Georges Guynemer

Georges Guynemer

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Georges Guynemer, by Henry
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Title: Georges Guynemer Knight of the Air
Author: Henry Bordeaux
Translator: Louise Morgan Sill
Release Date: April 4, 2006 [EBook #18117]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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GUYNEMER ***

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GEORGES GUYNEMER
_Published on the Fund given to the Yale University Press in memory
of_

ENSIGN CURTIS SEAMAN READ, U.S.N.R.F.
_of the Class of 1918, Yale College, killed in the aviation service in
France, February, 1918_
[Illustration: GEORGES GUYNEMER, KNIGHT OF THE AIR]

HENRY BORDEAUX
GEORGES GUYNEMER
KNIGHT OF THE AIR
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH By LOUISE MORGAN SILL
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT
NEW HAVEN YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK: 280
MADISON AVENUE
MDCCCCXVIII

COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE
Introduction 9
Prologue 13
CANTO I: CHILDHOOD

I. The Guynemers 21
II. Home and College 28
III. The Departure 52
CANTO II: LAUNCHED INTO SPACE
I. The First Victory 65
II. From the Aisne to Verdun 91
III. "La Terre a vu jadis errer des Paladins" 108
IV. On the Somme (June, 1916, to February, 1917) 125
CANTO III: AT THE ZENITH
I. On the 25th of May, 1917 143
II. A Visit to Guynemer 157
III. Guynemer in Camp 163
IV. Guynemer at Home 170
V. The Magic Machine 182
CANTO IV: THE ASCENSION
I. The Battle of Flanders 189
II. Omens 200
III. The Last Flight 210
IV. The Vigil 217
V. The Legend 225

VI. In the Panthéon 239
Envoi 242
Appendix: Genealogy of Georges Guynemer 251

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Georges Guynemer, Knight of the Air Frontispiece (From a wood
block in three colors by Rudolph Ruzicka.)
The First Flight in a Blériot 80
In the Air 120
Combat 176
"Going West" 208 (From charcoal drawings by W.A. Dwiggins.)

INTRODUCTION
June 27th, 1918.
My dear M. Bordeaux:
I count the American people fortunate in reading any book of yours; I
count them fortunate in reading any biography of that great hero of the
air, Guynemer; and thrice over I count them fortunate to have such a
book written by you on such a subject.
You, sir, have for many years been writing books peculiarly fitted to
instill into your countrymen the qualities which during the last
forty-eight months have made France the wonder of the world. You
have written with such power and charm, with such mastery of manner
and of matter, that the lessons you taught have been learned
unconsciously by your readers--and this is the only way in which most

readers will learn lessons at all. The value of your teachings would be
as great for my countrymen as for yours. You have held up as an ideal
for men and for women, that high courage which shirks no danger,
when the danger is the inevitable accompaniment of duty. You have
preached the essential virtues, the duty to be both brave and tender, the
duty of courage for the man and courage for the woman. You have
inculcated stern horror of the baseness which finds expression in
refusal to perform those essential duties without which not merely the
usefulness, but the very existence, of any nation will come to an end.
Under such conditions it is eminently appropriate that you should write
the biography of that soldier-son of France whose splendid daring has
made him stand as arch typical of the soul of the French people through
these terrible four years. In this great war France has suffered more and
has achieved more than any other power. To her more than to any other
power, the final victory will be due. Civilization has in the past, for
immemorial centuries, owed an incalculable debt to France; but for no
single feat or achievement of the past does civilization owe as much to
France as for what her sons and daughters have done in the world war
now being waged by the free peoples against the powers of the Pit.
Modern war makes terrible demands upon those who fight. To an
infinitely greater degree than ever before the outcome depends upon
long preparation in advance, and upon the skillful and unified use of
the nation's entire social and industrial no less than military power. The
work of the general staff is infinitely more important than any work of
the kind in times past. The actual machinery of both is