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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0801.PDF
JULY I8, 1918. A MODERN BAYARD.1 OUR distinguished Und vivacious colleague, M. JacquesMortane, is publishing an interesting series of articles on the great French " ace," Guynemer, in his paper, La Guerre. Aerienne. M. Mortane is always interesting when he writes of those whom he terms " the winged workmen of victory,"as he combines a truly Gallic verve with an ant-like industry in the pursuit of fact. We know of no aeronautical writerwho can be informative so gracefully, and so entertainingly. In the career of the famous fighting pilot, who died—ashe had lived—a modern Bayard " sans peur et sans reproche,' he has full opportunity for the lambent wk that makes himso eminently readable. Subordinating his own vivid per- sonality, he speaks through his hero, but we know to whomwe are indebted for many a felicitous word and phrase in these descriptions of "this work of aerial salubrity" (aphrase reminiscent of Well's description of the war—" a filthy piece of sanitation, that we have got to do "). The Ancient Mariner, with his glittering eye, could not dobetter. Listen : " The day before, in a few minutes only I had had the luckto send elegantly to the ground a Fokker that I will not count, because it was so far away in the enemy lines. Next day,the 23rd September, I lit out about dinner time. I have a particularly affectionate regard for this hour, for the Bochecherishes a delusion that at this time we eat, and sip our coffee, profiting by this opportunity to inflict his odious selfupon us. " I was not long in seeking fortune. A Boche appearsbafore me, and hardily accepts the combat. Poor type ! At 11.23, after two cartridges only, he descended, exploded,pulverised, burnt, inside our lines, 300 metres from Rove. ' Oeuf a la coque Guynemer: Put an egg in boilingwater when your ace accepts combat, wait till he has killed his Boche, withdraw your egg, it will be done to a turn !What a triumph for the restaurant menus ! ' " If you wish, I will guarantee you that the three minutesare absolutely chronometric ! But list, and I will telljVOU how I was nearly dished myself. Looking out over the immen-sity of the azure that I had just cleansed, in the hope that other amateurs might present themselves (before Heaven 1we do not exaggerate, our poor prose is hobbling after M. Mor- tana's elegant and varied French, to his great loss—the poly-chromatic colours that his gay Gascon uses are not to be found on our sober palette 1)—' of other amateurs ' then—' when suddenly, thirty seconds after, a shell from a French 75 lashes through one of my wings. My avion seems woundedas to death, the left wing utterly ripped. The linen snaps in the wind, tearing more as the fall prolongs. My machine falls,founders, rolls in the abyss, incapable of supporting me 1 Truly I hear the call of Death, toward whom I seem to hastenvertiginously. Nothing, it seems, can hinder my being crushed on the earth. A frightful vrille commences at3,000 metres, and continues until 1,600, and I feel lost, I demand only of Providence not to let me fall in enemyterritory. Ca, jamais ; They would have been too pleased. Do you see me, interred with my victim. But I could notassert my will, the machine obeyed not. At 1,600 still I struggle, the wind having thrust me as far as our lines. I •A am already half happy. I think now of an interment withthe sympathetic comrades following my remnants ! " At least no pointed helmets shall defile m v! (I feel nonethe less that it is death, and not agreeable.) The fall con- tinues. The controls do not answer.- Twist to right, toleft, push, pull, no result, the meteorite will not arrest itself. Invincibly I am drawn to the soil where I shall liecrushed ! " Here it is ! A last gesture, brutal, but in vain. I shutmy eyes, I see the earth—which, at 180 kilometres an hour, rushes to annihilatcme ! A rending crash, a strong commotion,of my Spad there remains nothing. How am I still living ? It is my safety belt that has saved me, incrusted in my shoul-ders, without it I should be dead at this hour, moi qui flows parle ! " Not the least vivid of this series is the one entitled " TheAvenging Storks.'' The description of the little town awaiting the advent of the signalled German raiders is really quitefine :— " The light of the sun seemed less bright to us, and its raysgrown cold. An inexplicable malaise weighed on man and beast alike. The leaves of the trees ceased rustling. All wasstill, deeper and ever deeper grew the depression. In the great parks, the red and white cattle look uneasily at thehorizon ! " The town is submerged in sadness, and from the delicatebelfries, like lace-work in stone, yet standing upright in supreme defiance, comes a monotonous peal, sinister, sayingharshly, ' Good folk, look to yourselves, danger is toward ! ' " Soon, in effect, on the far-away horizon, on the level ofthe darkening clouds, appear little black points, swimming into sight with a menacing rapidity. As they come the eardetects a sullen drumming, full of hate. A lugubrious cry passes over the town—' It is they, the birds of prey ! ' Likeleisurely vultures, they bring death, and around them swing the rapid hawks with pointed wings, their steely beaks baredfor the fight. But suddenly one cries— •'Les Cigognes— les Cigognes ! ' " Behold them, then,ewho advance rapidly from the west IThe nightmare is finished. 'These glorious birds will triumph over the rapacious ones. They pounce on the shiveringcavaliers of the Apocalypse hardily, and scatter them abroad as broken things. The evil dream is ended ! " As we know, Guynemer was one of the most famous fightersof this redoubtable force. After a career of amazing brilliance he was at length brought down. It is some consolation tohear that " Lieutenant Wisseman, who had committed tbe sacrilege of bringing down this divinity of space, onlysurvived his success for a few days." He wa& in turn shot by the redovbtable sous-lieutenant Fonck, now the leadingFrench ace. Th» end of this plucky lad is a little plaque in the Pantheonat Paris,.in company with many another noble name : " This inscription is destined to perpetuate the memory of theCaptain Guynemer, a symbol of the aspirations and enthusi- asms of the Nation." But if the body lies still, with thealert mind that informed it, the heritage lives indeed. R.H.B. "Telegraphy, Aeronautics, and War." AMONG those experts who have without fee or reward,given freely of their time and experience with the object of assisting towards the winning of the war must be includedMr. Charles Bright, F.R.S.E. As far as aeronautics is con- cerned, he is best known for his conscientious work as amember of the R.F.C. enquiry committee, and in his latest book, which has the above title, he has reprinted the re-commendations he made in connection with that enquiry, many of which have been since carried out. In a way itis a pity that Mr. Bright has put all his eggs in one basket, for the greater part of the book is taken up with papersand memoranda on various questions relating to telegraphy— a subject which he has made his own. The result is that hiswork in connection with aeronautics is overshadowed. In the somewhat lengthy introduction, however, Mr. Brightmakes many trenchant and pertinent criticisms of the professional politician and his ways as revealed by the war,and he also pleads for a wider conception on the part of the professional war makers with regard to the use of aircraft.Distinguished generals," he says, " who have been brought up in land warfare naturally tend to stick to it ; but if thosein supreme command had from the first more clearly realised the full potentialities of air warfare">the contest would pro- bably have advanced in our favour far more rapidly than it has. War in the air is not only much quicker than over land, but far cheaper." The book is published by Messrs. Constable and Co. at 16s. net. A Norwegian Air Route Company. "THE Norwegian Air Route-Company was constitutedofficially on July nth at a meeting with M. Mowinckel, President of the Storting, in the chair," says the Timescorrespondent at Christiania. " The share capital was fixed roughly at £183,000 (at pre-war rates), and the objects weredefined as follows :—' To carry on regular routes by means of airships, mails, goods and passengers.' Other air trafficwill be considered. The powers of the company are vested in a corporation consisting of men representative of the wholecountry, of the business\ community, 'of politics, and of science. Dr. Nansen was elected president. The board ofmanagement will consist of five members, including the managing director, and the technical director, M. W. Keilhau,to whose initiative the company owes its foundation, was appointed managing director, and Captain Gyth Dehlitechnical director. 799
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