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Edward
Mannock
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| Country: |
United Kingdom |
| Born: |
24 May 1887 |
| Place of Birth: |
Aldershot |
| Deceased: |
26 July 1918 |
| Rank: |
Major |
| Service: |
Royal Flying Corps
Royal Air Force |
| Units: |
40, 74, 85 |
| Victories: |
61 |
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| By the time Mannock was twelve
years old, his Scots father had abandoned his
English wife and children, leaving them destitute.
Mannock dropped out of school to take various
jobs in order to help with the family finances.When
the war began, he was interned in Turkey while
working as an inspector for a British telephone
company. After an unsuccessful escape attempt,
he became deathly ill and was repatriated by
the Turks in 1915. When he recovered, he joined
the Royal Army Medical Corps before transferring
to the Royal Engineers. Despite a congenital
defect that left him virtually blind in his left
eye, Mannock was accepted by the Royal Flying
Corps in 1917, training under the scrutiny of
James McCudden. In April, he was assigned to
40 Squadron where he got off to a slow start
with his peers and his Nieuport scout. To the
other flying officers, he seemed aloof and perhaps
overly cautious in the air. It was not until
a month later that he scored his first victory
by flaming an enemy balloon. Eventually, Mannock
earned the respect and friendship of men like
Keith Caldwell. In February 1918, he was reassigned
to 74 Squadron as a flight commander, scoring
thirty six victories with an S.E.5a before replacing
William Bishop as the commanding officer of 85
Squadron on 3 July 1918. Mannock never achieved
the public notoriety of Albert Ball, but he was
revered by his men and proved to be one of the
greatest flight leaders of the war. Often physically
ill before going on patrol, Mannock routinely
shared victories with other pilots or didn't
bother submitting claims for enemy aircraft he'd
downed in combat. After selflessly sharing his
61st victory with Donald Inglis, a newcomer from
New Zealand who had yet to score, Mannock was
killed when his aircraft was shot down in flames
by machine gun fire from the ground. Inglis was
also brought down by ground fire but survived. |
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