Between Heaven and Hell: The Everyday Experiences of World War I Aviators

1. Between Heaven and Hell: The Everyday Experiences of World War I Aviators 2012 Appalachian Spring Conference in World History and Economics Robert William Rennie Department of History: The University of Tennessee

2. The First World War: First truly “Modern” war. Defines the 20th Century. Creates the World of Today. • Middle East • Balkans • Technology

3. The First World War: First use of Aircraft: Fundamentally Alters Human Perception of Time and Space Transformative Technology: Affirms Nationalism Transcends Nationalism

4. World War I Aviators: Still Occupy a Place in Popular Consciousness Highly Stereotyped

5. Who Was The First World War Aviator: Came from a Diverse Background: • Aristocracy • Working Class • “Born in Barracks” • Infantry • Pre-War Aviators • Range of Political Ideologies

6. Who Was The First World War Aviator: Why Aviation: Drawn to Technology: “Flying was to be the thing of the future, and the very near future at that… I realized that flying even in those days was not exactly safe, and it was my firm conviction that I was going to fly quite a lot, which was the idea common to most people on joining the RFC in those day. (Oh! How many shattered dreams!)” ~James McCudden

7. Who Was The First World War Aviator: Why Aviation: Sense of Duty (Adventure): “My dear Excellency! I have not gone to war in order to collect cheese and eggs, but for another purpose.” ~ Manfred von Richthofen Serves in the Cavalry. Impatient to see action.

8. Historiography of World War I Aviation: What We Have… Extensive literature on: • Aircraft Construction • Design Details • Aerial Combat Accounts • Pilot Monographs

9. 1914-1918 World War I In The Air: A Brief History Purpose of Aircraft Not Recognized: Wilbur and I had no idea that aviation would take off the way it has… we were convinced that the aeroplane could never carry more than one passenger… We had no idea that aircraft would be dropping bombs… It was a hobby. We had no idea.” ~ Orville Wright: 1946

10. 1914-1918 World War I In The Air Purpose of Aircraft Not Recognized: Aviation is fine as a sport. But as an instrument of war, it is worthless.” ~ Ferdinand Foch: 1914 Evolution of Technology: • More Rapid than any other war • Bricks and Bottles to Machine Guns and Bombs • Deflectors and Interrupter Gears

11. Evolution of technology Aircraft Primarily Used For: Spotting Enemy Troop Locations

12. Evolution of technology Fighter Aircraft Evolve To: Destroy Enemy Reconnaissance Aircraft

13. Risks to Pilots: Killed in Training: • ½ of 14,166 RFC Deaths were in Training No Parachute • “Surplus to Requirements.”

14. Risks to Pilots: Unreliable Equipment Accidents Combat Environment Numerical Disadvantages Technological Disadvantages

15. THE MYTH OF THE “ACE” Embodies Nationalism Heroic Figures Give Meaning to the War Massive number of monographs Post-War

16. Historiography of World War I Aviation: What We Need… ANALYSIS! • National Identity • History of Technology • Perceptions of Death • Narrative Creation

17. LINGERING QUESTIONS….

18. Death Rituals: We descended to a height of a hundred meters and searched for ten minutes, flying above the woods, but seeing nothing. So we decided to land in a meadow near the woods and search on foot. Soldiers and civilians were running towards the woods from all sides… When we arrived, we found officers, doctors, and soldiers already there. The machine had fallen from a height of about 1,800 meters. Since both passengers were strapped in, they had not fallen out. The machine had fallen through the trees with tremendous force, both pilot and observer, of course, being dead. The doctors, who examined them at once, could not help them any more. The pilot had seven bullet wounds, the observer three. I am sure both were dead before they fell. We found several important papers and other matter on them… On the following day, the two aviators were buried with full military honors in the cemetery at M. Yesterday we were there. The grave is covered with flowers and at the spot where they fell, there is a large red, white, and blue bouquet and many other flowers. ~ Oswald Boelcke: 1916

19. Shell Shock: I'm sick. At night when the colonel calls up to give us our orders, my ears are afire until I hear what we are to do the next morning. Then I can't sleep for thinking about it all night. And while I'm waiting around all day for the afternoon patrol, I think I am going crazy. I keep watching the clock and figuring how long I have to live. Then I go out to test out my engine and guns and walk around and have a drink and try to write a little and try not to think. And I move my arms and legs around and think that perhaps to-morrow I won't be able to. Sometimes I think I am getting the same disease that Springs has when I get sick at my stomach. He always flies with a bottle of milk of magnesia in one pocket and a flask of gin in the other. If one doesn't help him he tries the other. It gives me a dizzy feeling every time I hear of the men that are gone. And they have gone so fast I can't keep track of them; every time two pilots meet it is only to swap news of who's killed. ~ Elliot White Springs: 1918

20. Perceptions of Death: The Young Aviator lay dying, And as in the hangar he lay, he lay, To the mechanics who round him were standing These last parting words he did say - (Chorus): Take the cylinders out of my kidneys, The connecting rod out of my brain, my brain, The cam box from under my backbone And assemble the engine again.

21. Absorbing Loss: “The center of every Royal Flying Corps squadron seemed to be the bar. That may offend a lot of people, but it is perfectly true. When you think of these boys, with the tensions they lived through, they would come in, in the evening, and ask about their best friend… ‘Oh, he bought it this afternoon.’ The gloom would come, the morale would die and the reaction was immediate: “Well, come on, chaps what’re you going to have?” That was the sort of spirit that kept us going… It was to avoid the crying” ~Frederick Powell The Brutality of War: I hate to shoot a Hun down without him seeing me, for although this method is in accordance with my doctrine, it is against what little sporting instincts I have left. ~James McCudden

22. Finding Meaning: The Air War Makes No Meaningful Impact on The Western Front Tens of Thousands of Aviators Die in the Conflict How to World War I Aviators View Their Contribution? “[I admit] to a feeling of anti-climax, even to a momentary sense of regret… when you have been living a certain kind of life for four years, living as part of a single-minded and united effort, its sudden cessation leaves your roots in the air, baffled and, for the moment, disgruntled.” ~Cecil Lewis “I refused a permanent commission immediately after the Armistice and never piloted an aeroplane again as long as I lived. Strangely enough, I lost interest completely the moment the war was over.” ~Ewart Garland

23. Final Thoughts: “What on earth am I going to now? I certainly don’t want to go to Oxford… It’ll take them years to get those places going again after all the cadet schools have cleared out. Two years ago I’d have enjoyed that sort of life, but now it would bore me stiff. I don’t want to learn Latin or any of those funny sorts of things again. I don’t enjoy games so much that I should want to play football all day. I really haven’t the foggiest idea what I want to do and I haven’t met anyone else out there who does.”

24. Where We Go From Here: Deeper Analysis of Documents Cross Country Analysis History of Technology Perceptions of Death Death Rituals

25. WORKS CITED Bingham, Hiram. An Explorer in the Air Service. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1920. Bishop, William A. Winged Warfare. New York: George H. Doran Company. 1918. Bolcke, Oswald. An Aviator’s Field Book. New York. National Military Publishing Company. 1917. Bott, Allan. Cavalry of the Clouds. New York: Doubleday. 1918. Collins, Frederick. How To Fly. New York: D. Appleton and Company. 1918. Cooke, David C. Sky Battle, 1914-1918: the Story of Aviation in World War I. New York. Norton. 1970. Cooper, Malcolm. “Blueprint for Confusion: The Administrative Background to the Formation of the Royal Air Force, 1912-19”; Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 22, No. 3. (Jul., 1987), pp. 437-453. Fredette, Raymond H. The Sky on Fire: The First Battle of Britain, 1917-1918and the Birth of the Royal Air Force. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991. Fischer, William Edward. The Development of Military Night Aviation to 1919. Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. US Documents. 1998. Fritzsche, Peter “Machine Dreams: Airmindedness and the Reinvention of Germany” The American Historical Review. Vol. 98, No. 3 (Jun., 1993), pp. 685-709 Gilbert, Martin. The First World War: A Complete History. New York: Henry Holt and Company Inc, 1994. Hacker, Barton C. “Military Institutions, Weapons, and Social Change: Toward a New History of Military Technology” Technology and Culture. Vol. 35, No. 4 (Oct., 1994), pp. 768-834

26. WORKS CITED Hall, Bert. En l’air!: Three Years on and above Three Fronts. New York: The New Library 1918. Hall, James Norman. The Lafayette Flying Corps: Volume 1 and 2. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1920. Hallion, Richard. Rise of the Fighter Aircraft, 1914-1918. Annapolis, MD. Nautical & Aviation Pub. Co. of America. 1984. Kilduff, Peter. Richthofen : Beyond the Legend of the Red Baron. London, Brockhampton Press, 1999. Kennett, Lee. “World War I Materials in the French Military Archives”; Military Affairs, Vol. 37, No. 2. (Apr., 1973), pp. 60-61. Layman, R. D. Naval Aviation in the First World War: Its Impact andInfluence. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1996. Lewis, Cecil. Sagittarius Rising. London: The Folio Society, 1998. Marwick, Arthur. “The Impact of the First World War on British Society” Journal of Contemporary History Vol. 3, No. 1 (Jan., 1968), pp. 51-63 McConnell, James R. Flying for France: With the American Escadrille at Verdun. New York: Doubleday. 1917. Middleton, Edgar Charles. The Way of the Air; a Description of Modern Aviation. New York. Fredrick A. Stokes Company. 1917.

27. WORKS CITED  Morrow, John Howard, The Great War in the Air Military Aviation from 1909 to1921. Washington. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993. Morrow, Jr. John H., “Industrial Mobilization in World War I: The Prussian Army and the Aircraft Industry” The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 37, No. 1, The Tasks of Economic History. (Mar., 1977), pp. 36-51. Mortane, Jacques. Guynemer: The Ace of Aces. New York: Moffat, Yard & Company. 1918. Nadaud, Marcel. The Flying Poilu. New York: George H. Doran Company. 1918. Neumann, Georg Paul. The German Air Force in the Great War. London: Hodder and Stoughton. (No Date Given.) Noffsinger, James Philip. World War I Aviation: a Bibliography of Books in English,French, German, and Italian. Lanham, MD. Scarecrow Press, 1997. Pieters, Walter M., Above Flanders' Fields : A Complete Record of the BelgianFighter Pilots and Their Units During the Great War,1914-1918. London: Grub Street, 1998. Richthofen, Manfred von. The Red Battle Flyer. New York: Robert McBride & Company, 1918. Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon. Fighting the Flying Circus. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company Publishers, 1919. Scott, A. J. L.. Sixty Squadron, R.A.F.: A History of the Squadron,1916-1919. Novato, CA. Greenhill 1990. Strachan, Hew. The First World War. London, Penguin Group, 2003.

28. WORKS CITED Sweetser, Authur. The American Air Service: A Record of Its Problems, Its Difficulties, Its Failures, and Its Final Achievements. New York: D. Appleton and Company. 1919. Westermann. Edward B. “Fighting for the Heavens from the Ground: German Ground-Based Air Defenses in the Great War, 1914-1918” The Journal of Military History, Vol. 65, No. 3. (Jul., 2001), pp. 641-669. Unattributed Author. Aircraft Mechanics Handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill Company. 1918.