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                    THE MENTOR 1918.11.01, No. 166,
                               Guynemer




                            LEARN ONE THING
                               EVERY DAY

                  NOVEMBER 1 1918      SERIAL NO. 166

                                  THE
                                MENTOR

                               GUYNEMER

                           THE WINGÈD SWORD
                               OF FRANCE

                           By HOWARD W. COOK

                  DEPARTMENT OF              VOLUME 6
                  BIOGRAPHY                 NUMBER 18

                          TWENTY CENTS A COPY




THE SKYMAN SUPREME

By Commandant Brocard, of the “Stork Squadron”


For more than two years all of us have seen him cleaving the heavens
above our heads, the heavens lighted up by shining sun or darkened by
lowering tempests, bearing upon his poor wings a part of our dreams,
of our faith in success, of all that our hearts held of confidence and
hope.

“Guynemer was a powerful idea in a frail body, and I lived near him
with the secret sorrow of knowing that some day the idea would slay the
container.

“Poor boy! All the children of France, who wrote to him daily, to whom
he was the marvelous ideal, vibrated with all his emotions, lived
through his joys and suffered his dangers. He will remain to them the
living model hero, greatest in all history. They love him as they have
learned to love the purest glories of our country.

“Guynemer was great enough to have done that which he did without
seeking recompense save in the silent consciousness of having done his
full duty.”

       *       *       *       *       *

THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION

Established for the Development of a Popular Interest in Art,
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  NOVEMBER 1st, 1918.           VOLUME 6                NUMBER 18

Entered as second-class matter, March 10, 1918, at the postoffice at
New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Copyright, 1918, by
The Mentor Association, Inc.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, Inc., 114-116 East 16th Street, New York, N. Y.

Statement of the ownership, management, circulation, etc., required
by the Act of Congress of August 24, 1912, of The Mentor, published
semi-monthly at New York, N. Y., for October 1, 1918. State of New
York, County of New York. Before me, a Notary Public, in and for the
State and county aforesaid, personally appeared Thomas H. Beck, who
having been duly sworn according to law, deposes and says that he
is the Publisher of the Mentor, and that the following is, to the
best of his knowledge and belief, a true statement of the ownership,
management, etc., of the aforesaid publication for the date shown in
the above caption, required by the Act of August 24, 1912, embodied
in section 443, Postal Laws and Regulations, to wit: (1) That the
names and addresses of the publisher, editor, managing editor and
business manager are: Publisher, Thomas H. Beck, 52 East 19th Street,
New York; Editor, W. D. Moffat, 114-116 East 16th Street, New York;
Managing Editor, W. D. Moffat, 114-116 East 16th St., New York;
Business Manager, Thomas H. Beck, 52 East 19th Street, New York. (2)
That the owners are: Mentor Association, Inc., 114-116 East 16th St.,
New York; Thomas H. Beck, W. P. Ten Eyck, J. F. Knapp, J. S. Campbell,
52 East 19th Street, New York; W. D. Moffat, 114-116 East 16th St.,
New York; American Lithographic Company; 52 East 19th Street, New
York. Stockholders of American Lithographic Co. owning 1 per cent. or
more of that Corporation. J. P. Knapp, Louis Ettlinger, C. K. Mills,
52 East 19th Street, New York; Chas. Eddy, Westfield, N. J.; M. C.
Herczog, 28 West 10th Street, New York; William T. Harris, 37th Street,
Philadelphia, Pa.; Mrs. M. E. Heppenheimer, 51 East 58th Street, New
York; Emilie Schumacher, Executrix for Luise E. Schumacher and Walter
L. Schumacher, Mount Vernon, N. Y.; Samuel Untermyer, 120 Broadway, New
York. (3) That the known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security
holders owning or holding 1 per cent. or more of total amount of bonds,
mortgages, or other securities, are: None. (4) That the two paragraphs
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of the Company as trustee or in any other fiduciary relation, the
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and conditions under which stockholders and security holders who do
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affiant has no reason to believe that any other person, association,
or corporation has any interest direct or indirect in the said stock,
bonds, or other securities than as so stated by him. Thomas H. Beck,
Publisher. Sworn to and subscribed before me this twenty-fourth day
of September, 1918. J. S. Campbell, Notary Public, Queens County.
Certificate filed in New York County. My commission expires March 30,
1919.

THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, Inc., 114-116 East 16th St., New York, N.Y.

[Illustration: GEORGES GUYNEMER, WHEN HE BEGAN HIS FLIGHTS]




_GUYNEMER, THE WINGÈD SWORD OF FRANCE_

_His Ancestry and Childhood_


ONE

Not only modern, but ancient French records glorify the name of
Guynemer. In the time of Roland and Charlemagne, there was a Guinemer
that performed noble deeds. An eleventh-century history of the Crusades
extols the name of a Guinemer of Boulogne. The Treaty of Guérande,
which terminated in 1365 a war of succession in Brittany, bore the
signature of Geoffroy Guinemer among thirty knightly signers. In 1464
the old and honorable name was first spelled with a y by Yvon Guynemer,
a man of arms in the service of his country.

Bernard Guynemer, great grandfather of Georges, was an instructor
in jurisprudence in Paris during the Revolution, and was later made
president of the Tribunal of Mayence. A son, Auguste, who lived to be
ninety-three, left to posterity a remarkable collection of memoirs of
the Revolution, the Empire, and the Restoration. One of his brothers,
an officer in Napoleon’s army, was killed at the siege of Vilna in
1812; another, a naval officer, died of wounds received at Trafalgar.
A fourth brother named Achille became the grandfather of Georges, and
it was his exploits, among all the tales of his forbears, that the
youthful grandson loved best to read about. One venturous anecdote of
the child Achille became part of family history, and in its revelation
of mature purpose and utter poise under confounding circumstances
recalls instances of the boyhood of the future Ace of Aces. When the
small Achille arrived one morning at his school in Paris he found it
closed. The mistress, he was told, had been taken away, summoned before
the Revolutionary Tribunal. When he inquired where this Tribunal was,
he was laughingly informed, and straightway he set out to find it. When
the eight-year-old appeared in the court room alone, he was received by
assembly and judges with amazement, then with raillery, but, in no wise
disconcerted, he continued up the imposing aisle to the place where the
mighty Robespierre sat. Humorously, Robespierre met his request that
his teacher be allowed to return to her classes by remarking that the
child’s need of her could not be great, as doubtless she had taught
him little in the past. In his desire to refute the injustice, the
boy begged permission to recite his lessons for the day. When he had
finished, Robespierre impulsively took him in his arms and embraced
him. Then he gave into his charge the school mistress, and permitted
them both to depart.

Seven years later, Achille Guynemer was a volunteer in the army that
invaded Spain. In 1812, he was taken prisoner; later he escaped, and
in 1813, at the age of twenty-one, he was decorated with the Cross of
the Legion of Honor. His grandson, who strongly resembled his early
portraits, received the same honor when he was a few months younger.

Of the four sons of the president of the Tribunal of Mayence, only one,
Achille, had descendants. The son of the latter was Paul Guynemer,
a French army officer and military historian, and his only son was
Georges, the young chieftain of the sky.

Even as a very little boy, Georges carried his head with pride and set
his ambitions high. Adored by his mother and sisters, he was a constant
object of solicitude because of ill health. When he was of school age
he received instruction from the governess of his sisters. Very young
he showed evidences of those qualities of honor, truth and bravery that
earned him in later years all the honors France could bestow. Very
young he fell under the spell of Joan of Arc, she who was wounded in
Compiègne, the home of his boyhood, and he clamored for stories of her
and of others of his country’s warriors.

An indifferent pupil in the grammar-school at Compiègne, he was placed
in Stanislas Military College, his father’s Alma Mater. A group
photograph of the students represents Georges as a boy of twelve,
pale, thin, with dark, wilful eyes lighted by smouldering fires
of dream and ambition. As a student he was quick and intelligent,
but he was mischievous and headstrong under discipline. In play he
preferred warlike games, and invariably chose parts that gave him
opportunities to attack, which he did with agility and vigor, often
to the discomfiture of older opponents. One of his teachers wrote a
sketch of his school-boyhood that betrays many outstanding traits of
the Guynemer of the future. In playground battles he had no desire to
command; he liked above all to fight, and to fight alone. He attacked
the strongest, without consideration for any advantage they might have
of weight, height or numbers. Even as a boy, he excelled by adroitness,
suppleness of maneuver, and will-to-win.

  PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
  ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 6, No. 18. SERIAL No. 166
  COPYRIGHT, 1918. BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.




[Illustration: GUYNEMER AND HIS FAITHFUL GUNNER, GUERDER]




_GUYNEMER, THE WINGÈD SWORD OF FRANCE_

_His Youth and Apprenticeship_


TWO

Though hampered by illness and enforced vacations, Guynemer graduated
from Stanislas College in his fifteenth year with honors. In the autumn
he re-entered the school for a further course of study. His leisure
hours were passed installing miniature telephones, and experimenting
with paper airplane models. His ability for invention and mechanics
was marked. All the sciences held interest for him, but he had special
liking for chemistry and mathematics. He was fond of reading, but his
choice of books fell solely on those that dealt with war, chivalry and
adventure.

One of young Guynemer’s intimates was Jean Krebs, whose father was a
pioneer in the development of aerostatics and aviation. He was then
director of the great Panhard automobile works, and on Sundays the two
youths spent hours studying motor parts. With their fellow students at
the college they were often taken to visit technical establishments
after school. Georges was always to be found beside the one that
explained the operations of the machinery. When they were permitted to
attend automobile and airplane exhibitions, his delight was boundless.
Keen, excited, agitated, he passed from one exhibit to another,
commenting, interrogating, and incidentally filling his pockets with
catalogues and pamphlets about the different makes of cars and planes.
While still at school he fashioned a small airplane, which he launched
with glee over the heads of his companions.

At that time (1910), the eyes of Europe were on the sky. Blériot had
crossed the Channel; Paulhan had soared to a record height of over four
thousand feet. It was the ambition of all French youth to fly. With
Guynemer the desire was an obsession. From the aerodrome near Compiègne
he secretly made his first flight, crouched behind an obliging pilot,
cramped and uncomfortable, but ecstatically happy. So determined
was he to follow the profession of the air that pleasures of world
travel, enjoyed for months in the fond companionship of his mother
and sisters, served in no way to distract him from his purpose. “What
career shall you adopt?” his father inquired, when they returned. And
Georges answered, as if it were the most natural thing in the world,
“I shall be an aviator.” His parent protested that aviation was not
a career, but a sport. The boy was obstinate. He confessed that his
life was already dedicated to this passion. That on the morning he had
first seen a birdman fly above the college of Stanislas, he had been
possessed by a sensation he could not explain. “I felt an emotion so
deep it seemed sacred,” he told his father. “I knew then that I must
ask you to let me become an aviator.”

Refused admission to the _École Polytechnique_ because the professors
believed him too frail to finish the courses, he was taken with his
family to Biarritz on the coast of France, and there rumors came to
them of the war, in the month of July, 1914. War was declared August
second. The following day Georges presented himself for medical
examination at Bayonne,--was rejected, and when he tried still other
times, was rejected again. Finally his persistence, his devotion to
France, his resolve to serve her in the way he felt he could be of the
most value, won him the reward of acceptance in the training school at
Pau.

In January, 1915, Guynemer received his first lessons as a
student-aviator, after having studied two months as a mechanic. On
February first, according to his own narrative, his apprenticeship
as a pilot took on aerial character. “I drove a ‘taxi,’ and then
the following week I mounted an airplane, going in straight lines,
turning and gliding, and on March tenth I made two flights lasting
twenty minutes in daylight. At last I had found my wings. I passed the
examination the next day.”

Once, Guynemer barely escaped being scratched from the list of military
aviators at the school of Avord, because a head pilot complained that
he was imprudent in making flights that were too difficult for one of
his experience, and because he persisted in flying when the weather was
unfavorable.

When he had flown for six months, he was sent one day on a
photographing mission. The enemy discovered him. A rain of shells fell
on his plane. Keeping on amid the deluge, Guynemer made not a single
turn to escape the attacks. For an hour he went straight toward his
objective until his observer gave the signal to return. Even then the
pilot continued to drive on toward the guns that were trying to beat
him down, and, handing his personal photographic apparatus to his
companion, asked him to take some pictures of the mortar attacking the
airplane. From that day, no one in the squadron doubted the future of
this youth, “this eagle of the birdmen, this young Frenchman with the
face of a woman and the heart of a lion.”

  PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
  ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 6, No. 18. SERIAL No. 166
  COPYRIGHT, 1918. BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.




[Illustration: COPYRIGHT BY UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD

GUYNEMER AT THE WHEEL]




_GUYNEMER, THE WINGÈD SWORD OF FRANCE_

_Pioneer Airmen in France_


THREE

Fernand Forest, a countryman of Guynemer’s invented, thirty years ago,
an explosion motor whose operations formed the basis of many subsequent
experiments in petrol engines. And it was a Frenchman, Clement Ader,
who was the first to fly with a motor-driven flying machine. For a time
Ader experimented under the patronage of the French Ministry of War,
but he was eventually deprived of Governmental sanction and assistance
because he was deemed visionary, and his inventions impractical.
However, the machine in which he made several flights in the year 1897,
the “Avion,” was later one of the treasured exhibits of the first
Aeronautical Salon, and was placed beside the airplanes of Wilbur
Wright, Delagrange and Blériot “as convincing proof that to France
belonged the honor of making the first flying machine.” It is related
that when Ader first found himself leaving the ground for a test
flight, “he was so taken by surprise that he nearly lost his senses.”

Charles C. Turner, author of “Marvels of Aviation,” narrates the early
adventures of Alberto Santos-Dumont, the rich young Brazilian who
arrived in Paris in 1898 for the purpose of having a navigable balloon
made there. Already the name Zeppelin had received passing notice in
French and English newspapers, but most people refused to believe
reports of his inventions, and those of Santos-Dumont, concluding
that they were both mad. Santos-Dumont, “the man who initiated the
modern airship movement in France and made the first officially
observed airplane flight in Europe,” flew around the Eiffel Tower and
over the roofs and treetops of startled Paris in his small spherical
balloons, propelled by gasoline motor, and in 1902 made flights over
the Mediterranean. In Paris he built the first airship station ever
constructed. In 1903, his maneuvers above the French army review of
July fourteenth led to negotiations with the French Minister of War, to
whom the young Brazilian made the offer “to put his aerial fleet at the
disposition of France in case of hostilities with any country except
the two Americas.” He explained, “It is in France that I have met with
all my encouragement; in France and with French material I made all my
experiments. I excepted the two Americas because I am an American.”

Santos-Dumont, who had astounded the world by the success of his
airship experiments, was also the pioneer aviator in France, when he
became convinced of the practicality of the heavier-than-air machine.
When Delagrange, Blériot and the Wright brothers leapt into fame,
Santos-Dumont continued quietly to study and contrive, and in 1909
he brought out the “Demoiselle,” a small airplane on whose design he
claimed no patent rights, offering it to the world as a gift of his
invention.

Between the years 1907 and 1910 many unknown inventors and mechanics
won renown through their aerial accomplishments. Outbursts of fervor
greeted every fresh success in air endeavor. On wings the patriotism
of France soared to heights of exaltation. Lethargy gave way to
enthusiasm. Voisin, Blériot, Delagrange, Latham, Paulhan, Védrines
became national heroes. If a popular aviator flew a winning race,
crowds attended his steps and surrounded his hotel. If one was injured,
a sympathetic assembly gathered outside the hospital where he lay,
and extras were issued by the daily journals as to his condition.
Annual airplane meets and exhibitions had the patronage of the French
Government. Experts were constantly occupied in making mechanical
improvements in the motor, steering gear and wings of the wondrous new
machines that had intrigued the imagination, the very soul of awakened
France.

Though France owes a debt to American inventors, always generously
acknowledged, French aviators quickly attained supremacy on the
continent. When the war came, the country was already dotted with
aerodromes and airplane factories, and hundreds of trained aviators and
mechanicians were ready to take the air for their beloved France.

  PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
  ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 6, No. 18. SERIAL No. 166
  COPYRIGHT, 1918. BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.




[Illustration: GUYNEMER BROUGHT DOWN BY A BOCHE, BUT WITHIN FRENCH
LINES]




_GUYNEMER, THE WINGÈD SWORD OF FRANCE_

_The Flying Storks_


FOUR

At the time of Guynemer’s death he was commander of the Flying Storks,
a squadron of high-record fighting aviators whose feats have for over
three years been the sensation of the Allied front. The original
membership comprised ten pilots, some of whom had already attained
national renown. Approximately fifty warriors that have carried its
emblem down the highways of the air have been killed, wounded, or
reported missing. Three squadron chiefs, Captain Auger, Lieutenant
Peretti and Captain Guynemer, have fallen in aerial battles; three
other chiefs have been gravely wounded--Commandant Brocard, Captain
Heurteaux and Lieutenant Duellin. The prowess of The Storks may
be gauged by the statement that fourteen members of this famous
escadrille, (only one of ten score flying organizations attached to the
French army), brought down a third of all the German planes destroyed
before January, 1918, or two hundred in less than three years. This is
the official count. Many more enemy planes met defeat from their guns,
but without the required number of official witnesses.

“_Les Cicognes_” (The Storks) were organized in April, 1915, by
Commandant Brocard, now retired from active fighting. The first machine
adopted by the corps was the Nieuport-3, on whose side was painted a
stork with spread wings. In 1917, Spad models supplanted the Nieuports
in the service of The Storks.

The official records of a dozen Aces of the squadron are given: Captain
Guynemer, 53 enemy planes downed; Lieutenant René Dormé, 24; Captain
Alfred Heurteaux, 21; Lieutenant Duellin, 19; Captain Armand Pinsard,
16; Lieutenant Jean Caput, 15; Lieutenant Tarascon, 11; Lieutenant
Mathieu de la Tour, 11; Captain Albert Auger, 7; Lieutenant Gond, 6;
Lieutenant Borzecky, 5; Adjutant Herrison, 5.

Captain Heurteaux, chief of the corps from December, 1916, until he was
wounded in September of the following year, rivaled the marksmanship
of Guynemer when he downed a hostile plane with a single bullet.
Heurteaux, in the words of an appreciative chronicler of The Storks,
“used to amuse himself in the midst of battle by politely bowing and
waving ironic greetings to his encircling enemies. This open contempt
for them increased their hatred, he explained, and tempted them to
shake their fists at him in reply, thus often exposing them in their
blind fury to his superior adroitness in maneuvering and attack.”

A grave young pilot named René Dormé became so skilful in handling
his machine that the superb Guynemer regarded his ability as greater
than that of any of his fellows. Dormé was also a remarkable shot. In
four months he was victor over twenty-six enemy planes, fifteen of
which were officially witnessed as they fell. The end of René Dormé
is veiled in mystery. Following a fierce combat high in the clouds
on May 25, 1917, he pursued his opponents above German territory.
Later, observation balloons reported that a French airplane had come
to earth across the enemy lines and had been consumed by fire, which
indicated to their practised vision that the pilot had been able to set
his plane ablaze before it was seized by German captors. Though the
enemy subsequently announced Dormé’s death, the report, for certain
suspicious reasons, has been given little credence. “Second only to
the crushing loss of Guynemer, France’s idol,” has his passing been
mourned by fellow aviators and by the nation. As a discriminating
observer of The Storks has stated, “While both were lads of excessive
modesty, Guynemer’s air tactics were far more spectacular than those of
Dormé, Guynemer was perhaps the better marksman of the two, but Dormé,
he conceded, was the better pilot. Dormé’s dodging maneuvers were
celebrated throughout France.”

It was on the day of Dormé’s disappearance that Guynemer achieved the
Magic Quadruple, besides defeating two more planes that fell far within
the German lines. Guynemer the avenger! Guynemer the miraculous knight
of the air! Less than four months later he fell as Dormé fell, on hated
enemy soil. And, in turn, his death was avenged by the famous French
Ace, René Fonck of Escadrille Nieuport-103, who within two weeks slew
the Hun airman that had brought to earth the Wingèd Sword of France.

“He was our friend and our master, our pride and our protection. His
loss is the most cruel of all those, so numerous, alas, that have
emblazoned our ranks. Nevertheless, our courage has not been beaten
down with him. Our victorious revenge will be hard and inexorable.”
These are the words of Lieutenant Raymond, Guynemer’s successor as
Commandant of The Flying Storks.

  PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
  ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 6, No. 18. SERIAL No. 166
  COPYRIGHT, 1918. BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.




[Illustration: GUYNEMER AFTER A BOCHE VICTORY]




_GUYNEMER, THE WINGÈD SWORD OF FRANCE_

_Hunting in the Air, by Captain Georges Guynemer_

Translated from the French


FIVE

The public as a rule has a false idea of hunting and the hunters. They
very easily imagine that we are ’way up there at our ease, directing
events, and that the nearer we are to heaven the more we are invested
with Divine Power. I cannot express in words the enervation that I feel
sometimes while listening to the inept remarks addressed to me in the
form of compliments, and which I am compelled to accept with a smile,
which is almost a bite. I want to shout out to the speaker: “But, my
poor fellow, you ought not to speak about this subject, for you know
nothing whatever about it. You do not understand the first word of it
all, and you can hardly believe how little your eulogies please me,
under the circumstances.”

But if I answered in this way, no one would think of honoring my
sincerity, or my desire to spread sane ideas--rather all would declare
that I was a rude fellow, pretentious and a swaggerer, or something
worse.

This is the reason that I listen, remain dumb, and let the enervation
gnaw at me. Some tell me: “It is better to leave to hunting that
mysterious atmosphere which serves as an aureole to the Ace. If the
layman were to become competent to judge, he would possibly no longer
hold the same admiration for the hunters.” You will admit that this
suggestion is not very flattering to us. In fine, according to this
suggestion, we are interesting to them only because they know nothing
about our work.

They say of me: “Guynemer is a lucky dog.”

Certainly, I am a lucky dog, for I have added up forty-nine (this
was written before the grand total was made) victories and am still
alive, and I might have been killed during my first fight. If we talk
this way, every person alive today is lucky; for he might have died
yesterday.

But I might astonish some persons considerably if I answered: “It’s a
good thing that I was a lucky dog, for I have been brought down by the
enemy on seven different occasions.”

I know that they will rejoin that this was really luck, for I managed
to escape death. But, was it luck that day, when, carried along by the
great speed of my Nieuport, I rushed right past a Boche,