Howard W. Cook

“ Guynemer was a powerful idea in a frail body, and I lived near him with the secret sorrow of knowing that some day the idea would slay the container.
“Poor boy! All the children of France, who wrote to him daily, to whom he was the marvelous ideal, vibrated with all his emotions, lived through his joys and suffered his dangers. He will remain to them the living model hero, greatest in all history. They love him as they have learned to love the purest glories of our country. ”

“ It was the quadruple that brought Captain Guynemer the Rosette of the Legion of Honor with this commendation:
“An élite officer, a fighting pilot as skillful as audacious. He has rendered glowing service to the country, both by the number of his victories and the daily example he has set of burning ardor and even greater mastery increasing from day to day. Unconscious of danger, on account of his sureness of method and precision of maneuvers, he has become the most redoubtable of all to the enemy. ”

“ If a popular aviator flew a winning race, crowds attended his steps and surrounded his hotel. If one was injured, a sympathetic assembly gathered outside the hospital where he lay, and extras were issued by the daily journals as to his condition. Annual airplane meets and exhibitions had the patronage of the French Government. Experts were constantly occupied in making mechanical improvements in the motor, steering gear and wings of the wondrous new machines that had intrigued the imagination, the very soul of awakened France. ”

“ There, all alone, in the very highest, in the imperturbable calm of absolute self-possession, waiting for nothing but a succession of unerring motions gauged by correctness of eyesight and promptness of bold decisions, on the edge of a bottomless abyss ready to swallow everything, without the supreme aid of a look or the hand of a friend—is that not something far above all the historic beauty of the greatest sacrifices for the noblest causes—something as it were of a miraculous concentration of superhumanity? ”

“ I can draw but one conclusion from these two methods of fighting, and it is of capital importance.
It is that hunting in the air must be done according to the temperament and character of each individual hunter. If it show itself as individual prowess, all the better. This must be cried out aloud, for many young men come to the squadron with false ideas and arrested wills, planning to bring down Boches in the style of Dormé or Heurteaux. It is deplorable. Nothing is to be expected of the man who relies upon his memory in attacking an airplane. ”

“ GUYNEMER AFTER A BOCHE VICTORY
GUYNEMER, THE WINGÈD SWORD OF FRANCE
Hunting in the Air, by Captain Georges Guynemer Translated from the French
FIVE
The public as a rule has a false idea of hunting and the hunters. They very easily imagine that we are ’way up there at our ease, directing events, and that the nearer we are to heaven the more we are invested with Divine Power. I cannot express in words the enervation that I feel sometimes while listening to the inept remarks addressed to me in the form of compliments, and which I am compelled to accept with a smile, which is almost a bite. ”

“ In the Pantheon That classic mausoleum for famous Frenchmen in Paris, the following inscription has been set up to perpetuate the memory of Guynemer:
“Captain Guynemer, commander of Squadron No. 3, died on the field of honor September 11, 1917. A hero of legendary power, he fell in the wide heaven of glory, after three years of hard fighting. He will long remain the purest symbol of the qualities of the race: indomitable in tenacity, enthusiastic in energy, sublime in courage. ”

“ A group photograph of the students represents Georges as a boy of twelve, pale, thin, with dark, wilful eyes lighted by smouldering fires of dream and ambition. As a student he was quick and intelligent, but he was mischievous and headstrong under discipline. In play he preferred warlike games, and invariably chose parts that gave him opportunities to attack, which he did with agility and vigor, often to the discomfiture of older opponents. One of his teachers wrote a sketch of his school-boyhood that betrays many outstanding traits of the Guynemer of the future. ”

“ He would fly regardless of climatic conditions or his own health, going up even when convalescing from injuries. And it was this will which doubtless made him the terror of his enemies and the glory of France.
Among the first duties assumed by an airman when he is learning the mastery of his machine is that of reconnoitering. But Guynemer, fast becoming specialized in pursuit, soon stopped all reconnoitering and found himself assigned to a single-seated airplane. It was on February 3, 1916, that in the course of a single flight he succeeded in getting his first official “double.” ”

“ Between the years 1907 and 1910 many unknown inventors and mechanics won renown through their aerial accomplishments. Outbursts of fervor greeted every fresh success in air endeavor. On wings the patriotism of France soared to heights of exaltation. ”

“ Guynemer’s part in the World War is over. His own active chapter is done, but his spirit lives on in the hearts of every allied airman.
Guynemer, born in December, 1894, was the son of a retired officer. As a boy he was agile and ambitious in sports, though of slender build and somewhat delicate. He was especially fond of mechanical toys and miniature airplanes, and even in the early school days, when flying was looked upon more as a sport than an actual military factor, Georges declared to his father his ambition to become an aviator.
GUYNEMER AT TEN YEARS OF AGE
And then came the war. ”

“ One of young Guynemer’s intimates was Jean Krebs, whose father was a pioneer in the development of aerostatics and aviation. He was then director of the great Panhard automobile works, and on Sundays the two youths spent hours studying motor parts. With their fellow students at the college they were often taken to visit technical establishments after school. Georges was always to be found beside the one that explained the operations of the machinery. When they were permitted to attend automobile and airplane exhibitions, his delight was boundless. ”

“ A Boche had been sighted at Coeuvres (koev-r) , and Guynemer took flight with Guerder and was soon in pursuit of the enemy. As the Boche’s plane was faster there was no possibility of catching him. Nevertheless, the joy of finding a first adversary made Guynemer eager to attempt anything. From a great distance he fired at his opponent—possibly without any hope of hitting him, but steadily nevertheless. He pursued him as far as the Coucy aerodrome, where he saw him alight. This displeased Guynemer greatly. He had gone out to “get” a Boche and had to go back empty-handed. ”

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“ The French system of accounting downed airplanes has been extremely exacting. The French insist that the aviator must send his victim to destruction in sight of two official observers. In Guynemer’s case this rigorous method of checking up official records was strongly emphasized because of his world-astonishing prowess. When Guynemer’s friends protested, he only smiled—and downed more Boches.
English and German officials, have been more lenient in giving official credit to their airmen. A German scores if he simply sends a bullet through his adversary’s motor, compelling descent. ”

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“ According to Guynemer’s own testimony, one of the most difficult things an airman of the Allies has to do is to compel the Boche to accept a duel, not that the latter lacks courage, but rather that he prefers not to run the risk of being brought down. As a result of forcing engagements, Guynemer seldom returned from a flight without a wound of some sort or other. ”

“ This was the youth who in less than eight months from the downing of his fifth Boche had been awarded seven palms for his war cross.
Guynemer and His Parents
Like Nungesser, Dormé (dor-may) and Triboulet (trib-oo-lay) , Guynemer would not rest when he had left the hospital convalescent from some of his more serious wounds, and it is by signs like these that we find the souls of great heroes who know nothing about “vacations,” even for their health, so long as others are fighting. Guynemer was not strong and should have rested after his stay in the hospital. ”

“ Already the name Zeppelin had received passing notice in French and English newspapers, but most people refused to believe reports of his inventions, and those of Santos-Dumont, concluding that they were both mad. Santos-Dumont, “the man who initiated the modern airship movement in France and made the first officially observed airplane flight in Europe,” flew around the Eiffel Tower and over the roofs and treetops of startled Paris in his small spherical balloons, propelled by gasoline motor, and in 1902 made flights over the Mediterranean. ”

“ If the layman were to become competent to judge, he would possibly no longer hold the same admiration for the hunters.” You will admit that this suggestion is not very flattering to us. In fine, according to this suggestion, we are interesting to them only because they know nothing about our work.
They say of me: “Guynemer is a lucky dog.”
Certainly, I am a lucky dog, for I have added up forty-nine (this was written before the grand total was made) victories and am still alive, and I might have been killed during my first fight. If we talk this way, every person alive today is lucky ”

“ Their object is to go out with you, and to take you to see their people. And when they look at you they imagine that you admire them. Such is the misfortune of renown! You no longer know where sincerity begins, whether they are pleasant to you out of friendship or vanity. ”

“ The story of Guynemer and his wondrous exploits forms one of the great dramatic chapters of the World War, and it will go down the years as a record of poetic heroism to be read for the inspiration of future generations of youth. There are many brilliant airmen. ”

“ He may attain a measure of success, but he will never be a real scout.
He who has in him the quality of a champion is the pilot who has recourse to his own initiative, to his own judgment, to his own personal equation. ”

“ Though France owes a debt to American inventors, always generously acknowledged, French aviators quickly attained supremacy on the continent. When the war came, the country was already dotted with aerodromes and airplane factories, and hundreds of trained aviators and mechanicians were ready to take the air for their beloved France. ”

“ Later, observation balloons reported that a French airplane had come to earth across the enemy lines and had been consumed by fire, which indicated to their practised vision that the pilot had been able to set his plane ablaze before it was seized by German captors. Though the enemy subsequently announced Dormé’s death, the report, for certain suspicious reasons, has been given little credence. “Second only to the crushing loss of Guynemer, France’s idol,” has his passing been mourned by fellow aviators and by the nation. ”

“ He who was able to place himself in the first rank of that band of messengers from the earth to the heights, in response to the wingèd beings that the heavens sent us long ago, fully merits to live among us as a symbol of one of the greatest efforts of the human will. ”

“ At the time of Guynemer’s death he was commander of the Flying Storks, a squadron of high-record fighting aviators whose feats have for over three years been the sensation of the Allied front. The original membership comprised ten pilots, some of whom had already attained national renown. Approximately fifty warriors that have carried its emblem down the highways of the air have been killed, wounded, or reported missing. Three squadron chiefs, Captain Auger, Lieutenant Peretti and Captain Guynemer, have fallen in aerial battles ”

“ And if I dispute this opinion so sharply, as far as it concerns me, it is not, certes, because I am annoyed, but, on the contrary, because I believe that it is rendering a poor service to say that we succeed in any human activity through luck. ”