Bert Hall

Weston Birch "Bert" Hall (November 7, 1885–1948) was a military aviator and writer. Hall was one of America's first combat aviators, flying with the famed Lafayette Escadrille in France before the U.S. entered World War I.

Hall was born near Higginsville, Missouri, the son of George Hall.

He was one of the seven original members of the Lafayette Escadrille. However, he was greatly disliked by his comrades. Besides having an abrasive personality, he was known to be a liar. Upon joining the French Air Service, he claimed to have flying experience, but when he was asked to prove it, he rolled a training aircraft down the runway and crashed into a barn, wrecking the airplane. He then confessed he had never flown before. Nonetheless, the French were greatly impressed by his audacity and kept him. He learned to fly, but after a while began making excuses to avoid flying. It finally reached the point where he was asked to resign.

Dennis Gordon wrote a book called Autobiographies of the Lafayette Escadrille published by the Doughboy Historical Society - POB 3912 Missoula, MT 59806. According to this book, Bert Hall was a four-flusher, a liar, and a deserter. He did get four confirmed kills in the LS and several medals and was the squadron adjutant. But he was a liar and a good poker player who could read his opponents. and usually cleaned the table.

Hall wrote two books about his exploits in the Lafayette Escadrille, En L'air (1918) and One Man's War: The Story of the Lafayette Escadrille (1929). The former was the basis of the 1918 film A Romance of the Air, in which he starred as himself.

In civilian life, he was a con man. He once obtained $20,000 or so from the Chinese government to buy surplus planes from the U.S. government and return to China to set up an air service for them. He spent the money on other things and was charged and sent to prison. Bert Hall was released from McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary in May 1936.

He lived in Seattle for a few months before heading to Hollywood to work for Twentieth Century Fox studios. Weary of Hollywood, in 1940 he moved to Dayton, Ohio and in 1944 settled in Castalia, Ohio, where he started the Sturdy Toy Factory.

On December 6, 1948, he died of a massive heart attack while driving down the highway near Fremont, Ohio. His ashes were scattered over his hometown of Higginsville, Missouri on January 20, 1950.

A character in the 2006 film Flyboys is supposedly a composite of Hall and another person.