Lt. Willy did not hesitate, but he triggered his machine gun with a short burst. With a much bigger blast than expected, the balloon immediately exploded! A blooming red expansion of gas and the deadly TNT went up and out, in all directions. Pieces of the burning balloon dropped down all over the spectators. Many of the Huns were killed instantly. The rest were injured. The force of the blast caught Lt. Willy's airplane and tossed it up, down and around. Many holes were torn in the fuselage and both wings. Finally, Lt. Willy, the Belgian balloon buster, flew away... unhurt! The "Hanriot HD 1" was the favorite fighter plane of Lt. Willy during most of his balloon busting career. It had a 100hp engine with a top speed of 113mph. A single-seat fighter with two wings, and one Vickers synchronized machine gun. (Which would shoot off the propeller, if it failed to work properly. The device was to keep the gun from firing, if the propeller was in the way. The Hanriot HD 1 was built in France, beginning in 1916. It was very popular with the pilots, because of it's strength and maneuverability. The plane was used by the Belgian Air Force and the Italian Air Force. Soon it became the standard Italian fighter airplane. (Remember that during World War One, Both Italy and Japan were our allies, not our enemies!)

Lt. Willy would become the leading Belgium ace with 37 victories. He is awarded the title of "chevalier" by the king of Belgium, chevalier means knight in English, and a knight is supposed to have a province. Therefore, he became the chevalier de Houthulst. the Houthulst forest area is where he shot down most of his Huns. Lt. Willy received the cross of the Legion of Honor medal, and the Croix de Guerre (cross of war) medal. So he became Lieutenant William "Willy" Coppens de Houthulst.

Lt. Willy certainly did not fit the role of a fighter ace. He was slightly built, very short, and not handsome at all. He was also pale, almost colorless, and not at all talkative. He would have passed in a crowd completely un-noticed. Actually, on the ground, Lt. Willy was almost a genuine misfit. But in the air, he became another person, part man and part machine. He would dive on his quarry like a peregrine falcon. Lt. Willy would attack a balloon at 3,000 feet or 250 feet. The cable handlers would try to reel in their Fat Hilda before he could shoot it down. But he would follow it down until it fell in flames. The two observers would bail out and parachute to safety, if they were lucky. One time Lt. Willy was chasing one and ran out of bullets. So he actually tried to set it on fire, by rolling the wheels of his plane across it's top.

He was born near Brussels, Belgium on July 6, 1892. He was 20 years old in 1912, when he was drafted into the Belgium Infantry, 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Grenadiers. But Lt. Willy wanted to fly, so he paid his own way to learn how. In July of 1916, he received his coveted pilot's wings. It was not until July 21, 1917 that Lt. Willy fought his first "dog fight" (combat) and even then the enemy pilot escaped unhurt. Finally on April 25, 1918, he shot down his first enemy fighter plane, over Ramscapelle, Belgium.

Now the Huns began to hang smaller balloons on steel cables, all around their Fat Hildas. This would entangle any flier trying to reach the central observation balloon. And they also surrounded the balloons with big kites, with wires stretched between. These small wires were almost invisible. With a pilot diving full speed, they would be almost impossible to detect or avoid. On October 14, 1918, Lt. Willy's luck finally ran out. At dawn, he left the Les Moeres Belgium airfield where he was stationed. This airfield was one of the movable bases located up and down the entire length of the Western front lines. Most of them were little more than collections of quickly constructed huts, tents, and hangers huddled near open fields. At some of them, herds of cattle grazed undisturbed among the airplanes. Few of them were permanent, or in constant use. On the other side of the front, the Huns had about the same number of airfields. Many times a Hun plane would fly over a particular allied airfield, to drop a note, challenging a selected pilot to a duel in the air, but this time Lt. Willy is answering a request from allied artillery. "Please destroy some Fat Hildas above the town of Thoorout, Belgium. There are several balloons swaying and hanging at about 1,000 feet."

"I shot down one balloon." he said, "and turned to attack a second one while heavy anti-aircraft fire was bursting all over. Suddenly I felt a terrible blow on my left leg. A tracer bullet came through the floor and struck my shinbone. It smashed everything in it's path, and inflicted a very painful wound. And the bullet was hollow, so it flattened out and became a "dumdum" bullet." (A dumdum bullet has a soft head, or is cut across the tip, which causes it to expand on impact and tear a gaping wound. These bullets were first made in the town of Dumdum, India, that is why the funny name.) "My leg muscles were torn apart, the bones shattered, and the artery cut in half." The pain was so great, his right leg stretched out and became rigid. This kicked the right rudder bar violently forward, and of course his left leg was completely useless. This caused Lt. Willy's fighter plane to swing around and go into a spin. But he still had the satisfaction of "Flaming" this second Fat Hilda. The rudder bar was fitted with straps at each end, and his feet passed under these straps. This kept his left leg from jamming the bar. And it allowed Lt. Willy to work the rudder with only his right foot. "Therefore, after three revolutions, I was able to bring my plane out of the spin," he said proudly.

Now he must return to his lines quickly before he passes out. (With his leg artery cut in two, he was losing too much blood.) A bullet also went through one inlet pipe on his  engine, so his speed was greatly reduced. And he still had to fly six more miles before he could reach his lines. He took off his goggles, fur-lined cap, and his silk muffler. He needed the ice cold air to blow in his face, to keep him from fainting. He could feel his strength forsaking him, so he fought desperately to stay awake. He wanted to keep from falling into the hands of the hated Huns. At last he was on his side of the battle front, so he began to land. He found a small field by the roadside near the little town of Essen, Belgium. The field was too small, and hemmed in with hedges, so he crash landed. His undercarriage was badly shot up by machine-gun fire and collapsed when it hit the ground. In fact, his Hanriot HD 1 was riddled with bullet holes from one end to the other. As soon as he stopped, he could see stretcher-bearers forcing their way through the hedges. They started ripping open the fuselage of his plane to extract his mangled body. They had trouble releasing his left foot from the rudder strap. There was a large pool of blood in the bottom of his cockpit. Then he passed out. When he woke up, he only had one leg.

The hated Huns had finally silenced the guns of their arch enemy, Lieutenant William "Willy" Coppens de Houthulst: Belgium's top ace, who just loved to chase Fat Hildas. And he had succeeded in flaming twenty eight.

Sources:
The Canvas Falcons by Stephen Longstreet
Aces and Aircraft of World War One by Christopher Campbell
Fighter by Bryan Cooper and John Batchelor
Knights of the Air by Ezra Bowen

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