Death Was Their Co-Pilot by Michael Dorflinger

Author:Michael Dorflinger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2017-04-08T04:00:00+00:00

René Fonck was never popular in France even though he was the best ace of the Allied forces. He specialised in attacks out of the sun when he would plunge down on his victim and fire. He was considered one of the best marksmen amongst fighter pilots, an ability he enjoyed demonstrating on the ground.

Like Guynemer he was also given a SPAD XII, the special model with a machine cannon. With this he is credited officially with shooting down seven opponents, by his own accounting method eleven. Looking over his claims one frequently finds only vague details as to time and victim. Did he exaggerate his victories? Some pilots alleged later that Fonck had ‘stolen’ theirs. Therefore he is a figure still open to controversy like Göring and Bishop. The French preferred the romantic figure of Guynemer.

The ‘Senior Stork’: Alfred Heurtaux

Alfred Heurtaux, son of an officer, was born in Nantes on 20 May 1893, not brought by a stork though later he became commanding officer of the famous third Escadrille nicknamed for its symbol of storks ‘Les Cignones’. This squadron became the French fighter pilots’ elite. Heurtaux passed out through the French cadre forge, the St Cyr Military Academy. In the First World War he was commissioned into the 9th Hussars and distinguished himself on several occasions during the first few weeks. Like many cavalry officers he was anxious to avoid the trenches and applied to be a flier. He was trained as an observer/gunner in November 1914. His pilot never managed to master the Morane L and made one crash landing after another. After crashing right alongside a Belgian military hospital Heurtaux took the hint and became a pilot himself.

From the end of May 1915 he flew Moranes in Escadrille MS.38, then Nieuports. On 5 June that year he was transferred to Escadrille N.3 where he met the young Guynemer, already with eight victories to his credit. Heurtaux got involved in the action, and by August had shot down four enemy aircraft for which he was awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honour and command of the unit. As a career officer, naturally he had advantages there.

His tally at 5 May 1917 was twenty-one aircraft shot down, then he came up against Ernst Udet and was seriously wounded. He was discharged from hospital in August but now the fates had noticed him and he was wounded again, this time through an artery in the thigh. Lucky to land, he returned to hospital, his time as a pilot finished. Once halfway on the road to recovery he was sent to the United States to teach tactics to novice pilots.

After the war he worked for Ford and Renault in the automobile industry, but returned to active military duty in the 1930s as Inspector of Fighter Pilots. Captured as a member of the French Resistance he was moved from one German prison to another and finished up at Buchenwald concentration camp in April 1945, from where he was freed by Allied forces one month later.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.