Rickenbacker

Apologies because I have only just read 'Fighting the Flying Circus'. My only criticism is the title.
What a great man: despite little schooling he writes very well. Written in 1918 it has immediacy and I felt I was in the cockpit with him. He also has great powers of leadership.
Practical by nature,with mechanical aptitude he has the necessary prosaic nature that fears the flamer but is not terrified. He can even appreciate the difficulties that more imaginative individuals might have to overcome. I would place him in the first three of great squadron commanders.
My queries are:
1.Why did they consider only Nieuport "27's & 28's. The Hanriot was a much better plane, aerobatically and without wing flutter. The Italians took 800 & the Belgians 120. Did they try or weren't they available?
2. THe N27 appeared to have only one gun but Rickenbacker's has two. I notice from the picture in my book (1973 edition)that one is central and the other is on the left. He shot down 12 with this aircraft. Was this how the normal guns were fitted or is this special to him? Wouldn't the performance be affected with so light an aircraft?
3. He refers in a note in his diary that he would not take advantage of a crippled opponent, on the grounds that it was unsportsmanlike. For a man with his tremendous commonsense, I find it a little odd that as his method of attack was to descend with the sun behind him and shoot his opponent in the back while he was unobserved, he did not regard as unsporting? This is not a criticism because I do not see that Mannock's right hand deflection shot was any different though he came from the side.
4. Captain E. and McCudden seemed to be very similar in outlook, both came from poor backgrounds and were self-educated. Both cautious but extremely brave. Both wrote great books. Do you think they were similar?
I hope nobody is offended, my admiration for him is unbounded and I thought the written description of the armistice and his pilots unrequited joy that they were going to live was extremely moving.
VBR
Peter S

[stephen]

If you don't mind, I'd like to comment more on your comments than your questions. You seem to have read the book with none of the previous biases that afflict most EVR threads. Sometimes the justifiable criticisms against him seem to devolve into a total dismissal from the ranks of the truly great aces of the war.

EVR was successful in nearly every venture he tried, and still had amazing physical stamina and reflexes even as a middle aged man (like when he was lost at sea in WWII). His score per his time at the front (ear infection, yadda yadda) is up there with the best of them and I think your comparison with McCudden in style and attitude is a valid one.

I'm not the world's biggest EVR fan and I still believe he got two or three claims that should have belonged to his wingmen, but I think he is sometimes overlooked in his rightful place as one of the top, great pilots of the war.

"He refers in a note in his diary that he would not take advantage of a crippled opponent, on the grounds that it was unsportsmanlike. "

I do not remember that part, but i do remember the poor Rumpler crew that ran out of ammo shooting at him. The observer stood up and crossed his arm as if to say I am done, do your worst...and Eddie did.

Well perhaps this does not fall in his definition of a crippled opponent. I don't blame him for inflicting hate on them after the submission, after all the guy waste all his bullets on Eddie!

I believe there was a book out last year about Medal of Honor winners that claimed Rickenbacker received credit for a number of victories when, in fact, the German planes involved were only seen diving away. The insinuation was that these 'victories' weren't even as legitimate as the highly dubious British OOC claims. They were just victory credits for driving planes away. German records apparently only confirm two kills for him, compared to 55 for McCudden.

Also, he won the Medal of Honor for an exploit for which he had no witnesses, other than a French soldier on the ground, far behind Allied lines, who didn't speak good English but who agreed to sign a paper saying he'd witnessed the two claims Capt. Eddie submitted that day.

If we are to believe German records (and I am highly suspicious of them) Rickenbacker was not an ace and was not even close to being one.
I think Rickenbacker was a hero (and I do not mean to damn him with faint praise) but there's no more evidence for his exploits than for Bishop, Ball, Fonck, Hawker, Collishaw or many, many others.

[stephen]

If German records dictate Allied air victories, then we didn't have any.

We didn't even know we lost the war until we checked their records.

A veteran race driver- such as Rick was- had an inestimable advantage over most of the other flyers. To drive at a high level of professional racing- and to be ranked among the best- provided him with an awareness of the quality of his own courage. The others flyers, mostly college boys, had no experiences of a life-risking nature. I'd suggest an experience cross-country horseman-as was MvR- could have similarly steeled his nerves through repeated acts of audacity.
Hartney has stated EVR was unparalleled in his potential for success in aerial combat.
Don't overate his literary skills, however, the professional writer Latourette Driggs joined up with Rick shortly after the Armistice and "ghosted" the book.
The N-28 (but never the 27) was Rick's first combat ship. The N-28 was a delight and highly competetive. The Germans thought most highly of it as an adversary. The two English-trained squadrons in the First Pursuit Group complained of the withdrawal of the Nieuports. Bonnell lost his squadron over this disagreement states Hartney.
The N-28s, in a rarely noticed event, were, earlier, issued to the Lafayette Escadrille in place of SPAD VIIs and then shortly replaced again by VIIs. Perhaps the French knew there was a problem in wing design?
Ralph A. O'Neil, a 27th "Ace" thought Rick made a terrible mistake in successfully campaigning for the SPAD XIIIs as replacements for the 28's. The S-XIII engines had a fatal flaw and the performance of the First Pursuit Group, according to O'Neil, was most embarassing after the exchange of the 28s for the XIIIs. It took 3 man-hours to re-engine a '28 and 3 man-days to do the same changeover on the SPAD. Gorrell states the N-28s were due to be reissued as the Armistice occured. The statement is that the flaws in the ship had been corrected; I doubt that they had done so. The serious design flaw is in that the spars are far too close together. The normal design of a conventional wing suggests that 20% of the rib chord be ahead of the front spar; 50% should be between the spars and 30% aft of the rear spar. All kinds of flutter ensues with a disregard of these general ratios. Regards,Lee

[Barrett]

EVR had 5, maybe 6, victories in the N.28 (my Olynyk work is not at hand!) The German observer who stood up "to take his medicine like a man" was the victim of Doug Campbell, also of the 94th with EVR.
EVR received credit for many-many victories that definitely were not kills. One was a Pfalz "last seen in a vertical bank." Anybody who's ever ratraced knows that vertical banks are the small change of dogfights. However, that was the USAS system, and under the regs EVR got the credit. His MOH is the subject of much controversy. One interpretation is that he lobbied Congress for the award 12 years later.
However, I contend that Eddie's greatest contribution had far less to do w/his combat service and more with his efforts to make commercial aviation a profitable (and therefore progressive) enterprise. He recognized the huge potential of the Douglas DC-series before most others, with all the downstream factors which that decision entailed.
In short, he remains a significant figure in US aviation history--even if over-rated for WW I. He was in all respects a leader, as demonstrated by his success with the 94th.

[leo]

I once read an article in Military Magazine written concerning an interview with a WWI US flyer. While not being outright critical of ER it inferred that he was not allhe claimed to be.

One thing he did fail at was the auto business. His name was given to the Rickenbacker 6. It was advanced for its time and featured4 wheel hydraulic brakes. Rumors were circulatedthat the brake lines snapped causing accidents.

His courage in his ordeal at sea during WWII,along with his WWI service make him a genuine hero.

leo

[Barrett]

I neglected to include in my previous post the following.
The mother of a cousin of mine (an attack aviator of the A-4 persuasion) worked with the USRC in Paris during 1918. One of her chores was wheeling Lt. Rickenbacker around during his convalesence from mastoid surgery, as he was unsteady on his feet.
"What'd your mother make of him?" I asked.
Cousin Wynn grinned. "She said he was THE most obnoxious, self-centered man she ever met." Then, with a gleam in his baby blues, CW added, "But then he was a fighter pilot..."

[Mac]

Was she the first ever female attack aviator of the A-4 persuasion ?