Bert Hall

Hall was born near Higginsville, Missouri, the son of George Hall.^[2][3]

Bert Hall learned to fly in 1910 at Buc, France, using a "Maurice Farman Biplane Pusher, with a fog-cutter out in front and an air-cooled Renault motor behind." He subsequently acquired a "new 1913 Blériot, equipped with a 60 H.P. Gnome motor", and on February 16, 1913, he along with his French mechanic André Pierce became soldiers of fortune flying for the Sultan of Turkey, for 100 American Dollars a day, against the Bulgarians. On the first day he was paid in Turkish currency and refused to fly, but received "in gold money" from then on. After two months the Turkish Army payments became inconsistent "fifty dollars one day and sixty the next and forty-five the next", so Bert and André "packed up and flew into Romania (sic), stopping at Bucharest ... receiving the equivalent of one hundred dollars gold per day in advance.". After 30 days the Bulgarians welshed, but before Bert and his mechanic could depart with their gold, Bert was arrested, leaving André to bribe the jailers for Bert's release.

After a brief barnstorming tour through Ukraine, his Blériot motor quit over the Pyrenees Mountains outside of Tarbes and crashed. He salvaged the motor for 2,500 francs. In early August 1914, Bert met renowned big game hunter René Philezot and both enlisted as infantry in the French Foreign Legion Deuxiéme (Second) Regie_Desert" id="mwuw"/>