Udet, what a lucky man!

Dear all

I think that Udet was one of the luckist polits of the war. Firstly there was his encounter with Guynemer, where Udet's gun jammed/ran out of ammo and Guynemer let him go (out of interest does anyone know the facts of that encounter?). Secondly there was that mid-air crash he was in, in which he was able to bail out. If only Mannock, and a few of the others would have had the same luck!

Mark

[mike_baram]

Survival in combat depends a lot on luck, as well as what's referred to as "Situational Awareness", with a lot of skill thrown into the mixture.
Rickenbacker survived one fight because he had bad vision in his right eye. It forced him to aim with his left eye, moving his head to the right to do so. A bullet that entered his windshield missed his head by a fraction of an inch. Had his head been "four fingers" further left, he would have been "the late Capt. Rickenbacker". Pure luck, IMO.

[Darryl]

<<<If only Mannock, and a few of the others would have had the same luck!>>>

If only they would have had the same parachute!!!

regards

Darryl

Mark, you can read about the Udet/Guynemer encounter in Udet's own words at:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/fwwguynemer.htm

No hatred here. No hidden agenda.
This act of Guynemer's had to be one of the most stupid moves of the war. If he had finished Udet right then, he would have saved 72 Allied pilots. Chivalry died in 1066 when another Frenchman shot King Harold in the back.

[Reinout]

Chivalry didn't die in 1066, but that's a debate too huge to go into now.

And neither did King Harold die from an arrow in the back. He looked up into the sky at one point of the battle when an arrow suddenly landed in his eye, killing him (obviously).

Kind regards,

Reinout

[Reinout]

Sorry folks, I forgot to add the key info!

I had wanted to say that any warrior from any nation comes upon one or more times ("more" could go up to dozens) during his combat career where nothing but sheer luck will save him, despite his skill level. Udet was lucky on several occasions, but some of his enemies were too. Luck helped Boelcke and Immelmann as did it help MvR, Voss, Mannock, Ball and the rest of the lads. Those who weren't lucky were killed before they scored a victory, sometimes after they had scored once or more and sometimes after they had scored dozens of times! Point is, we could never ever hold having luck against a man as it tells us not enough of his skill. Besides, a man having luck is in general not by his own doing: he is not responsible for having luck.

Kind regards,

Reinout

[leo]

My old high school coach used to say, " I would rather be lucky than good."

Reinout. Arrows do not come from the sky! The king looked about (He's going to look up at the sky in the middle of an attack?) and was shot from behind. The arrow penetrated his visor, but he was shot from BEHIND, even though his head was turned. Very unchivalrous,
I'd also say that one-upmanship is unchivalrous

Lets face it chivalry never existed in the first place, it is only ever shown in films. Knights were efficent killers who thought nothing of murder in the name of God.