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5 Top Aces of World War I: The Fighter Pilots Who Became National Heroes

WWI saw the birth of an entirely new form of combat: lone men engaging the enemy in aerial dogfights. The victors became heroes back home, but this was as deadly an occupation as it was an exhilarating one. One bullet, an engine or structural failure, or plain bad luck could end a pilot's career in a moment. A flying 'Ace' was a pilot who had accumulated five 'victories', that is, they had downed five enemy planes, airships, or balloons. The 'Ace of Aces' was a pilot who achieved more victories than any other pilot in their nation's air force.

A New Form of Combat

In the early years of the First World War (1914-18), airplanes were used largely for patrols and reconnaissance, identifying the positions of enemy artillery and spotting large troop movements. As technology quickly developed, triplanes and biplanes became much faster, more manoeuvrable, and capable of climbing to higher altitudes. Machine guns were mounted at the front of the plane. These guns could be synchronised to fire through the propeller arc, and so the pilot could now attack enemy aircraft. The fighter plane was born, and a new form of warfare developed, where each side tried to destroy the fighters of the enemy, usually in one-on-one encounters known as 'dogfights'. The idea of this more individual form of combat captured the public's imagination, especially as it contrasted starkly with the mass and largely anonymous infantry charges that characterised the trench warfare of the Western Front. Fighter pilots became the most glamorous of all serving men, representing, at least to the public back home, a more exciting and chivalrous form of combat.

The reality of war for fighter pilots was rather different from the public's perception of a quick sortie, shoot down a couple of sitting ducks, and straight back to the mess for a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs. Pilots (and their gunners in two-seater planes) battled the double risk of highly unreliable machinery and a tenacious enemy fighting for their own survival.

As we shall see, even the very best pilots were throwing the dice of death each time they took to the skies. Not for nothing did some aircraft earn nicknames like 'the flying coffin'. Casualty rates amongst pilots on all sides were at least 50% and many pilots lasted only a few weeks or even days. Death could come at any moment from structural failures, an engine problem, a gun jamming, accidental collisions, enemy fire, or a mistake made from inexperience or fatigue.

As the conflict dragged on, effectiveness and survival in the air war became much more a matter of flying in coordinated squadrons rather than pilots flying as solo knights of the air. It is significant that many of the more enduring air aces were squadron leaders. Enduring success in the air only came when individual skill and bravery were supported by fellow pilots, ground crew, innovative aircraft and weapons designers, and a fair slice of luck.

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