Lords of the Sky: Fighter Pilots and Air Combat, From the Red Baron to the F-16 (91 page)

FIRST EDITION

ISBN 978-0-06-226201-1

EPub Edition June 2014 ISBN: 9780062262103

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FOOTNOTES

^*
 Gefreiter Spacholz and Leutnant Grosskopf were reported killed in action on April 1, 1915, south of Dixmude.

^*
 Interestingly, the Montgolfiers had sent aloft a rooster, a duck, and a sheep named Montauciel the month before.

^*
 Either an Aviatik or Albatros—reports disagree.

^*
 The Lewis with the jacket removed weighed 17 pounds, versus the 33-pound Vickers and the 50-pound Hotchkiss.

^*
 In 1934 the industrious Le Prieur also was granted French patent #768083 for the SCUBA (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) system.

^*
 They were paid a 100-mark bonus for Garros (about six months’ pay).

^*
 Flown by Capt. Paul du Peuty with Lt. Louis de Boutiny as observer.

^*
 Their motto, somewhat ironically, was
Nihil sine deo
—nothing without God.

^*
 Everything changes and yet nothing changes. Thankfully.

^*
 Actually, it was a Prussian award adopted for all of Germany and could also be awarded for significant civil achievements.

^*
 At this stage of the war no one but balloonists wore parachutes.

^*
 By the end of the war in November 1918, Jasta 2 had 336 confirmed victories.

^*
 Jasta 2 had relocated due to a September 22 attack on Bertincourt by the RFC.

^*
 The name is from the French
melon
. Melinite is a high explosive made with picric acid, a pharmaceutical used for treating herpes, among other things.

^*
 The DSO ranks above the Military Cross and was only awarded to officers. Usually for actions under fire, the DSO was considered a decoration for majors or above unless the circumstances were extreme.

^*
 The main sources of pre-1916 British claims are from decoration citations. Eventually, these were all compiled with combat and casualty reports in Trevor Henshaw’s excellent reference book
The Sky Their Battlefield
.

^*
 Prewar adults had a daily average of around 3,400 calories.

^*
 Named for a malicious dwarf king from German mythology.

^*
 Early in the war the Germans experimented with a sort of mobile squadron that was billeted on a train.

^*
 ANZAC: the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps.

^*
 Also called a “penguin” or “grass cutter.”

^*
 
Décoller
means “to take off.” Interestingly, the word can also mean “to behead.”

^*
 Torque is a twisting movement in the direction of rotation.

^*
 Modern piston engines go for 2,000–3,000 hours between overhauls.

^*
 Short for
milliradian
.

^*
 Chrétien and Oigee sights were plagued by fogging issues. Surprisingly, the Germans never realized that inert gases would solve the problem.

^*
 Voss mistakenly identified this as an FB 5 “Gunbus”—a common error.

^*
 FE-2b, tail #4915, 18 Squadron RFC. Near Ginchy.

^*
 Hussars were a type of light, fast cavalry used mainly for scouting.

^*
 Named for the daughters of Louis XV, who used it as a bridle path.

^*
 Squadron Cmdr. Edwin Dunning aboard HMS
Furious
in August 1917.

^*
 The width of the wing’s surface. Not to be confused with the chord line.

^*
 Oakley & Co. had no experience building aircraft and only delivered three Triplanes.

^*
 Also to the generation of pilots who would come after him. World War II RAF aces Jimmy Johnson and Douglas Bader both acknowledged the debt they owed to Mannock.

^*
 It can never be proven, but because of this Mannock likely had more than seventy-three credited kills.

^*
 Specifically designed by Maj. Frank Gooden, Henry Folland, and John Kenworthy.

^*
 He once followed his commander all the way back to base directly below and behind him just to prove how vulnerable a plane was to such an attack.

^*
 As we would say in later years, “all balls and no forehead.”

^*
 Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony was his favorite.

^*
 Lothar von Richthofen had been known to exaggerate combat claims; however, it’s more likely that German propaganda created the false report.

^*
 By the end of the war 60 Squadron had claimed 320 victories. It would produce twenty-six aces, including Billy Bishop and Albert Ball.

^*
 Tail #390, 5 Squadron RFC on August 22, 1914. Interestingly, this was actually the first real proof accepted by the German High Command that the British had arrived in France.

^*
 The Americans copied it exactly, and it still forms the basis of our flying training programs today.

^*
 A dihedral forms a slightly upward angle on a wing.

^*
 A total of 385 Camel pilots died from accidents; 413 died in combat.

^*
 From the position on a watch face if you’re looking down on it. Six o’clock is to the rear.

^*
 Ernest Hemingway, E. E. Cummings, John Dos Passos, and Dashiell Hammett were all ambulance drivers.

^*
 Enlisting in the Foreign Legion did not mean a loss of citizenship. On the other hand, those fighting for the British usually came by way of Canada and forfeited their citizenship.

^*
 J. P. Morgan had loaned the French government $50 million (at an interest rate of 5 percent) in 1915. Vanderbilt was heavily invested in France, owning a château and a famous horse-breeding farm near Deauville in Normandy.

^*
 This would later become the Lafayette Flying Corps.

^*
 Voss, Karl Allmenröder, Gontermann, and Kurt Wolff, among others.

^*
 Nash actually survived to become a POW.

^*
 Indirect fire is aimed upward so the bullets come down from above, just like rain.

^*
 The name translates as “Kaiser’s Battle.”

^*
 Fliegerabwehrkanone. Alternately Flugabwehrkanone.

^*
 April 1, 1918—somewhat ironically, “All Fools’ Day.”

^*
 All three of his sons fought in the Great War. The elder two were killed in action.

^*
 “As soon as an event has taken place, it becomes as many events as it had witnesses, for they all tell different versions” (Tolstoy).

^*
 In February 1918, U.S. observer Lt. Steven Thompson shot down an Albatros D-IIIa while flying as a guest during a French raid on Saarbrucken. He was subsequently shot down during May 1918 by Erich Löwenhardt.

^*
 Spanish flu would kill over 60,000 American troops—more than were lost on the battlefield.

^*
 Jagdgruppe 12, consisting of Jastas 12 and 44.

^*
 There would be more than 400,000 deaths from influenza in Germany during 1918.

^*
 France, 6 million; Great Britain, 3 million; Russia, 9 million; Germany and Austria-Hungary, 14 million.

^*
 France, perhaps the most vocal supporter, had already come and gone by April 1919, without any real fighting.

^*
 Renamed Stalingrad in April 1925. The city would be at the center of another epic battle seventeen years later.

^*
 The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569 to 1795.

^*
 Kosciuszko also fought as a colonel during the American Revolution.

^*
 Cooper would survive to found Pan American Airways and to head production at RKO Pictures in Hollywood. He also co-authored
King Kong
, among other stories.

^*
 Trinculo to Caliban in Shakespeare’s
The Tempest
.

^*
 
Wissenschaftliche Versuchs und Prufanstalt fur Luftfahrzeuge
, in German jaw-cracking style.

^*
 King Alfonso XIII of Spain had been best man at Franco’s wedding in 1923.

^*
 Hugh Pollard would eventually become the MI6 station chief in Madrid.

^*
 Smith and Hall say twelve fighters were delivered, while Forsyth lists six. The original complement of pilots was only six, and Germany was still tentative in her support, so the smaller number is more likely.

^*
 The Mosca had a 29-foot wingspan with a wing loading of 27 pounds per square foot. The He 51 had a 36-foot span with a wing loading of 14 pounds per square foot.

^*
 The Soviet pilot was kicked to death by a mob who believed him to be a German.

^*
 A modern mercenary is paid between $500 and $5,500 per day, based on his particular skills.

^*
 After July 1938, the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (Bavarian Aircraft Factory) was renamed Messerschmitt AG. Any aircraft that originated prior to this change bore the prefix “Bf,” and any after were designated with the “Me” prefix. For simplicity, I have elected to use the “Bf” designation throughout the book.