Abbreviations:
IWM Imperial War Museum
TNA The National Archives (formerly Public Record Office)
Prologue
1 Major Bishop, Winged Warfare (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1918) p.170.
2 Ibid.
3 Frank C. Platt, Ed., Great Battles of WWI: In the Air, (NYC: Weathervane, 1966) p.10.
Chapter 1 – Richthofen versus the Rifleman
1. Edward V. Rickenbacker, Fighting the Flying Circus (NYC: Stokes, 1919) pp.334-335.
2. Flight, November 14, 1918, p.1273.
3. Ira Jones, An Air Fighter’s Scrapbook (London: Greenhill, 1990) p.54.
4. James J. Hudson, Hostile Skies (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1968) p.165.
5. James J. Hudson, Hostile Skies, p.160.
6. John R. Cuneo, The Air Weapon 1914-1916 ( Harrisburg, PA: Military Service, 1947) p.251.
7. Ernest von Hoeppner, Deutschlands Krieg in der Luft (Leipzig: Koehler, 1921); translated as Germany’s War in the Air (Nashville: Battery Press, 1994) p.69.
8. Harold E. Hartney, Up and At ‘Em (NYC: Doubleday, 1971) p.259.
9. Harold E. Hartney, Up and At ‘Em, p.270.
10. Sholto Douglas, Combat and Command (NYC: Simon and Schuster, 1966) p.79.
11. Elliot Springs, War Birds (NYC: Grosset & Dunlop, 1926) p.203.
12. William C. Lambert, Combat Report (London: Kimber, 1973) p.53.
13. TNA file # AIR 2/4/87/504. For a detailed summary see Leon Bennett, Gunning for the Red Baron (College Station, TX: Texas A & M University Press, 2006) Chapter 1.
14. A. Mallock, Most Dangerous Height for Aircraft Attacked from the Ground. Great Britain, Aeronautical Advisory Committee Reports & Memoranda # 621 (London: HMSO, July 1918).
15. Ibid.
16. For a popular explanation, see Amir D. Aczel, Chance (NYC: Thunder’s Mouth, 2004) pp.30-33.
17. TNA file # AIR 1/2141/209/1/51. Appendix 3.
18. TNA file # AIR 1/2141/209/1/51. Appendix 4.
19. Ibid.
20. Ian V. Hogg, Anti-Aircraft: A History of Air Defense (London: Macdonald and James, 1978) p.67.
21. TNA file # AIR 1/ 2388/11/83.
22. Sources used for background include Dale Titler, The Day the Red Baron Died (NYC: Ballantine, 1970) plus Floyd Gibbons, The Red Knight of Germany (NYC: Doubleday, 1927), William E. Burrows, Richthofen (NYC: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1969), C.E.W. Bean, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918, Volume 5, Appendix 4 (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1935) and Norman Franks & Alan Bennett, The Red Baron’s Last Flight (Ontario: Vanwell, 1997).
23. TNA file # AIR 1/2397/262/2.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. Popkin letter to Bean, October 16, 1935. Bean papers, Australian War Memorial Archives; or Geoffrey Miller, Journal and Proceedings of the Military Historical Society of Australia, Volume 39, June 1998.
27. Dale Titler, The Day the Red Baron Died, p.128.
28. Dolf L. Goldsmith, The Grand Old Lady of No Man’s Land (Cobourg, Ontario: Collector Grade Publications, 1994) p.459.
29. Dale Titler, The Day the Red Baron Died, p.230.
30. TNA file # AIR 1/4/26/23. The guns employed direct flexible drive interrupter gears.
31. George M. Chinn, The Machine Gun, Volume 1, Appendix B (Washington DC: US GPO, 1951) p.661.
32. A ten round burst was given as standard by TNA file # AIR 1/699/27/3/448; p.52. However, F.W. Lanchester, Aircraft in Warfare (London: Constable, 1916) p.46, offered “6 or 8.”
33. TNA file # AIR 1/675/21/13/1508; p.18.
34. TNA file # AIR 1/675/21/13/1508; p.17.
35. TNA file # AIR 1/675/21/13/1508; p.19.
36. TNA file # AIR 1/675/21/13/1508; pp.16, 27, 31, 32, 33, 97.
37. TNA file # AIR 1/675/21/13/1508; p.33.
38. TNA file # AIR 1/675/21/13/1508; p.20.
39. Dale Titler, The Day the Red Baron Died, pp.245, 246.
40. TNA file # AIR 2/51/AB275/2355.
41. TNA file # AIR 1/2427/305/19/942.
42. Norman Franks & Alan Bennett, The Red Baron’s Last Flight (Ontario: Vanwell, 1977) pp.22, 24.
43. Australian War Memorial; numbers given in caption of negative #E02381.
Chapter 2 – air Combat: Real or nonsense?
1. Ernest von Hoeppner, Deutchland’s Krieg in der Luft (Leipzig: Koehler, 1921). Translated as Germany’s War in the Air (Nashville: Battery Press, 1994) p.19.
2. Royal Engineers; served in various balloon companies 1905-1909.
3. Aeronautics, January 1912, pp.18,19.
4. Flying (UK) October 1912, p.39.
5. Aeronautics, January 1912, p.20.
6. Ernest von Hoeppner, Germany’s War in the Air, p.17.
7. Ibid, p.23.
8. Claude Graham-White, Aviation (London: Collins, 1912) p.193.
9. Aeronautics, January 1912, p.19.
10. Mervyn O’Gorman, Technical Reports of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics,Reports & Memoranda # 86 (London: HMSO, 1913) p.246.
11. Captain A. Bott, An Airman’s Outings (London: Blackwood, 1917) p.170.
12. Mervyn O’Gorman, Technical Reports of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics,Reports & Memoranda # 86 (London: HMSO, 1913) p.259.
13. Mervyn O’Gorman, Technical Reports of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics,Reports & Memoranda # 86 (London: HMSO, 1913) pp.260, 261.
14. Mervyn O’Gorman, Technical Reports of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics,Reports & Memoranda # 127 (London: HMSO, 1914) p.312.
15. Geoffrey de Havilland, Sky Fever (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1961) p.72.
16. De Havilland, Sky Fever, p.147.
17. General S. Brancker’s testimony, minutes of the Committee on the Administration of the RFC, IWM file # 73/183/1, p.14.
18. Computed for Standard Atmosphere, velocity = 100 ft/sec, drag coefficient = 0.9.
19. The Aeroplane, March 12, 1914, p.274. Passenger killed was E.T. Haynes, Factory civilian scientist.
20. The Aeroplane, March 5, 1914, pp.219, 220.
21. Ibid.
22. Flight, June 12, 1914, p.633.
23. Ibid.
24. Flight, March 8, 1913, p.278.
25. David Henderson, The Art of Reconnaissance (London: John Murray, 1915) pp.171, 172.
26. Mervyn O’Gorman, Technical Reports of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics,Reports & Memoranda # 86 (London: HMSO, 1912) p.198.
27. Ibid.
28. Paul R. Hare, The Royal Aircraft Factory (London: Putnam, 1990) p.278.
29. de Havilland, Sky Fever, pp.80-81.
30. Norman Macmillan, Sefton Brancker (London: Heinemann, 1935) p.51.
31. Herman Glauert, The Longitudinal Control of an Aeroplane. Technical Reports of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Reports & Memoranda # 592 (London: HMSO, 1918) p.5.
32. Flight, June 26, 1919, p.853.
33. The Times (London) November 6, 1914, p.10.
34. de Havilland, Sky Fever, p.81.
35. Constance Babington-Smith, Testing Time (NYC: Harper, 1961) pp.38, 39; Lord Mottistone, Fear and Be Slain (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1931) pp.133, 135.
36. Babington-Smith, Testing Time, p.41.
37. Mary A. Busk, E.T. and H.A. Busk (London: John Murray, 1925) p.69.
38. H.A. Jones, The War in the Air Volume 7 (Appendices) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1937) Appendix XXVII chart.
39. Ibid.
40. H.A. Jones, The War in the Air Volume 7 (Appendices), Appendix XXXII chart. For a rough conversion into today’s $, multiply wartime pound values by 155.
41. F.H. Sykes, Aviation in Peace and War (London: Arnold, 1922) p.67.
42. Ibid.
Chapter 3 – Fokker Fodder
1. He favored the Morane-Saulnier Parasol and the Nieuport machines.
2. A variation of the Hotchkiss gun, the St. Étienne was generally disliked. French thirst for the British Lewis gun started with this lemon. See George M. Chinn, The Machine Gun, Volume 1 (Washington D.C.: USGPO, 1951) p.185.
3. Claude W. Sykes, French War Birds (London: Greenhill, 1987) p.185.
4. A.R. Weyl, Fokker: The Creative Years (London: Putnam, 1965) Chapter 4.
5. Flugsport, September 1914, p.805; also Zeitschrift fur Flugtechnik und Motorluftschiffahrt, November 1915, p.170. Patent # 276, 396.
6. Anthony Fokker and Bruce Gould, Flying Dutchman (London: Routledge, 1939), p.117.
7. Interview took place in early 1919. TNA file # AIR 1/2429/305/30/3.
8. Fokker and Gould, Flying Dutchman, p.144.
9. Director US Air Service, Rotary Engines (Washington, D.C.:USGPO, 1919) p.15.
10. Darrol Stinton, The Design of the Aeroplane (London: Blackwell, 1983) p.129.
11. In addition to horizontal tail area, stability is determined by factors including C.G. location, distribution of mass, airfoil type, etc. A complete analysis is beyond the scope of this work.
12. Grover C. Loening, Military Aeroplanes (Boston: Best, 1917) p.157.
13. J.M. Bruce, British Aeroplanes 1914-1918 (London: Putnam, 1969, 2nd ed.) p.369.
14. J.M. Bruce, British Aeroplanes 1914 – 1918, p.399.
15. Calculated from official 3-views given by L’Aérophile, August 1917, p.276.
16. The Aeroplane, January 25, 1912, p.83.
17. Aerial Age Weekly, January 17, 1916, p.428.
18. View of French engineer M.J. Lagorgette as given by Aerial Age Weekly, September 11, 1916, p.786.
19. Johannes Werner, Knight of Germany (London: Greenhill, 1985) p.134.
20. Flight, April 27, 1916, p357.
21. Christopher Cole, ed., Royal Flying Corps Communiqués 1915-1916 (London: Kimber, 1969) p.134.
22. Leon Bennett, Gunning for the Red Baron (College Station, Texas: Texas A & M University Press, 2006) pp.36-40.
23. Franz Immelmann, The Eagle of Lille (London: Greenhill, 1990) p.106.
24. Werner, Knight of Germany, p.159.
25. von Hoeppner, Germany’s War in the Air, p.38.
26. von Hoeppner, Germany’s War in the Air, p.41.
27. Oswald Boelcke, An Aviator’s Field Book (NYC: National Military Publishing, 1917) p.76.
28. Boelcke, An Aviator’s Field Book, p.82.
29. L.Bairstow et al, Notes on the Performance of Aeroplanes. Technical Reports of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Reports & Memoranda # 268 (London: HMSO, 1917); Jones, The War in the Air Volume 7 (Appendices), chart XXVII; TNA file # AIR 1/1192/205/5/2599.
30. Vivian Voss, Flying Minnows (London: Arms & Armour, 1977) p.161.
31. Andrew Boyle, Trenchard (London: Collins, 1962) p.155.
32. Christopher Cole, ed., Royal Flying Corps Communiqués 1915-1916, p.108.
33. Werner, Knight of Germany, p.131.
34. John E. Johnson, Full Circle (NYC: Ballantine, 1964) p.18.
35. Boyle, Trenchard, p.162.
36. Speech in the House of Commons, January 20, 1916. The Aeroplane, January 26, 1916, p.172.
37. Ibid.
Chapter 4 – after the Fokker
1. New York Times, The European War April-June 1916 Volume VII (NYC: NY Times, 1917) pp.131-132.
2. New York Times, The European War April-June 1917 Volume XI (NYC: NY Times,1917), p.329.
3. E. Angelucci and P. Matricardi, Les Avions, Volume I (Brussels: Elsevier, 1978) pp.141, 257.
4. Edward P. Warner, Aerodynamics (NYC: McGraw-Hill, 1927) pp.509-511.
5. For bank and other influences upon circling diameter, see Leon Bennett, Gunning for the Red Baron (College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press, 2006) Chapter 8. As compared to the Bébé, the E-III’s larger wing area didn’t compensate for its greater weight.
6. For a good English translation, see Walter A. Musciano, Eagles of the Black Cross (NYC: Obolensky, 1965) pp.60, 61.
7. Ibid.
8. As described in L’Aérophile, February 1917, pp.49-53.
9. Aircraft, June 1917, p.106.
10. Manfred von Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter (London: The Aeroplane & General Publishing Company, 1918) chapters 1 and 2. This is the only authentic WWI translation.
11. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.24.
12. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.88.
13. de Havilland, Sky Fever, p.97.
14. Herman Glauert, The Longitudinal Control of an Aeroplane. Technical Reports of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Reports & Memoranda # 470 (London: HMSO, May 1918) p.5.
15. Anon., Final Report of the Committee on the Administration and Command of the RFC, etc. (London: HMSO, 1916) p.13.
16. Sholto Douglas, Combat and Command (NYC: Simon and Schuster, 1963) p.80.
17. Boyle, Trenchard , p.162.
18. Luftfahrt, October 1918, p.16.
19. Jones, The War in the Air Volume 7 (Appendices) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1937) Appendix XXVII.
20. Ibid.
21. General Brancker’s letters, Imperial War Museum file # IWM 73/183/1. Unpaginated, “presumably written by Lieutenant Colonel Brooke-Popham.”
22. Friedrich von Bernhardi, Germany and the Next War (NYC: Longmans, Green, 1914) p.200.
Chapter 5 – Richthofen versus two-Seaters
1. Ira Jones, Tiger Squadron (London: W.H. Allen, 1954) p.44.
2. TNA file # AIR 1/1625/204/89/8; Harold E. Hartney, Up and At ‘Em (NYC: Doubleday, 1971) p.45.
3. Arch Whitehouse, The Fledgling (NYC: Duell, Sloan and Pierce, 1964) p.99.
4. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.76.
5. Richthofen combat reports: TNA file # AIR 1/2397/262/1, AIR 1/686/21/13/2250.
6. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.77.
7. Douglas, Combat and Command, p.100.
8. TNA files # AIR 1/1625/204/89/8, AIR 1/ 2087/207/7/38.
9. For biographies of downed RFC fliers, see Norman Franks, H. Giblin and N. McCrery, Under the Guns of the Red Baron, (London: Grub St., 1998); for the first victory see p.15.
10. Douglas, Combat and Command, p.97.
11. TNA file # AIR 1/2087/207/7/38.
12. Oliver Stewart, Words and Music for a Mechanical Man (London: Faber and Faber, 1967) p.148.
13. TNA file # AIR 1/ 1625/204/89/8, p.16.
14. TNA file # AIR 1/ 1625/204/89/8, p.19.
15. TNA file # AIR 1/ 1625/204/89/8, p.21.
16. Whitehouse, The Fledgling, p.131.
17. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.56.
18. TNA file # AIR 1/1625/209/89/8/ p.20.
19. Ibid.
20. Alan Bott, Cavalry of the Clouds (NYC: Doubleday, Page Co., 1918) p.303.
21. TNA file # AIR 1/2386/228/11/16.
22. TNA file # AIR 1/1625/204/89/8/ p.21.
23. Interview with Boelcke, Aeronautics, October 18, 1916, p.249.
24. TNA file # AIR 1/2398/267/16.
25. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.77.
26. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.18. While this 1918 translation of Richthofen’s book is the most authentic of the many available, its use of “yards” is likely incorrect. Richthofen thought in terms of meters, rather than yards, and the two differ by about 10%. Thus what is given as “50 yards” should be read as 50 meters or 55 yards.
27. TNA file # AIR 1/1625/209/89/8, p.47.
28. Bennett, Gunning for the Red Baron, p.52-57.
29. Maurice Baring, Flying Corps Headquarters 1914-1918 (London: Bell, 1920) p.127.
30. Richthofen frequently assigned mistaken ID’s to his victims. As a result, standard references continue to disagree. Our basic source is Walter Musciano, Eagles of the BlackCross (NYC: Obolensky, 1965).
31. TNA file # AIR 1/1625/204/89/8.
32. Ibid.
33. Richthofen combat reports: TNA file # AIR 1/2397/262/1, AIR 1/686/21/13/2250.
34. Richthofen combat report of March 4, 1917. Ibid.
35. Laddie Lucas, Out of the Blue (London: Hutchinson, 1985) p.24.
36. The Aeroplane, November 27, 1918, p.1970.
37. Richthofen combat report March 12, 1918. TNA file # AIR 1/686/21/13/2250.
Chapter 6 – Richthofen versus Scouts, 1916
1. Die Luftflotte, September 1918, pp.194-195. Aircraft, February 1917, p.54 for details concerning a July 1916 fight. The looper was a Nieuport Scout. For the importance of E-III aerobatics, see The Sphere, January 29, 1916, p.108.
3. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.88, 130.
4. Floyd Gibbons, The Red Knight of Germany (NYC: Doubleday, 1927) p.126.
5. Gibbons, The Red Knight of Germany, p.127.
6. L’Aérophile, September 1915, pp.195-196.
7. As quoted by L’Aérophile, Ibid.
8. Richthofen combat reports October 7, 16, 25, 1916; TNA file # AIR 1/2397/262/1, AIR 1/686/21/13/2250.
9. Test Reports RFC Machines; TNA file #AIR 2/165/MR/10723.
10. Data from J.F. Wise, Canadian Airmen and the First World War (Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1980) p.384.
11. See detailed analysis of tight circling: Bennett, Gunning for the Red Baron, Chapter 8.
12. Richthofen combat reports November 23, 1916; TNA file # AIR 1/2397/262/1, AIR 1/686/21/13/2250.
13. Richthofen’s estimated 3 to 5 minutes of descent seems too little, leading to an unlikely descent rate.
14. Richthofen combat reports December 11, 1916; TNA file # AIR 1/2397/262/1, AIR 1/686/21/13/2250.
15. Ibid.
16. Aerial Age Weekly, February 5, 1917, p.535.
17. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.127.
18. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.132.
19. Paul R. Hare, The Royal Aircraft Factory (London: Putnam, 1990) p.231.
20. Peter Gray & Owen Thetford, German Aircraft of the First World War (NYC: Doubleday, 1970) p.44.
21. Ibid., p.48. Climb rate from ground level to 1000 meters.
22. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.130.
23. Richthofen combat reports January 4, 1917. Op. cit.
Chapter 7 – Maneuverability triumphs, 1917
1. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.86.
2. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.87.
3. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p100.
4. Data from Jones, The War in the Air Volume 7 (Appendices), Appendix XXVII.
5. Karl Bodenschatz, Hunting with Richthofen (London: Grub Street, translated from the 1936 German ed., 1998) p.46.
6. Major W.A. Bishop, Winged Warfare (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1918) p.231.
7. Converting 100 mph into Ft/Sec, we have (5280 Feet/Mile x 100 Mile/Hour) / (60 Minutes/Hour x 60 Seconds/ Minute) equals 147 Feet/Second. Two airplanes would converge at twice this speed, or roughly 300 Feet/Second, or 100 yards per second.
8. Fighting Instruction Data, TNA file # AIR 1/1625/204/89/8.
9. Notes on Air Fighting, TNA file # AIR 1/2087/207/7/38.
10. Fighting Instruction Data, TNA file # AIR 1/1625/204/89/8.
11. Notes on Air Fighting, TNA file # AIR 1/2087/207/7/38.
12. Notes on Air Fighting, TNA file # AIR 1/ 2087/207/7/38.
13. Aerial Fighting, TNA file # AIR 1/920/204/5/885.
14. Ibid.
15. Notes on Air Fighting, TNA file # AIR 1/2087/207/7/38.
16. Fighting Instruction Data, TNA file # AIR 1/ 1625/204/89/8.
17. Eddie V. Rickenbacker, Fighting the Flying Circus (NYC: Stokes, 1919) p.337.
18. Martin C. Windrow, Ed. Aircraft in Profile Volume 3 (NYC: Doubleday, 1966) p.76.
19. For a full treatment of Sopwith Triplane aerodynamics see Leon Bennett, Three Wings for the Red Baron (Shippensburg, PA: White Mane, 2000) Chapter 6.
20. E.A. Griffiths and C.H. Powell, Forces and Moments on Triplanes. Technical Reportsof the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Reports & Memoranda # 250 (London: HMSO, July 1916) p.158.
21. At 6500 feet altitude. Jones, The War in the Air Volume 7 (Appendices), Appendix XXVII.
22. Gray and Thetford, German Aircraft of the First World War, p.48.
23. Fokker and Gould, Flying Dutchman, p.158.
24. Hans Herlin, Udet: A Man’s Life (London: Macdonald, 1960) p.158.
25. Fokker and Gould, Flying Dutchman, p.199.
26. Franks, Giblin and McCrery, Under the Guns of the Red Baron, pp.134-136.
27. Walter A. Musciano, Eagles of the Black Cross (NYC: Obolensky, 1965) p.276. Also see Gibbons, The Red Knight of Germany, p.381.
28. H.F. King, Sopwith Aircraft 1912-1920 (London: Putnam, 1980) pp.135, 137.
29. Luftfahrt, July 1918, p.28.
30. Fokker and Gould, Flying Dutchman, p.147.
31. A.J. Fairbanks, Distribution of Pressure over Model of the Upper Wing and Aileron, NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) Report # 254, (Washington D.C.: USGPO, 1925) pp.541-600.
32. Ibid, p.552.
33. Accounts of Richthofen’s losing battle differ in important details. For example, the range was reported as unusually long by Gibbons, pp.296-299 and Bodenschatz, pp.17-20, suggesting a hit by pure chance. In contrast, Franks et al, pp.148-151, suggested a short range, implying misjudgement of the risk on Richthofen’s part.
34. A.R. Weyl, Fokker: The Creative Years (London: Putnam, 1965) p.229-231. The measured safety factor for a well-built wing was roughly 8.0.
35. William E. Burrows, Richthofen (NYC: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1969) pp.173-174.
36. Thomas Nevin, Ernst Junger and Germany (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1996) p.48.
37. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.88.
38. von Hoeppner, Germany’s War in the Air, p.109.
Chapter 8 – Formations and Combat
1. TNA file # AIR 1/1625/204/89/8.
2. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.80.
3. TNA file # AIR 1/1625/204/89/8.
4. TNA file # AIR 1/2150/209/3/212.
5. TNA file # AIR 1/1625/204/89/8.
6. TNA file # AIR 1/ 2150/209/3/212.
7. TNA file # AIR 1/1625/204/89/8.
8. John Tanner, Ed. Fighting in the Air, Volume 7 (London: Arms & Armour Press, 1978) p.99.
9. Tanner, Ed. Fighting in the Air, Volume 7, p.91.
10. TNA file # AIR 1/1625/204/89/8.
11. Tanner, Ed. Fighting in the Air, Volume 7, p.10.
12. Tanner, Ed. Fighting in the Air, Volume 7, p.91.
13. Bishop, Winged Warfare, pp.143-144.
14. Hartney, Up and At ‘Em, pp.42, 59.
15. Stewart, Words and Music for a Mechanical Man, p.125.
16. James McCudden, Flying Fury (London: Aviation Book Club, 1930. Reprint: London: Greenhill, 1987) p.155.
17. Hartney, Up and At ‘Em, p.59.
18. Whitehouse, The Fledgling, p.163.
19. Ibid.
20. Bishop, Winged Warfare, p.231.
21. Stewart, Words and Music for a Mechanical Man, p.148.
22. Stewart, Words and Music for a Mechanical Man, p.124.
23. TNA file # AIR 1/1625/204/89/8.
24. Tanner, Ed., Fighting in the Air, Volume 7, p.93.
25. Hartney, Up and At ‘Em, p.75.
26. Bishop, Winged Warfare, p.236.
27. Ibid.
28. Bennett, Gunning for the Red Baron, pp.142-147.
29. Air Service Journal, November 8, 1917, pp.565, 566.
30. Hartney, Up and At ‘Em, pp.77-80.
31. Gibbons, The Red Knight of Germany, p.125.
32. Karl Bodenschatz, Hunting With Richthofen, (London: Grub Street, 1996) pp.54, 55.
33. Air Service Technical School, Pursuit, (Washington, D.C.: USGPO, 1926) p.7.
34. Hartney, Up and At ‘Em, p.78.
35. Gibbons, The Red Knight of Germany, p.126.
36. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.116.
37. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.130.
38. Bodenschatz, Hunting With Richthofen, pp.54, 55.
39. Bodenschatz, Hunting With Richthofen, p.46.
40. TNA file # AIR 1/2427/305/29/AP942.
41. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.100.
42. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.112.
43. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.132.
44. Bodenschatz, Hunting With Richthofen, p.47.
45. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.127.
46. Bodenschatz, Hunting With Richthofen, p. 46.
47. Richthofen, The Red Air Fighter, p.130.
48. Stewart, Words and Music for a Mechanical Man, p.131.
49. TNA file # AIR 1/ 2386/228/11/2.
50. Ibid.
51. Gibbons, The Red Knight of Germany, pp.327, 328.
52. Bodenschatz, Hunting With Richthofen, p.61.
53. Bodenschatz, Hunting With Richthofen, p.170. The precise number of losses remain uncertain. A more recent study offers 11 to 4. See Brereton Greenhaus, The Making of Billy Bishop, (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2002) p.176.
54. Contact (pseud.) An Airman’s Outings, (London: Blackwood, 1917) pp.299, 300. The author’s real name was Captain Alan Bott.
55. Jones, Tiger Squadron, p.84.
56. Rickenbacker, Fighting the Flying Circus, p.154.
57. Hartney, Up and At ‘Em, p.195.
58. Duncan Grinnell-Milne, Wind in the Wires, (NYC: Ace, 1968) p.180.
59. Victor W. Page, Modern Aircraft Engines Volume .1 (NYC: Henley, 1929) p.332.
60. TNA file # AIR 1/1625/204/89/8.
61. Air Service Journal, July 12, 1917, p.93.
62. Bodenschatz, Hunting With Richthofen, p.179.
Chapter 9 – tactics and The Right Kind
1. H.A. Jones, The War in the Air Volume 5 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1935), p.469.
2. Frederick Sykes, From Many Angles (London: Harrap, 1942) p.220.
3. Ernst von Hoeppner, Germany’s War in the Air, p.137.
4. Ernst von Hoeppner, Germany’s War in the Air, p.109.
5. Udet background obtained from Armand Van Ishoven, The Fall of an Eagle (London: Kimber, 1979), Armand Van Ishoven, Ernst Udet (Herrsching, West Germany: Pawlak, 1977), Hans Herlin, Udet: A Man’s Life (London: Macdonald, 1960).
6. Average height was lower in those low protein times. Pre-war USA Army required 5 feet 4 inches. With war, the standard was lowered to 5 feet 0 inches. See Provost Marshal General Report, On the Operations of Selective Service (Washington DC: USGPO, 1919) p.156.
7. For details, see Armand van Ishoven, The Fall of an Eagle, pp.200-208.
8. Detailed by Stanley M. Ulanoff, Ed., Ace of the Iron Cross (NYC: ARCO, 1981) pp.42-44. A slightly different version given in French by Bernard Marck, Le Dernier Vol de Guynemer (Paris: Acropole, 1991) pp.94, 95.
9. Chaz Bowyer, Albert Ball, V.C. (London: Kimber, 1977), p.25.
10. Chaz Bowyer, Albert Ball, V.C. p.85.
11. Chaz Bowyer, Albert Ball, V.C. p.24.
12. In a lengthy fight, even strong pilots found it difficult or impossible to develop the force necessary to maneuver machines that were either too stable or unstable. See H.Glauert, The Longitudinal Control of an Aeroplane. Great Britain, Aeronautical Advisory Committee Reports & Memoranda # 470 ( May 1918).
13. A.J. Insall, Observer (London: Kimber, 1970) p.118.
14. Air Service Journal, August 8, 1918, p.190.
15. Mannock sources include J.M. Dudgeon, Mick (London: Robert Hale, 1981), Fred Oughton and Vernon Smyth, Ace With One Eye (London: Muller, 1963) and Ira Jones, King of the Air Fighters (London: Nicholson & Watson, 1934).
16. J.M. Dudgeon, Mick, p.134.
17. J.M. Dudgeon, Mick, pp.123, 125.
18. Ira Jones, Tiger Squadron (London: W.H. Allen, 1954; reprint, London: Award, 1966) pp.102, 124.
19. J.M. Dudgeon, Mick, p.121.
20. Cecil Lewis, All My Yesterdays (Dorset, UK: Element, 1993.) p.12; Cecil Lewis, Sagittarius Rising (London: Davies, 1936; reprint, Warner, 1994) p.10.
21. Cecil Lewis, Sagittarius Rising p.170.
22. Guynemer sources include Claude W. Sykes, French War Birds (London: Hamilton, 1937), Bernard Marck, Le Dernier Vol de Guynemer (Paris: Acropolis 1991), Jacques Mortane, Guynemer, The Ace of Aces (NYC: Moffat, Yard, 1918).
23. William Arthur Bishop, The Courage of the Early Morning (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1965) p. 52.
24. Jacques Montane, The Ace of Aces, p. XXVII.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. Bernard Marck, La Dernier Vol de Guynemer, Chapter 16.
28. René Fonck, Ace of Aces (NYC: Doubleday, 1967) p.124.
29. Charles Christienne and Pierre Lissarrague, French Military Aviation (Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 1986) p.163, assigned 127 probables to Fonck
30. Ibid.
31. René Fonck, Ace of Aces, pp.124-125.
32. Claude W. Sykes, French War Birds, p.148.
33. Christopher Cole, McCudden, V.C. (London: Kimber, 1967), p.17.
34. James McCudden, Flying Fury – Five Years in the RFC (London: Aviation Book Club, 1930; reprint London: Greenhill, 1987) p.129.
35. Flight, April 4, 1918, p.359.
36. Christopher Cole, McCudden, p.204.
37. Aeronautics, July 17, 1918, p.359.
38. Bishop sources included: William Arthur Bishop, The Courage of the Early Morning (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1965), William Avery Bishop, Winged Warfare (London: Houghton & Stoughton, 1918), William Avery Bishop, Winged Peace (NYC: Viking, 1944), Robert Jackson, Fighter Pilots OF WWI (NYC: St. Martin’s Press, 1977).
39. William Arthur Bishop, The Courage of the Early Morning, p.18.
40. Brereton Greenhous, The Making of Billy Bishop (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2002).
41. H. Clifford Chadderton, Hanging a Legend (Ottowa: War Amputations of Canada, 1986).
42. Frederick Libby, Horses Don’t Fly (NYC: Arcade, 2000) p.227.
43. William Avery Bishop, Winged Warfare, p.227.
44. William Arthur Bishop, The Courage of the Early Morning, p.112.
45. William Arthur Bishop, The Courage of the Early Morning, p.116.
46. William Avery Bishop, Winged Warfare, p.170.
47. Wintgens background source: Flugsport, October 1916, p.562.
48. Edward V. Rickenbacker, Rickenbacker (NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1967) p.43. Much background material obtained from this source.
49. James McCudden, Flying Fury–Five Years in the RFC, p.220.
50. Cecil Lewis, Sagittarius Rising, p.196.
51. Edward V. Rickenbacker, Fighting the Flying Circus (NYC: Stokes, 1919) p.310.
52. Edward V. Rickenbacker, Fighting the Flying Circus, p.320.
53. Edward V. Rickenbacker, Fighting the Flying Circus, p.236.
54. Edward V. Rickenbacker, Fighting the Flying Circus, p.341.
55. Edward V. Rickenbacker, Fighting the Flying Circus, p.261.
56. Edward V. Rickenbacker, Fighting the Flying Circus, p.338.
57. Luftfahrt, December 1917, p.23; Flugsport, July 1916, p.14.
58. Flight, June 14, 1917.
59. Adrian Smith, Mick Mannock, Fighter Pilot (London: Palgrave, 2001) p.119.
60. Aeronautics, October 9, 1918, pp.344-347.
61. Leon Bennett, Three Wings for the Red Baron, Chapter 7.