[TomVrille]

The account of Guynemer’s final patrol, as given in Guynemer – The Ace of Aces by Jacques Mortane, is worth recounting. According to Mortane, Capitaine Guynemer had been acting as squadron commander since 3 September (1917), following the serious wounding of Capitaine Heurtaux on 2 September. Between 3 September and 11 September, Guynemer is said to have logged a total of 14 hours and 20 minutes of flying time without result, owing to a series of engine ang gun malfunctions. The frustrations of these equipment failures, along with the pressures of an acting squadron commander’s administrative duties, presumably left him in a rather agitated state on the morning of 11 September. Despite continuing bad weather, he took off, accompanied only by Sous-Lieutenant Bozon-Verduraz, on a morning patrol. For some time, the patrol was uneventful, perhaps because the weather was keeping enemy air activity to a minimum. When an enemy two-seater finally appeared at low altitude, apparently lost in the clouds, both Guynemer and Bozon-Verduraz attacked. Guynemer is said to have suffered yet another gun stoppage, and repositioned himself for a second attack. Meanwhile, Bozon-Verduraz had broken off his attack to defend against a flight of hostile aircraft, thought to be coming to the aid of the two-seater. When the approaching flight turned away, Bozon-Veruraz returned to the location of the original attack, but found no trace of either Guynemer or the two-seater.

For some time, there was no indication of what might have happened to Guynemer, but all manner of rumors were circulating, generally hopeful that he might yet return. Then, on 6 October, the Berlin news review Die Woche published a photo of Guynemer’s identity card, confirming that he had in fact been fatally wounded. It was learned that he had fallen near the cemetery of Poelcapelle. Two soldiers had been present at the crash site, and testified that one wing of Guynemer’s Spad had been broken, and that the pilot was dead, with a bullet in the head and a broken leg.

The interpretations of the above details, and other aspects of Mortane’s account, are somewhat different from those from more recent research, but Mortane’s book was published in 1918, and provides a rare glimpse of what most people at that time believed to be the full story of a current event.