Friedrich Wilhelm "Fred" Zinn of Battle Creek, Michigan, was one of the volunteer American aviators who flew with the French Aéronautique Militaire in World War I. He is one of the early pioneers of using aerial photography for wartime reconnaissance. This article is about the city of Battle Creek, Michigan. ... Aviators are people who fly aircraft either for pleasure or for a job. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... Aerial photography is the taking of photographs from above with a camera mounted on an aircraft, balloon, rocket, kite or similar vehicle. ...

Zinn was visiting France in August 1914 and joined the French Foreign Legion shortly after the outbreak of World War I. He served on the Western Front from August 24, 1914, to February 1, 1916, when he was wounded for the second time. 1914 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... The French Foreign Legion (French: Légion Étrangère) has been the foreign legion of the French Army since 1831. ... See Western Front (disambiguation) for other meanings. ... 1916 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) Events January-February January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. ...

Zinn transferred to the French Aéronautique Militaire on February 14, 1916. He served as gunner and bombardier with Escadrille F-14 from December 12, 1916, until October 21, 1917. He was decorated by the French government after the war for bravery, for flying low over enemy lines to photograph troop concentrations.

Although he was not assigned to the American Lafayette Escadrille, he regularly made contact both with other American fliers and with his former Foreign Legion comrades. Lafayette Escadrille in July 1917 The Lafayette Escadrille was a squadron of the French Air Service during World War I composed largely of American fighter pilots. ...

After the United States entered the war in 1917, Zinn entered the U.S. Air Service as a captain and was attached to American GHQ at Chaumont until the Armistice in November 1918. He was one of a small number of Legionnaires who entered the war in August of 1914 to survive over four years of active service and over three full years in combat units. Some French Foreign Legion units had close to 100% casualties in the intense trench warfare. 1917 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... An armistice is the effective end of a war, when the warring parties agree to stop fighting. ... 1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... The French Foreign Legion (French: Légion Étrangère) has been the foreign legion of the French Army since 1831. ... Trench warfare is a form of war in which both opposing armies have static lines of fortifications dug into the ground, facing each other. ...

Zinn returned to the United States after the war and continued flying, including a trip to San Francisco where his biplane was required to fly only over the waters of San Francisco Bay due to a perceived danger to citizens if it traveled over land. This article is about the city in California. ... San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay, and the Golden Gate The San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary in which water draining approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean. ...

References

• Walt Brown, Jr., An American for Lafayette: The Diaries of E.C.C. Genet, Lafayette Escadrille. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1981)

• Edwin W. Morse, America in the War: The Vanguard of American Volunteers in the Fighting Lines and in Humanitarian Service, August, 1914 --April, 1917. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1919