Mannock's Mercy - Sources

Some months ago there was a discussion about Mannock having declined to claim victories because the aircraft shot down had not been combat machines. I was familiar with the story but did not know where it had first come to my attention. I have now found my "source" - a book read some 45 years ago in my school library. It was THE AIR FORCE TODAY by E. Colston Shepherd, BA, BLitt (Oxon), Special Correspondent of The Times attached to the Houston Mount Everest Expedition and revised by H.T. Winter, Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society. The book was published by Blackie and Sons Limited (London ad Glasgow), first in June 1939 with a revised edition in 1942 and a second printing in 1942. The exact text (pages 57-58) read:

"During his first three months with No.40 Squadron in the early part of 1917 he had brought down only two machines. Then he began to pile up a steady record of successes, claiming only those victories which could be corroborated, and omotting chivalrously to claim successes in which an opponent had been unable to fight back. His flight one morning dived on a formation of five two-seaters and shot them all down. It occurred to the flight afterwards that not one of the German machines had answered their fire and then they realized that it was because they had no guns. Those two-seaters were being flown by pupils, and 'A' Flight of No.40 Squadron never submitted combat reports on that morning's work."

This is the earliest description of this incident I know about (whether it is from the 1939 original or was incorporated in the 1942 revision I do not know).

Personally I find the story implausible and since no combat reports were made it is doubtful if any contemporary account exists. In the absence of contemporary reports, the story is unprovable.