Marines as they headed for France. He was assigned to Squadron C of the 1st Marine Aviation Force.

Robert Robinson

Robinson meanwhile was trained as an aircraft observer, which was the title given to any flyer who wasn’t a pilot at the time. Observers did everything but fly the plane. They conducted reconnaissance, helped navigate, dropped the bombs, and were aerial gunners. He too deployed to France with Squadron C, and would end up flying with Talbot. Together the two would become some of the first legends of Marine Corps Aviation.

On 8 October 1918, Talbot and Robinson (who was by now a gunnery sergeant) were flying on one of their many missions. They were attacked over Belgium by a flight of nine enemy aircraft. In the ensuing melee they somehow not only survived, but the Americans managed to shoot down one of their attackers.

Just days later, on 14 October, Talbot and Robinson’s plane, along with one other, suffered engine troubles and became separated from the main force of the bomb group. As they lagged behind, they were attacked by twelve German aircraft over Pitthan, Belgium.

Beset by unsurvivable odds, the two valiant young Marines fought back hard. Robinson was shot several times, and despite suffering grievous wounds, was able to shoot down one of the enemy planes. He was ultimately shot 13 times in the abdomen, chest, legs, and arm. Immediately after downing the German aircraft, his gun jammed as he was simultaneously hit in the arm by a bullet that nearly severed his arm at the elbow.

While his arm hung useless, hanging on by just a single tendon, Robinson worked his gun with one hand to clear the jam. As he did so, Talbot jockeyed for position to drive down more of their foes. His jammed cleared, and now in position to shoot, Robinson downed one more enemy plane before he was struck by two more bullets and finally rendered unconscious.

Talbot, without the help of his gunner, continued the fight alone, shooting down another German before diving away to escape the remaining enemy planes. He dove so low that he crossed the German trenches at just fifty feet of altitude.

Despite his plane’s engine barely running, Talbot kept his aircraft flying until he spied a Belgian hospital. He landed there, getting Robinson to safety, and then returned to his aerodrome.

Robinson would have his arm sown back on by the surgeon-general of the Belgian Army. He’d survive the war, and receive the Medal of Honor for his actions on 8 and 14 October. He left the Marine Corps in 1919, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve. He would retire from the Marines in 1923, but receive a promotion on the retired list in 1936 to first lieutenant.

Eleven days after flying his comrade to safety against the odds, Talbot was a fatal victim in a plane crash. He was taking his DH.4 up to test fly the engine when he crashed on takeoff. He was just 21 years old.

The Navy’s short-lived “Tiffany Cross” version of the Medal of Honor

Both Talbot and Robinson would receive the Medal of Honor in 1920 for their wartime heroism. Talbot was the first Naval Aviator to get the medal. They received the short-lived “Tiffany Cross” version of the Navy MoH (pictured). The Navy at the time awarded the Medal of Honor for both exceptional combat valor and peacetime bravery. The Tiffany Cross was intended to be the combat-only variant of the award, but that rule was almost immediately violated. Of the 22 Tiffany Cross MoHs confirmed to have been awarded, 19 were for combat actions. To alleviate confusion, and because the Tiffany Cross wasn’t as well regarded as the traditional looking variant, it was discontinued after about a decade. Of all the various versions of the Medal of Honor awarded over the years, it remains the rarest.

USS Ralph Talbot (DD-390)

The destroyer USS Ralph Talbot (DD-390) was commissioned in his honor in 1937. Carrying on her namesake’s bravery, she saw extensive service in the Pacific Theater of WWII, earning 14 battle stars, and fought all the way from the Attack on Pearl Harbor to Okinawa. She even survived being hit with the atomic bomb at the Bikini Atoll nuke testing just after the war. Contaminated with fallout though, she was sunk in 1948 at Kwajalein.

Robinson made his home in St. Ignace, Michigan. He died there in 1974 at the age of 80. A New York Times obituary says he was found dead in the garden of his home. He apparently went out with his boots on, as the saying goes. That obituary erroneously lists his age as 78, but notes that he suffered 21 bullet wounds during the war. They also report he spent 11 years in and out of hospital recovering from his wartime injuries.

The US Marine Corps Aviation Association has for more than 50 years now awarded the Robert Guy Robinson Award to the service’s top Naval Flight Officer (the position that observers evolved into). The 2024 recipient was Capt William J. Bursaw of Marine Aircraft Group (MAG) 31. They currently fly both F/A-18s and F-35.

Category: Historical, Marines, Medal of Honor, Valor, We Remember, WWI