French 'Ace' Gives Our Fliers Advice, New York Times (April 13, 1918)

xjouve · 23 June 2009, 03:03 AM

Enjoyable read. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive...629C946996D6CF

Bulldog90 · 23 June 2009, 05:35 AM

Wow, thanks for posting that. Interesting to note that they compared him to Garros, who by this point had not flown for a few years.

Bulldog90

bristol scout · 23 June 2009, 05:56 AM

They named a Tennis Tournament after Garros---did they name anything after Fonck?

Dave.

xjouve · 23 June 2009, 06:13 AM

Well, it looks like Fonck has been 'forgotten' for some (wrong) political reasons... Sad to say. Actually, the "Association Mémoire de

René Fonck" is trying to give him justice.

Interesting to read "Unlike many great fliers -Lufbery and Guynemer, for example- he doesn't put shooting first. Manoeuvring your opponent is the chief thing, he said"... Quite the contrary, even if it isn't paradoxical, to what it's commonly believed about him.

bristol scout · 25 June 2009, 07:27 AM

Sorry Xjouve,

I suppose i'm of the 'school' that has ---at least some--doubts about what might constitute 'wrong' about Fonck in his later (post W.W.1) years. But it has been discussed here on another post some time ago, and of course, differing views were aired

Cheers,
Dave.

xjouve · 25 June 2009, 07:37 AM

I'm always opened to discussion. So far, about Fonck, I've only read commonly believed things to be taken as truth.

Barrett · 25 June 2009, 11:49 AM

A coupla points: first, it's peculiar that the correspondent's identity is concealed. Wonder why...certainly not what we've come to expect of the journalistic profession. (Can you imagine Geraldo saying "Oh no, I don't want anybody to know it was ME interviewing the foremost aerial duelist...")

Secondly, where'n blazes did they get the idea that JG.I followed the Storks around the western front?

Can't find it again but the article seemed to say it takes more training to produce an infantryman than an aviator...

But this is a terrific resource, and I thank you for posting it! Maybe Scott can add it to the archives.

Gregvan · 25 June 2009, 12:13 PM

Hi,

3rd Paragraph down: "It requires no long years of training, as the land service does". Huh?

I'm sure it may have been a common belief that the "Tango Circus" or "Richthofen's Circus" followed Groupe de Combat 12 around, but it wasn't so! Made for good propaganda. Any time any Allied airmen were encountering skilled German fighter pilots (especially if they had bright colored airplanes, or red noses - as did many units, not just Jasta 11 and JG I) the immediate conclusion was that they were facing "Richthofen's Circus". The use of "Tangoes" to refer to the Richthofen Circus or a skilled group of German fighter pilots is unique to the French - I've seen it in Thenault's book on the Lafayette and some Stork group literature. It supposedly comes from the tangerine orange-red markings on their airplanes...

Greg

Barrett · 25 June 2009, 12:22 PM

Greg, now I recall that one of the 1930s GW epics contained reference to "the Tango circus" or somesuch.

Q: If, against all conceivable odds, there were to be a Fonck Film today, who would we cast? He was certainly more Ice Man than Maverick.

Bulldog90 · 25 June 2009, 02:38 PM

I recently read a piece that explained how the Tango was the dance in 1914, so culturally it makes sense that someone would describe aerial combat in this way.

It seems that there might be a security reason for a correspondent not having a by line when reporting from a war zone.

I've sent some images of

Rene Fonck to his grandson Emannuel recently.

Bulldog 90