“Conqueror in fifty-three aerial combats wherein the result was
officially established by the verification of three or more
eye-witnesses, Guynemer brought down as many more German aeroplanes
quite as effectively if less officially. His comrades in the escadrille
knew this and respected their chief accordingly.
“Possessed of every decoration that a grateful nation could officially
bestow upon him, conscious of a position in the public esteem that,
tinctured as it was with the legendary, illumined him with more glory
and worship than was accorded even to a Joffre or a Foch, Georges
Guynemer fulfilled the expectations of his fellow-countrymen, when on
September 11, 1917, he disappeared from the eyes of the world while in
the full exercise of his duty. The heavens swallowed him up, and to
this day no reliable clue to his disappearance has been discovered.
Small wonder then that the people of France in contemplation of this
last exploit of their adored hero place his memory with one acclaim
alongside the niche so long occupied by the heroic Jeanne d’Arc!”