Georges Guynemer: Knight of the AirBordeaux, Henry
History
Georges Guynemer: Knight of the Air
Bordeaux, Henry
Air pilots -- France -- Biography; Guynemer, Georges, 1894-1917; World War, 1914-1918 -- Aerial operations
I send you enclosed an exercise by one of my pupils chosen at
random, for all of them are animated by the same sentiments. You
will see how the immortal glory of your son shines even in humble
villages, and that the admiration and gratitude which the children,
so far away in the country, feel for our greatest aviator, will be
piously and faithfully preserved in his memory.
May this sincere testimony to the sentiments of childhood be of
some comfort in your grief, to which I offer my most profound
respect.
The School-mistress of Bouclans,
C.S.
And this is the exercise, written by Paul Bailly, aged eleven years and
ten months:
Guynemer is the Roland of our epoch: like Roland he was very brave,
and like Roland he died for France. But his exploits are not a
legend like those of Roland, and in telling them just as they
happened we find them more beautiful than any we could imagine. To
do honor to him they are going to write his name in the Pantheon
among the other great names. His airplane has been placed in the
Invalides. In our school we consecrated a day to him. This morning
as soon as we reached the school we put his photograph up on the
wall; for our moral lesson we learned by heart his last mention in
the despatches; 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 as sad as if one of our own family had died.
Roland was the example for all the knights in history. Guynemer
should be the example for Frenchmen now, and each one will try to
imitate him and will remember him as we have remembered Roland. I,
especially, I shall never forget him, for I shall remember that he
died for France, like my dear Papa.
This little French boy's description of Guynemer is true and, limited as
it is, sufficient: Guynemer is the modern Roland, with the same
redoubtable youth and fiery soul. He is the last of the knights-errant,
the first of the new knights of the air. His short life needs only
accurate telling to appear like a legend. The void he left is so great
because every household had adopted him. Each one shared in his
victories, and all have written his name among their own dead.
Guynemer's glory, to have so ravished the minds of children, must have
been both simple and perfect, and as his biographer I cannot dream of
equaling the young Paul Bailly. But I shall not take his hero from him.
Guynemer's life falls naturally into the legendary rhythm, and the
simple and exact truth resembles a fairy tale.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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