In January, 1915, Guynemer received his first lessons as a student-aviator, after having studied two months as a mechanic. On February first, according to his own narrative, his apprenticeship as a pilot took on aerial character. “I drove a ‘taxi,’ and then the following week I mounted an airplane, going in straight lines, turning and gliding, and on March tenth I made two flights lasting twenty minutes in daylight. At last I had found my wings. I passed the examination the next day.”
Once, Guynemer barely escaped being scratched from the list of military aviators at the school of Avord, because a head pilot complained that he was imprudent in making flights that were too difficult for one of his experience, and because he persisted in flying when the weather was unfavorable.
When he had flown for six months, he was sent one day on a photographing mission. The enemy discovered him. A rain of shells fell on his plane. Keeping on amid the deluge, Guynemer made not a single turn to escape the attacks. For an hour he went straight toward his objective until his observer gave the signal to return. Even then the pilot continued to drive on toward the guns that were trying to beat him down, and, handing his personal photographic apparatus to his companion, asked him to take some pictures of the mortar attacking the airplane. From that day, no one in the squadron doubted the future of this youth, “this eagle of the birdmen, this young Frenchman with the face of a woman and the heart of a lion.”
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 6, No. 18. SERIAL No. 166
COPYRIGHT, 1918. BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
COPYRIGHT BY UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD
GUYNEMER AT THE WHEEL
GUYNEMER, THE WINGÈD SWORD OF FRANCE
Pioneer Airmen in France
THREE