Full medal write up
THE GREAT WAR PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM BELONGING TO LIEUTENANT RALPH A. O'NEILL, AMERICAN FIGHTER ACE OF 147TH AERO ‘WHO SAID RATS’ SQUADRON.
This photo album, measuring 29 x 18.5cm, contains 247 photographs related to 147th Aero Squadron during the Great War. Photos ranging in size from 16.5 x 12cm to 6.5 x 4.2cm.
https://gsr.park.edu/service_members/ralph-ambrose-oneill/
As noted, there are a large number of images of pilots in this album, the vast majority being of 147th Aero Squadron including all of 147th Aero’s aces, many multiple times; Lt W W White - 8 Victories, Lt R O’Neill - 6 Victories, Lt K L Porter - 6 Victories, Lt F M Simonds -5 Victories, Lt J A Healy -5 Victories and Capt J A Meissener 4 (8) Victories.
Other 147th Aero pilots who’s images appear, again many multiple times, include; Lt A H Jones – 4 Victories , Lt G A S Robertson – 1 Victory, Lt L C Simon – 2 Victories, Lt W P Muther, Lt J H Stevens – 1 Victory – KIA, Lt G J Brew, Lt G G Willard, Lt Lawrence – KIA, Major G H Bonnell – original squadron commander, Lt J F Ashenden – Interned Switzerland, Lt C E Cox, Lt E E Peake, Lt J C Raible – 2 Victories, Lt E T Harman, Lt T C Bronson– 1 Victory, Lt M O Parry – 1 Victory, Lt T J Abernathy – 3 Victories, Lt Andrews, Lt C W McDermott– 3 Victories, Lt O B Myers– 2 Victories, Lt W E Brotherton – 3 Victories – KIA, Lt C P Porter – 4 Victories, Lt J P Rowe, Lt C C Olive and Lt E Vadnais.
There are also several photos of US fighter pilots from other squadrons, especially from 94th Aero (Hat in Ring) Squadron which along with 147, 27 and 95th Aero Squadron’s, formed 1st Pursuit Group; These include several of America’s greatest ace; Lt Eddie Rickenbacker – 26 Victories, who is shown in four photos, two of which are larger sized. Also Lt R Chambers – 7 Victories, Lt D Campbell - 6 Victories. Also Major H Hartney – 7 Victories, 27th Aero and 1st Pursuit Group commander.
Condition: the album itself is a little delicate, the album pages being made of black card paper, which was extremely commonly used in US albums of the time but with age becomes brittle to some degree. All pages are complete and present but are detached from the binding as is the front cover. However, the condition of the photos is very good as can be seen from the pictures in the listing. Please note though, these photos have been taken with a digital camera, not scanned so they are not quite as sharp as in reality – to show the difference, several single photos have been scanned and are sharper; these images have no black background.
Note: the listing PDF shows mostly the directly aviation pages in the album but as noted there are other pages with battlefield shots etc but as can be seen, the vast majority of the 247 are of US fighter pilots and aircraft. On the PDF, each shot is of an entire page, so if it’s a large photo, there is one large photo on that page, these measuring 16.5 x 12cm on average; these mainly of pilots in cockpits etc. If the shot shows 4-6 photos, these photos average 6.5 x 4.2cm. Lieutenant O’Neill is of course featured in many photos.
Content wise, this is a superb and rare US fighter aces album, comprehensively depicting service in one of America’s finest fighter squadron’s of the great war. It is certainly the best of the many WW1 US aviation albums to so far come through my hands.
The album itself was originally part of a group of items of O’Neill’s, including his Spad’s propellor/clock display (also listed by Jager Medals), a uniform, miniature awards and documents, sold as part of the Carisella collection in 2005, which included numerous high profile WW1 aviation items.