I had the privilege of going to a pre screening of Documentary on Mick Mannock and Jim McCudden at the Royal Aeronautical Society tonight. It's titled "Aces Falling" and it's part of the BBC's Timewatch series.

Quite an enjoyable viewing with the chance of a Q&A with the producers and the Historians used to make it.

It focuses on the 2 working class boys done good aspect of the two famous aces. The main producer grew up in the 60's and had an uncle who owned a TigerMoth. Since then he has had a fascination for Biplanes and after meeting Geoff Wellum (famous RAF BoB vet) who cited Mannock and McCudden as his heroes the project started to take shape.

There was little in the way of new footage, although the piece is held together with some actual WWI footage and some (not so good) 3d work and plenty of photo's of the pair. One thing that caught my attention and something I always was a little wary of was the old school tie-ness of the RFC. Jim McCudden was refused by 85 Squadron on his ill fated return to France because he was not the right sort, despite being a Major in the RFC and Britain's highest scoring Ace at the time. He was the son of an NCO and schooled by the army until he was 14. For that reason 85 Sqn turned their back on him and refused to allow him to become part of their Squadron. Luckily 60 Sqn were not so picky and he was accepted by them, shame he never made it.

The Documentary will be aired on BBC1 on March 21st, if anyone is interested

I presume that with the title 'Aces Falling' it must draw heavily on the book of the same name by Peter Hart?
Thanks for the heads-up.

No, it is very much about Mannock and McCudden, rather than a generalisation of the late war Aces. The producer was very specific about the reason why he chose to profile those two. He has a big admiration for the heroes who flew in the BoB. After meeting Geoff Wellum he began to understand that the likes of Mannock and McCudden were the heroes those pilots aspired to be. The sad thing is as time moves on those early pioneers of aerial combat will be forgotten. They even have a very good idea where Mannock is buried, in a grave marked "Unknown British Airman".

<attaches float>

Ming

Brigstock, the elitism in the German Air Force was even worse I think. The movie The Blue Max was not far off in presenting this caste prejudice. If I have the time I'll excerpt a few paragraphs from a most interesting book titled Stepchild Pilot, that was written by Joseph Doerflinger, who was an Alsatian fighter pilot who briefly served in "Royal Prussian" Jasta 11, and then "Royal Wurttemberg" Jasta 64.

Wish I could watch this BBC show you mention!

Fly

I'll record it and send via DVD if you want

Steve, that would be wonderful!

I'll reimburse your expense, and please I insist you allow me to!

There's an associated article on the BBC magazine website here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7952995.stm

OK

It'll be 2 bob for the telegraph operator and a sixpence for the lad who drops it off

The cost of a DVD and some Par Avion is only pennies these days. It ain't no hassle.
Once I've got on disc, I'll PM you

Don't forget my thruppence three farthings for the float reimbursement that cork had to be flown in from Borneo. On a Zeppelin. I said why didn't you just carve it into a trireme

Ming

Thanks Steve!

No problem Ming, and we've already got your e-mail btw.

we've already got your e-mail

Ta FR, will the money order by return be cashable in UK banks?

And regarding your PM, no Brigstock is an Englishman not a Welshman with a lisp

Ming

I have no idea what PM you're referring to Ming, but Steve's nationality or heritage makes no difference to me, and I appreciate his generous offer.

Here's a few excerpts from Stepchild Pilot, and Doerflinger's observations about upward mobility in the German Air Force during WWI:

Whenever I think of my service with the Richthofen Squadron, I think of First Lieutenant Ernst Udet. The German Army was not like our American Army where a private could, by study, service and fine deeds, win a commission. In the German army one had to have certain school credits or be born of the nobility to have a chance to earn a commission. That meant no commissions for me. I was 16 when I volunteered and obviously had not lived long enough to get my school credits. And so life with the famous squadron was not always happy. I was a black sheep among the pilots, nearly all of whom were commissioned officers. They did not associate with me. They were suspicious of "The Alsatian." At Metz we had a lot of time to kill. The commissioned officers played cards but I was not invited nor allowed to play with them. Bored, I invited two mechanics to my room to play cards. I got caught. The mechanics got a tongue-lashing and then I caught it. I was clearly to understand that I was to have nothing to do with mechanics who were beneath me.

The only pilot in the squadron who was really friendly and democratic toward me was Ernst Udet. He understood my position and tried to be my friend even though he had to be careful lest higher-ups scold him for his "slumming."

After several weeks, the Richthofen Squadron was ordered to action near Verdun in the Fifth Army Corps. But the non-commissioned officers, Martens and myself, did not go with the squadron. Perhaps the commisioned officers were tired of slumming. We were assigned to Staffel 64 and we flew to our new assignment which was located in the region of Conflance, Bry and Jarny. Martens had Udet's insatiable penchant for stunt-flying. He later won international fame for flying motorless planes.

Staffel 64 was composed of eleven pilots with 12 machines. These planes were also Fokker D-7s, but were powered by the 160 h.p. Mercedes engines without superchargers [not "over-compressed" with the high compression ratios as for the BMW DIII engine]. With the exception of our commander, an elderly lieutenant, the pilots were all non-commissioned officers. Life was quite different from that in the Richthofen Squadron. Our commander lived alone with his orderly at a castle nearby. He did not bother us. We did not bother him. We pilots could play cards and drink together at our heart's content. There was no slumming.

I have no idea what PM you're referring to

It's in the same box as my email you referred to earlier mate

Gotcha

Ming

Not that one, I was referring to this one:

mington.mauleverer@drmridge.fr

Gotcha back!

Interesting clip from Stepchild Pilot; thanks for posting. Perhaps if Dörflinger had been more successful (he had no credited victories) he would have fared better. Könnecke, Mai and Rumey of Jasta 5 were all NCO pilots, were credited with 35, 30, 45 victories respectively, were all eventually commissioned, and all but Mai received the Pour le Merite (Mai was nominated but the war ended before he received it). Perhaps as was Jasta 64w, Jasta 5 was more accomodating to NCOs than "the Richthofen Squadron" (which refers to Jagdgeschwader Nr.I, since Dorflinger was in Jastas 10 and 4).

Jim,

I'm sure Doerflinger's impressions were also undoutedly affected by his treatment as an Alsatian, serving in, and discharged from the Luftstreitkrafte at war's end.

His wartime service with JGI spanned one and a half months, and with Jasta 64w less than a month, and in this time he would have flown out of 4 different aerodromes, with 3 different squadrons, after having been assigned for front line duty directly from Jastaschule I.

Doerflinger's post-war flying and aviation-related exploits were extensive, and to a degree uniquely remarkable.

Very good it was too, loved seeing all the kit in the armouries ta Brigs

Ming