Transcripts For CSPAN3 Psychological Impact On World War I Pilots 20240713

For the smithsonian and seaport. Mr. Will cannes is a published author of books and articles related to maritime in aviations history. He has a masters degree in history from Harvard University and is currently working on several books relating to world war i aviation. He is adjunct faculty in the History Department at st. Marys college of maryland. Mr. Will cans is also serving as producer of aerial effects for the lafayette as betrayal, a documentary film. Marks new rope book, errol neurosis, pilots of the First World War in the site illogical legacy of combat will be available for october 21st. Due to unforeseen complications, we do not have copies of the book for signing tonight. However, we do have some book plates already signed that you can pick up on your way out, or the speaker has graciously agreed to personalize some as well. Thank you again for joining us this evening and without further ado, please join me in welcoming mark will convince. applause i thank you for that very nice introduction. Im so happy to be here tonight. Thank you all for coming. I hope you will find the stopping as fascinating as i do. Basically just to give you a little background for the book was an article that i did for Aerospace Magazine called dark side of glory. I dont know if you cut that. Two years ago. Anyway, the research for that article sort of opened my eyes to the amount of material that was out there about how greatly a lot of these First World War pilots suffered because it was a very aerial Aerial Combat was in its infancy. People were not prepared for what awaited them at the western front. Presentation is broken into two parts. The first part will give you a background of the context in which these people flew and fought and died, and suffered. Pierre have about five k studies to confirm the book on the various pilots, live direct quotes from their letters and writings about how they felt at the time. What is illuminating about that. Im going to ask you to save your questions to the end and let us just get rolling here. What my one copy of the book the publisher assured me that they would be here. I apologize. I dont know why they are not here, but they were supposed to be here, so. Anyway i hope you see it fit to buy copies. Its fascinating reading in there. This is kind of an overview of what we will cover tonight. Talking about the various components of, chief among them, coming out of the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century. Fantastic array of inventions that were produced in the late 19th century and 20th century. Seemingly people making were these things, developing these things. Nobody could really piece together the big picture and how this would all coalesce at the western front when the war broke out. Students of history out there will recall that the beginning of post civil war reconstruction. A movement in america and of other countries as well. Many of the urban agrarian jobs, farmers, that sort of thing, people began to sort of gravitate toward cities where there were better jobs where promise of steady work the slow process of urbanization kind of pulled people towards the cities and left the rural environment behind khoury. The working poor flocked to the citys. Hours were long. Edward ian age, moving into the 20th century. Assembly lines and factories were replaced by artisans. Treat people of the past for a oneoff type of thing. A dazzling array of new technologies. Einsteins theory of relative to lift relativity. Henry ford people of course ripped that off. A car could be mass produced that way, it is exactly what happened. Textile mills. One of our case study tonight was a textile he had an amazing factory in the south and he would eventually take over that business. Anyhow, the brownie camera, photograph, light bulb. All of these things are being produced. Some not so fun stuff as well. Interesting notion james beard. Hes kind of kooky. He developed this concept called nearest fema. Its sort of an agrarian pastoral life style urbanization he blamed steve powell from magazines dissemination of information, telegraph, sciences in the mental activities of women. Go figure, right . He was a little bit of a crack pot. He does touch on an interesting point, this notion neurasthenia of progressively more technologically infused society and he was kind of a shift for people to adjust to all of this technology. This will become more amplified as we move forward towards the First World War. Howard maxim. If there was men you can point to who was unwittingly one of the chief architects of the slaughter of the First World War it was the sky. He was a frenetic inventor of all manner of things. Coffee roasting, airplanes, electric light bulbs. He had a very active mind. All of these inventions he was working on. As a child he was hunting in maine. He had a shotgun, or maybe it was a rifle. He fired, and the recoil not him to the ground. He said, the only way to harness that energy of that recoil this is exactly what he did when he invented his machine gun. He spent weeks and weeks drawing, because he was a proficient drawer and engineer. He was machining the parts for his first machine gun which he called a daisy. It was a maximum gun. This was the gun you saw at the western front, also the guns you saw an aircrafts, ships. It was preponderance. Maxim was also very savvy as a businessman. He was made sir max at the turn of the century 1901, at that time. He was in tight with all the elites in england. They took him around and introduced him to anybody who is anybody. He got tight as a tick with a british military, way before, 15 years before the First World War. He went all over the world in fact. He promoted his gun trying. China said we do not want such a thing. Its too fast for us. Get out of here. That was interesting. In turkey they said, you have not invented a suitable vice. If youve invented something that is a cool vice come back and see. Eight we are not interested in your gun. Very interesting. Anyway, one of the interesting things about hiram maxims he thought his guns could only be used on savages. Native people in various countries, not quote, civilized people. A mental construct he produced for himself. There were a number of battles, the battle of durham was one where the british army him down with rapidity and facility on the native people that were attacking them. This is africa. He was appalled by it. He wanted to quickly, eventually, sort of disenfranchise himself from this invention that he had invented and it was preponderance all over the globe. He invaded invented this thing called a pipe of peace. Went into the other direction. It was a mental and hail are. People suffered from asthma and bronchitis. He wanted this little pipe of peace to expunge the history of the machine gun for himself. In the closing chapter of his memories he talks about, wishful thinking, i suppose might pipe of peace will obliterate i will remember for the pipe of peace. Of course it could not be further from the truth. So anyway hiram maxim had his machine gun. Everyone is in the hands of everybody. Everyone had access to this gun. Almost everybody, anyway. Nobody could again, see the big picture. Post napoleon, worst war tactics that would be used, frontal cavalry charges. At the west front people could connect the dots of all this technology and tactics that were being employed. There is another good guy. I fritz haber was german and he was the inventor of poisonous gas. I think it was chlorine gas. Of course this was another thing that was available. Mustard gas, all of these gases were available. It was an interesting thing. People were so preoccupied with, can we do something . Instead of asking themselves should we do something . Once it is out there, when steve invented this thing, a spectrum of military applications is never far away. It never has been in the history of mankind. These things were again, being developed almost any kind of isolated fashion. Suddenly, oh my goodness, another interesting topics. The bushels of 1775. It looks like a tomato with a propeller. Ills variance 20,000 leaks under the sea. Its the notion of this deranged, destroying merchant sipping, warships with the submarines, couldnt be more so basically between that period, 1870 and 1914, english france, germany and the u. S. All had subs. The question was do we want to use them. What did they call them . Sneak dodgers down below, that is what they referred to as submarines. He thought it was a very unmanly, not very chivalrous, this notion of submarine, it was cheating. Warships should stay on the surface. You should not have to resort to using subs. In england, churchill was one of the first see lords of this time. They all debated, if germany is going to use them, we have to use them. We cannot make distinctions in wartime about whether or not use a weapon that can help us. We have to put that aside and win the war. Basically, everybody kind of tacitly agreed that we were going to use this technology. It was an abstract concept. They could not see that the First World War was just over the horizon. They said we will probably use this for wars but it had not occurred that it was on the backburner, and its probably not gonna happen, although when it did, germany kind of we will get to that in a minute. Military aviation. It is an aviation top. This is kind of an ironic statement, but mr. Wright said the dream has become the nightmare. Interesting statement because or evil was very keen on getting that military contract. It was kind of the thing they want the u. S. Government to buy their flyer for the civil war. We also had this time in 1904 to 1914, had a very dynamic context for aviation especially in france. My goodness. Right developed the first flyer. It was an okay airplane but when you look something at like it looks like an airplane, it has a fuselage. Engine forward tractor model plane. France was just, wow. They just took the ball and ran with it. You had the channel crossing in 1909. The do month flights. The big takeaway here was in england, across the channel, everybody realized almost freaked out, that look, we are not going to be protected by our navy anymore. These airplanes are going to fly over the navy and bomb or attack homeland. So they are no longer protected by their wooden walls, warships. This was a huge worry. So the minister he was the first to call for planes in england. He was fasttracked in pretty much every country. It was an infectious thing. One country saw that they had a flying group of flying machines, and the others wanted it to. Just like anything. Balance of power. Good. The wrights did get that contract. The thing with the rights, they did not want to show their airplane nobody wanted to buy an airplane until the site fly. So the wrights were like, we are not going to flight unless you buy it, and the others that might versus vice versa. Anybodys whos read tom crouches book, it explains it very thoroughly. Recognize warfare. Putting all the pieces together at the western front. World war one was clearly the dawn of mechanized warfare as we know it. The tanks evolved during the war. The zeppelins, it was a great debate, beginning of 20th century over air ships versus fixed wings. Aircrafts evolved in parallel. Is that plan during world war one were probably more devastating than bomber raids or any other aircraft. Interesting lee, they bombed won in paris and in paris people would sit out and their balconies on rooftops and watched disciplined rates as kind of entertainment as the searchlights crisscrossed the skies and illuminated these great silvery things sneaking across the sky. Of course aircraft head and shoulders above any technology, aircraft involved at an exponential rate during the war. Think about the right model be. Or the 11, and you look at the fall corps d. C. Seven. The various aircrafts that were developed in four years. Wow. Quantum lee forward. Unlike the trench warfare which would mired in all thinking, there was none of that four aircraft. People saw something aircraft manufacturing were doing something right and they would rip them off. It would build on that. It was a very compressed timeline. Weeks, often outside of months. There would be a new aircraft design coming off the Assembly Line that was allegedly better than the previous one. Beginning of the war, we saw progression from observation, because due to the devastation of trench warfare, no mans land and all the craters, troops could not do adequate reconnaissance across that type of terrain. Aircraft finally had a role that they could be plugged into the military. They could fly over this stuff, report on troop movements etc. Recognizance became the chief thing in earlier aircraft, structured on reconnaissance. Of course we have a British Reconnaissance plane and german reconnaissance plane. Originally was salutes, semi cordial hello, and then throwing shoes and hammers at each other. People started strapping shotguns on the side of the plane, finally they are at fix point and shoot weapons at the close of the war. This is how Aerial Combat sort of evolved. Slowly, well not so slow actually, pretty quick. Fighters were developed to escort reconnaissance planes and eventually bombers. What else . Submarines as i mentioned, machine guns, poison gas, barbed wire, crazy calibers, rail guns that could log a shelf 12 miles. Pilots used to call them flying rats. They could see the shells going through the air. They were that big as they were flying along. You would see the stark shape. It would make a downward descent and slow down and you can see them. Through rest in the middle of the poppies. I want to read from the book this passage that is very here we go. Yet, ill catches the heart among the devastated cartridges, tumbled trees, the secreted cemeteries, open candid to blue heaven, poppies are growing. Crimson poppies from the lips of creators, struggling and drifts between the hammocks, undaunted by the desolation. Heedless of human fury and stupidity. Finders puppies basking in the sun. You know the famous poem flounders fields. This became sort of an iconic symbol in the First World War, these red poppies. They grew in the weirdest places. I was counting on before, a lot of weird things happen at the western front that were counterintuitive. For example, artillery barrages when on all day long. It was a distant Rolling Thunder all day long. Late at night, ten or 11 00. It finally stopped, and the birds which are start to cheer up all night long. Youd have these crazy reversals, flowers growing. Clumps of mangled carnage. Mud and blood of warfare. Blood dripping at night. All of these fantastic weapons. One thing, you see this and all the writings, troops and whatnot, people in tanks. They felt like they were fighting a faceless enemy because they were in shrouded in these machines. It was a war of machines and it was difficult to identify your opponent or enemy as a human being. Trenches were so far, the artillery was burying people alive. Different context from the frontal assaults of previous wars where you would see your enemy right up close and hand hand combat. You could argue that this basically facilitated slaughters because if you cannot see the enemy, you know you are destroying it, it makes it easier to do so. This is the exact problem we have with our flyers. The takeaways when these people confronted their victims as people, they suffered grievously. We are talking about the flyers. With trench warfare going so poorly and epic carnage, people were kind of resigned to the fate of the notion of flyers. These guys were far above it all. Flying sort of on this one on one type of combat. As opposed to the group slaughter of trenches below was a romanticized notion. Pilots were promoted as kind of like rock stars and movie stars. People like look at the pictures. I have two of them here. These people were made out to be larger than life so that it gave people hope in the trenches. There is this idealized notion that flyers are romanticized, chivalry it, stuff that was overdone, admittedly. France germany and the u. S. Ill promoted their aces, especially france and germany. Brittany did not. They were the air marshal at the time he, thought it was unfair to the troops to promote flyers because what about the troops that were fighting down . Should not they be promoted as well . The troops, especially people in the trenches, they needed heroes. They needed something to point to that was actually working and at this war, or seemed to work anyway. These flyers sort of fit that purpose. Most of the pilots knew they were far from invincible. Aces died just like everybody else, but for a time, that image became more and more burnished. It was promoted by the press. Elaborate ceremonies, pilots were given that. It was amped up publicized events. People would see this in the papers, proof of german superiority. It was actively promoted and sort of gave people hope, especially with george from france. They fell in love with this man. If he was very unique. I call him the anti ace. He did not fist fit the ace arc type. Anyway. What else can i talk about . Some people like nick manic was disgusted by the notion of the aces. He knew at that point, there business was a grizzly one. There was nothing romantic about the french pilot as well. I will get to that. Finally, aviation psychiatry. Wow. This is an interesting subject. The notion of combats during the First World Wars fascinating. Are you familiar with the term shell shock . It was an inadequate term to describe what was happening to these people. They came from largely rural environments and were used to quiet lifestyles, suddenly being thrust into what i call tech shock on the western front with the mechanized enemy destroying everything around you. How does the average psyche come to grips with that . Shellshocked the doctors originally the notion of military psychiatry evolved symbiotic lee with the war. Parts of the war, notions of any kind of mental problems, discontinue during the First World War. 3000 england alone, 3000 cases of cowardice. 342 were executed for us. After this sacrificial executions, the doctor says, these guys really were not to blame. They were suffering from war neurosis. It should not have been treated this way. Thats getting ahead of ourselves. Errol neurosis. The title of my book. I was not really happy with it, but the publicist said it was catchy. It describes the nervous condition after flying. The book is about come back fatigue and how killing people was never a good thing. If you are a human being with a conscious killing is a gamechanger. We see the sun all the writings of these pilots. Backing up again. Early treatments and diagnosis for shellshocked and any kind of war neurosis was designed to get troops to get back into the trenches and cockpits as quickly and efficiently as possible. Shell shock was originally seen as a physiological physio mechanical phenomenon. The shelves are damaging these peoples brains so it is a physical thing. As treatment, they can eventually return to duty but the problem was that was, that type of treatment took a long time. If they saw it as psychological or psychiatric, maybe a few weeks in a rest hospital, these people could be returned to the front. That was seen more as an expeditious solution to getting these guys back to fighting. It was not very compassionate or humanistic by any stretch. You had a lot of repression going on in the First World War. This was actively encouraged in the squadrons. The british for example, you see it with elliott right springs, william amber. There was a notion that within the squadrons, one of your fellow pilots, that you maintain a disposition of truthfulness and upbeat sort of dialog. You do not talk about what is bothering you. This type of oppression, psychiatrist came to understand was actually exponentially increasing, accelerating rate of suffering and break down. Now that talking about it, this is where william khoury. His model favored that. If you are familiar with his theories, but its basically to confront what is bothering you as quickly as possible, it will heal you much more quickly. Khoury a lot of other types of doctors were advocating repression and just with enough rest and good food, fresh air, music, light entertainment, it will be fine. They can go back. That is what a lot of pilots did and it did not work. It was eroding their hearts and souls. Even after the rest, they still carried that trauma with them and its snowballed towards the end leading to, in some cases, phenomenal breakdowns. This is craig lock heart. That is the hospital. He was accused of cowardice and this needs no explanation. The sky is clearly not having a good day. The conclusion of war, e. W. Craig there were 18 causes for breakdowns. High altitude, low altitude, people didnt realize about the oxygen, or lack of. 5000 feet, you start to suffer from lack of oxygen. Some of these guys flew 19,000 feet and wondered why they were dizzy, their ears were bleeding, they were nauseous. They had headaches. All of this stuff. They could not put two and two together. Late in the war, they had the extremes of flying at High Altitude and low altitudes. Long periods of flying they did not realize the necessity of rest. Pilots would get traumatize, and you were taken off frontline duty. Alcohol and tobacco. This is funny, because especially alcohol, parsons said he has a quote, he was actually advocating alcohol. The pilots trinket. It was a tonic for their nerves. Well talk about these pilots and a bit. They ate milk and drank brandy for eight months to deal with high and low altitudes. Parsons with take a flask with him and say it is the only way i could keep patrol. To soothe my nerves. With all the stuff going on. Tobacco, all this stuff. All these guys did this. Manic, we will get to in a bit. He made the top five. Things that should have taken him off line. You have to realize, most of these pilots that fought and flew in the First World War, they would be washed up instantly, some of them, many of them in todays pilot programs, because they just were not the right type. People who had an excessive imagination, all the doctors would say, imagination is not a good thing for a combat pilot. But if you read the tracks that these guys wrote, the guy had a heck of an imagination. The way he describes things. We will see. All of them did. Springs was a frustrated writer. He wanted to be a writer. People were actually kind of artistically inclined in combat and we get some great poetry and tracks from these people. It is fortunate that they wrote about their experiences and what they know. Insomnia. Brooding over trivial matters and connection with ones worked. Obsessions. This is make manic in a word. He said i cant resist. He was obsessed with going down in flames. It is just how he went down. Came too late in the game to be of any structural used to help people. During the war they realized, the other thing is, the i will just get to that later. This is ted parsons. I will read the quote. No matter whether a man is visibly scared or not by a shower of flying lead, each time it happens to him it leaves an invisible scar. He begins flinching before he knows it and in the end the strain cuts into his nerves. If he hasnt acidity for those trainers and sometimes despite it a bird is likely to or gets the wind up and comes completely and stuck. So there is a verbiage going on here. They would get panicked and anxious. That is parsons helmet. If you landed on your head, you would get a concussion. Many did. He was advocating alcohol. He said we need it. Without, it we would all be short of order. Parsons was one of the few outspoken people advocating for alcohol where as the doctors were seeing do not do it. Doctors have never been in combat, actually all of them. They never were in combat. They were just observing the after effects of what happened. Id like to mention one more thing before we get to the case studies. Hospitals, people were not prepared. Troops, pilots, navy, all of it. They were not prepared for the epic amount of casualties that would occur during the First World War. Consequently, you had in england and france, various types of hospitals, resting stations, nervous stations. There was a station, not yet diagnosed, a nervous station, so if you are kind of mildly freaked out and they did not know what was wrong with you, you went to one of those during a period of observation to see what was wrong with you. These base hospitals and rest stations popped up like mushrooms. All over the french countryside and england. Properties were coopted. There was an ari f hospital there with 24 you just mentioned old schools, gymnasiums, any structure that the military leadership could coopt they would as a General Hospital. It was fascinating. There is a pamphlet, a website, old hospitals world war one. I was on it because i was doing research and trying to find some of these hospitals. It talks about all the structures that were coopted and uses hospitals for the war. Schools were out during the summer, okay we have that school for three months. Great. Lets make it into a hospital. Lets put beds in their. They had no way to be prepared for that amount of casualties that were incurred. Psychiatry was an offshoot and subset of that and they were equally unprepared. At the end of the war there were a number of tracks that were published, interesting lee in the u. S. , the least experienced in the war, but england published a number of tracks on aviation psychiatry. In an attempt to codify and get a handle on what they learned. It is a little abstract because they are trying to point to things they can fix. Not enough risk, that food, smoking, alcohol. We can fix those things, but the things we can fix as with these guys are actually doing, which is killing people. Anyway, im getting carried away. Let me get to our first case study. Springs. This guy is fascinating. I dont know if anyone has ever read the diary. His close friend who died in the war Elliott White springs basically he gave him author ship of it. He denied authoring it for years after, but if you read springs letters of the war birds, you can almost go line by line. The timeline does not work. He died early in the war and the book goes deeper into the war, timeline wise. Anyway, let us talk about elliott. He is a fascinating person. Bottom line, he had a very contentious relationship with his father. Lee roy, oh boy. Elliott saw his biological mother who died when he she was ten when he was ten. He found her dead. It was traumatizing for him. Amazing all the trauma in his life. He had a step mom, lena. Leroy was an uncomfortable parent. He shipped them off to school, boarding school, military school. He was deprived of any kind of meaningful, living, nurturing childhood as a boy and spent most of that time away from his family, his biological family. He ended up at princeton university, where he wanted to be a writer. Scotts fitzgerald was one of his contemporaries. They were not friends but they crossed the campus together. He to classes in writing and fiction writing, and journalism. Basically, dont be a writer. But he was saying no, i want to be a writer. He continued with it. Thank goodness he did, because as we will see, this was actually a keen piece and him healing himself. We will get to that in a bit. He joined in 1914, caught up in the rave of the excitement of flying. It was so exciting and intoxicating. As i started to mention, lack of a decent home life with his family increased the bond, talk about the frontline commodity, brothers type of thing, this amplified his bond with callaghan. They called him the three musketeers. As i just mentioned, he experienced genuine war neurosis. He helped to heal by writing war birds. The three musketeers. There they are. Springs, Larry Callaghan and john reiter. They were inseparable pals. When grider leroy grider was killed he took at heart. He looked back to see him and he was gone. He held out hope for the longest time that he was safe and he was just captured, but he was clearly traumatized over that last. He bonded so deeply with these two men as i mentioned, lack of any kind of meaningful family life. The book war birds allowed him to finish the story the way he wanted it to if you think about, it went all the things were wrong in your life, you can write a story and you can actually finish it the way you want. It is kind of neat. That was kind of a mental construct that he developed in this book. It was his piece and his healing. Here is a letter to lena his step mom. The letters that he sent to his father and step mom, saying that they are toxic, is putting it mildly. Mark is gone but will never be forgotten until the hunts came improves on my bicycles back on me. Or i passed out from irritation at the doings of the springs family on the home front. Anyway, i hope my ghost haunts you and never gives you a moments peace. I could sleep with grades but instead im willing im writing you until time to go up on patrol at seven, to try and avenge mayor powdered knows take on the color of an over ripe tomato and may you never see your feet again accept in the mirror. Im completely fed up with you he wrote tons of these letters. It is hilarious. He is venting, talking about his father like, you do this, you do that, but you do not have a time to write me a decent letter. Letters was at some total of his emotional connection to his family. It took on added importance. Every letter he got he was hoping for some heart rending or heartfelt emotion that was sort of filled that void that he never got. So his letters took on this crazy importance for him. One thing he was fanatic about was, his father would share his letters to various folks. Look at what my son is doing. He shot down another he did not like that. He said my letters are private. They are for your eyes only. Not to be passed at cocktail parties. It was their connection. However toxic and contentious their rival connections were. You see this actually with other flyers as well. The sharing their works, a very personal thing. These letters, they are all from spring was that im quoting quoting here. A number of interesting observations. One of them is nerve. He is talking about real courage under firing. Nerve is cultivated and may or may not include recklessness. It is the ability to carry through anything anywhere without faltering. And then who rushes into a fight and then lets handshake on the trigger hasnt got it. And the fool who doesnt know went to be afraid hasnt got it. But a man with nerve is a hardened temperate individual who may be scared to death, but fear to him is like water on a ducks back. People he has observed in combat, some died, some got through it, some broke down, but the ones that were actually were a special breed. This is a commonality of all the great aces. They had that steely nerve. They were scared, of course. Scared. Fear was a friend to them but they were able to get through them and perform. This is probably his most poignant quote. After the war. Hes talking about the best part of himself. No matter where i go or what i do, the best part of me will always remain between in front of camera, along lifetime with my companions and many adversaries and theyre also lies the biggest part of myself. And their memory will always be a senior. Wow. That is something up this war experience, with the which is both horrifying in intoxicating. This is the other thing that you find in the writings of these people. Its like an adrenaline junkie for today. This is probably the most exhilarating, intoxicating, frightening Game Changing experience. These people were young. It is good that they were doing it when they were young because they probably would not have done it when they were older. He is teasing at this notion that the biggest and best part of himself he left at the front. Think about that. At the end of the top maybe you will have thoughts on what else that might mean. So, in this book he wrote behind the eight ball. War birds. It is fascinating. He talks about it is auto by offering biographical. He paints a good picture of what it was like. He was an american flying with england. He also comments on the notion of the british among his squadrons. These people were also very sensitive. They were stoic and quick to laugh. They were very thoughtful, pensive, just like everybody. So hes talking about his mental condition. After the war, he basically continues having this war neurosis and problems. He says might doctor says ive been behind the eight ball all my life and this is the first chance theyve had to shake off my nervousness. He predicts great things when i absorb this teaching in mental hygiene. He told me that it was time to quit trying to cure myself and let him hear me. He says i had a genuine war neurosis after 1918 and that i cured myself by writing it out, but they didnt have the concrete foundation to prevent its return. My troubles are rooted in 1918 and father. The trauma came back. You get that from all his writings. I quote, heavily from springs in my book and war birds, it is sort of a synthetic version of his letters. He talks about grider. But you can tell its springs. This is an after the war. After the war, he is a real character. You read his letters, they are filled with very colorful metaphors and acidic language towards his family. He barnstormed. He partied quite a bit. He was quite the crowds are and a ladies man. He would often show up at a party and some strange women with a five gallon jug of liquor. Finally, begrudgingly, slid into the role that his father wanted him to be, which was take over the family brisbane this, business, springs cotton. He did it in 1931 and he did a good job with it. Apparently, he went after textile production like he went after combat flying. He set up a loom in his basement so he could work out better production techniques to make fabric. He was good to his workers. It gave them good treatments in terms of wages and compensation. He had this very provocative campaign for his textile. Heres a poster. You see a lot of these women wearing springs mills cotton emblazoned with a tshirt every one of these posters had them. He was a coop. He served in world war ii. You can visit where this character lived if you want at the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. War birds was one of the first examples of art therapy. Not so common with ptsd suffers and whatnot. All of these men, by writing helped them. It really did help them. They were able to put it down on paper. Distance themselves from it, read what they wrote and process it. I dont think anybody ever got closure, i dont believe enclosure. I think its just what they did. Bill lamberts. A very different person. From springs. He was born in iron ton ohio. He was a chemist and steel works and join the are fc in 1916. After training in toronto sent to 24 squadron flying ses. He had 17 victories. He adopted somewhat like springs, but more so, adopted the british efforts of the ethel 70 precious of trauma. It compounded their suffering. We get to make manic we will get a better example of that. It was like a ticking time bomb he did a very good job, he teases at it. He is not explicit like some of the other flyers. He is talking about, watching those birds with widespread wings, coming through the air as easily as i could walk on the ground. How i wish i could do that. Little did i know that in a few years that would achieve the same, but my mission would not be for food no i should be gliding down to kill my fellow man. Already, he is having a problem with this. It is not manifest yet. He is already thinking about it. That maybe this is not such a great thing. When the things the pilots did and more obsessive about was working on their aircraft. They figured with so many things that could go wrong and the context of combat itself was so fluid and dynamic and unpredictable, the one thing they could control was their aircraft. Flying. We see this with people like other gentleman pilots felt that if they flew well enough and maintain their aircraft perfectly they would be immune from being shot down. This was another way that they helped process. Hes talking about as he fought, he calls it if an airplane did not respond instantly and transmitted 70 vibration to me we never became a successful flying unit. I felt that i shouldnt know and feel every win, mood and temperament of the plane. I worked constantly on ten 84 adjusted carburetors, one thing i guess it drilled my name as crazy. 1984 was near as perfect as we can make her. This may sound crazy but it was the way i felt. This is something that the better pilots did. My goodness people said they would rather have a second left air plane then a brandnew one. Because they would make it like a finely tuned violin. When it came out of the factory, this was slack, where this was too tight, this was in tighten a. They had their quirks that they liked to have their planed tuned in a certain way. Especially these aircrafts. They were so strong and delicate at the same time. Build of spruce and plywood and covered in linen, based with wire, the engines were finicky. The guns would often jam. The luis gun right up here, 46 rounds and to change the drum you would have to pull out the lease and the drum would have to whip off and you have to kill it off and another one against the air flow push the gun back just a reload. It was not like the warfare of today by any stretch of the imagination. Guns jammed all the time. Anyway. Working on your plane was one thing you can do to kind of even odds. The other thing you see a lot with these pilots superstition. Pilots people would recognize his plane to be afraid of him. Ted parsons the guy i mentioned, who advocated alcohol, get this. He goes to paris and sees a tipsy. A fortune teller. He says my luck is running out. What am i going to do . She gives him a stuffed blackout. She says put this on your airplane and it will bring you look. He was like, really . She said yes. Just do. It he does. He straps it to his plain. He comes back from the mission, and he sees sawdust coming out of the cab. He claims the cat took a bullet from him. If the cat had not been there, he would have got shot in the head. He would not fly until he got another stuffed cat. In this book he mentions that. This idea of superstition. What can i do . Some had lucky jackets. They all had these Little Things that they would that they thought would bring them look. Just another interesting psychological construct to kind of even aunts because you saw people falling in flames around you almost every day. People would be sitting with breakfast at the end of the day, how do you deal with that . Its tough. This is a new phenomenon that also evolved during the war, the idea of street thing. Trips with aircraft. I this was kind of most pilots despised it. They thought it was grisly work. This is lamberts talking about that. Those poor devils were helpless. What a slaughter it would be. They were human beings and i wondered could i do it . I went and firing both guns. One portable tried to pull a piece of sheet metal over his body. Some lee flat, some crouched with faces looking at that, me when big fellow how i hated this aspect of our work. Guess i was just not made for it. You see there is a lot. This idea of chafing. We had aircraft as Fighter Bomber rule. Ground support. Battle of camber. The war started to become more mobile. He aircraft became a support like in the Second World War with troop movements and this was part of the job. The only person that liked street thing was he was bizarre that way. He liked to kill things. This is a picture of him. Great expression. This is alluding to the combat. Hes talking about straight thing and bombing here. Bought their firing up that you. Look in the pace of the law during the fight data this happens to. You see the salute. Hes talking about their role. Theyre flying because so much is going on. But what they got down on the ground and had time to think about what they did and how they felt. That is when problems really started to arise. It would affect the next days performance because they were loathe to get back in the air and do it all over again. Oisin like a light switch turning off, lumbered lost ten 84. He said he ended in no mans land. He ran back to the plane oisin so enamored with that aircraft. He was under fire. He pulled the clock off the Instrument Panel bought and wanted a souvenir. He brought it back with him and survived the war and brought it to his office after the war. One piece of ten 84 that he saved. He watched the germans blow it up and it guided him. This is interesting bought. Anything from that day until october 1st 1918 as a blank. Almost everything from that day until october 1st. Certain incidents i remember dimly i vaguely remember the raid and seeing fires. My recollection is of watching someone loading my gear into a tender. Later i was swimming with another pilot on a long white she told us it was the resort it had been converted into a hospital. Later i was in a london hospital, evidently for the whole of september. The trauma of this person, he was repressing the war trauma. His psyche could not take it any longer and he had a meltdown. He collapsed. Many of these resort towns along the sea were coopted by the military as recovering stations, recovery hospitals for the wounded. They were a prime location for rest and recuperation. There was water, beach, it was quiet, it was restful, away from the fighting. It was one of these places. The number of the pilots certainly, were there with war trauma. Also, this is john recruits funeral in flounders fields. I will just put that in there. I thought it was an interesting sidebar. After the war, he was still convalescing when the war ended. He had 18 victories. He was actually he shot down a lot. These are aerial victories. Bought like others, he became a barnstorm or. Work doesnt engineer. He invented a pipe rest for a smokers chin. Its a weird device but, apparently you could put a pipe in your mouth and it would rest on your action. You didnt have to worry. Maybe an offshoot of his war trauma. He joined the u. S. Air force caution as a lieutenant colonel. He wrote a combat report, another great book. I its a good read. It reads quickly. In 1973. His prized possession aside from his clock from his ten 84 was a piece of the try plane. A piece of the canvas covering that was in possession. Thats a picture of him. In his uniform. That is a born storm or here. Most of these guys felt like they wanted to keep their hand in flying after the war. Foreign storm or is a good way to recover from combat flight because its purely for enjoyment and getting people excited about flying. Two years ago i was out in dayton ohio filming a documentary film that krystal mention at the beginning of the top. Its almost done and will be premiering november 9th at flood Patterson Air force base. I met a fellow out there who was a pilot during the gulf wars and suffered from aeroneurosis. He was not even in the cockpit, he was doing it by Remote Control from a bunker. He had a meltdown based on what he was doing. So he told me, hes a barnstorm or in ohio actually, i said trump eyelid to barnstorm or. Tell me that story. He says this helps me hell. Take people up and get them excited flying and its purest form. It was fascinating. Return to the basics. Roy brown. Roy brown was a interesting character. You probably recognize the name. He was the person credited with shooting down the red baron. We learned later on that it was not him at all and that would have made him feel better but he died before that. Its actually an australian machine gunner from the ground who killed the red baron. This was kind of a fabricated story from england and my period in my opinion. It could not be from a machine gun on the ground, it had to be a british flier. To show that the raf is better than the german air force. This was a propaganda piece in my opinion but anyway. Like a lot of other guys, he grew up in a small town in canada. He was into sports. Many of the aces were athletically inclined. His parents were successful merchants. The town in which he grew up was known for lumber and a foundry. His parents had something to do with that and were moderately successful which allowed them to pay for a flying school. He did not have a good time there and it was tough to get his wings because the planes kept falling apart because they were so fragile. He was there an extremely long time. He joined the Royal Naval Air service and trained in the uk. He showed early signs of anxiety over flying. He already had this on the brain before things started to crank up with him. That is the school in dayton. You can go to the site and see where that was. Carleton place which is a beautiful small town in canada. This slide is a bit hard to read but he is talking about training in england. This is a day off for me, in fact for everyone, as it is raining and low clouds. I hope it keeps up for a week. This is the kind of whether everyone likes to see. There has not been very much excitement the last few days but i have already had enough to last me the rest of my life. So you can see he is already kind of over it. And the war has not cranked up for him yet. Roy was showing very clear and pronounced science battle fatigue. He was in and out of hospitals most of his flying career. He was sickly. A lot of this was from the effects of High Altitude and cold. Another very famous try plane ace is talking about visiting roy brown because they were friends. He says i remembered a handsome, black hair, square jawed pilot full of joy flying. The man he found that afternoon was utterly different. There were great harris in his head, he lost 25 pounds in his once sparkling eyes were not bloodshot and sunken in his face. Brown admitted he had been living. He was suffering from a severe oil. Sir shaw told him he should no longer fine missions but both men knew this was not possible. These people today would be taken off the line and retired. Brown was sent to training after his incident with the red baron but crashed his plane. People thought he precipitated the crash. Anyone who knows this aircraft knows it is a dodgy and finicky aircraft. It compounds problems. In the hands of an expert it is a Lethal Weapon but an average pilot, its a handful. This is a leather he wrote to his mother that was not supposed to see the light of day. After the red baron was shot down and he was credited with it and told he did it if you read his letters, he phrases it in such a way that i guess i shot him down but im not sure, but there was another pilot with me. Anyway, give me a start. He appeared so small to me, so delicate. He looked so friendly. Blond silk soft hair like that of a child fell from the broad high forehead. His face was particularly peaceful and had an expression of gentleness and goodness and refinement. I suddenly felt miserable and desperately unhappy is if i had committed an injustice. A feeling of shame, a kind of anger if against myself, moved in my thoughts. In my heart i cursed the force that is devoted to death. I gnashed my teeth, and cursed the war. If i could, i would gradually bring back to life. I can no longer look him in the face, i walked away and did not feel like a victor. There was a lump in my throat. If he had been my dearest friend, i couldnt have felt greater sorrow. Hes curious about his victim and goes to see him. Every time a pilot does this, it does a number on them. Like i said, they did not, aviation psychiatry, did not have the tools. They only had theories. Most of the treatment was skewed towards getting them back into the cockpit, giving them some rest, and back to the front line. Nine days after this incident, brown checked himself into a hospital and said i cannot do this anymore. So they basically resigned him to a Training School in england. That is where i mentioned that when we come to this, this is an interesting quote. Its difficult if you look through the british hospital registry which quote was attributed to. Here brown describes this number 24 raf General Hospital. It is on a hill close to him said he felt. They do a lot of Research Work here into the different kinds of troubles which are peculiar to flying people. This is the air neurotic condition i mentioned earlier. It is purely for raf officers so they get lots of material to work on. It is a very good idea having a hospital like this as in an ordinary hospital, they do not know how to treat the troubles of flying people. The troubles of flying people, these are the things that were mentioned. The High Altitude, the various neurotic manifestations, you have to understand nowadays pilots have all types of safety devices. Parachutes chief among them. During the war, parachutes were frowned upon. They thought people would chicken out and jump out of their cockpits and would not give them their parachutes. This is a mandate from british high command. We will not issue parachutes because they will lose their nerve and shaken out and jump out of their aircraft instead of intercoms at. During the war germany allowed parachutes for their pilots because they needed every man they could get. They did not have enough trained pilots and were losing the war. After his stint in the hospital, brown was sent to a Training School in england. He screwed that up and was basically discharged. He went back to canada. He left the raf. The rfc becomes the royal air force. He reaches unaccounted in a Small Grocery store. He wanted to get as far away from paul. He tried funding a Small Airlines on where it is an editor. He wanted to join the Royal Canadian air force in world war ii but was rejected. They saw his track record of illness and aeroneurosis and said this is not a good fit for you. I know you still want to fly. He entered politics, he lost the election for the interior legislature. After this he bought a small tract of land, these are farmland, in ontario. He was working in the fields and died of heart attack. A very hungarys and roy brown. How many people have seen the great wall though kevlar . Two of you. Three and four. This guy was the prototype for the fictitious character in that movie. It is a great member and movie and parallels udets life. Udet grew up in munich. It was a bustling hub of industry and beer. It was a wonderful city. A very different upbringing from the other guys. He had an early interest in aviation and built models and joined a model airplane club. He attended the otto school flying. The auto pusher was an early aircraft. Many of the Aviation Companies who built aircraft had flying schools. You cannot build aircraft without training pilots to fly them. It was a symbiotic thing. The train them and get them to buy one of their plants. Many people did this. He joins up in 1915 after lying about his age. He experienced a brief nervous breakdown early. He flaw, he flew the fokker it was the first aircraft to have a synchronize machine gun that shot through the propeller. It was a very unstable aircraft as well. Learning to flight meant a lot. So, munich as i mentioned was this bustling hub. An urban environment, not a rural one. He fared the best in terms of his psyche until he did not in the Second World War. No one knows what happened to him but he committed suicide. Militarism and pollution is a were strong attitudes in munich. Nationalism, as in all European Countries was on the rise. They saw there in louis waning in the european world and war was a way to bring their prestige back. Munich was also the center of education at the time. Most major universities really had to speak german to keep up with the advances going on in germany. It was such a hot spot for education. Einstein for example. It was an Industrial Power second only to the u. S. Only second to the u. S. In steel production. We are talking about material that was available for aircraft production. They had steel and plywood going for them in germany. It is interesting because you look at the countries and what Raw Materials were available. Fokker capitalized on both of these materials, plywood and steel. That was the context in which a young earnest grew up. You can see what a remember i said imagination was not a good attribute for a combat pilot. You can see udet, very close he was so close i can see the observers head. His rectangular goggles, he resembled some great ferocious insect bent upon my destruction. Listen to this guy. The moment had now come for me to shoot in earnest but i was unable to do so. The horror turned my blood to ice. Taking the strength from my arms and my brain. I sat passively in the cockpit flying straight ahead instant idiotically at the quadrant as we passed each other. Suddenly the machine gun opened fire, there were sounds as bullets struck my plane which smashed my goggles. I reached up to my face to feel this winter glass and my face was covered in blood. You miserable coward the engines seem to say. My only thought was thank on one side. This is his first brush with combat and he is completely froze right . Hes freaked out. He had a problem shooting the french guy. Hes going through this early struggle about shooting other aircrafts down. Harry is, he continues. This is a replica built by a man from australia. The moment had come. My heartbeat furiously in the hands which held the joystick were down. It was one against 23. My fokker flew above the enemy squadron like a hawk singing out its victim. The hawk followed but did not pounce that even as i hesitate i realize that if i fail to open the battle mediately. This is an interesting passage. We talk about this defining moment. Lets do it now or you will just be a coward for the rest of your life. In that case i would go to my room, i would have the task of writing my father that there had been a fatal accident while i was cleaning my revolver. He goes back to his tenth and shoots and blows his brains out. This is his choice for himself. Obviously, this is weighing quite heavily on him. He is talking about breaking through that barrier. At the time, the thought that those men were human beings never occurred to me at the time or later. I was only conscious of wind sensation. Victory. Triumph. The iron ban about my chest snapped and the blood court threw freely through my veins, the tension was over i had been blooded. This is the blood lust that many people have written about in the war. It is so intoxicating, it is the darker side of human passion. It comes to the form. It is tiedye call to me between the horror and the pleasures of war. Your death has punch through that barrier. He shot somebody down. He feels like he can be normal again, such as it is. Chivalry this is talked about quite a bit and a world where one. It is over done, for sure. I better pick up the pace. He is talking about this engagement with george. He points to this and someone instance of chivalry that he believes. Lets see, gradually i began to realize he was more than a match for me. For a while it was completely forgot that he was daniel a. Reed guynemer my enemy. For eight minutes we had been flying around each other in circles and they were the longest eight minutes i have ever experienced. Suddenly guynemer looped and flew on his back over my head. At that moment i relinquished hold of the stick and hammered with both hands afterwards he died im sorry i skipped the most important line. For my actions i knew that i was a helpless victim. To my great surprise he raved an aunt raised an arm and wave to me. Afterwards he went towards the west. I believe that guynemer gave proof that even in modern warfare there is still something left of the nightly chivalry of bygone days. So guynemer had a single gun. And it jammed as well. Thats why he did not fire. But someone prefer to believe that the component that was at work is what spared him. If you see the movie the great wilder pepper. Robert read fair redford, they have that moment where they salute each other and fly off. It was kind of ripped off from that. Anyway. He is talking about when he is over the whole blooded thing and has seen his victims as nothing but victims. He becomes obsessed with the sky. I flew back my skin soaked in perspiration, and my nerves in a desperate excited state. I had made it a rule never to let myself worry about them and i shot down. But on this particular occasion it felt an insatiable desire to know who my opponent had been. My opponent had been shot through the head. Cohen also in the picture of an elderly woman in a letter it said, dont be too reckless. Think of father and me. Somehow one had to try to get rid of the thought that a mother wept for every man one shot down. He is seeing the sky as again, it is not a victim, he is a human being with a mother and father. That is causing him some trouble. Big trouble. This is another prospect to see. Bubbling to the First World War. A by narrows them between frontline and home front. Very different worlds. Mutually exclusive when i was home i southern went into the city. What was there for me to do their . My friends were at the front, many of them had been killed and i felt no particular desire to mix with strangers. We sat down to lunch. From time to time the question me and i related only what i thought was good for them. I said nothing about my last i did not want to alarm my father and furthermore, there was something about which i felt some reluctance to speak. In any case, overs closs than i could not speak of a man whose death had cost, a man whose bravery had won my respect. This is a transformation that occurs when you see this in writings of mark. There is others, the transformation occurred at the front line where people became creatures of the war, where life only made sense to them at the front. Life at home, friends, families, good times, it was like a foreign thing. The transformation was complete. So he was talking about this girl he was infatuated with. He painted low on many of his aircrafts. He is talking about how he has changed. We should be free from all of restrictions and could live as freely as though we were on another planet. At first she laughed, and her lips grew tight. But that is impossible. What would my parents have to say . I am sorry, i said i am afraid being at the front has made me forget the conventions. You must not be angry. I shrug my shoulders angry . Of course not and yet i had a feeling that other things filled our life. Without being able to express it inwards. I had a sudden feeling that i wanted to rejoin my comrades at the front. Even being with his girlfriend, i think they were married in 1922 for two years. Then they were divorced. Okay. But he painted lo on every single one of his aircrafts. He was obsessed with. Her at the front, you see people dying every day. It takes you back home and said i should do whatever i want because i could be home tomorrow i could be gone tomorrow. She said you cant do that. The notion of the front and home life and germany, ultimately at the end, soldiers felt stat in the back which led to fascism. Im getting way out of myself. He is talking about after the war, after the treaty of versailles, after germany is forbidden to build the aircraft. Forbidden military pilots. In the evening, we were x airman, often used to gather in a little we were in a depressed mood. They had thrown us out, and few of us had the remotest idea how we were going to settle down and civilian life. You know, said greim green to me, one day, if only we could fly again and take a look at all this mess from above. It wouldnt be so bad. We would sit our drinks and stare straight ahead. This is was kind of what led to fascism, the rise of the third right. The military had been stabbed in the back, and only they had the right to rule germany. It is all fascism is. It is using military tactics on politics. That was hitler in the First World War. After the war, he was able to rebound unlike some of the others. He had 62 confirmed victories and became a national hero. He was one of the only aviators to be saved by a parachute which had come into use at the wars and. I dont know if any of you are or pilots flew an aircraft. His elevator, control wise were shot through. His fokker flies straight down. He says i am dead. Once a shoot out he remembers, hes just sitting on a parachute. So he is like a ha. He and buckles who seatbelt and jumps out, pulls the rip cord. The canopy opens. He gets hooked on the tale of his fokker. He claims that he grabbed the shrouds of the shoot, pulled himself up to the tail. Unhooked him self and the shoot opened 250 feet from the ground. I dont know if it happened or not but its a heck of a story. He claims that is what happened. And thats how he lived to tell the tale. In the thirties he went on to be a successful demonstration pilot in u. S. And hollywood. This was before sea gi and all the other crazy stuff with computers now. This is where they actually need it stunt pilots. He was one of these people that flew in many of these early aviation movies. He was doing a good job and was paid well. Second world war, he served in the third reich. He was in charge of stuttgart productions. He was an administrative job. He couldnt fly anymore, he was too old. He had some breakdowns where he felt that he was betrayed back guynemer was his leader. There was a connection way back to world war one. He wrote and paraphrase, oh great one, and put a gun to his head and blew his brains out. I guess that was always a solution for him when things were not going his way. He was the prototype for the great waldo pepper. We have to get to mick manic. This guy was perhaps the head and shoulders case study for depression. He was working class irish catholic. Unlike pilots he believed and collected his tactics and working together. He wanted people to fly together. He would become the model for our eff tactics in the Second World War. He was always about the good of the group not the good of the one. He left small animals. Today people would say, no no no, you are not a good combat pilot. This puts you in a logistics or something. He was shy and introverted. He was obsessed with going down in flames. He talks about this all the time. He talks about it all the time. He hated the notion of the ace and passive aggressive psychology. He come from a quiet small rural town, canterbury. He was an anglican dominant. It was more catholic where he grew up. Again, he is talking about seeing one of his victims. My first two shots killed the pilot and wounded the observer. The machine was completely smashed and rather interesting, also was i felt exactly like a murderer. He wanted to see his victim, the fact that there was a dog there did a number on him. This is hard to read, i apologize for that. He is talking about flying a mission after the experience of this morning. One thing that mick mannock did a lot was maintain very tearful kind of black humor. With the pilots. Then he would go back to his tenth, his room, and he would bring his hands and grab his knees and rock and sob his eyes and cry himself to sleep, basically. It is called keening. It is an irish thing apparently. This is the passive aggressive part where he would be everything is fine were gonna gonna roster maligned and all the stuff. He is also an accomplished violinist. A lot of the pilots any of the modern country this is what you did with your time. You learn to play an instrument. Watching mix expressive face as he successfully accomplished a difficult double stopping passages in the caprice. I was amazed at the emotional splendor of his playing. Technique was required, but there was something greater than that, something no other violinist had ever conveyed to me. Make had the soul of an idealist, one that can endure he told us all these things playing he was spellbound by the tall gaunt figure standing in the half light at the far corner of the mess. It was like eric clapped and with his back to the people. He would play in the corner because he did not want people to interfere with what he was doing. It was personal. This is what he did. This is kind of a thumb nail sketch. His tallying figure his weather beaten face with its deep set celtics blue eyes, his unruly dark brown, hair his modesty and dress and manner appeal to me, and immediately like all the other pupils, i came under his whatever he did or set compelled attention. Obviously he was a born he really cared about his man. He believed in group tactics. He often would break off and attack on his own to further his score. To help a fledgling pilot get a victory or bail him out of trouble. He was kind of johnny on the spot. Kept an eye on the whole squadron and helped wherever he needed the most. There is a number of pilots the did this. Talking about his flying, economically of movement, never saw him looping uselessly. He was a better than average pilot. He hated the germans and had no chivalry at this time. We fostered this bloodthirsty attitude in our squadron because it kept a war going atmosphere for the less tough types. This ethos of kill or be killed. We have to do this, it is our job. The people who are on the fence about it, this mantra helps them get through these patches. That is why they were fostering these. Mannock had a number of these when he felt stressed out. He would go on leave to england when he felt stressed out and would visit with his dear friends. This is an account of mannock when he was close to his death. Mannock had changed dramatically. Gone was his old sparkle. He would keep his hands together to conceal the shaking and twitching. He started to tremble violently. This grew into convulsive straining. His face it was a terrible sight. 11 tears were running down. He would not talk about it at all. Thats the problem they said, he would not talk about it at all. I felt helpless not being able to do anything. He was ashamed to let me see him in this condition but could not help it however hard he tried. Right after this break down, he felt he could unburden himself with the eyles. He could not do this at the squadron. He reached out and wanted this man to see what condition he was in. He went back to france for one final time and then of course met his demise. Shortly before his final flight, he was talking about his idealism. He was actually talking to a couple of months who had lunch with the squadron every day. Do you not see my dear child that strife physical exertion mental anguish are all good course the wonderful beneficial thanks for the human race. These boys out here fighting our tented at every moment of their day to run away. Or the become federal and better for it because of it. He is talking about the crucible of war being this character building exercise because these guys are terrified and want to run away and yet they dont. They rather die than do that or become stronger as people. He sees that is a positive despite all the things happening around him. By the way, when the redburn was shot down, many people sent condolences to the germans. Red parents squadron saying sorry to hear about it. Mannock was ecstatic. He said i hope the burned the whole way down. Mannock was shot down in flames. He had 60 victories. He helped tentative donald inglis get his first victory. Asked him if you want to go get his first plane. He violated two of his basic rules when entering in to combat with the enemy. He went down low and went within the range of the machine gunners. They hit his plane and inglis saw flames spread out. He hit the ground and blew up. He made jokes, black humor, about going down in flames. He came obsessed with it and it was his and. Finally we have george guynemer. They are all interesting individuals and how war aces seemed to fit a type. Guynemer was probably the most unlikely ace. He was slight, sickly, week, thin, all of the things you would not think of an ace. He was like the black sheep. He had a privileged upbringing and worked his way up. He became a master pilot and had this very french quote. Unless one is given all, one is given nothing. Thats pelt his and because he was fried. He was in desperate need of rest but felt he could not do it. He had to keep fighting. He rode up north of paris. That is where joan of arc was imprisoned. His family was affluent and had privileges that other pilots did not have. What because he was such an unlikely pilot, or ace, france resonated with this guy. This morning as soon as we reached the school we put his photograph up on the wall. For our morale lesson we learned by heart is last mention in the dispatches. For our writing lesson we wrote his name and he was the subject for our theme. And finally we had to draw an airplane. We did not begin to think of him only after he was dead. Before he died, in our school, every time he brought down an airplane we were proud and happy. But when we heard that he was dead, we were so sad is if one of our own family had died. He was an example for all the nights in history. Guynemer should be an example for frenchman now and each one will imitate him and remember him. I especially will never forget him because i remember he died from france like my dear father. This is a schoolboy writing about guynemer. He was made into a martyr for france after he fell. All of france loved him. He was not the highest scoring ace, what funcq was, but he was a pompous jerk. Guynemer resonated with people. As a painter crisis colors, before making use of, them so guynemer prelude to his future flights was to touch with his hands those long white hands of the rich student, now tandem calloused. You applied to be a pilot two or three times and was rejected. He was just too weak and could not carry a rifle one said. His dad had some people so he said cant you just find something for him to do . Take him into the air court and have him clean up trash or something. So that is what he did. He was basically given the craftiest job in these quadrant for a long time. He slept cans of greece around and cleaned the airplanes. He did it all so he could be accepted as a pilot. Humble beginnings. He crashed a bunch of points. He did not have an excellent reputation and we did not know what to think. He took up another plane with the same result. He crashed it. This was becoming alarming, we could not allow him to demolish all the squadrons planes. He only waited 48 kilograms and was a bundle of nerves. So he came to me and said you do not know me but if you did you would know that i would love to do things right. The big on the right, he conceded and said you can fly on the plane but if you dont get it right into weeks you will be washed out. Guynemer, from the most unlikely beginnings, put his mind to it and mastered the craft. He became a master pilot. Hes talking about this notion of nerves. This is how i master my nerves, little sister, mine are well trained and i am now master. I was shocked with 500 rounds at me is i manoeuvred. It was necessary. I accept that. My life was decided that morning. Without facing up to it i would have chickened out. He set him self up as a target and basically wanted to see if he could take it. If you would chicken out or not and he did not. Guynemer, without going into excesses about him, he became a good pilot. There was a good stable platform. Speed and altitude and firepower became important just as it was in the Second World War. His former Flight Instructor invited him to dinner and he achieved this cult like demi god status in france. I invited my ex student to dinner. Appointees and treat the public gave him innovation. The orchestras dropped and they were playing and replace it with the marseille is. It was almost impossible to dine with an endless stream of guests asking for autographs. Some kissed his uniform. Hes like a rock star. He could not go anywhere. He was tired, it was the beginning of his demise. If you look at pictures of him in the beginning and the end, it is a world of difference. He seems much more comic and relaxed in the early photographs. In the later photographs, his face is sunken and he has that thousand yard stare. He has had too much combat. He was really good, but he became a victim of his own success as many aces did. He was always trying to increase his score. It became an addiction. He had some bad luck. He was not shooting anything down. But he did not give up. Like a skilled gambler tries to win back, he tried over and over but he could not add one to his victories. He was getting sloppy and making mistakes and was turning manic trying to get another victory. He clearly should have relaxed and taken some leave and sort of regrouped. This is an interesting passage. It talks about jack martin who was his biographer. Talking of the notion of the ace and the air fighter. The public as a rule has a misconception about air fighting and combat pilots. Easily mentioned that we are up there relaxed, directing dogfights. I would like to shout, my poor fellow you should not speak about the subject because you know nothing about it. You do not understand the first word of it and you would not believe how little your eulogies flatter me. If i responded like this, no one would honor my sincerity and desire to spread information. People who think i was rude or boastful or something worse. That is why i stay quiet and let. If the layman knew what we know, they would possibly no longer in virus. This is the end of the war. This is when tactics. Everything had been worked out in a formulaic sense. There was no longer glamorous or romantic it was just a business. It was something where you followed a certain procedure and tactics. You are not carry deed success but it was not the beginning of the war. So theres this great quote. He was merely a powerful idea in a very frail body. I knew that someday the idea would sleigh its container. This is exactly what happened. He kept flying, he would not quit because unless one has given all one has given nothing. His final flight was on september 11th 1917. We do not know exactly how he was killed but he was likely shut down by a two seater. If you were engaging a two seater, you would fly under and below. The gun or cannot see you down there, it is a blind spot. The gunners shot him in the head and killed him. Conclusions. A faceless enemy, brutalization of body and psyche. Brutalization was a term coined in the First World War talking about how the human body was actually torn apart by artillery rounds. It was brutal. How hospitals and medical staff had to come to grips with this. It was the most awful thing you had seen. At least since the american civil war. Shell shock and its inadequate label for combat trauma. Raf aeroneurosis was another inadequate label. Men had a finite emotional capital of what they could endure. Medical practices have evolved sufficiently and many people would have survived or experienced less trauma but it was not in place yet. Finally when they confronted their victims and embrace their humanity they suffered grievously. Every single one of them, when they saw their victims as human beings, it was too much for them. Some good quotes about this experience, by arthur, to those of us who whip to pass safely through the strife and bloodshed would be affected by it all the rest of our lives. And although maybe id not matched up in achievement with the best i was there with them. It was my crowded hour of glorias life. He was talking about this notion of the summer of his life. Hes doing this most intoxicating, terrifying thing. He is not the best pilot but he is with the best pilots engaged in this incredibly lifechanging transformative experience. Again, this quote by springs, i will say it when one more time. No matter where i go or what i, do the best part of me will always remain between zebra and our men and in front of camera. There i lived a life, along life there like my companions and many adversaries in there also lies that is an interesting one. All arthur gold lee, here at the corner of the shot to a wall, in the sunshine by the waiving grain, with everything now and peace. I remember them and was filled with a heavy sense of loneliness. I know that although i had not been killed i will always be buried in france and in england, along with the companions of my youth who had died that our country might live. That was a debatable point whether the country was really endanger in terms of the slaughter. That is the end. Are there questions . Yes sir. I have a couple of questions. Do you feel that the barn storming of these pilots after the war was went away of almost trying to commit suicide . The question is, do i feel that barnstorming after the war was a way to commit suicide. I dont know. Ive heard positive, more than positive end of the spectrum which is the way to get back to the purity of flying before it was corrupted by the wartime experience. I have heard that. There probably was an element of reckless danger that appealed to them. They missed from the war experience. The intoxication of combat. Barnstorming was dangerous. Especially as the stunts were involved, there may have been some of that to be fair. Second point, its just and saying that in posttraumatic stress disorder. Its taken five to 90 years to acknowledge posttraumatic stress disorder. On this book i did, doctors in the air force base and the medical department they sent me, one of the doctor sent me a power point that he presented last conference in new york city talking about ptsd. And nothing has changed. It is the same stuff that they are struggling with now that they were struggling with then. It is just differently but, different context. Both desires and horrors are still with us. That same hardware. Other questions . Mick mannock, and his hatred for the hunt. I wondered as you were speaking whether the fact that he comes from an island. Where he is very vulnerable. Just like the brits felt that the germans would run them out, whereas for example, to go back to the states, he had a different opinion . To keep him inaudible he was commenting on the fact that mick mannock lived on an island. England, closer to germany. Germany could have easily invaded in the Second World War, operation sea lion. Was that a factor that contributed to his hatred of germans whereas springs, coming from the u. S. Isolationism did not have that problem because of the oceans. It could be. Mick mannock had a lot of frustrations about what was going on. He channel that to a general hatred of the enemy. He felt if he could kill enough of them he might survive the war and might be able to yeah, you have to understand. He was an idealist and germany, they conducted their affairs in the early part of the war, germany invaded belgium and two pieces of Key Information in the early war was the belgium atrocities, and which will wilson went to war. This was germany did some really bad things in the beginning of the war. It did not help public support popular opinion about him. Friends saw saving france as a fight to save civilization. That germany was going to invade and ruin that. Draconian rules and impressionism and altruism was going to take over. Germany was definitely seen as the bad guy by most of the allies. Nobody had much sympathy for the german plight. Yes sir, in the back. You made the point very well that british social interactions made it very difficult for the pilots to talk about what they were going through, which was the wrong strategy for getting them better. Was there any society or any air force and world war one that did better than this . Im thinking austria, germany, say with the legacy of segment freud, did they do any better . He is asking with the british social interactions and repression in terms of trauma, what they were feeling and were there any other countries that couldve done a better job with that in terms of talking about what the men were going through . I did not see any you would think with freud that you would have a better psycho dynamic model and germany but i had to get through that wall of an impressionism, kaiser, all of that top down sort of stuff. They need it every fighting man to win the war. There was not much sympathy for people who are suffering. The one who is most outspoken, this man was another example of what lumbered went through. And he felt if he flew well enough that around would never hit his plane. When he had a hole in his plane he would obsessive outed for weeks. He was, like oh no there is a hole in this plane. He whips us with this for two weeks and i have to stick through this with this type of stuff. Anyway. I did not see any evidence of better treatment anywhere else. Germany did not even produce attract on this at the end of the war. Nothing that ive seen. Whereas the u. S. Did, which is comic. You have a medical manual. In 1919, we basically trying to coming to grips with something we did not know much about. Its funny. But the british anderson was the doctor that attended roy brown at the General Hospital and was one of the case studies. What he writes about in that tracked talks about browns problems we presume as well as many others. That is more reliable because there were more patients that were actual flyers. The u. S. Our definitions for air service were very rigid such that, the two groups of american pilots that flew for france, most of those people were kicked out of the u. S. Air force even though they had the most experience. James hall, given prominent rules and promoted because they had leadership and could help. A lot of these guys were just not good enough from u. S. Standard. Pretty funny. Anyway, im sorry i am rambling. Other questions . Yes sir. How did ptsd for the aviators compare against that to the soldiers in the trenches . Question is how did instances of ptsd compare with that of the trenches of the soldiers. Soldiers in the trenches. They applied labels to various trauma like shellshocked for troops. Neurotic conditions or arrow neurasthenia to the aviators. They were different when you think about what types of exchanges could on the ground with an artillery and machine guns, fixed position of fighting. Characterized the first part of the war, sense of hopelessness and devastation whereas in the air, you were fighting oneonone. It was different. I think they were very different animals in terms of what the encountered. Aeroneurosis its not just combat. It was anything of ranging from people who were flying, being dizzy, motion sickness, altitude. Roy brown mentions the peculiar troubles of flying people, meaning they were specific. And they were. If you went to high, you would get nauseous, your ears blood. The doctor said you are not fit for flying because your eardrums are ruptured. You cannot fly. He would say come on. Cant you just certify me for flight. I have to go back and join my buddies. So the doctor after much arm bending with signed him off, but he should not have allowed him to fly. Stuff like that. Does that answer your question . Somewhat . A little bit. I can see the analogy of brown in terms of getting close to your victim. From a standpoint of the trenches like a sniper a mile away. Plus you have epic amounts of carnage around you. Dead horses, pieces of people all around you blown to bits. The brutalization i mention. Whereas in the air it is a different type of death. Basically, with parachutes you had two choices. You fell in flames or jumped out. Of course the french issued the french parachute which was a pistol on the seat. You could take your brains out. It was kind of painless. Third option. So different animals altogether in terms of the manner of death and what you saw. When you are of high, you just saw this thing fall apart and disintegrate and it was gone. You went to dinner, you went to bed, you did the same thing the next day. In the trenches, your body next he was gone. There is a whole there and part of his hand. It was very different. Perhaps more dramatic on the ground. Now i dont know. Just a logistics that you were talking about. They went back to see their victims who they shot down. They have to land in enemy territory. They had a camera. How did it work . They did not have a crew to get back up how do they see their victims did they land that they have the camera . How did they do this . The ones that were able to be seen were definitely on their lines like when the red bearing was shot down. The australians took his plane, and that is how they brown was able to come visit, because it was in friendly territory. Obviously most squadrons were posted very close to the front, so they could get their you only had gas for two hours basically. Castor oil if you were writing a motorist plane. 46 rounds in a lewis ground. Maybe 250 rounds in a deckers gun. You take a car to see the victims. Other questions . One more question. One more question. Now . All right. Thank you very much. For six days in early october 1918, more than 500 u. S. Soldiers were surrounded by germans in the forest of northeastern france. At the time, the story of the lost battalion became front page news back home. And it continues to be remembered as one of world war ones most dramatic stories. Up next, on american artifacts