The Fallacy of the Dramatic Instance

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Ajilistatus projectos Mintriges orndo conls Aacetosistancega Have you ever heard of the legendary medieval knight named Roland He's one of those figures that sits at the intersection between myth and history that we love so much on this podcast According to the medieval Chronicles, he was a Frankish lord who lived during the reign of the famous king Charlemagne On a military expedition to Spain in seven hundred seventy eight Roland and his detachment of Frankish troops were ambushed in the Pyrenees mountains by a group of basasques angered by the incursion into their territory The primary source describes this as little more than a skirmish. but Roand died in battle in the history of Charlemagne's many wars in Europe death of Roland is not especially consequential. And yet Something about it captured the imaginations of poets. Storytellers have loved tales of heroic last sts essentially since the invention of story And there was just enough in the tale of Roland to spin a romantic tale of noble sacrifice. Over the centuries, Roland's death inspired a robust oral storytelling tradition, which was eventually committed to paper as L Chansain Roland. The song of Roland By the time the Chansain Roland was written down in the eleventh century The story of the Frankish Kight had changed. He had become Charlemagne's cousin brought on by an act of betrayal from a paranoid underling His attackers were transformed from Christian basasques into Muslims in service of one of Spain's Islamic kingdoms. Roland had also gained some magical items He carried with him an unbreakable sword named Durndal and a horn made from an elephant tusk known as an olipant that could be used to summon Charlemagne and his larger force if need was dire enough in the song Roland refuses to blow the horn even when the battle seems lost, deeming it cowardly He's eventually convinced by his compatriots that he must blow his horn. And so he blows it so forcefully that his temples start to bleed. When Charlemagne and his forces finally arrive, they discover that Roland Thought to the last man The Kight personally dispatched thousands of attackers with his blessed sword before finally succumbing to his wounds In another version of the story, we're told that Roland threw his unbreakable sword as far as he could to keep it from falling into the hands of his enemies It eventually lodged in a cliffside near a French village some three hundred and fifty kilometers away from the site of the battle is one mighty hook The Mythical Roande was something like a medieval superhero The facts of his death were rearranged to make him into a martyr in a struggle between Christianity and Islam The fact that he was not actually killed by Muslims was completely ignored by the mythmakers He was completely reimagined So he could better symbolize devotion to duty, bravery in the face of impossible odds, and sacrifice for a greater cause There's no doubt that the symbolism in the Chamain Roland is potent Fans of Lord of the Rings might recognize many of the elements from the story that were borrowed by Tolkien Boreimer's last stand against a raiding party of orcs is very Roland esque his horn of Gondor seems to have been directly inspired by Roland's olipfant In the nineteenth century, the legend of Roand was revived in France as emblematic of the spirit of the French people The medieval Kight became a symbol of French nationalism and served to anchor romantic ideas about French identity The greatest good, as exemplified by Rowoland was selfless sacrifice for the nation These myths were tested during the Great War which stretched to the limits exactly How much the French nation was able to sacrifice By the end of the war, France had racked up an astonishing one point three five million military deaths that there were between three hundred and four hundred thousand French civilians that had also died One in four French men between the ages of eighteen and thirty had perished in the conflict too say nothing of the millions who carried scars both mental and physical for the rest of their lives At the height of the bloodshed, stories like the sacrifice of Roland could seem more like morbid dares than inspiring acts of courage And yet The wartime French press discovered that there was one group of warriors who could still be credibly depicted wielding Roland's unbreakable sword The flying aces of the aeronautique militire Ironically, the man who would be most celebrated as a modern chehevalier was a slender twenty something been rejected for military service five times due to his physical frailty. This was Georgge Guinel a man who would be remembered as the French ace of Aes His first biography published shortly after his death in nineteen seventeen was titled your skin mle of the air After weathering rejections from the French infantry and cavalry Gim Mer was eventually accepted as a mechanic in the Air service After earning his pilot's bvette in June of nineteen fifteen He started flying for the Thd Escadriel named Les Segoin or The storks Over the course of the next two years, he recorded a remarkable fifty three aerial victories including the feat of shooting down four enemy planes in just twenty four hours Thanks to the newly instituted ACE system in the French Air service, the French public were encouraged to follow the exploits of Guimil closely in the papers Curious civilians could follow the number of airplanes shot down by the top aces like they were sports statistics New milestones were celebrated like sluggers breaking single season home run records. When Guinme became the first French pilot to achieve fifty aerial victories, headlines could be seen all over France, declaring things like quote ty machines destroyed. This had been Guimere's dream Qote The Germans had taught the Allies the propaganda value that came with turning flying aces into celebrities. The victories of these figures certainly helped boy morale However morale proved to be as fragile as the human shoulders upon which it rested. Flying aces were great. so long as they stayed alive The death of one of these wartime celebrities could be crushing And given the nature of their work an untimely death was more likely than not When Gin Mo was eventually shot down and killed in early october nineteen seventeen came as such a shock to the French public that at first, many refused to believe that he was dead The pilot's first biographer, Henry Bordeaux would remember that, quote Throughout France, some sort of miracle was expected Gimel must reappear prisoner, he must escape Dead. He must come to life. Pilate's life had taken on a nearly biblical significance. He was someone who had sacrificed. Now It followed that he needed to be resurrected When it became clear that the second coming of Gin Mer was not going to happen, He was thoroughly transformed from a celebrity into a myth A symbol on the level of Roland pererhaps Bet than Roan In the biography Night of the Air The author included an excerpt from an essay about the French Ace that had been written by a French schoolboy and sent to him by the lad's teacher This kid made all that had been implied about the chivalry of the French Ace perfectly explicit He would write, quote Gin Mer is the Roland of our epoch Like Roland, he was very brave and like Roland, he died for France But his exploits were 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 Rooland was an example for all the knights in history Guiner should be the example for Frenchmen now I Eespecially I shall not forget him For I shall remember that he died for France Papa It's understandable why biographer Henry Bordeaux chose to include that excerpt in his prologue Kight of the Air was a glowing haiography of the French ace who better to articulate the mythic power of Ginel than a child But of course, the death of Ginmer was received rather differently in Germany after the flyer was shot down The German paper Walsch told its readers, quote Captain Guinmer enjoyed a high reputation in the French army as he professed to having brought down more than fifty planes But many of these were proved to have got back to their camps, though damaged, it is true The French, in order to make all verification on our side impossible have given up stating in the past few months the place or date of their so called victories. According to the German press Gin Mo had exaggerated his alleged victories In fact, they went so far as to claim that the French Air Force were routinely fudging their numbers as a matter of course The article would also go on to claim that the French Ace ran up his numbers only by attacking planes that had already been severely damaged by his squadron. This is where things get hard to parse The Germans had their own propaganda reasons for wanting to diminish the achievements of the French pilot Biographer Henry Bordeaux argued forcefully Germans had written was little more than slander And it does seem that the German claims about Ginmael's fighting style were not accurate However Many historians of aviation history have had to reckon with the fact that the numbers of aerial victories as reported by the flying acces were not always accurate. Historian Michael Hankin has pointed out that over the course of the war Allied pilots claimed around eleven thousand aerial victories Meanwhile, The Germans only reported losing roughly three thousand aircraft This raises the question wereere the Germans under reporting their losses? or were the Allies massively exaggerating their victories Could it have been both Depending on who you ask, Guin Mer was either a hero on the level of Roland, worthy of songs and epic poems or he was a cheap, cowardly fighter who lied about the scale of his exploits While the French celebrated his gallantry and bravery, the Germans declared that he did not deserve to be considered a knight of the air Anone really deserve such a romantic moniker While the German dismissals of Guinmer may have been unfair and motivated by the needs of wartime propaganda It's worth considering the fact that the French Ace is not the only World War One flyer who's been accused of lying about his record For instance, Canadian aviator, Billy Bishop 's been recognized as the most prolific ace to fly for the British with seventy two aerial victories. has had his record challenged. One historian has even accused him of lying about the incident which won him the prestigious Victoria Cross What should we make of this reassessment of many of the World War Ine aces Did their impossibly noble reputation as knights of the air make them obvious targets for historical revision These men may not have been roand with the unbreakable sword Remember N even Roland was Ro Land with the unbreakable sword How do we right size the impact of these aerial warriors? Let's see what we can figure out today on our fake history Episode number two fifty three were The Knights of the air A myth? Part two. Hello and welcome to O Fake History. My name is Sebastian Major and this is the podcast where we explore historical myths and try to determine what's fact What's fiction and what is such a good story, it simply must be told Before we get going this week, I just want to remind everyone listening that you can hear this episode ad free through Patreon Just head to patreon. com slash our fake history. get access to an ad free feed and dozens of extra episodes And speaking of extras, I'm going to be releasing a special Q and A episode for the patrons specifically about the latest two hour extra on the Seven wonders of the Ancient worldor So if you still haven't heard that or maybe you listened and you had some questions and you haven't sent them in yet Please send them in Patrons have access to the chat area on the Patreon page where there are spots to put your questions for every episode that I put out That little bonus will be coming soon. So if you're interested, go to patreon. com slash our fake history This week, we are returning to the First World War in the mythology that surrounds the first ever fighter pilots This is part two in what is going to be a two part series. So if you've not heard part one, then I strongly suggest that you go back and give that a listen now In that first part, I did my best to set up how the perception of wartime aviators contrasted with other soldiers in the First World War The Great War is often credited with destroying romantic notions about how war could be gallant, heroic, and filled with adventure The machine gun, heavy artillery, and weaponized gas turned Europe's battlefields into nightmarish hellscapes The industrialization of warfare brought with it levels of death not previously imagined. After the war, a generation of artists would famously reckon with this feeling of disillusionment But the one part of the war that managed to preserve a type of romance was the conflict in the skies above the trenches The Flyers in the First World War were imagined as modern knights worthy of King Arthur's round table Real stories about chivalry between enemy pilots were used by newspaper writers and wartime propagandists to paint the Air warar as the last example of civilized warfare. question is justust how accurate was that depiction To help answer that question, I did my best to give an overview of how the military use of aircraft evolved over the course of the first two years of the war. Airplanes were originally used almost exclusively for reconnaissance, and often, pilots flew entirely unarmed As the war progressed and the value of air power became clearer to all the combatants Eemy planes started attacking each other mid aair This led to changes in airplane design that saw the creation of single seater aircraft with front mounted machine guns that were designed specifically to attack other planes pilot was now also the gunner and the fighter pilot I need to make a small correction from the last episode I mentioned that the French pilot Roland Garaot invented the first interrupting gear That was an invention that allowed a machine gun to be fired between the spins of a propeller blade Now A few listeners with an interest in aviation history reached out Be I kind of yachotta yachotted through some important points First Roland Garaot did not invent this device on his own. In fact Most of the work was done by a French engineer named Raymond Soaonnier Garaot took a prototype that Salniet was working on and adapted it for his monoplane More importantly, though The machine gun that Garaot was forced to use with his interrupting gear, the Hotchkiss nine hundred thirteen was not a great match for this new technology The gun had a notoriously inconsistent firing rate Bad news when you're trying to time your bullets so they go between the blades of a spinning propeller So this meant that while that early French interruptor gear technically worked, the inconsistent firing rate meant that sometimes the bullets would hit the propeller blades So, as a workaround, Garaot and his mechanic redesigned the propeller with special wedge shaped steel deflectors that could protect the prop from the occasional ill timed round This has given some folks the impression that Garaot did not actually have an interruptor on his machine gun and was instead just firing his gun willy nilly through his tricked out steel edge propeller That's not Qite right It did have interruptor gear, but thanks to the machine gun he was using, it was not super reliable and occasionally produced a round that might hit his spinning propeller blade I apologize for missing that nuance in the last episode because it helps explain a few things It helps explain why the Folker aircraft, which were inspired by Guto's monoplane, were such a leap forward German interruptor technology, when paired with their machine guns, consistently shot bullets between the spins of a propeller Allied technology was simply not as precise in nineteen fifteen. This also helps explain why Gatow's tech was not universally applied to the Allied aircraft when the Folker aircraft emerged in the summer of nineteen fifteen Personally, I was a little confused why if the French had this amazing invention, they only had one pilot using it The answer seems to be that it was an experimental piece of tech with all sorts of problems. to clarify Yes Roland Garaotu was the first pilot to fly with a specially mounted machine gun with an interruptor device He did not invent it single handedly, and it was imprecise and required a specially designed propeller that could deflect stray bullets Laker's interruptter technology was much better which is why those planes really had the edge For most of nineteen fifteen and early nineteen sixteen Anyway, we finished off the last episode by looking at how the Folker Eindecker aircraft created the first proper flying aces These aircraft created a panic, especially in Britain that the Germans had discovered some new kind of super weapon The Germans encouraged this perception by turning their best pilots, Max Imann and Oswald Bolka international icons As we discussed, it was a novel thing in nineteen fifteen to turn an active duty service member into a celebrity Many of the Allies, especially the British, found the practice distasteful and potentially disrespectful to other airmen, soldiers, and sailors whose service was less glamorous, but equally essential to the war effort However, the French soon embraced the tactic, and by June of nineteen sixteen, they had created the ACE system. whereby any pilot who notched five or more aerial victories earned the distinction of being called an ace. Eventually, newspapers in Britain were also following the exploits of various flyers, even though the British Flying Corps never fully embraced the idea of singling out specific pilots in military dispatches. As a result, the names of the most prolific aces became household names during the war Newspapers were particularly interested in tales of chivalry and gentlemanly conduct between enemy pilots Historians like Linda Robertson have pointed out These stories helped the wartime press keep alive the idea that the war had been a noble crusade even as the horrors of the trenches were making that idea a harder sell Today, I want to look at how the understanding of fighter pilots evolved as the war progressed How hard was it to preserve the image that the Air warar was a gentlemanly pursuit even as the fighting got more intense Also How did the image of the fighter pilot affect young men in the United States How much did it contribute to America joining the war in nineteen seventeen Let's head back to the First World War and see what we can discover Today's episode is being brought to you by Quince Summer always changes how I get dressed ies of the feelld lighter and more breathable, things that are easy, but still, you know, put together Quintinces European linen, pants and shirts are the perfect warm weather upgrade to add to your rotation, starting at just thirty four dollars Tees are soft and easy to wear and their lightweight cotton sweaters are perfect for cooler summer nights part is that everything at Quince is priced fiftycent to eighty percent less than similar brands Honest, Quintince, let me go pick out some stuff and I've been loving like everything I've got for them. I legitimately wear the clothes I got from Quince all the time. very cozy t shirt that I've got on right now actually. And I've got this wonderful jacket I've been talking about that everyone's been asking me about I love it. I love it. I love the stuff that Quince has on offer Elevate your summer wardrobe, go to quintince dot com slash fake history for free shipping on your order and three hundred sixty five day returns. Now available in Canada too. shhout out to my Canadians. That's Q U I N C E com slash History for free shipping and three hundred and sixty five day returns Qinince d. com slash fake history Today's episode of Our Fake History is being brought to you by Rosetta Stone Many of us have tried learning another language before. 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That's roosettaestone dot com slash history and start learning a language for real By the spring of nineteen sixteen, the propaganda value of airmen become clear to all of the combatants in the Great warar The celebrity of flyers like Max Imelmann and Oswald Bolka had noticeably helped German morale, both in the trenches and on the home frront Not only did this inspire the French Ace system, it also contributed to the creation of a flying unit whose primary Reison debt was propaganda spepecifically propaganda targeting Americans This was the unit of the French aeronautique militaire made up entirely of American volunteers, known as the Lafayette Escadril The story of the creation of this particular unit has been a little contested You will sometimes read that the idea for a unit of American flyers fighting for the French Republic came from a young man named Norman Prince Prince was one of America's earliest aviators Technically, the fifty fifth American to be licensed to fly by the Arow Club of America He was also the son of Frederick Prince, one of America's wealthiest financiers. There's no doubt that Prince was instrumental in the formation of what would become the Lafayette Escadrille Many historians have pointed out that Prince's connected family did quite a lot to encourage the idea that Norman was the one and only founder of this celebrated flying unit The truth seems to be that the idea for an American unit in the aeronautique militire was originally proposed by one doctor Edmund Gross an American who had been one of the key organizers of American volunteers in the French ambulance serervice in the early years of the war His experience working with eager young American ambulance volunteers started him looking for other ways that American volunteers might help the French war effort Around nineteen fifteen, he started floating the idea of an American aviation unit to his contacts in the French military At first, this was a bit of a tough sell to the French However, very quickly, many in the French military started to see how a small unit made up of well connected Americans from wealthy families could help the war effort An undersecretary in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs eventually made the case that if used correctly This unit could help bring America into the war writing quote the resulting sentiment of enthusiasm could have but one effect turn Americans in the direction of the Allies end quote Similarly, Escadriel member Edward C. Parsons wrote after the war, quote, The French are smart diplomats. They wanted American support desperately and saw the possibilities offered by the publicity attendant on the spectacular efforts of prominent young American flyers as a unit in French uniform And quote Creating an American unit in the French Army was a little tricky, as it could easily be interpreted as a violation of America's neutrality The original name for the unit, the Ameri Kan Escadriil, had to be scrapped over these concerns It's hard to claim that your nation is officially neutral when the French Air Force has a unit called the American Unit So, the name Lafayette was proposed in honor of the famous Marquis de Lafayette, the French nobleman who fought with the Americans during their War of independence Once this unit was officially created in March of nineteen sixteen Great care was taken to make the experience suitably glamorous for the volunteers There was already an aura around fighter pilots, and this division leaned into that At firstirst, people like Norman Printince helped recruit for this unit from among America's wealthy families Certified pilots at the time already tended to be well to do types who could afford access to airplanes. So you know, this helped Prince was also an alumni of Harvard, and so many of the flyers that were brought into this unit were products of the American Ivy League This group of volunteers made it clear that they were interested in flying and only flying These young Americans did not want to wash out of pilot training and end up in the French infantry So a unique caveat was created in the Elistment papers that said that if a recruit was to wash out of training or be deemed unfit to fly They would be released from service and would not be reassigned to the French infantry or Navy These guys got to be pilots or they got to go home. The French military also made sure that the Lafayette Escadrille was particularly well billeted and fed For a time, they were put up in a luxurious inn on the site of a spa that was originally built for King Louis fifte in the French town of Luxeill The specially assigned French chefs feasted the volunteers on locally caught trout and game hens They were also well supplied with fine burgundy wines When compared to the experience of a French soldier in the trenches This was a truly kingly existence. Of course, there was a reason for this. The message being sent back to America was that the war was noble exciting and gave young men a chance to be heroes And actually kind of comfortable So you should really volunteer. The French military was also careful in how they deployed the Lafayette Escadriil It was important that the American volunteers got a chance to fight and of course, score victories that could be reported on by the press states side But it was also equally important that the unit's losses were kept at a minimum such Combat missions for the Americans were very carefully chosen to give the unit better chances at success and a lower likelihood of being killed in action Now this is not to say that there were no casualties The Lafayette, Escadril did fight and American flyers lost their lives while serving in the unit Everyone involved was cognizant of the fact that the unit needed to be managed with care to have the intended propaganda effect. If most of the unit was turning over every eight weeks or so, as was the case in some other British and French aerial units Americans might sour on the idea of joining the war In the United States, this unit was reported on in a way that encouraged a belief that aerial warfare was noble and chivalrous The Kight of the Air Myth became a big part of the Lafayette Escadrill reporting It's hard to say exactly how much the exploits of the Lafayette Escadriel contributed to America's eventual declaration of war in nineteen seventeen. The question of why America chose to join the Great War on the side of the British and the French. probably deserves its own podcast There was not one simple reason why America joined the war Of course, there were economic concerns. There was the threat of unrestricted submarine warfare, most dramatically illustrated by the sinking of the Lusitania There was also the infamous Zimmerman teelegram uncovered a proposed German plot to help Mexico conquer the American Southwest. And trust me, there are myths and misconceptions about all of those things that deserve unpacking My point here is that the Lafayette EscA Drill was one relatively small initiative that brought America into the Allied orbit. So when war was declared, they already knew whose side they were on Perhaps more importantly, the unit helped sell the propaganda myth that the war was about civilization overcoming barbarism Edmund Gross described it well, when he wrote that the Lafayette Escadril led Americans quote, to the realization that this war was not a local conflict between European nations, but a world struggle between the forces of good Evil End quote It seems that as a propaganda tool, the unit was quite effective In the end, only thirty eight Americans ever served with the Lafayette Eesscadrill But according to historian, Michael Hankin The fame of the unit was such that by the nineteen thirties, there were around four thousand people publicly claiming that they had once been part of the unit More Americans actually volunteered to fly for the British in the early years of the war. They had no special unit, no clever branding, and very little press attention The biggest effect of the unit may have been on the American understanding of aerial warfare as something that Americans were particularly good at When the United States first joined the war in April of nineteen seventeen There was a feeling among some Americans that the United States would be able to win the war using air power alone This optimism seems to have been largely based on romantic ideas about the role of air power in the war to that point In nineteen seventeen, the United States Congress passed the largest appropriation bill in American history to that point specifically to build an armada of American aircraft It was imagined would sweep over the front and finally break the stalemate of the war During the debate in Congress, House mininority leadeader James Mann expressed this idea with some characteristic American country charm saying, quote I can see no way for the Allied army to break through the German army on the Western Font under any existing standards of warfare. But here is an unknown quantity The use of flying machines No one knows what can be accomplished by it. No one knows its limitations. Did you ever buy a pig and a poke and take chances on it Sometimes it turns out very fortunately sometimes with loss of money invested Buying a pig in a poke is country slang for buying something sight unseen James Man was arguing The potential of aircraft was limitless So why not gamble on a gigantic air Force In many ways, this illustrates the naivete around what airplanes were actually doing in the war There was a lot of information out there by nineteen seventeen concerning exactly what airplanes could and could not do The congressional debate seems to have been largely colored by romantic ideas about flying, the chivalry of fighter pilots and a blinding optimism about the productive power of the American economy. One military booster for this bill also pitched it as a way for Americans to get involved in the war that avoided the muck of the trenches and spoke to the American spirit. American Brigadier General Squire made this case, writing, quote planes are the logical fighting machines of Americans because we are an imaginative people And when our imaginations strike fire, nothing can stop us We are impatient of plotting methods, a nation of individualists. We are willing to send our hundreds of thousands to the front, if needs be, to dig holes and burrow in the soil for interminable months But we don't enthuse over the idea We want something that appeals to our knack for inventing things, for getting over obstacles, and the air way is our way You gott to love that. Airplanes are the natural fighting machines of Americans. All of this is to say that units like the Lafayette Escadril did not push America into the war. It seems to have colored how Americans thought they were going to fight the war at least in the early part of nineteen seventeen Despite the massive military spending bill, the dreams of an unstoppable American airplane armada were never entirely realized the fighter pilot stuck in the imagination as the most American warrior fighting in the Great warar I' argue that image has lasted for over a century We just got a top gun sequel Despite the profound American embrace of the myth of the Knights of the Air and the eventual celebrity status of American aces like Eddie Rickenbacer The ultimate World War One Ace, the so called Ace of Aes was of course, a German I'm speaking of Manfred von Richthofffen Better known as the Red Baron As his nickname suggests, von Richtofen was from an aristocratic Prussian family His ancestors had been granted the title Freien. which translates literally as Free Lord So while he was not a baron in the exact sense, he was part of the Prussian nobility He started off the war as a German cavalry officer. before it became painfully clear that the realities of mechanized battle had rendered the formally prestigious horseback units largely irrelevant. This frustrated Richdolphin, who later commented in his autobiography, quote I've not gone to war in order to collect cheese and eggs, but for another purpose So in early nineteen fifteen, he applied for a transfer to the Imperial German Army Air Service, where he trained first as an aerial observer and then as a pilot Mickdauphin's aristocratic pedigree and his career as a horseman meant that once he started making a name for himself as an ace, the Kight of the air image was an easy fit He was a nobleman who had literally been a warrior on horseback who then traded his horse for a state of the art aircraft of Richtoffen's training came by way of Oswald Bolka, one of the very first German flying aces that we discussed in the last episode Now as I said, if there's one German ace who seems to have been especially kind and virtuous, it was Bulka s hard to confirm every story about him, but there is a large body of anecdotes concerning him checking in on wounded enemy pilots, doing favors for men he shot down, generally being a good dude In June of nineteen sixteen, Max Iman man who along with Oswald Bolkke had become one of Germany's first flying aces. was killed in action after his plane broke apart near Laon France The Death of Imman illustrated how the celebrity status of the Aes truly was a double edged sword Unlike other soldiers, if an ace was killed in the line of duty, it was international news The loss of an ace could seriously affect the national mood and wound public support for the war So after the loss of Imelmann, the Germans decided that they simply could not afford to lose Bolka as well. So he was grounded for a month. In that time, Bolka became instrumental in reshaping Germany's air Force, now known as the Luftstreitkraft and apologies for my German pronunciation Looft straight craft His mission experience was turned into a codified system of German aerial tactics known as the Dka Bolka. Significantly, Bola pointed out that having fighter pilots fly solo was not particularly effective Instead, he proposed that groups of fighter planes should fly together in packs so they could better defend one another in the air This suggestion was adopted by the freshly reorganized Air Force, who started creating units made up entirely of fighter aircraft these were known as the jagstaflin or the Justas The Jastas were essentially hunting packs of fighter planes who patrolled the front for enemy aircraft When he was allowed to return to combat, Bola was given command of his own Jasta Justa number two, which he was allowed to personally staff Among those he brought abard was the ambitious young former cavalrym Manfred von Richthofen It was with Bola as his commanding officer that Richdofin really learned the craft of being a fighter pilot He quickly demonstrated that he had a talent for downing enemy aircraft, and within two weeks of joining Josta I, Richtoffen had scored his first aerial victory. in his autobiography, he would remember landing his plane so he could personally inspect the first English plane that he had shot down erver was already dead The pilot was mortally wounded and not long for the world In the autobiography, I think you get a true sense of the extent of Rich Toffin's quote unquote chivalry He described being excited to have shot down his first plane and eager to inspect the wreckage Unlike stories about Bolka and Iman, he does not present this like he was checking in on the health of the pilots. He makes it clear in his autobiography that he was trying to kill these men You know That's what you do in war he adds that quote, I honored the fallen enemy by placing a stone on his beautiful grave. Th those types of gestures were really the extent of his gallantry. I'm not sure if the translation is imprecise I had a hard time interpreting what he meant by the phrase Beautiful grave Was the grave beautiful because his enemy was dead? or was it beautiful because he had so carefully created a plot to honor the pilots Was he joking on the double meaning 's kind of hard to tell anyone. This was the start of what would prove to be a prolific career for Richtofen end of nineteen sixteen He had achieved sixteen aerial victories and was awarded the Pure Lerit, or the Blue Max Like the German aces that had come before him, this award vaulted him to new levels of fame part of the new class of German hero aces This group was defined by the new hunting packs or Jastas These pilots racked up their kill counts by working as a team This is significant given the image of the fighter pilot as a man alone, an individual knight in a joust. Von Richtaoffen started flying in the era of the Jasta As such, his successes were deeply tied to the performance of his hunting group Such was Richtofen's talent that in January of nineteen seventeen, not long after being awarded the Blue Max He was given command of his own Jasta Just a eleven. This was when the quote unquote legend of the Red Baron was firmly established You know, you need to be careful when using the word legend because it gives the impression that there are lots of wild and unbelievable stories out there about Richtofen I've been surprised about how few there actually are. Richtofen became famous simply because he was deadlier and more effective than any other pilot in the war And no one really disputes that. He also had effective branding In January of nineteen seventeen, he had his albatross D three painted bright red. partartially so members of his Josta would be able to keep track of their commanding officer while in the air. and partially to intimidate the enemy The plane became known as L Petit Rouge, or Little Red among enemy pilots Eventually it became known that the flyer of the Pit Rouge was a German aristocrat And so the nickname Red Baron was born This was a nickname used almost exclusively by the Allies In Germany, he was never really known by that title Autobiography is titled D Rote Komfliger translates to the Red Battleflyer or the Red fighter pilot Those were his German nicknames Interestingly, in Germany, his aristocratic roots were a little less part of the branding The Red Baron is also deeply associated with a specific plane This was the Folker DR one triplane That was a distinctive looking fighter plane with three sets of fixed wings If you go to an air show and they are doing a red barren reenactment, the plane they are usually flying is a bright red folker triplane actual fact Baron only started using this type of plane exclusively near the end of his career, starting in November of nineteen seventeen the course of his career, he would eventually be credited with eighty aerial victories the most of any pilot in the war Of those eighty, only eighteen were scored in a Folker triplane That is a surprisingly small fraction It's kind of like learning that Batman only drove the Batmobile to church on Sundays There is more to say about von Richtofen and the evolution of the fighter pilot Mythos. pause here Wel back we will consider how the image of the fighter ace weathered the final years of the war. 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That's shopify d. com slash fake There's little doubt that the Red Baron is one of the best remembered people to fight in the First World War His name recognition or at least nickname recognition, is rivaled only by the most famous generals And I will say in Canada, every school kid knows the name John McCe, the poet surgeon who penned in Flanders Fields, which gets recited here every november eleventh But Richtofen's fame is deeply tied to his kill count. his bright red plane and his hunting Jasta, which was eventually nicknamed the Flying circus certainly helped make him more memorable But none of that would have mattered had it not been for Richtofin's ability to send planes crashing out of the sky From january nineteen seventeen to march nineteen eighteen Each month he topped the list of the most aerial victories scored by a German flyer. That streak was also punctuated by injuries that sometimes kept him grounded for weeks at a time. Despite that, he still managed to shoot down more planes than anyone else I have to be careful not to slip into the language of sports when talking about the Red Baron any of the other aces for that matter I'll tell you many of the sources Kind of encourage it. Kdauffen is often noted as the quote unquote top scorer in the German Air Force The term aerial victories is a term that is often preferred over Now, to be fair, not every aerial victory resulted in someone's death The plane was disabled and crashed, but the crew survived. that was still technically an aerial victory Nevertheless, the way that statistics about flying aces were gathered, published, and celebrated had a way of obfuscating the killing that was involved By contrast, none of the combatants were publishing the quote unquot victories scored by soldiers manning machine gun nests in the trenches Asking an infantryman just how many people he had killed with his gun would have been understood as deeply inappropriate and frankly kind of ghoulish Everyone knew exactly how many planes the Red Baron sent crashing to the Earth with his machine gun Right from the very beginning, there seems to have been something about the distancing effect of airplane technology that made the death seem less visceral The public was encouraged to relish the victories of flying aces in a way they were not asked to keep count of every person killed by an infantryman The idea that the war in the air was more like a sport was deeply part of the Kights of the air myth. Manthred von Richthofen is often quoted as having once said to his squadron, quote, Gentlemen We are sportsmen not butchers This is often held up as an example of the Red Baron's chivalry He was looking to win the war shed blood needlessly So goes the tale But this quote, which has appeared in films about Rich Toffen, is actually a distorted paraphrase of something in his autobiography there context makes this quote sound considerably less gallant Richtofen muses about the difference between a sportsman and a butcher while discussing how he believed that his brother Lothar von Richtoffen, a flying ace in his own right ome a bit of a butcher The larger quote reads My father discriminates between a sportsman and a butcher. The former shoots for fun When I have shot down an Englishman, my hunting passion is satisfied for a quarter of an hour. And therefore, I do not succeed in shooting two Englishmen in succession. If one of them comes down, I have the feeling of complete satisfaction Only much, much later have I overcome my instinct and have become A butcher von Richdoffen is actually saying is that as time went on, he became more aggressive and less concerned with quote unquote sportsmanship In fact, he seems to be suggesting that his reticence to shoot down more than one plane in an outing needed to be overcome The point was to kill war made him more of a butcher. Still, the idea that the war in the air was a sport arguably contributed to some fake history The fact that aerial victories were being recorded, tracked in the papers, and then rewarded with medals meant that fighter pilots on every side of the conflict became interested in maximizing their stats This created a situation where pilots started exaggerating the numbers of their aerial victories This seems to have been a problem for all of the belligerent nations, but the style of fighting on the German side with the Jastas pack hunting Most of the German victories were authenticated by witnesses Things were a little looser on the Allied side of the war As I said in the introduction Historian Michael Hankin has pointed out that pilots from the United States, France, and the British Empire claimed something on the order of eleven thousand aerial victories over the course of the war When checked against German records, only three thousand of those victories can be verified Now that's a pretty huge discrepancy But I don't want to give the impression that this was due entirely to Allied pilots lying about their exploits First, we need to recognize that the German records are incomplete and contain significant gaps Second, sometimes aerial victories were credited to more than one pilot if multiple planes contributed In other words, one plane going down could result in three victories if three pilots were instrumental in the process Third, a common way that pilots escaped from a dogfight that was not going well was to go into a steep dive that made it look like they were crashing, only to pull up before they hit the ground and fly back to base These fakeouts could sometimes be mistaken for actual crashes. The inflation of these numbers in many cases came from honest mistakes and the quirks of reporting However are some notable cases where it seems like pilots knowingly lied about their record One pilot who has been accused of this by historians is a full on Canadian hero World War One, flying Ace Billy Bishop. If you're not Canadian, you may have never heard that name. But in my country, Billy Bishop is one of our more celebrated war heroes If you've ever flown into the Toronto Island Airport You sat down at Billy Bishop Hailing from Owens Sound, Ontario, William Bishop was another cavalry man turned aviator. As a pilot in the British Flying Corps, he earned a reputation for a particularly aggressive flying style earned him the nickname Hell's handandmaiden among the Germans He was heavily decorated during the war, including receiving the prestigious Victoria Cross, the highest military distinction in the British Empire Over the course of his career, he was officially credited with seventy three aerial victories, just seven short of the Red Baron's record eighty which made him the most successful ace to fly for the British Empire during the Great War In two thousand two, the Canadian historian Beretton Greenhouse, who had been formmerally employed at the Canadian Department of Defense published a book titled The Making of Billy Bishop. In that book, he argued that the celebrated Canadian likely lied about many of his exploits In the book, Greenhouse meticulously went through Bishop's record and concluded that of the seventy three alleged victories Only twenty seven could be properly verified. mostost provocatively He claimed that Bishop may have lied about the incident which won him the Victoria Cross This was a solo mission undertaken on june seventh, nineteen seventeen Bishop claimed that he went alone to destroy a German aerodrome In process, he claimed he shot down three enemy aircraft, two of which were just taking off He also strafed many others on the ground He was then pursued by four German planes, which he just narrowly escaped In his book, Greenhouse pointed out that this feat was entirely unwitnessed. Not a single German record exists to substantiate it. is possible that German records of this attack were lost attacks on aerodromes were usually recorded perhaps more seriously, Greenhouse pointed out that Bishop's combat report was curious in that the pilot was unable to identify the location of the airfield Greenhouse believes that the entire aerodrome attack was likely exaggerated by Bishop Further, he argued that this was part of a pattern in Bishop's life He pointed out that as a young man, Bishop was caught cheating on his year end exams at the Royal Military College This is something that is confirmed by Veterans Affairs Canada We can also say definitively that Bishop lied about surviving an encounter with the Red Baron In his autobiography, Bishop claimed that on april thirtieth, nineteen seventeen, he had a close run in with four bright red German albatross planes, which he believed were piloted by quote, Baron von Richtofen and three of his best men end quote He even claimed that he shot at the Red Baron and caught a glimpse of the German pilot as he quote flashed by himote But when you dig into Bishop's combat reports from that date, you discover that while he does report an attack by four German planes, he says nothing about their color. nor does he mention Richtofen personal letter written that evening He describes his dog fight, but again says nothing about the Red Baron. Greenhouse points out that we know exactly where Rick Tofin was on april thirtieth. It was not in the sky He was grounded that day while he was being fetted by the German Kaiser after achieving his fiftieth aerial victory It seems likely that Billy Bishop made up the detail about the Baron being in the sky that day simply to make a better story for his autobiography In his conclusion, Greenhouse calls Billy Bishop a quote born mythomaniac points to well over a dozen victories that certainly did not happen and raises doubt about many more claiming that it's likely that Bishop misrepresented many of his solo missions that he undertook near the end of the war when he was a commanding officer and had already earned a reputation as an ace Pilots were taken at their word Greenhouse believes that Bishop exploited that Why would he do this It seems that the fact that aerial comombat was being presented as a sporting event madeade men competitive There was glory and prestige that came with the quote unquote highest score Bishop liked the idea of being the British Empire's highest scoring flying Ace. So The Greenhouse believes that he fudged the facts to achieve that goal It should be known that even twenty four years later, Greenhouse's book remains incredibly controversial in Canadian military circles Not everyone agrees with his conclusions It's been described as an uncharitable and cynical attempt to destroy the reputation of a great Canadian and the Canadian military itself Many people have rejected Greenhouse's assessment of Billy Bishop. For instance, in two thousand two, Stephen Dieter took to the pages of the Globe in Mail to rebut many of Greenhouse's assertions He claimed that Greenhouse did not have enough evidence to support his wider thesis about Billy Bishop. Specifically, he argued that While Greenhouse gives us reasons to question Bishop's account of his famous aerodrome attack He does not conclusively demonstrate that Bishop lied Dieter's point is well taken 're going to accuse a man of lying about his most high profile exploit, you should have some very strong evidence Personally, I think Greenhouse makes a pretty compelling case that Bishop had a history of myth making and exaggeration I have to say, I'm inclined to agree that the general lack of evidence means that I understand why many would still take Bishop at his word, especially when it comes to the aerodrome attack Anyway, all of this remains very controversial Fellllow Canadians, believe me, I take no pleasure in poking holes in the legacy of a national icon. You know, I would be remiss if I did not point out that the flying Ace with the most controversial record is our boy, Billy Bishop To me, cases like that of Billy Bishop illustrate how the propaganda image of the flying ace affected our history By presenting aerial combat as a sport, it encouraged a certain kind of behavior By the end of the war, the flying Ace statistics were proving to be such an effective morale booster on the home frront that French, American, and even the usually meticulous British loosened up their reporting practices Dictories made good copy It did not seem proper to question the word of a Kight of the air When he told you, he had scored a victory. In July of nineteen seventeen, Manfred von Richtaofen was seriously wounded after a bullet grazed his skull Many of his biographers believe that this injury costed lasting damage to his brain After the injury, his behavior and flying seemed to change He was shot down for the last time in April of nineteen eighteen The Royal Air Force officially credited another Canadian pilot with this aerial victory This was Arthur Roy Brown from Carlton Place, Ontario just outside of my current hometown of Ottawa Brown seems to have been of a very different temperament than his countryman Billy Bishop As he was never really comfortable with the distinction of being the man who shot down the Red Baron He rarely discussed the incident and didn't really exploit it for any type of personal fame experts have speculated always suspected that he may not have deserved the credit. Most experts now believe that the Baron was actually brought down by an Australian machine gunner who is shooting at the plane from the ground Dauphin's body was recovered and buried by the nearby Australian regiment And there was a degree of chivalrous pomp that came with that Representatives from nearby squadrons visited the burial site and presented wreaths one of which memorably said, quote to our gallant and worthy foe. This is the part of the myth that's actually based in truth There was a true respect for the dead and a dignity paid to pilots who fell in battle. Another Canadian pilot, Raymond Collinshaw, who flew in both the First and Second World Wars commented This was one of the biggest differences he saw between the two conflicts The Knights of the Air image was certainly an exaggeration But there was still a widespread belief that enemy fighters and especially fellow pilots deserved a certain amount of dignity during the First War dropped notes and the wreaths on the graves was a recognition of their humanity These things didn't really happen during the Second World War which was instead, quote, all hatred and impersonality In this way, you could argue that the brutality of the Second World War helped make the moments of humanity and dignity from the first shhine all the brighter in memory And this is ultimately where I've settled on the concept of the Knights of the air. This is one of those myths that is based in some truth. There really were moments between enemy pilots that can only be described as gentlemen dead pilots were honored Enemies dropped letters concerning the whereabouts and health of pilots who had been captured behind enemy lines Some pilots even checked on enemies that they had shot out of the air. These things seem to have happened far more frequently during the First World War than they did during the second any subsequent conflict for that matter. But in the world of rhetoric, there's something known as the fallacy of the dramatic instance I know this sounds like the name of an early two thousands emo band Fallacy of the dramatic Instance are opening up for my chemical romance this summer But this is actually a logical fallacy. It's where a particularly dramatic or memorable event is used to draw a broad generalization Your uncle gets ripped off by one crooked mechanic, and now all mechanics are rip off artists you understand how this works I believe that the image of the Knights of the air is an example of the same phenomenon. A handful of memorable anecdotes concerning the gallantry of early pilots were used to make a positive generalization about the entire war in the air This image was then fostered by war propagandists who used the Night of the air image to drive recruitment. Keep up morale and even coax powerful allies into the war. It's not that the image of the chivalrous pilot was totally made up It was just incomplete. The Red Baron himself noted that while he wanted to start the war as a sportsman the reality of fighting eventually made him into a butcher A machine gun in the sky. is still a machine gun Even in the medieval period, Romantic ideas about knights rarely matched the reality of real mounted warriors Even the Chevaliers were not actually all that chivalrous. Roland. did not actually have an unbreakable sword This way The pilots of World War O may have had something in common with medieval Kights after all Okay, that's all for this week. Join us again in two weeks time when we will look at an all new historical myth If you had any questions about this series, feel free to send me an email or if you are on Patreon, go to the Patreon page and drop your questions in the chat Before we go this week, as always, I need to give some very special shout outs Big ups to Caitlin Lambert. to Grayson to Micheline White. I wonder if that's the Micheline White that I know If it is, thank you. To Kyle Hansen to Stephven. T Ross Reynolds Tw Kelsey, do it To Zach Bardwell. To Michael Quentin. T Meghgan James too Bradley Russell T Ruta C Kondratovic T Dr. Martin Nicolai Two, I like to weld T April Watson and to Nicolas Pizk All of these folks have decided to pledge at five dollars or more every month on Patreon. So you know what that means They are beautiful human beings. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your continued support Honestly, the Patreon support means absolutely everything. dig this show And you wanted to keep going consonsider being a patron everyveryone that's already doing that I just want you to know that I deeply appreciate you Thank you again But there are all sorts of ways to support this show. You can go check out our merch store and buy yourself a t shirt or a tote bag or a mug or some other thing that has all the amazing art that has been created for the show by Frank Farntino. You can go to ourfakehistory dot com and follow the links to our Ta public store If you ever want to get in touch with me, you can always send me an email at ourfake history at Gmail d. comot You can find me on facebook, facebook dot com slash ourfake history. You can find me on Instagram at our fake History. You can find me on TikTok at ourfake History. You can find me on Blue skky at our fake History, and you can find me on YouTube pututting out little tiny YouTube shorts to promote the show As always, the theme music for our show comes to us from Dirty Church. Check out more from dirty church at dirtychurch. bandcamp. com All the other music you heard on the show today was written and recorded by me. My name is Sebastian Major and remember because it didn't happen. That doesn't mean it isn't real He gave for me a book on art forgery I found myself drawn to these Old masters. How did these artists take paint from a palette, arrange it on a canvas? I began to unlock the secrets. I was a storehouse of knowledge of how to create an illusion present it to an experienced expert.