Binge Drinking and the RFC

It seems to me that the RFC chaps did a great amount of binge drinking. Anyone care to guess as to how much it had an effect on their operational effectiveness? And was the problem worse with the British, or was binge drinking a problem with the Germans and French as well? I don't seem to remember the German accounts as mentioning it as often.

TIA for any informed replies.
Dean

Dean "Old Sport",you would binge drink to, if you
were going up against the bloody Red Baron!
Baron vonTecumseh

[Ginger.]

Our lads could outdrink the Hun as well

"Our lads could outdrink the Hun as well"

So it would seem, and that's sort of the point of my post. Were the RFC and AFC lads "operationally impaired" as a result, making themselves easier targets? I don't doubt that most of us would have done the same thing, had we been 20 years old and convinced that we "hadn't got a prayer in the morning". But were they only making matters worse by taking on MvR and company with a hangover?

Does anyone know if the units that cracked down on drinking fared better?

Dean

I doubt anyone has done a formal study of drinking in the RFC and its impact on operational effectiveness. I rather doubt such a study would be possible.

It is possible to generalize, though. On the whole, "binge" drinking just didn't happen, not in my understanding of the term "binge." Squadron COs were charged with maintaining the effectiveness of their units, and almost without exception did so. As a rule, pilots were discouraged from drinking if they were scheduled to fly morning patrols; if a pilot abused alcohol to the point of making him a danger to himself and his companions, he would most likely be sent to the MO for assessment and, in extreme cases, be posted back to Home Establishment.

Dean: I just finished Libby's book "Horses Don't Fly." He goes on about the blessings of the rum ration, and there didn't seem to be any shortage of drinking by the author or his cronies. I get the impression that there was a lot of drinking going on. I guess it was a pretty good way of stepping away from the horrors of the war. I would also guess that some squadrons were noted for partying and others were not, that some commanding officers were much more tolerant of those behaviors than others. While I haven't read anything about commanders concerned about flyers in WWI, General McClellan said that if he could dry out the Army of the Potomac he would have another division. Another interesting angle on this is the book "The Blue Max." Can a young German pilot survive the booze and the war?
DD

A rum ration (as in the Royal Navy) does not necessarily lead to heavy drinking. It may, in fact, have a moderating effect by assuring that there will always be a bit tomorrow. One might ask how much the apparent "binges" are part of reality and how much a part of Hollywood hookum. Didn't the French, British or Germans make flying movies in the 20s and 30s ? Did Hollywood have a monopoly on them ? If there were flying films from these other nations, what conditions do they show ?

There is one more factor - the cultural ability to drink. People from fairly liberal societies may drink a lot but space it out and not (as a rule) get loaded (long term liver effects are another subect altogether). People from repressive societies (as with Methodist or Presbyterian upbringing) and societies that have experimented with prohibition (which had been tried in assorted jurisdictions from the 1880s onwards) may have had a greater tendency to "binge" because, once started, they did not know how to drink.

[Ginger.]

There is one tale in'Winged Victory'of Camel pilots flying while hung over.The evening patrol had been scrubbed so the Flight went dinner time drinking.On returning they had to fly.The spectacular result was a bunch of sadder and wiser pilots,lucky for them they did not meet The Von.It was something they never did again.

Although a bit later that WWI, if you're interested in alcoholic militaria, see:
http://www.ima-usa.com/p18.html
Like I said, out of period for the great war, but I doubt this was a new fad...
Even in Air Force blue!

Hi All,
It's been a while since I read, 'The Right Stuff' but doesn't Wolf make quite a lot of, as I remember it, 'Drinking and driving, drinking and flying' ? Pilots sitting in their aircraft after a night on the sherry gulping oxygen to wake up? These were would be astronauts to boot. I posted as a reply to a thread a while ago, that I had seen an interview with a RFC veteran. The interviewer commented on the number of photo's that showed the pilots drinking and smoking. The vet replied that they all drank and smoked a lot because they were either scared or stressed.
Regards, John.