THE OPEN LETTER
A year has passed since Guynemer gave his life for France, and his story is now history. During the year other skymen have made great records: some of them may accomplish supreme achievements in the future. But there is a certain halo of romance about the young Sir Galahad of the Sky that distinguishes him and gives him a place of his own.
Moreover, there are special considerations to be taken into account in reckoning up Guynemer’s achievements. While other airmen of the World War have been credited officially with a greater number of victories, it is a recognized fact among Parisian journalists and Guynemer’s own associates among “The Storks,” that Guynemer was victor over perhaps twice as many Boche planes as the fifty-three accredited him by the French Militaire. 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. Germany, with her idolatry of all things German-done, accredits Captain Baron von Richthofen with something more than a hundred victories. Major William A. Bishop of the English flying forces, according to his own story recently published, downed seventy-two enemy planes in confirmed victories during the year 1917. The rigid system of official accounting by the French is shown in the case of Lieutenant Nungesser, the second French Ace cited for the Legion of Honor. Also in the officially accredited victories of Lieutenant René Fonck, recognized as the greatest French air fighter since Captain Guynemer, Fonck is credited with bringing down more than sixty enemy airplanes—six of them in one day in the course of two patrols.
While Georges Guynemer received nearly every honor that the French Government had in its power to bestow for the services rendered his country, the fifty-three airplanes he officially destroyed meant more in the period between 1915 and 1917 than the downing of many more planes thereafter; for it was Guynemer who led French warfare in the air from defeat to victory, and who was supremely successful despite the mechanical shortcomings of the airplanes that were in use when he entered the service.
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. Guynemer was more than that; he was a dedicated soul.