ds of fighting in the air are
not in favor of single combats but engage whole units.

You will also love to hear about Guynemer as an inventor, and the
creator of a magic airplane. Some day this airplane will be exhibited;
and perhaps some of your little friends have already seen at the
Invalides the machine in which Guynemer brought down nineteen German
airplanes. On November 1, 1917, thousands of Parisians visited it; and
it was strewn with magnificent bunches of chrysanthemums, to which many
people added clusters of violets.

In Guynemer the technician and the marksman equaled and perhaps
surpassed the pilot. Captain Galliot, who is a specialist, has called
him "the thinker-fighter," thereby emphasizing that his excellence as a
gunner arose from meditation and preparation. The same officer adds that
"accuracy was Guynemer's characteristic; he never shot at random as
others occasionally do, but always took long and careful aim. Perfect
weapons and perfect mastery of them were dogmas with him. His
marksmanship, the result of perseverance and intelligence, multiplied
tenfold the capacity of his machine-gun, and accounts for his
overwhelming superiority."[31]

[Footnote 31: _Guerre aerienne_, October 18, 1917.]

But when you have realized the technical superiority of our Guynemer,
you will have yet to learn one thing, one great thing, the essential
thing. You have heard that Guynemer's frame was not robust; that he was
delicate, and the military boards refused him several times as unfit.
Yet no aviator ever showed more endurance than he did, even when
developments made long cruising necessary in altitudes of 6000 or 7000
meters. There have been pilots as quickwitted and gunners as accurate as
Guynemer, but there has never been anybody who equaled him in the
flashlike rapidity of his attack, or for doggedness in keeping up a
fight. We must conclude that he had a special gift, and this gift--his
own genius--must be ultimately reduced to his decision, that is, his
will-power. His will, to the very end, was far above his physical
strength. There are two great dates in his short life: November 21,
1914, when he joined the army, and September 11, 1917, when he left camp
for his last flight. Neither a passion for aviation nor thirst for glory
had any part in his action on those two dates. Will-power in itself is
sometimes dangerous, enviable though it be, and must be wisely directed.
Now, Guynemer regulated his will by one