Sub-Lt. Jean Navarre To French infantrymen in the trenches of Verdun, cowering under German artillery, machine gunnery, flamethrowers and gas, the sight of a bright red aircraft overhead came as a symbol not of defeat, but salvation. In those days of early 1916 Manfred von Richthofen, the future “Red Baron,” was an unknown ex-cavalryman without a single aerial victory to his credit. And this red biplane bore on its wings and tail not the black cross of Germany, but the tricolor of France. In the cockpit was the poilus’ guardian angel, Sub-Lieutenant Jean Navarre, the “Sentinel of Verdun,” whose very presence above the lines proclaimed to all that, as French General Henri Philippe Pétain had declared of the Germans, “They shall not pass.” Les enfants terribles:

Jean & Pierre Navarre, age 10 Guardian perhaps, but Jean Marie Dominique Navarre was no angel. He and his twin brother Pierre, the eldest of a wealthy paper manufacturer’s 11 children, had been an inseparable pair of enfants terribles, kicked out of some of France’s best schools. Pierre eventually went on to study engineering and Jean to a college of aeronautics, briefly. “I have not stopped yearning to become a pilot,” he wrote, “despite the calculations and other approaches I am forced to swallow. I do not want classroom aviation. I have to fly.” Maurice-Farman MF.7 “Longhorn,” so named for the distinctive elongated skids mounting the forward elevator. At flight school he proved to be a natural, soloing ahead of schedule, not to mention against orders. After war broke out, Navarre won his military wings before he even mastered navigation. On his way to join his new unit in a two-seat Maurice Farman MF.7, he and his copilot became lost over the trenches. “Were we in France, were we over the enemy?” he wondered. “I had no idea!” Not one for chauffeuring officer-observers over the lines and merely waving at enemy aircraft, Navarre went up alone armed with a carbine. He happened upon a German Taube, and later recalled: “The enemy is coming towards me, turns, gets alongside me and waves in greeting. He too is alone. As a hello, I gave him my three rounds.” The rifle required both hands; as soon as Navarre let go of the stick, his Farman got away from him. The Taube escaped. Escadrille MS 12, 1915. Left to right: 5. Lt. Paul Gastin (pilot) | 2. Capt. Auguste le Reverend (pilot and future leader of Fighter Group 11) | 6. Adj Georges Pelletier d’Oisy (pilot) | 1. Capt. Charles Tricornot de Rose (pilot and commander of the aircraft of the 5th Army) | 7. Adj Pierre Clément (pilot) | 3. Lt. Raymond de Bernis (pilot) | 8. Slt Ferru (observer) | 9. Lt. René Chambe (observer) | 10. Sgt Jean Navarre (pilot) | 11. Sgt. Maj. René Mesguich (pilot) | 12. Lt. Robert Jacottet (observer) | 4. Lt. Gabriel Pelège (observer) | 13. Lt. Jean Moinier (observer) Navarre with a Morane-Saulnier Type L, called the “Parasol” for its overhead wing. Matching fighting pilots to fighting planes, Captain Charles Tricornot de Rose of France’s fledgling Aéronautique Militaire put Navarre in a new Morane-Saulnier L. Called the “Parasol” for its single overhead wing, the two-seater had a reputation for spins and fatalities. Navarre found its fault instinctively: “The wings are twisted into a spin because they are warpable,” he said. “They form a propeller, and the joystick is thrown violently into the pilot’s knees. The key is not to adjust the warp, which is impossible, but the rudder and dive.” Roland Garros Even famed prewar aviator Roland Garros was impressed. Of Navarre he said, “If he does not kill himself, he will surpass us all.” But in addition to testing aircraft, Navarre was also testing his expertise with women and alcohol, with mixed success. He quickly ran afoul of the Parisian gendarmes. Rather than toss the young aviator in jail, they just decanted him back at his base in time for the dawn patrol. On the morning of April 1, 1915, Navarre went up with Sub-Lieutenant Jean Robert as his observer. When they met a German Aviatik B.I over Merval, Robert broke out a carbine. Navarre shouted: “Not yet! I’ll tell you when!” The Aviatik dived away, but Navarre went after it, closing to within 30 feet before crying, “Go!” Two of Robert’s shots hit the Aviatik’s radiator, and one struck its pilot in the shoulder. The Germans landed behind Allied lines and were taken prisoner. Robert and Navarre were both awarded medals, promoted and credited with one full victory apiece. For his part Navarre was relieved that no one had died. “What good is it to kill for the pleasure of killing,” he said, “when one can triumph peacefully?” Navarre and observer Sub-Lt. Jean Robert (sometimes given as Roberts) in front of their first victory, an Aviatik B.I which they captured with three rifle shots over Braisne, near Soissons. It was the first victory for Escadrille MS 12, and the fourth French victory of the war, for which Navarre was awarded the Military Medal and Robert the Legion of Honor. The two German crewmen, pilot Ltn. Engelhorn and observer Obltn. Wittenburg can be seen behind the wing as they are questioned by the French. Adolphe Pégoud Later that same day Garros, who had fitted a Hotchkiss machine gun to his Parasol and steel bullet deflectors to its prop, shot down a German Albatros. And two days later prewar stunt pilot Sub-Lt. Adolphe Pégoud scored his fifth victory (though some of his claims would have gone unconfirmed by later standards). With these developments, that first week of April 1915 marked the birth of both the archetypal fighter plane and the fighter ace. Jean Navarre would make legends of both. The “Twin Eagles,” Pierre & Jean Navarre Navarre’s superiors hoped their new hero would set an example, and so he did—just not a good one. The Germans had by that time learned to avoid Parasols, but Navarre found new uses for his plane: stunting over his airfield, against orders; joyriding with brother Pierre, who was stationed nearby with the 6th Engineers Regiment; and putting on aerobatic demonstrations to impress the girls of nearby Amiens. He topped it all off by buzzing a contingent of visiting British officers, swooping down so low that they dived into the mud. “My military record has a good chance to be too small to contain all of my punishments,” he wrote. “And to crown it all, not the slightest enemy in the air.” Jean Navarre: Secret Mission Over Laon

by Don Hollway As aerial enounters with the enemy became scarce, Navarre accepted special night missions to drop spies and saboteurs behind German lines. Requiring him to land in the dark on unprepared ground, this entailed no small risk. In May 1915, near Rethel, France, he successfuly dropped his passenger, and on his return at dawn he flew aerobatic stunts over the German airfield at Laon. It is unknown whether his lack of discretion led to two of his three passengers being caught and shot.



MS 12 Squadron Commander Charles Jean Baptiste Marie Tricornot, Marquis de Rose. Considered by the French to be the “Father of the Fighter Plane.” Finally he snagged a wingtip and cartwheeled his Parasol while he and an observer were trying to hunt ducks...in midair. At the hospital de Rose railed, “Are you satisfied?” Navarre later complained to squadron mates, “If only we had the ducks too!” He redeemed himself by volunteering for special operations, including one of the first balloon attacks (a failure) and secret missions over the lines to insert spies and saboteurs. On his return from one mission he couldn’t resist doing a bit of stunting over the German aerodrome at Laon. “Nobody thought to fire on me,” he reported. “I was so proud.” After he learned that two of his former passengers had been caught and shot, he refused further spy-dropping missions. Despite that, his exploits earned him the Legion of Honor and his commanders’ grudging respect. “With Navarre, I am always taken by surprise,” noted de Rose. “At the moment we are to sign his arrest order, we are obliged to turn it into a citation.” Navarre in the cockpit of his Morane-Saulnier N. The N was nicknamed “the Bullet” for its superb streamlining, but the large spinner (“le casserole”) contributed to engine overheating and in 1915 was removed from production, with little effect on performance. Note the bullet deflector on the prop, Morane-Saulnier emblem on the cowling, and the photographer’s reflection on the spinner. When Pégoud was shot down and killed on August 31, Navarre suddenly became France’s leading aviator, as popular with the press as he was with the ladies and bartenders. He demanded a new single-seat Morane-Saulnier N, nicknamed the “Bullet” by the British. Though difficult to fly, the monoplane featured a streamlined fuselage and shoulder-mounted wings that made it fast, strong and maneuverable. And it had a forward-firing gun with Garros-style deflectors. On October 26, when Navarre caught an LVG C.II over Château-Thierry, the German observer hammered out some 300 rounds but failed to get in a single hit on the Frenchman’s Morane. Navarre fired a mere two bursts—just eight shots total (the Hotchkiss only held 24 per clip)—putting half into the Germans’ engine. On landing to take the LVG’s crew prisoner, Navarre learned that his fame had spread across the lines. “We know you well on our field,” the Germans told him, “and your little monoplane is dreaded by all. We prefer to have been shot down by you rather than another.” La Sentinelle

by Russell Smith Navarre’s third victory, Oct. 26, 1915. In his Morane-Saulnier L, he attacked a German LVG two-seater head-on, requiring just 8 shots to force it down alongside the Marne River. Seeing the German crew attempting to set fire to their airplane, Navarre fired warning shots until they stood clear and raised their hands. Just to be certain, he landed nearby and personally took them prisoner. © 2010 Russell Smith Studios, Inc. Used by permission. Several views of Navarre with his third victory, LVG #529/15 of FFA (Feldflieger Abteilung, Field Flying Company) 33, which he forced down near Jaulgonne (Aisne) with just eight shots. The crew are thought to be Uffz. Otto Gerold (killed) and Ltn. Paul Bucholz (wounded, prisoner). Navarre‘s Morane-Saulnier N “Bullet” #MS 398 stands at right, its prop-mounted bullet deflectors clearly visible. Georges Guynemer. The SPAD can be seen to bear the name Vieux Charles (Old Charles), which Guynemer gave most of his aircraft. 53 victories. Charles Nungesser, his Nieuport bearing his macabre personal insignia. 43 victories. Three confirmed victories put Navarre two ahead of Sergeant Georges Guynemer and Adjutant Charles Nungesser. Navarre and Nungesser soon became as famous for their drinking and womanizing as for their exploits in the air. But the shy, fatalistic Guynemer didn’t fit in with their lifestyle—perhaps the reason that, in February 1916, he was the first to become an ace. Navarre, meanwhile, upgraded to a compact little Nieuport 11 Bébé (Baby), almost as fast as the Bullet but sturdier and better at turns and climbing. Its Lewis gun, mounted atop the upper wing to fire over the propeller, had a 47-round magazine. Navarre found it “much more convenient” for shooting down Germans. Morane-Saulnier L Called the “Parasol” for its overhead wing. (The triangular mid-mounted mast added leverage for wing-warping cables; ailerons were then only in the conceptual stage.) Faster than contemporary German Albatros and Aviatik two-seaters, the Parasol could be said to be one of the very first fighter aircraft. Aircrews, initiallly unarmed, soon began carrying handguns or carbines aloft, initiating an aerial arms race. Raymond Saulnier experimented with synchronized, forward-firing machine guns on Parasols, but abandoned the effort. Instead Roland Garros fixed deflectors to his Parasol’s propeller blades and used it to score three kills. Light machine guns were eventually mounted to the Parasols’ rear cockpits, but Navarre’s observer Jean Robert used a rifle to score their first victory. Image © Ronny Bar Profiles. Used by permission. Morane-Saulnier L Called the “Parasol” for its overhead wing. (The triangular mid-mounted mast added leverage for wing-warping cables; ailerons were then only in the conceptual stage.) Faster than contemporary German Albatros and Aviatik two-seaters, the Parasol could be said to be one of the very first fighter aircraft. Aircrews, initiallly unarmed, soon began carrying handguns or carbines aloft, initiating an aerial arms race. Raymond Saulnier experimented with synchronized, forward-firing machine guns on Parasols, but abandoned the effort. Instead Roland Garros fixed deflectors to his Parasol’s propeller blades and used it to score three kills. Light machine guns were eventually fixed to the Parasols’ rear cockpits, but Navarre’s observer Jean Robert used a rifle to score their first victory. Image © Ronny Bar Profiles. Used by permission. Morane-Saulnier N MS.398 Though it still used wing-warping for control, the “Bullet” was ahead of its time: a streamlined monoplane combining speed, climb rate and agility. Its only drawbacks (not inconsiderable) were poor downward visibility for the pilot, oversensitive controls and high landing speed. Only 49 were built for the French, with 80hp Gnome or Le Rhône rotary engines; four RFC squadrons took delivery with 110hp Le Rhônes. Navarre used MS.398 to score his third official victory in October 1915. Image © Ronny Bar Profiles. Used by permission. Nieuport 11, serial unknown The Nieuport 11 began arriving at the front in January 1916. Before adopting his personal colors, Navarre is said to have flown a Bébé bearing the insignia of Escadrille N 67, which at the time was a brown and red pennant (the colors of a racehorse stable owned by squadron commander Captain Henri Constant Saint-Sauveur), charged with a golden raptor. In June 1917, when N 67 became part of Fighter Group 12, the raptor changed to a stork. By then Navarre was long gone. He scored no confirmed victories in this machine. Nieuport 11 N.576 Navarre used this aircraft to score two victories in one day, over the Verdun Front on Feb. 26th. The wing-mounted Lewis machine gun was not mounted on a swivel as in later designs, and loading a fresh 47-round drum magazine in flight required the pilot to stand up in the cockpit. Image © Ronny Bar Profiles. Used by permission. Nieuport 16 N.830 The N.16 was identical to the N.11 except for a more powerful 110 hp Le Rhône 9J rotary engine, and visually distinguished only by the raised headrest behind the cockpit. N.830 was also photographed without fuselage tricolors. Navarre scored no confirmed victories in it. Image © Ronny Bar Profiles. Used by permission. Nieuport 11 N.872 N.872 was fitted with one of the first fixed, synchronized machine guns on the Allied side. In March 1916 Navarre scored two confirmed victories with it. Image © Ronny Bar Profiles. Used by permission. Nieuport 16 N.1130 The combination of fuselage-mounted Vickers gun, synchronization gear, and bigger Le Rhône 9J engine made the Nieuport 16 nose-heavy and unwieldy, likely the reason Navarre reverted to a wing-mounted gun on N.1130. Image © Ronny Bar Profiles. Used by permission. Morane-Saulnier AI MS.2083 The AI entered service at the end of 1917. Armed with a single forward-firing gun, it was at a disadvantage in combat with contemporary twin-gun opponents, and furthermore appears to have been structurally weak. By the spring of 1918 it had been withdrawn from service. It’s not known if MS.2083 was the plane Navarre was flying when he suffered his fatal crash, but he was certainly photographed with it just prior to that time. On February 21, Navarre downed a two-seater behind enemy lines near Badonviller, though it went unconfirmed. By then he and France had bigger worries: That morning at 7:15 the Germans had unleashed a daylong, 800-gun artillery barrage to light off the apocalyptic Battle of Verdun. Pétain put de Rose in charge of France’s air war, telling him: “I am blind. Sweep the skies for me. If they chase us out of the sky, it’s quite simple—Verdun will be lost.” Navarre over Verdun in his tricolored Nieuport 11, N.576. The fuselage stripes continued across the bottom of the aircraft, visible to French troops below. Those in the trenches—on both sides—knew when Navarre arrived. With his Nieuport’s fuselage and wheels painted in French red, white and blue, he performed daily stunts over the lines, literally flying le tricouleur for all to see. As usual, his superiors took a dim view of such antics. And as usual, Navarre didn’t care. Already airborne at dawn on February 26, he spotted three German two-seaters sneaking low across the lines and decided, “Let us teach them that I don’t get up early for nothing.” His mere appearance behind one of the German planes inspired its crew to land and surrender. But instead of receiving praise for a bloodless victory, Navarre was punished for flying without permission. As he headed off to barracks arrest, however, a flight of nine German planes appeared overhead. Navarre leapt back into his Nieuport and caught up with them just as the bombers unloaded over Ancemont. When an enemy turned into his attack, Navarre waited until the last instant, then snapped off five rounds. The German rolled wheels-up and plunged into a wood. Flying the Colors

by Don Hollway The Battle of Verdun began on 21 February 1916. Five days later Navarre scored the first French double victory of the war. Records describing his victims as a pair of two-seaters mention two pilots killed (Ltns Georg Heine and Alfons von Zeddelmann) but just one observer (Oblt Heinrich Kempf) taken prisoner. This suggests it was a two-seater Navarre drove down at Dieue-sur-Meuse, but as the second victim met his attack head-on—not a two-seater tactic—it was likely a Fokker E.III escort fighter. It crashed at Manheulles to become Navarre’s fifth victory, earning him the coveted title of “ace.” Get a 16" x 20" print of “Flying the Colors” for just $34.95 -- order here. When Navarre arrived on the crash site French troops offered him a bloody German tunic as a souvenir. “I was sick,” he remembered. “It was enough to have killed the unfortunate. I did not want to bring in such tragic evidence.” It was his fifth victory. Rather than see France’s new ace under arrest, headquarters quietly replaced his squadron commander. What many Germans saw last: Navarre in a Nieuport 16 (this one N.830, with camouflaged upper wing) banking in for the kill. Photos exist of N.830 without fuselage and wing markings. Now at the height of his powers, chasing Germans by day and mademoiselles by night, Navarre set Paris aflame as the enemy never could. Rather than wearing a flying helmet in the cockpit, he donned a lady’s silk stocking over his coiffure. “Navarre goes hatless,” gushed the Paris Journal, “...the hair brushed back from his brow and seeming swept by a tornado of air.” The brothers Navarre: Pierre and Jean The transfer of his brother Pierre from the infantry to a pilot’s seat in a neighboring squadron was cause for celebration. But on March 8, in one of his first dogfights against a Fokker E.III Eindecker, Pierre was hit three times and nearly died from a severed artery. By the time Jean returned from overseeing his brother’s recovery, things had changed. The day of the lone air hero was already done. De Rose was assembling fighter units into squadrons and squadrons into fighter groups. Guynemer and Nungesser, both wounded, had been put out of action. Only Navarre still stood out in the crowded skies. He’d had his Nieuport, fitted with the first synchronized Lewis, painted red for all to see. (Young Richthofen, flying two-seaters from just across the lines, surely took note.) That spring of 1916 over Verdun would cement the Navarre legend for all time. Navarre with his silk-stocking headgear and red Nieuport 11 Bébé, N.872, fitted with a synchronized machine gun. Yet to many onlookers it seemed that for Jean Navarre some of the fun had gone out of it. One of the first aviation artists, Lt. Henri Farré, recalled flying as an observer, hard pressed by a German Rumpler C.I, when, “What should I suddenly see, high in the air above us, like a meteor—Navarre, in his red airplane...a veritable bird of prey, swooping down on the poor Rumpler, almost touching it with his wings.” A burst from the Nieuport sent the German down in flames. On landing, Farré sought to thank his savior, but Navarre just shrugged it off: “I was sure that you were going to be attacked, so I kept on flying 2,000 yards above you.” “Then you made use of us as bait?” Farré asked. Navarre said, “Absolutely.” “I fly because I must, but this killing is not a matter a man can be proud of.” Jean Navarre Perhaps Navarre sensed his own end near. Death was all around him. On May 11, de Rose, who had so often admonished him for his daredevil antics, died when his Bébé’s engine cut out during a demonstration flight. And on the 19th, Navarre and Lt. Georges Boillot, Nungesser’s squadron commander and a good friend to both fliers, attacked an Aviatik C formation over Chattancourt. Navarre shot one down for his 10th victory, but his triumph as the Allies’ first double ace was short-lived. That same day Boillot went up alone and was caught by five Eindeckers, shot down and killed. Navarre and Nungesser are said to have circled over his funeral, dropping flowers. Navarre was by that time spending all night carousing and all day in the air. His superiors and fellow pilots warned him to ease off before something gave way, but he seemed driven. “I fly because I must,” he once said, “but this killing is not a matter a man can be proud of.” On June 17, he shared his 12th victory (not counting some seven known only to the enemy) with his close friend Ltn. Georges Pelletier “Pivilo” d’Oisy. Later that same day Navarre, d’Oisy and Adj. Gaston Guingand closed on a German two-seater. Its observer concentrated his fire on the red Nieuport. Before Navarre could get off a shot, he was struck a tremendous blow. “I understand [I have been hit]!” he recalled. “But I feel no pain. My first instinct is to shoot...I want my revenge immediately. At this point, I feel like coughing, and wiping my mouth with the back of my glove, I realize that I am spitting blood like water.” Navarre’s red Nieuport 16, N.1130. Its upper wing appears to have not been camouflaged, but was either left in the factory natural buff color, or “transplanted” from an earlier N.11 in the field. Also of note is the Lewis gun, which is shown here wing-mounted and unsynchronized, but in other photos cowl-mounted and synchronized. A version of the above photo exists, dated “June 16,” the day before Navarre was shot down in N.1130.



Though terribly wounded, Navarre managed to land safely. However, a new pilot, Lt. Jean Derode, was sent to fetch N.1130 and crashed it on the way back to the field. The bullet had pierced his arm and lodged in his chest. Semiconscious, he crash-landed behind French lines and was rushed to a hospital. His stay there apparently brought out the old enfant terrible. Navarre’s petulance and fits of rage soon made the youthful pilot as infamous among medical staff as he had been among the Germans. Perhaps it was due to a concussion suffered in the landing, or the alcohol-free hospital diet. More likely it was the knowledge that while he lay in bed the Battle of Verdun was being won without him, that both Nungesser and Guynemer had returned to action and were leaving him behind in the victory count. Remains of aircraft in which Pierre Navarre died. “The sudden stop in my hard work brought me down completely and made me another man,” he admitted. “Especially when, to my misfortune, I was sent to a hospital in Paris.” As soon as the ace was able to get around, he received the last thing he needed: constant invitations to dinners, parties and fêtes, not to mention his old watering holes. He wasn’t physically up to his old escapades. And his condition only worsened on November 15 when Pierre died in a crash while retraining. At this point Navarre’s revelries took on a destructive bent. Celebrity turned to notoriety, and the Sentinel of Verdun became the “Mad Flyer of France.” Being barred from his old haunts did nothing to improve his outlook. In that era, psychotherapy was no more advanced than aviation, but today the diagnosis seems obvious. Post-traumatic stress. Survivor guilt. Death wish. Navarre’s superiors, who had for so long turned a blind eye to his indiscretions, now recalled him to duty but kept him grounded for his own good, with predictable results. Navarre borrowed a plane to try his old stunts, only to reopen his wounds at 9,000 feet and barely get back down alive. At the prospect of losing his flying skills, Navarre seems to have suffered a breakdown. It took him months in a sanitarium to pull out of his downward spiral. Not until March 1917, having sworn off alcohol, did he go back to the front. He even flew a few patrols, but scored no more victories. Navarre in his 65hp Hispano-Suiza Alfonso XIII, capable of 75mph. The Alfonso XIII, or T45, cost about $140,000 in modern dollars, but Hispano-Suiza manufactured aircraft engines and “awarded” cars to the foremost fighter pilots to gain their recommendation in military purchases. In April, while his plane was undergoing routine repairs, Navarre went out for the evening in Paris and ran into some old friends. Drinks were had, one thing led to another and he ended up driving his powerful Hispano-Suiza sports car down a sidewalk. When gendarmes converged on the scene, Navarre actually ran over one. Fortunately, his Hispano was high-sprung, and he even stopped to help the policeman up. But when the lawmen attempted to arrest him, a fight broke out. Navarre jumped back behind the wheel, and Paris was treated to a scene of its air hero pursued by police on bicycles, trying to shoot out his tires. This time he went not to the hospital but to prison, accused of attempted homicide. The authorities eventually excused him on grounds of mental instability. He was remanded to family care, returning to duty just a few weeks before war’s end. Jean Navarre in 1919, with a Morane-Saulnier AI monoplane, the type in which he died. When this photo was taken he was not yet 24. France was willing to forgive, and Navarre, named chief test pilot for Morane-Saulnier, was still revered as an ace among aces. When it came time for the Bastille Day 1919 victory parade down Paris’ Champs-Élysées, he was as insulted as any French flier to learn that aviators would have to march with the infantry. Far better for one of them to fly through the Arc de Triomphe! And Navarre was still regarded by experts as the best pilot in the service. “It’s crazy,” Robert Morane warned him, pointing out the Arc’s inner walls were “not even 17 to 18 meters” apart. “You are mistaken,” Navarre told him. “There are only 12.7 meters. My plane is 8.5 meters [wide]....I will succeed.” He practiced for the attempt between phone poles near a local aerodrome, barreling his Morane-Saulnier AI parasol monoplane again and again under the wires. The inevitable happened around 3 p.m. on July 10, just four days before the parade and a month shy of Navarre’s 24th birthday. Frenchman Charles Godefroy accomplished the feat for which Jean Navarre gave his life. Read more. Afterward, newspapers reported that France’s hero had given his life avoiding a collision with less experienced pilots. Witnesses claimed his engine lost power at the critical moment. Some said he came in too high, catching his Morane’s overhead wing on the wires; others that he didn’t climb quite high enough and caught its landing gear. Regardless, the Morane was seen to veer left, lose speed, sideslip and pile into a wall at the edge of the field. It’s been less than 100 years since Navarre’s passing. Already, as remote-controlled drones begin to dominate the battlefield, the age of the fighter ace seems to be drawing to a close. But so much of the past century has turned on air power, and today’s world owes much to men like Jean Navarre—among the very first of the few who lived fast, flew high, fought hard and died young.



© 2012 Donald A. Hollway



Bibliography:



“Again the ‘Impossible’ is Done by A French Military Aviator.” The Atlanta Constitution [Atlanta, GA] 28 Sept 1919, p F2. Boyne, Walter J. The Influence of Air Power upon History. Gretna, LA: Pelican, 2003. ISBN-10: 1589800346 Brannon, D. Edgar. Fokker Eindecker in Action. Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1996. 0897473515 Cooksley, Peter G. Nieuport Fighters in Action. Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1997. ISBN 0897473779 “Daring Work of Twin Aviators Makes Them Heroes in France.” The Yellowstone News [Mondak, Montana] 3 June 1916. Driggs, Laurence La Tourette. Heroes of Aviation . Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1919. “Flies Under Arch.” Aircraft Journal, 6 Sept. 1919 Guttman, Jon. The Origin of the Fighter Aircraft. Yardley PA: Westholme LLC, 2009. ISBN 978-1-59416-083-7 Guttman, Jon. “Verdun: The First Air Battle for the Fighter: Part I - Prelude and Opening.” Relevance: The Quarterly Journal of the Great War Society, Vol. 18 #3 (Summer 2009). “Mad Airman of France Dies in Peacetime Spill.” The Border Cities Star [Windsor, Ontario] 24 July 1919. Mason, Herbert Molloy, Jr. High Flew the Falcons: The French Aces of World War I. Philadelphia & New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, Inc., 1965. Méchin, David. “Jean Navarre: Le Sentinelle De Verdun.” Aéro-Journal No 18. Octobre-Novembre 2010: ISSN 1962-2430 Mortane, Jacques. Navarre, Sentinelle de Verdun. Paris: Editions Baudiniere, 1930. Munson, Kenneth. Aircraft of World War I. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1968. “Send Crack Airman.” The Free Lance 7 Mar. 1918, Fredericksburg, VA ed.: 4. Wilberg, Jim. Jean Navarre: France’s Sentinel of Verdun and the First French Fighter Pilots. Indio, CA: Aeronaut Books, 2010. ISBN-13: 9781935881001







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