War+in+the+Air

[[file:War in the Air.rtf]]
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The War in the Air
 Sometimes the "Circus" came to the men in the trenches. Allied troops used this term to describe a group of brightly coloured enemy airplanes manoeuvring overhead. Baron Manfred von Richthofen, known as "the Red Baron," was the first to paint his plane. Later, other German pilots and squadrons copied the idea. Flyers like the Red Baron and Canada's Billy Bishop became real-life heroes in their home countries. Here is how Bishop's biographer described Bishop's heroic image:

 "It was a barbarous, filthy war... Amid this mechanized slaughter of literally millions of men emerged Bishop, the lone warrior flying above the clouds in a little open cockpit biplane with scarf flapping rakishly in the wind. For all appearances he was the modern knight in shining armour - a rugged individualist who took on swarms of opponents and always triumphed."  Dan McCaffery, Billy Bishop: Canadian Hero, James Lorimer: Toronto, 1988, p. 1-11

 Right after the Battle of Vimy Ridge, Private Fraser saw von Richthofen's Circus outgunning the Allied pilots in machine-gun battles in the sky, called dogfights. Fraser wrote the following:  April 15, 1917  Knowing by the colour of the planes who they were, made it much more interesting. Our planes all looked alike and were drab in comparison. The Circus planes were a riot of colour, one would be pink with a green nose, another black with yellow wings, a further one with a blue body and orange tail. Their best known men seemed to have red as the basic colour... [von] Richtofen's, the daddy of them all, was a glaring blood red.  The journal of Private Fraser, p. 272

 A year later the Red Baron's luck ran out as he was shot down by Canadian pilot Roy Brown.

 Flying was very exciting, but it was also extremely dangerous. Half of the top aces (listed below) were killed in action. Airplanes had only recently been invented. These flimsy machines had light wooden frames covered by tent canvas. Their gasoline engines would often stall during sharp turns or dives, and enemy bullets easily set these warbirds aflame. Worst of all, the parachute had not been invented yet.

 The airplanes' main purpose was to photograph enemy positions and observe troop movements. Faster planes were designed to protect or to attack these low-flying observers. As a result, aerial fighting often took place directly above the trenches.

 The Top Aces: Pilots with More than 50 Victories.
 Pilot and Country; Victories (* "Victories" means grounding the enemy plane)  Manfred von Richthofen (Ger.); 80 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> René Fonck (Fra.); 75 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> Edward Mannock (Ire.); 73 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> Billy Bishop (Can.); 72 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> Raymond Collishaw (Can.); 62 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> Ernst Udet (Ger.); 62 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> James McCudden (Brit.); 57 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> Georges Guynemer (Fra.); 56 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> Donald Maclaren (Can.); 54 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> Erich Löwenhardt (Ger.); 54 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> Werner Voss (Ger.); 53 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> William Barker (Can.); 51

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> In 1917, flight training centres were set up in Ontario. And since Canada had no military flying service until 1924, more than 20 000 Canadians joined Britain's Royal Flying Corps or the Royal Naval Air Service. By the end of the war, 40 percent of the pilots flying for Britain were Canadians. The success of these pilots-including Billy Bishop, Raymond Collishaw, Donald Maclaren, and William Barkerwas a great source of pride for Canadians, and contributed to a growing sense of national identity.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Questions
<span style="background-color: #ceebeb; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1. a) Why do you think the pilots were public heroes, admired and envied even by soldiers?

<span style="background-color: #ceebeb; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> b) What do you think the life of a World War 1 pilot might really have been like? Use some evidence from what you have just read.

<span style="background-color: #ceebeb; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> 2. From the list of flying aces above, make a list of the total number of kills for top aces for EACH country (ie. tell how many kills Canada has, France, Germany etc).

<span style="background-color: #ceebeb; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">3. What was the airplanes main purpose in World War 1?

<span style="background-color: #ceebeb; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">4. Do you think the war in the air was a key part of World War 1 or was it not as significant as the wars on the land and sea? Why?

[|Billy Bishop's legacy.mp3]

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