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BOYS' LIFE
Dec. 1993, pp. 26+

"By permission of Thomas Fleming and BOYS' LIFE, published by the
Boy Scouts of America."

FLYING ACES OF WORLD WAR I
by Thomas Fleming

Combat in the skies created a new breed of heroes.

     Today's high-tech fighter jets carry computers, radar and missiles. Some, like the American F-16, can travel at twice the speed of sound.

     Modern fighter jets trace their history to the early fighters that flew 80 years ago.

     By today's standards, those early planes were a danger to their own pilots. The fastest planes seldom reached 120 miles per hour. They could break apart in midair, or, with a hit to the gas tank, turn into a flaming coffin. Piloting such craft in combat took skill--and enormous courage.

     World War I erupted in Europe in 1914. It was the first conflict in which planes were used heavily in battle.

     The danger to pilots was great, but so was their glory. Those who managed to shoot down five enemy planes were dubbed "aces." Their stories were told in newspapers, magazines and books. One writer called the flying aces of World War I "a new breed of heroes."

     DARING BATTLE TACTICS

     In World War I, fighter pilots used daring tactics to survive. When an opponent dived on German ace Max Immelmann, for example, the German would climb steeply. Just as his plane began to stall, he would throw it into a looping turn. This would bring Immelmann down on his attacker's tail, ready to finish him off with the machine gun mounted behind his propeller.

     Twenty-year-old Albert Ball was an early British ace. He would deliberately let a German get on his tail. Seconds before the enemy opened fire, Ball would bank sharply and dive. His plane would come up beneath his foe, spraying bullets into the enemy craft.

     German daredevil Werner Voss flew a silvery blue Fokker with three wings. Though not fast, the triplane was easy to maneuver. Voss shot down British planes at a rate of almost one per day.

     But one day he got too cocky. On Sept. 23, 1917, Voss took on six British fighters at once. For 10 minutes, he baffled the Brits with dives, loops and rolls.

     When British ace James McCudden got on his tail, Voss flung his plane sideways. He gave the amazed British ace a burst of fire, then began falling in a tailspin.

     As the fight continued, Voss finally made a fatal mistake. He flew into the gunsights of another Briton, A.P. Rhys-Davids. Voss died with 48 victories to his name.

     FIGHTING IN PACKS

     German ace Oswald Boelcke organized groups of up to 12 planes to hunt as a pack, or "Jasta." The British and French responded with even larger packs. When the two sides clashed, it was called a "dogfight." The sky became a wild confusion of planes spinning, diving and banking.

     A different kind of ace appeared. Frenchman Rene Fonck was cool and cautious. He waited for his opponent to make the first mistake. A crack shot, he once brought down three planes in 10 seconds. Twice, Fonck shot down six Germans in a single day.

     Billy Bishop, a Canadian ace, was another deliberate flier. For target practice, he threw tin cans out at 15,000 feet and dived after them. Soon he was a deadly shot.

     Bishop downed 73 German planes in all. Fonck got 75. They were among the few aces who survived the war.

     GERMANY'S RED BARON

     Germany's greatest ace was Baron Manfred von Richthofen. His bright red Fokker fighter plane won him the nickname "Red Baron." He was a master of air strategy.

     Richthofen often stationed half his Jasta at a low altitude to attract a British or French attack. The Baron and the rest of his pilots would lurk above. When the enemy took the bait, the Baron and his pack would swoop down out of the sun and shred the attackers.

     By 1918, the Baron commanded more than 60 German planes. The British called them the "Flying Circus" because of their gaudy colors. Richthofen gloated over his victories and often collected grisly souvenirs from the wreckage of planes he had downed.

     In two years of combat, Richthofen shot down 80 planes--making him the ace of aces. He was killed in April 1918, not by an enemy pilot but by a foot soldier's bullet as he flew low over the British lines.

     AMERICA'S TOP ACE

     A number of Americans flew in the French and British air forces. Most transferred to the American Air Service after the United States joined the war in 1917. The Yanks quickly learned the harsh rules of the game. By the end of the war, American fighters had shot down 686 enemy planes--and lost 366 of their own.

     The top American ace was Eddie Rickenbacker. He led the "Hat in the Ring" squadron.

     "Rick" coached younger fliers, and once said, "I shall never ask a pilot to go on a mission I wouldn't go on." His squadron downed 69 enemy craft, 26 of which Rickenbacker shot down.

     A WORTHY WEAPON OF WAR

     As the war dragged on, new uses for the plane were proposed. One commander suggested dropping paratroopers behind German lines. Meanwhile, the British and French built torpedo planes to strike at German warships at sea. Toward the end of the war, American factories were churning out about 500 planes a week.

     By the time a truce was signed on Nov. 11, 1918, pilots on both sides had paid a heavy price. More than 50,000 airmen lost their lives in the war.

     The airplane had proved itself as a weapon of war. The skies would never be the same.

                               * * *

     WORLD WAR I

     The First World War began with a single shot in a tiny country in Europe. It ended after dozens of nations had fought and some 10 million soldiers had died. In June 1914, an assassin from Serbia killed the future king of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The two sides, each of which had powerful friends, had hated each other for years. They knew that if war began, other countries would join the fray. Germany fought on the side of Austria-Hungary. It sought world power and thought the war would end quickly. Russia and France joined Serbia. These major powers had treaties that drew other countries into the war. Soon, nations around the world, including Britain, were taking sides.

     The United States entered the war on April 6, 1917, because German submarines began sinking American merchant ships. By war's end, U.S. battle deaths totaled more than 53,000.

                               * * *

     BALLOON BUSTING

     The Germans called them Drachen--dragons. They were big, clumsy balloons that carried observers 1,000 feet above the battlefield. Using telegraph wire that ran to the ground, observers in balloon gondolas directed artillery fire with deadly accuracy.

     The Drachen were defended by as many as 50 machine guns on the ground. Fighter planes circled above them for protection.

     One American pilot, Frank Luke of Arizona, became famous as a balloon buster. He plunged through blizzards of metal to set the Drachen aflame with incendiary bullets. He often retreated with tattered wings.

     On Sept. 29, 1918, Luke shot down three balloons and two Fokkers trying to protect them. Badly wounded, he crashed behind German lines and was shot to death.

     With 14 balloons and four planes to his credit, Luke was America's second-ranking ace.