Born in 1894, Georges Guynemer won a place in the hearts of the French public for, as a frail and delicate youth, he had twice been rejected for military service when he enlisted as a pupil-mechanic and was posted to Pau airfield in November 1914.
He graduated to flying training, and in June 1915 started flying Morane-Saulnier monoplanes with Escadrille MS 3, scoring his first victory a month later. During the next two years he destroyed a total of 54 German aircraft, the majority while flying Nieuports.
It was his youth and pale good looks that endeared him to the French people. He was himself shot down seven times, and his health was clearly failing when on 11 September 1917 he failed to return home from a flight over Poelcapelle.
No claim for his defeat in the air has ever been fully substantiated, nor has any trace of his body or aircraft ever been found.
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