Howard Clayton Knotts
American flying ace
Howard Clayton Knotts was a prominent American aviation lawyer who served in World War I as a flying ace credited with six aerial victories.
Early life
Howard Clayton Knotts (25 August 1895—23 November 1942) was the son of district attorney Edward Knotts, and was reared in Carlinville, Illinois. He graduated from college in 1915.
World War I
The younger Knotts joined the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps on 31 July 1917. Knotts was sent to Toronto for training. His first assignment was stateside, in the 182nd Aero Squadron; he joined them in Fort Worth on 5 November 1917. On 4 February 1918, he was commissioned a second lieutenant. On 14 August, he was forwarded to the 17th Aero Squadron in France. Once there, he used a Sopwith Camel to destroy six Fokker D.VIIs in the month from 25 August to 24 September 1918.
He was then shot down by ground fire on 14 October 1918, suffering a wound in his right foot in the process.
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This entry incorporates text from “Howard Clayton Knotts” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.