Mannock's Rules

[Shiloh 12]

I was doing some research on Mannock as I fly with him in RFC-74 and I came across his rules of engagement. Most of it is common knowledge now but they serve as helpful reminders when we take to the skies Over Flanders Fields.

 

1. Pilots must dive to attack with zest, and must hold their fire until they get within one hundred yards of their target.
2. Achieve surprise by approaching from the East. (From the German side of the front.)
3. Utilise the sun's glare and clouds to achieve surprise.
4. Pilots must keep physically fit by exercise and the moderate use of stimulants.
5. Pilots must sight their guns and practise as much as possible as targets are normally fleeting.
6. Pilots must practise spotting machines in the air and recognising them at long range, and every aeroplane is to be treated as an enemy until it is certain it is not.
7. Pilots must learn where the enemy's blind spots are.
8. Scouts must be attacked from above and two-seaters from beneath their tails.
9. Pilots must practise quick turns, as this manoeuvre is more used than any other in a fight.
10. Pilots must practise judging distances in the air as these are very deceptive.
11. Decoys must be guarded against — a single enemy is often a decoy — therefore the air above should be searched 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 dog fightand 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.

[Capitaine Vengeur 263]

René Fonck was probably the most perfect example of point #4 about physical fitness. He ate frugally, never smoked, never drank, never dated "loose women", never partied with comrades, never took-off when feeling unfit, sometimes left the front for up to one month of physical rest (his slack months in 1918), practised several hours a day various forms of physical training, and was even one of the very, very few Europeans at that time to practise Yoga Pranayama. To be able to control his own breathing allowed him to cruise for long at very high altitudes, his favourite place for look-out with the SPAD diver plane; it also made him able to develop a more accurate concentration, and perhaps even to control his own heart beats in battle (he was a matchless sharpshooter). To submit his own body in accordance with his cold-blooded, merciless instinct made him a perfect killing machine. On the other hand, Charles Nungesser achieved great success with a much looser way of life, to say the least; but it's only through chance and strong constitution that he survived countless potentially lethal wounds.

[Olham 164]

Capitaine, I often wondered, if not René Fonck is often seen very one-way biased by many.

I read here, that he wasn't liked by many, and that he was boasting a lot?

In Ernst Udet's book is a photograph of the civilian René Fonck, with goggles on,

as he turns round to the piloting Udet during a flight over Germany (Berlin?) together.

 

I guess you are the man to ask: Are there any books by Fonck himself?

And are there other books by French WW1 aviators? I never found anything.

 

PS: interesting info about Fonck definitely - didn't know that.

Edited November 17, 2011 by Olham

[Capitaine Vengeur 263]

In the late 20s - ealy 30s, Fonck and Udet often met each other in Germany (yes, often Berlin) and were often photographed together seemingly getting on with each other, the top Allied and top German living aces, for the aviation magazines to proudly display this symbol of reconciliation after "The war to end all wars".

 

Fonck's main release was "Mes combats" (1920): I have seen several different covers, implying many re-editions, but this one seems to be the first and most often displayed. That's the book where he claimed to have downed 141 enemy planes, 127 of which he was absolutely sure. I have only read an extract about his feat of May 9 (six in a day, the first three crashing less than 400m to each other: the cover illustration, probably), but the whole book seems to be a monument of self-indulgence.

 

Fonck wasn't appreciated among his peers. Besides their competition as aces, Nungesser detested him for his boasting, and also for his weird, atypical character (they were so incredibly different, like the soldier monk facing the bar brawler!). Fonck shocked many by stating after beloved Guynemer's death, as an unrespectful brief epitaph: "Well, with his way of fighting, it's surprising he survived that long...". His Escadrille fellowmen didn't like him either; his ascetic way of life most often let him away from them, and he clearly didn't care about. He alone accounted for more than two thirds of the kills of SPA 103, and none of his three usual wingmen all along 1918 ever became an ace: unlike the Red Baron, he wanted all of the spoils just for himself. Claude Haegelen, while considered as his closest "friend", even stated: "He is not a truthful man. He is a tiresome braggart, and even a bore, but in the air, a slashing rapier, a steel blade tempered with unblemished courage and priceless skill. ... But afterwards he can't forget how he rescued you, nor let you forget it. He can almost make you wish he hadn't helped you in the first place."

[Olham 164]

Oh boy - when even "friends" speak like that about you...

Udet was a man who liked to drink too much; I wonder how they could get on?

Maybe Udet didn't understand much French, and Fonck no German?

 

It is very likely, that a person like you describe Fonck, would not be liked.

The crowd doesn't like a guy who goes his own way with good success, as if he needed no others.

And if he didn't even drink with them - no wonder.

But it sounds like he did his flying and fighting like a well prepared man - like a French Samurai.

Edited November 17, 2011 by Olham

[Hasse Wind 46]

Can't argue with results: Fonck did what he did better than anybody else on the Entente side. From a military point of view, that was all that mattered. However, it seems he wasn't exactly a charismatic leader of men. Aces like Boelcke and Richthofen excelled at that, in addition to being great tacticians.