#guynemer

Excellente question. Le meilleur moyen d’en connaître la réponse est d’aller la poser aux Kouchner qui résident au 4 rue Guynemer à Paris, 4ème étage, appartement que leur avait laissé Mitterrand peu avant son élection en 1981, qui lui même l’avait obtenu en 1945 dans des conditions... troubles.

https://www.leparisien.fr/archives/les-locataires-celebres-du-vatican-16-04-2009-480585.php

September 11, 1917 - French Ace Guynemer Killed

Pictured - L’As des as. 

British newspapers reported it first, before the French newspapers in which he was a hero. France’s top ace was dead.

Georges Guynemer had made his 50th kill in June, achieving for him the status of “ace of aces,” the greatest fighter pilot in the sky. His SPAD XII was equipped, uniquely, with a 37mm cannon. The shook the plane to hell every-time it fired (and had to be reloaded by hand,) but it went without saying that there was no other plane like it in the air.

Guynemer was a wealthy son of a family in Compiègne. He was a good student, but sickly and frail. When the war began the French aviation service rejected him on health issues. But Guynemer persisted, going to the health test four times before his father called in some favors. The 19-year old was assigned as a mechanic on an air base.

He wanted to fly, though, and so fly he did. Guynemer bothered every pilot around him to take him up on flights, where he could learn the basics of flying. Eventually his ad-hoc method paid off and he made his way to flight school. There he showed again a dedication to mastery.

As he took off so did his career. He made a first kill in June 1915, and also was shot down for the first time that year, one of seven times in his career. Returning to service in mid-1916 the young pilot showed remarkable skill flying his SPAD single-seater, Vieux Charles. By the end of the year he was an ace five times over with 25 kills.