Fighting the flying circus

[Brad]

Hi I just finished reading "fighting the flying circus" EVR was constantly rushing to the front to confirm his claims. However on this forum we seem to be doubting most of his victories as celebrety building. Also he is claiming balloons shot on the ground (OOCs?)and describes several unconfirmed kills. German records aside, where is our new conflicting knowledge comming from. Also is there a ghost writer for FTFC. Thanks Brad

[leo]

I don't have an answer to your question, but it seems that all flyers of all nations have been the target of Forumites at one time or an other.
It just happens to be EVR's turn.

leo

[Lufbery]

Brad,

Yes, there was a ghost writer for FTFC. A fellow on this board, named Ira Silverman sent me this note in response to the question on EVR's ghostwriter:

FTFC was ghost-written by Laurence La Tourette Driggs, a popular aviation writer of the period. It was based on the diary and original text prepared by Rickenbacker in 1918.

In 1997, Prof. W. David Lewis of Auburn University edited and annotated the original text. In this form, it was published in 1997 as the 95th book in the "Lakeside Classics" series, which are issued annually by R.R. Donnelly & Co. To quote the publishers preface:

"This edition represents a version of "Fighting the Flying Circus" that is as faithful as possible to the diary and original text prepared by Rickenbacker in 1918. But it also preserves the eloquent prose added by Laurence La Tourette Driggs, the ghost writer. The editor compared Rickenbacker's typewritten manuscript with the published 1919 version and eliminated many passages that were not based on the original manuscript."

Copies of the Lakeside Press edition were not made available to the general public, but rather given as Holiday Gifts to Donnelley customers. Occasionally, a copy can be found in a used bookstore, they currently fetch $20 but are increasing. IMHO, worth it if you can find it.

If anyone has any idea where I might get a copy of the Lakeside Classics version, please let me know.

FWIW, I believe that claims for victories were always higher, sometimes significantly so, than reality. I'm not accusing the pilots of being liars or shameless self-promoters (most of them anyway). It is simply that in the confusion of aerial combat, it was pretty difficult to tell exactly what was happening. This was a problem in WWII as well as WWI. Gun cameras made assessing kills easier, but even then there's some room for error.

Given that, however, I think that EVR's score is not as far off as some. His diary makes it clear that he did, in fact, seek confirmation for a large number of his kills. There's the possibility, of course, that the confirmation was erronious, but eighty years later, it's impossible to know.

By the way, in 1969, a U.S. Air Force review board reduced Rickenbacker's score to from 26 to 24.33 because they determined that he had shared a number of his victories with other pilots.

-Drew

[Brad]

Im so glad the airforce has fixed this score thing for us. I hope they can also solve the Bishop debate. Meanwhile Merriweather Lewis is now a Capt. Given fifty more years EVR will be mentioned as Perhings chauffer who had a passing interest in airplanes. His page in the history books will be replaced with Col. lewis and Maj.Clark Brad

[Lufbery]

LOL!

I think you're SOL on the Bishop thing since he's a Canadian and the US Air Force wouldn't have any authority.

Seriously, though, I don't have any problems with what the Air Force did to R's score. It seems perfectly reasonable that if more than one person helped bring down an plane, then more than one person should get part of the credit.

-Drew

Most "scores" are adjusted downward after the wars, when enemy records become available for study--the "shrinkage" in ace scores is nothing compared to tonnage reductions in the scores of sub skippers. ER also suffers in comparison to Frank Luke, whose reports have been found to be extremely accurate in assessing enemy damage; ER is among the average recorders. It may be that some pilots, like Luke, are possessed of near-supernatural SA--complete awareness of everything happening in the air. George Beurling was similarly gifted, and accurate, and also like Luke, has the exagerrated reputation for being a "wild" man. Not with a trigger.

[stephen]

EVR's situation is highly political and goes through multiple presidential administrations and into Congress. I have long thought EVR was a good pilot with a score in the teens, but better researchers than me seem to disagree. Barrett knows as much as anyone on this and maybe we can pester him into enlightening us.

[Frank_Olynyk]

The US Air Force did not reduce Rickenbacker's score from 26 to 24.333. Check the May issue of Air Force Magazine (any year). Historical Study 133 on USAS World War 1 Victory Credits showed percentages for each claim. But it never added them up, to give a total (on purpose I suspect). The adding up aspect was done by Ray Toliver in his various US Aces books.

Frank.

[Lufbery]

Thanks Frank,

I stand corrected.

-Drew

One more point that I've often pondered over: in FTFC, EvR makes it clear that he did NOT fly over the front lines on the morning of November 11; yet, in his autobiography, he draws a wonderful word-picture of his flight over the front lines on that morning (something he just had to see, men rushing from trenches and embracing in No-man's Land, etc.). The latter account doesn't exactly ring true, I'm afraid (for I admire EvR greatly). Further, he actually changed the circumstances of his father's death in the autobiography, saying it was a work-related accident, when he was actually killed by a fellow workman (who was charged, tried, and did time-- the records are there). Comments?