85 year ago

12 September 2002, 05:11 PM

From

Willy Coppens' Flying in Flanders:

*"The monument, surmounted by Guynemer's stork, is forty feet high, on the village market place. My mother wrote the inscription that one can read, in bronze letters, on one of its faces:

SUR CE COIN DE TERRE BELGE
RAVAGÉ PAR LA GUERRE, TOMBA, POUR
LA DÉFENSE DU DROIT VIOLÉ,
UN HÉROS FRANÇAIS,

GEORGES GUYNEMER,
DONT LES AILES VICTORIEUSES CONQUIRENT
A VINGT ANS UNE GLOIRE INCOMPARABLE
DANS LE CIEL DES COMBATS. LES AVIATEURS
BELGES, QUI EURENT L'HONNEUR
DE LUTTER À SES CÔTÉS, ONT ÉLEVÉ DE
MONUMENT EN TEMOIGNAGE DE LEUR
ADMIRATION, NÉE DE LA
FRATERNITÉ DES ARMES.

*It is the most imposant memorial of all those devoted to Guynemer's memory."

"Guynemer had trouble with his motor. Our mechanics took care of that. As he was standing on the wheel of his Spad XIII, leaning over the hood with his fur helmet unstrapped, one of our photographers took the marvellous photo of Georges Guynemer, the one that we all know-- his last photo."

Richard_Schrader · 13 September 2002, 07:27 AM

All;
Sorry to be late in honoring France's greatest pilot, and ace.

Al;
I also honor

Billy Bishop, Canada's greatest ace.

Richard

gregoire · 13 September 2002, 10:18 AM

Captain Lewis it is funny you use this picture of guynemer as it one of the less original, there are a few version of this picture that had been modified for publication bussiness
In the original there are 3 mechanics in front og the plane and the look of guynemer is not that strong

13 September 2002, 06:33 PM

Dear Gregoire,
Is the photo below the one that you are referring to?
I posted the one above because I thought that it was the photo that Coppens referred to.
(BTW, both photos have been cropped a great deal as we are limited to 50 KB in these 'simple' attachments here at The Forum).
ASD,
Capitaine Louis

gregoire · 13 September 2002, 11:39 PM

No it was the picture you posted, a few years ago there was a guynemer exposition in the arc de triomphe in paris and they showed the original picture and how it was transphorm for being used by newspaper, you could reconise it was the same but a lot of details were different, there were also picture with guynemer promotion showing on the same original he could be S_Lt, Lt and captain
Impresive work for 1917 (and even for now)