Lords of the Sky: Fighter Pilots and Air Combat, From the Red Baron to the F-16 by Dan Hampton
Authors: Dan Hampton
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before attacking.
12. If the day is sunny, machines should be turned with as little bank as possible, otherwise the sun glistening on the wings will give away their presence at a long range.
13. Pilots must keep turning in a dogfight and never fly straight except when firing.
14. Pilots must never, under any circumstances, dive away from an enemy, as he gives his opponent a non-deflection shot—bullets are faster than aeroplanes.
15. Pilots must keep their eye on their watches during patrols, and on the direction and strength of the wind.
There was no standardized gunnery practice nor ongoing combat training requirements for pilots in 1917, but Mannock constantly worked on marksmanship. And it paid off, as he later wrote:
I was only ten yards away from him—on top so I couldn’t miss. A beautifully colored insect he was—red, blue, green and yellow. I let him have 60 rounds, so there wasn’t much left of him.
A born leader, he began fostering his own collection of wingmen, patiently teaching them all he’d learned. Like the predator he was, Mick had a very “hands-on” approach to teaching. “Sight your own guns,” he would say, “the armorer doesn’t have to do the fighting.” His approach even extended to letting his young pilots finish off enemy aircraft he’d damaged. *
In a fight he was merciless. The old-world notion of chivalry was utterly foreign to him, and—perhaps due to his incarceration by the Turks—he loathed the Germans. Like most fighter pilots, Mannock was a complicated man and a study in contradictions. His ruthlessness was always at odds with the conviction that he was, in his own words, “just like a murderer.”
This was a man who would also later say, “The journey to the trenches was rather nauseating—dead men’s legs sticking through the sides with puttees and boots still on—bits of bones and skulls with the hair peeling off, and tons of equipment and clothing lying about. This sort of thing, together with the strong graveyard stench and the dead and mangled body of the pilot combined to upset me for a few days.”
But once he forced down a German reconnaissance plane, then strafed the crew. When asked about it, he replied hotly, “The swines are better dead—no prisoners.” Intelligent and sensitive, Mick was always high-strung and often unable to hide his fear of death. It never stopped him from fighting, though, and by October 1917 he’d been promoted to captain with a second Military Cross. Shortly thereafter, with sixteen victories to his credit, he returned to England for a well-deserved rest.
Death, it seemed, would have to wait.
“ IF IT’S THERE , kill it!”
1917 saw the return to action of Albert Ball from his posting as a fighting instructor. He’d come back to France in April as part of 56 Squadron. Newly equipped with SE-5s and a bevy of combat-proven pilots including McCudden and Arthur Rhys-Davies, the “Fighting Fifty-Sixth” was to be unleashed in concert with the Arras offensive. Hugh Trenchard believed that the SE-5 was a game changer and that when flown by veterans leading specially selected new pilots it would turn the tide of the air war.
Designed at the Royal Aircraft Factory, the airplane was powerful, fast, and well armed. * With its 200-horsepower Hispano-Suiza 8B engine, the SE-5a topped out at 135 mph at sea level and could climb to 10,000 feet in about eleven minutes. The 8B engine had a high compression ratio, producing greater power than any previous engine.
Unfortunately, the Hispo, as it was known, had a serious defect. The reduction gear, fitted to keep the prop turning slower than the engine, had a nasty tendency to come apart in flight, taking the driving gear with it. The airframe also had a few bugs, including the oversized windscreen. Nicknamed “the greenhouse” by pilots, it generated excess drag and interfered with the top Lewis gun. But the big broad-chord ailerons on both wings gave the SE-5 a superior
12. If the day is sunny, machines should be turned with as little bank as possible, otherwise the sun glistening on the wings will give away their presence at a long range.
13. Pilots must keep turning in a dogfight and never fly straight except when firing.
14. Pilots must never, under any circumstances, dive away from an enemy, as he gives his opponent a non-deflection shot—bullets are faster than aeroplanes.
15. Pilots must keep their eye on their watches during patrols, and on the direction and strength of the wind.
There was no standardized gunnery practice nor ongoing combat training requirements for pilots in 1917, but Mannock constantly worked on marksmanship. And it paid off, as he later wrote:
I was only ten yards away from him—on top so I couldn’t miss. A beautifully colored insect he was—red, blue, green and yellow. I let him have 60 rounds, so there wasn’t much left of him.
A born leader, he began fostering his own collection of wingmen, patiently teaching them all he’d learned. Like the predator he was, Mick had a very “hands-on” approach to teaching. “Sight your own guns,” he would say, “the armorer doesn’t have to do the fighting.” His approach even extended to letting his young pilots finish off enemy aircraft he’d damaged. *
In a fight he was merciless. The old-world notion of chivalry was utterly foreign to him, and—perhaps due to his incarceration by the Turks—he loathed the Germans. Like most fighter pilots, Mannock was a complicated man and a study in contradictions. His ruthlessness was always at odds with the conviction that he was, in his own words, “just like a murderer.”
This was a man who would also later say, “The journey to the trenches was rather nauseating—dead men’s legs sticking through the sides with puttees and boots still on—bits of bones and skulls with the hair peeling off, and tons of equipment and clothing lying about. This sort of thing, together with the strong graveyard stench and the dead and mangled body of the pilot combined to upset me for a few days.”
But once he forced down a German reconnaissance plane, then strafed the crew. When asked about it, he replied hotly, “The swines are better dead—no prisoners.” Intelligent and sensitive, Mick was always high-strung and often unable to hide his fear of death. It never stopped him from fighting, though, and by October 1917 he’d been promoted to captain with a second Military Cross. Shortly thereafter, with sixteen victories to his credit, he returned to England for a well-deserved rest.
Death, it seemed, would have to wait.
“ IF IT’S THERE , kill it!”
1917 saw the return to action of Albert Ball from his posting as a fighting instructor. He’d come back to France in April as part of 56 Squadron. Newly equipped with SE-5s and a bevy of combat-proven pilots including McCudden and Arthur Rhys-Davies, the “Fighting Fifty-Sixth” was to be unleashed in concert with the Arras offensive. Hugh Trenchard believed that the SE-5 was a game changer and that when flown by veterans leading specially selected new pilots it would turn the tide of the air war.
Designed at the Royal Aircraft Factory, the airplane was powerful, fast, and well armed. * With its 200-horsepower Hispano-Suiza 8B engine, the SE-5a topped out at 135 mph at sea level and could climb to 10,000 feet in about eleven minutes. The 8B engine had a high compression ratio, producing greater power than any previous engine.
Unfortunately, the Hispo, as it was known, had a serious defect. The reduction gear, fitted to keep the prop turning slower than the engine, had a nasty tendency to come apart in flight, taking the driving gear with it. The airframe also had a few bugs, including the oversized windscreen. Nicknamed “the greenhouse” by pilots, it generated excess drag and interfered with the top Lewis gun. But the big broad-chord ailerons on both wings gave the SE-5 a superior
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