French books?

[sightreader]

I wondered if there are any first person French accounts of WWI aviation in print, as the vast majority of the accounts seem to be English and American. I am most intrigued by the tactics and psychology of the French, especially in light of Richtofen's comments:
The French have a different character. They like to set traps and to attack their opponents unawares. That cannot easily be done in the air.

Nevertheless, that would seem to be much better footing from which to advance tactics that simply charging around looking to score. Thus, I'm very interested in seeing how French psychology and military tradition translated into tactics before being chained to that surrendering stereotype of 1940.

[Gregvan]

Hi,

There aren't too many. Rene Fonck's memoir Mes Combats was translated into English as Ace of Aces back in 1967, as part of Doubleday's "Air Combat Classics" series (I got 'em all back then, they really opened my eyes). It was widely published in both hardback and paperback versions, and shouldn't be too hard to find on ebay or the used book market. Perhaps it is the translation, but Fonck certainly comes across unsympathetically - WAY too full of himself.

I would recommend Notes of a Lost Pilot by Jean Beraud Villars (Archon Books, 1975, ISBN 0-208-01437-3). This was originally published in French under a pseudonym as the diary of a pilot who was KIA, but Villars survived the war. He had to do it that way because he is very critical of the continued use of old obsolete two-seaters like the Farmans, etc by the French air force. It's a wonderful look at both two-seater and fighter ops, and very insightful.

If you can get ahold of Rene Dorme et Joseph Guiget, la Guerre aerienne de deux As by Marc Chassard, it's one of the best books available. It's written in both French and English and wonderfully illustrated. It has many first-hand accounts by both pilots. Dorme was an extremely aggressive daredevil, that much comes across clearly.

Greg

[sightreader]

Wow, thanks for the info!
If you can get ahold of Rene Dorme et Joseph Guiget, la Guerre aerienne de deux As by Marc Chassard, it's one of the best books available.
This one is a tough one to track down. I guess the publisher has his own website, but it's hard to make heads or tails of it, and the email address doesn't work. Not only that, but I'm worried about my order getting mistranslated or scrambled and ending up with a French only edition, but are you saying that's impossible because it has both versions in the same book?

[Old Man]

I would second Mr. Gregvan's recommendation of "Notes of a Lost Pilot', Sir. I have a copy, and it is a splendid and engaging work.

[dpolglaze]

sightreader.

The Chassard book is indeed in both English and French, and is well worth picking up if you can find it.

The original French Beraud-Villers book is entitled "Notes d'un pilote desparu" and was published under the pseudonym Lt. Marc.

Also, you might look for:

Arnoux, "Souvenirs de l'as de Guerre Arnoux"
Bommart and Puistienne, "Escadrille 155"
Crouvezier, "L'Aviation pendant la guerre"
Desgrandchamps, "Impressions d'un bombardier, 1915"
Peyriller, "Le pilote de Sainte-Therese"

Dan

[sightreader]

Arnoux, "Souvenirs de l'as de Guerre Arnoux"
Bommart and Puistienne, "Escadrille 155"
Crouvezier, "L'Aviation pendant la guerre"
Desgrandchamps, "Impressions d'un bombardier, 1915"
Peyriller, "Le pilote de Sainte-Therese"


Merci beaucoup!

Are any of those books in English?

[dpolglaze]

sightreader,

I probably misread. I thought you were looking for first person accounts in French. Those books are all in French. They're all out of print, and most are expensive. This morning I found all of them but the Arnoux available on the used markets, running about $100-250 each except for the Peyriller, which is less. Most of these accounts were published from the war up to about the mid 1930s

Dan

[sightreader]

All this brings to mind a question... how effective were the French in terms of kill to loss ratio?

I noticed they didn't suffer nearly as many losses as the others, but I don't know if that was because they didn't really engage the enemy or if it was because they didn't have as many planes or what.

Certainly their aces racked up higher scores, but I don't know the reason for that either...

[Old Man]

All this brings to mind a question... how effective were the French in terms of kill to loss ratio?

I noticed they didn't suffer nearly as many losses as the others, but I don't know if that was because they didn't really engage the enemy or if it was because they didn't have as many planes or what.

Certainly their aces racked up higher scores, but I don't know the reason for that either...

Once air war started in earnest, roughly in the autumn of 1915, the French generally managed to maintain technical parity or even superiority in terms of single-seat machines with the Germans. There was never a period when French fighting machines were at the sort of disadvantage the English were, most particularly between the closing stages of the Somme and the summer of 1917. There was no real French equivalent to 'the Fokker Scourge", though French daylight bombing operations in the Rhineland were forced to a halt for some months, and certainly no French equivalent to "Bloody April". Even when, as was certainly the case for most of the period before 1918, French observation machines were far from combat-worthy, they did not suffer too greatly because of the better quality of French single-seaters.

As matters developed, once the battle of the Somme was underway, the English forces became the principal focus of German efforts. The Mutiny of the French army, after the collapse of the Chemin des Dames offensive Arras was intended as a diversion from, rendered the French sectors of the front quiescent for many months, while the English redoubled their efforts. Even the final 1918 German offensive took English forces as it leading target. Being outnumbered over-all, the Germans concentrated their aerial strength, as they did their ground strength, on selected sectors in order to achieve parity in numbers in one area. Thus, for much of the war, the French had a good deal less aerial opposition from the Germans, and German units facing them often did not have the very best equipment available to German fliers.

[Froggy]

*************

[sightreader]

Thus, for much of the war, the French had a good deal less aerial opposition from the Germans, and German units facing them often did not have the very best equipment available to German fliers.
Possibly true, but I'm still much more interested in the kill ratio for French pilots. I know they suffered fewer losses, but did they have proportionately fewer kills?

If their kill ratio was the same as the British and Germans, then the difference in numbers was probably just a matter fewer engagements. If they had a different kill ratio than the British or Germans, then it becomes important to discuss stuff like the quality of equipment, the pilots, the tactics, morale and so forth.

[Varese2002]

Coming back somewhat on the subject I would recommend the book of Anselme Marchal recollecting his flight over Berlin and his capture and the fleeing from the German prisoner camp together with Garros.

Marchal, Anselme (Lieutenant). Après mon vol au-dessus de Berlin, ma captivité, mes évasions. Paris, J. Tallandier : 1919. 344 p -portrait -In-16

Part of the story is also in English, probably about the escape from the German prisinor camp:

Armstrong, Harold Courtenay (1891-1943) ed. Escape!
New York, R.M. McBride & company [c1935]. xxi, 330, [1] p. illus. (maps) ports. 21 cm.
Contents: Editor's introduction.--Hoodwinking the German, by Anselme Marchal.--A prisoner among the Jungali bolsheviks, by E. Noel.--We four and fate, by Henry de Pracomtal.--The fourth man, by H. G. Stoker.--My last German prison, by H. G. Gilliland.--The whirl of fate, by Franz Maske.--Four failures--then freedom, by C. A. Collet.--Escape from the "unspeakable", by T. W. White.--The prince of escapers, by P. L. Richard.--Out of bondage, by H. B. Willis.--My escape from Holland, by Captain Coutisson.

I would also add this one, also translated into English -

Béraud-Villars, Jean Marcel Eugène. Notes of a Lost Pilot. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1975. Original title: Notes d'un pilote disparu. 285 p. illus. 23 cm. ISBN 0208014373



Cheers

Kees

[sightreader]

Oops! Somehow my notification shut down so I didn't see your post!

Béraud-Villars, Jean Marcel Eugène. Notes of a Lost Pilot. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1975. Original title: Notes d'un pilote disparu. 285 p. illus. 23 cm. ISBN 0208014373


Yes indeed, I've been going through this one, and it's one of the BEST aerial books I've read! It covers so many aspects of the war that aren't ordinarily covered - JBV's long and demoralizing stint in 2 seaters (other books I've read are from the observer position, so you miss a lot of that hide and seek strategy). More importantly, he covers mechanical and psychological details usually skipped, allowing us to see how frustrating and frantic it can be to continually adjust your engine and guns throughout flight or how taxing it is to keep your head on a swivel for hours on end as extremes in altitude and temperature wear on you. Finally, it's the first book I've read that tries to convey the pace of aerial war, giving some sense of time to each phase of the mission.

It's definitely one of the most cynical books I've read. I know a lot of guys like JBV: highly intelligent but - missing that magic knack that soaks the lucky ones in the limelight - their great analytical skills become consumed by the idiocy inherent in all big organizations.