The dashing Guynemer, King of the Airmen, has made his last sensational
"down," a victim of a German plane. "Ace of the Aces" has been missing
since the latter part of September, 1917. When last observed he was
engaged, single-handed, with a squadron of enemy planes numbering
more than forty, and the last official communication in regard to him
read: "Although all means of investigation have been tried, we have
not obtained any further information." And so it is feared that Capt.
Georges Guynemer, the eagle of the birdmen, the Frenchman with the
face of a woman and heart of a lion, has fought his last battle in the
clouds.
Guynemer was one of the youngest men of his rank in the French Army,
having been appointed by President Poincaré in February at the age of
twenty-two. It was his custom to operate alone, handling the wheel of
his machine as well as his gun, and his wonderful aerial conquests made
him a hero throughout France. All his short life he had been an invalid
with a tendency to tuberculosis, and, believing that he would not live
long, he determined to give his life to his country in a manner that
would enable him to first accomplish the utmost to her advantage. A
comrade thus described his last flight....
"Guynemer sighted five machines of the Albatross type _D-3_. Without
hesitating, he bore down on them. At that moment enemy patrolling
machines, soaring at a great height, appeared suddenly and fell upon
Guynemer.
"There were forty enemy machines in the air at this time, including
Count von Richthofen and his circus division of machines, painted in
diagonal blue and white stripes. Toward Guynemer's right some Belgian
machines hove in sight, but it was too late.
"Guynemer must have been hit. His machine dropped gently toward the
earth, and I lost track of it. All that I can say is that the machine
was not on fire."
Guynemer was last cited in the French official announcement of
September 10, 1917, for having won his fiftieth aerial victory. In an
unofficial dispatch a few days before he was said to have accounted
for fifty-two enemy planes. His German rival for the war-honors of the
air, Baron von Richthofen, is credited with seventy "downs." But the
German method of scoring such engagements differs materially from that
of the French, inasmuch as a French aviator, in order to get credit for
a victory, must send his victim's plane to destruction in sight of
two official observers, while a German scores if he but send a bullet
through his adversary's motor, forcing him to glide to the earth.
Guynemer had a fine courage as well as bravery, and a determined spirit
that obtained for him entrance into the Army after he had been several
times rejected for lack of sufficient physique....
Captain Guynemer was only twenty-three years old. He was born on
Christmas day, 1893, the son of a prosperous manufacturer of Compiègne,
who had been a captain in the French Army. All his brief life he had
been an invalid, very tall and very slender, even showing a leaning
toward tuberculosis.
Under tutors Georges had studied to enter the Ecole Polytechnique of
Paris, but was rejected because of his frail health. The professors did
not believe he could live to finish the course, so why waste the time
with him? His parents had taken the youth to Biarritz for his health,
and they had been there a year when the Great War started. Five times
the young man tried to enlist as a private in the French Army and each
time he was rejected because of his health.
Certain there was something he could do for his country, young Guynemer
volunteered for work in the aeroplane factories. His natural bent was
mechanics and his progress was rapid. His superiors recognized the
thorough elementary education he had. He had studied in England for
two years and made a tour of the world in search of health, but always
studying. He remained for a time in the United States.
Soon Georges Guynemer became a mechanician at the military
aviation-fields, and there his work and his personal character so
impressed the officers that he was permitted to enlist as a student
aviator. That was his chance, and he made more of it than any other
aviator ever did. He obtained a pilot's license in January, 1916, and
as a sergeant made his first flight in an _avion de chasse_.
In less than three weeks he had brought down his fifth enemy aeroplane,
thus becoming an Ace and earning an official citation. From the first
his career was, perhaps, more active than that of any other aviator
along the battle-front. His most spectacular feat, for which he was
made a lieutenant and decorated with the Cross of War, was on September
29 last year, when he rose in the air to defend a comrade of his
_escadrille_ who had been attacked by five German _Fokkers_.
At a height of more than 10,000 feet Captain Guynemer shot and dropped
two of the Germans within thirty seconds of each other. He then pursued
the three others, and in two minutes had shot down his third enemy
machine. He was pursuing the remaining two _Fokkers_ when an enemy
shell exploded under his aeroplane and tore away one wing.
"I felt myself dropping," he said later. "It was 10,000 feet to the
earth. I pulled and pushed every lever I had, but nothing would check
my terrific descent. Five thousand feet from the earth the wrecked
machine began to turn somersaults, but I was strapped into the seat. I
do not know what it was, but something happened and I felt the speed
descent lessen. But suddenly there was a tremendous crash, and when
I recovered my senses I had been taken from the wreckage and was all
right."
Three times Captain Guynemer was wounded in battle, but each time
slightly.
Many stories are told which illustrate the importance which the Germans
attached to his flights and their efforts to "down" the fearless
aviator. H. Massac Buist tells this story:
"A distinct feature of the French aviation service in 1917 is its
treatment of 'star turns.' One of the most brilliant is a man who has
been shot several times, whose nerves are seemingly of steel, and whose
skill rather increases than diminishes with the number of occasions on
which he issues from hospital.
"He is attached to no particular squadron. Instead, he is free to go of
his own sweet will to any part of the front, from the Belgian coast to
the Swiss frontier. The Germans attach so much importance to him that
they follow his progress from point to point.
"One day the champion pilot elected to come where the British were.
Within twenty-four hours of his arrival the enemy were on the alert for
him. The Germans sent up ten machines to catch him. Single-handed he
set out for them, and promptly brought down three.
"He travels in his personal automobile with his _chef_. The aeroplane
he uses is always specially built to his own ideas. It is fitted with
all manner of peculiar contrivances. When not engaging the enemy, in
flying hours, it is his habit to take every opportunity to practise
behind the scenes."
The story of the young airman's persistent and finally successful
efforts to enter the aviation service is here told....
"One of the members of the _N-3_ spoke to me of the early days when
Guynemer was so nearly driven away from the gates of the aerodrome.
"You should have seen him, eh? A stripling of nineteen who knew how to
fly and insisted. He was just from the _lycée_; he had been rejected
four times, but he insisted and he came to Pau to the aerodrome. _Eh
bien_, they let him in at last, and I will tell you what he did. I went
up with him once, after we were both aces, to get some photographs,
because I understand photography. And the last thing he said to me was:
'Old fellow, I give you warning. To-day I dodge no shells. To-day is
my anniversary.'
"Well, we went up and they recognized him--they always do, because he
flies like no one else in the world. Never have I heard such a cracking
of shells. They started in a big circle all around us and came nearer
and nearer, but he did not move. On the course he kept, and I--took
photographs. At last I report that I have enough; but, no, he asks me
to take some photographs of the puffy clouds around our plane. And when
that is done he starts home again, but turns again and does a spiral, I
do not know how many times, right over one of the batteries which had
been looking for us. In the line they thought he was crazy. But I knew
well enough that Guynemer was paying us out for his early days when we
dared to patronize him!"
Guynemer's development was coincident with that of the light aircraft
of the _Nieuport_ type. In the little machine with the clipped wings
that must take the earth at sixty miles an hour because it has no
buoyancy at a lesser speed, Guynemer was at home. He won his "aceship"
in a slower type, but his developed tactics required a craft that could
make its 10,000 feet in ten minutes, and maintain a speed of 120 miles
an hour.
Estimates based on the carrying capacity of the machines that Guynemer
destroyed credit the captain with accounting for more than eighty
pilots, observers, and gunners, all told. It was Guynemer who shot down
Lieutenant Hohendorf, pilot for a French aeroplane factory before the
war, who had destroyed twelve French machines. It is not impossible
that Guynemer himself was an unfortunate victim added to the record of
Richthofen's squad.