Combat Fatigue

[bill1]

Trying to research pilots of any nation who were acknowledged to have suffered from combat fatigue or mental breakdowns during the war. Know Bill Lambert suffered a breakdown and there also was one French ace (name?) Any other documented cases?

[rammjaeger]

Curt-Erwin Wüsthoff and Rudolf Berthold come to mind on the German side.

How many of them! Heinrich Gontermann was I think near of nervous brakdown in summer 1917 as he said "got bullets will hit everyone of us in the end for certain" to Udet who was also tatally exhausted in the end of ww1. Some pilot (don't know who exactly) said that nobody in his unit is able to hold bottle of water in one hand on the ground.
Honza

[Bulldog90]

Kurt Wüsthoff for the Germans, definitely had combat fatigue or what would later be called post traumatic stress disorder. Udet had a physical problem (with his ears). I'm sure many pilots on both sides did, however I think there were some key differences in how it was dealt with. Wusthoff, and other German pilots, were periodically given other duties, minus flying, kept within their units and restored to full duty when they were ready. The English would label someone unfit for duty and send them home, a practice that continued into WWII.

[retread]

IMHO if you read between the lines both MvR and Guynemer were at some point near mental exhaustion (to put it kindly). In the cases of Bill Bishop and Elliot White Springs its not even a guessing game . I have read ( although at this moment I can't say where)that during Bishop's stint as squadron commander he shook visibly throughout his entire body before a flight. Elliot White Springs reinforced himself with alcohol. Certainly I do not mean to disparage any of these men. For they all performed what they saw as their duty in spite of their nervous systems lack of co-operation. The triumph of these men's will (and certainly there were countless others) in spite of approaching mental and physical collapse is probably their greatest legacy.

As Guynemer was quoted, "Until one has given all, one has given nothing."

It does not matter whether you or I believe this today. He believed it, and that was his greatness. As well as the greatness of his generation.

[Roadhog]

Talk about the toll that stress took on combat leaders look at any photo of Boelcke from 1914 or 1915 and then look at the lines and wrinkles on his face on photos taken in 1916 before his death. His face says it all. VR, Roadhog "Memento mori."

[MattyBoy]

Ewart Garland, RFC.
He had a breakdown at 10,000 ft and was then given a staff job as a rest from operations.
He had been in France for eight months.

[EARTHLING]

The sensitive souls got it quicker than the unimaginative.

Mick Mannock: Read what 'Eyles' says about his 'Mannock's' behaviour on his last leave. Mouth suddenly filling with saliva. The obsession also about going down in flames.

Willy Fry was diagnosed with Flying sickness D as it was called then. He managed to quarrel with everyone.

Victor Yeates hero had it but then the novel was really autobiographical.

This isn't a dig at the unimaginative, it was an advantage.

[cameldriver]

Reading the letters home of Albert Ball, it would seem that he would qualify for this category.

[duedicoppe]

The Italian ace Fulco Ruffo di Calabria (20 victories) was forced to hospitalization due to combat fatigue from July to September 1917 and was not able to return to the front until october of the same year. After this, he continued to fight until the end of the war scoring his six last confirmed victories. At the beginning of 1919, he left the active duty for exhaustion. Some other Italian aces suffered the same diseases, even if without hospitalization.
Silvio Scaroni (26 victories) had nightmares until his death in 1977. He dreamed one of his victim, a German pilot with a black leather suit that he called "the Black Captain". If I'm in the right, this is one of the typical symptons of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Happy landings
Paolo