Zeppelin Attack by Jean Navarre

[margaret smith]

I have read that Jean Navarre attacked a Zeppelin armed with only a kitchen knife! Is this fact or just a story, and if it's true which Zeppelin was involved in the attack?

[ONEALM]

... I read about this many, many moons ago. Navarre reportedly grabbed a knife and took off after a reported Zepp without having seen it. He wandered around awhile (presumably with the knife between his teeth, a'la Tarzan) and finally spotted the Zepp. After some time trying to sneak up on it, he discovered it was not a Zepp, but a Zepp-shaped cloud.

The story may be apocryphal to begin with, but I do remember it being amusing the first time I read it.....

[Jim]

No fair! You teased us by telling us the beginning of the battle but not the outcome. How did it end? So was he successful in downing the cloud with his kitchen knife or did the cloud "get the upper hand" and rain on him to force him to the ground?

[TomVrille]

Just to add a bit of "data" to the account, this episode is described in High Flew the Falcons by Herbert Molloy Mason, Jr. The "sortie" took place on 22 March 1915. At that time, Caporal Navarre was flying with M.S.12, flying Morane two-seaters. The normal armament at that time was a revolver and a Winchester saddle gun. The alert "Zeppelins over Paris!!" was sounded just after 0300 hrs. Navarre, dressed in his pajamas under his leather flying coat, and his observer, a Lieutenant ran to their machine. The observer was startled to see Navarre jump down from their machine, run into the cook shack, and return holding something in his hand. Navarre scrambled back into the Morane, and waved the chocks away. Upon reaching the area where the Zeppelin was supposed to be, there was nothing to be seen. Then suddenly, Navarre spotted what he took to be the hostile airship, and gave chase. He climbed at the verge of stalling for 15 minutes, without seeming to gain any ground whatever on his "prey". The observer was the first to realize that they had been chasing a cigar-shaped cloud, and tried to get Navarre's attention. It was at this point that the observer realized that the object Navarre had fetched from the squadron kitchen was a large butcher knife. The thoughts of the observer, sensing at that moment that a madman might be flying him around in the pre-dawn light, are not recorded. The tension was soon relieved when Navarre also recognized that he was chasing a cloud, and he and his observer were able to have a good laugh at their own expense.

Just a little more than a week later, on 1 April 1915 appropriately enough, Navarre was to achieve his first aerial victory, an Aviatik, brought down by only three shots from Lt. Roberts' Winchester. Two shots hit the radiator, and the third wounded the pilot. The Aviatik landed behind French lines, and was captured intact.

There was another story in one of the Time-Life books about an early attempt at using crude weapons in aeriel warfare. One pilot came back with a ragged hole in his wing and he swore that someone had hurled a brick at him!

[Romani]

Well, no mention of beer bottles, but of course who can forget Kazakhov the russian ace who first started using an anchor or grappling hook suspended from a rope!

On at least one occasion, two recon airplanes fired flares at each other

[gregoire]

The story is described by Renee Chambe in au temps des carabines, at this time he was serving with navarre and was even Navarre official officer observer/gunner and he was present at the event
During the night meeting/supper the squdron commender give a zepplin alert over paris if the crew of a plane spotted a zepplin they were supposed to attack it, during the same meeting he was said that the request for machine gun was denied, learning that they will have to attack a zepplin with carabine (in fact the unit at this time was not using winchester rifle in large number but mainly 3 round berthier mousqueton and pistol). The pilots and observers started to joke about what weapon to use to destroy the zepplin and Navarre as a joke but perhaps in a burst of anger grab a kitchen knif take it into is mouth and said that the army giving them no weapon he will resort to the kitchen knife for the kill so it was a dinner talk betwen airmen and nothing more, by the way there is also the story of a french gunner that throw his boot at a german plane after having used all of his amo

I wonder if any of those fighter pilots ever thought of emptying bags of fine sand at a pursuing aircraft. That would make mush out of the engine

[gilles]

It began as a joke but Navarre did fly with the knife that night.
Chambe, his gunner, supposes that he wanted to throw the knife to the Zeppelin just for the pleasure to write something like "attack of a Zeppelin; weapon used : kitchen knife" in the official Escadrille journal.
Navarre wanted to embarass the officials/generals if his attack was publicized.
In Navarre's words, slightly less polite, "ça les emmerdera, quand on mettra ça plus tard dans l'Histoire de France!"

Another interesting Zeppelin attack : a french newspaper announced in august 1914 that Roland Garros died after cutting a Zeppelin with his wing. But according to the author of Canvas Falcons, this would be a rumor

Gilles

[margaret smith]

Jean Navarre was quite a colorful character! Just think, guys, what a crazy scene that would make in a movie!