Edward Mannock
Major Edward Corringham "Mick" Mannock VC, DSO and Two Bars, MC & Bar (May 24, 1887 – July 26, 1918) was a British First World War flying ace.
Mannock was probably born in Ireland, though of English and Scottish parentage. Mannock was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, and may have been the highest-scoring British Empire ace of all time, and is regarded as one of the greatest fighter pilots of the war.
Edward Mannock was probably born in Ballincollig, County Cork, Ireland on May 24, 1887, although his birthplace is also claimed to be Aldershot, England or Preston Barracks in Brighton. He was the son of a Scottish middle-class professional soldier and an English mother.
The family moved to India early in Mick's life, before postings brought the family back to England. His father, a hard-drinking, brutal man, abandoned his family when Mick was twelve.
In 1897, Mannock developed amoebic infestation which rendered him temporarily blind. Legend has it that it left him with permanently impaired vision; however accounts written by former comrades discount any such impairment.
By age 20, Mannock had joined the Labour Party and whilst he burned with a sense of social injustice, according to Jim Eyles, with whom Mannock stayed in Wellingborough, Mannock was deeply patriotic and a fervent supporter of the British Empire.
The outbreak of the war found him working as a telephone engineer in Turkey. The Turks interned him and his health rapidly declined in prison. Near death, he was repatriated and, in 1915, joined the Royal Army Medical Corps.
By 1916, he had become an officer in the Royal Engineers and in August 1916 transferred to the Royal Flying Corps.
In February, 1917, he joined the Joyce Green Reserve Squadron for flying training. During his first solo in an Airco DH.2 pusher biplane, he got into a spin at 1,000 feet (300 m), and recovered, but got in trouble with his commanding officer, Major Keith Caldwell, who suspected Mick of showboating. But he soon got on well with the major, before transferring to France with the RFC's Nieuport-equipped 40 Squadron. Caldwell described Mick as "very reserved, inclined towards a strong temper, but very patient and somewhat difficult to arouse".
At 40 Squadron, the reserved, working-class manner of Mannock did not fit in with the well-heeled upper-middle-class, ex-public-schoolboys who made up the majority of his comrades. On his first night, he inadvertently sat down in an empty chair, a chair which a newly fallen flier had occupied until that day.
At first, Mick held back in the air too, to the extent that some pilots thought he was cowardly. He admitted that he was very frightened. Finally, on May 7, he shot down an observation balloon and thought this would gain him the acceptance of the squadron.
By the end of July, Mannock had been awarded the Military Cross and was a flight commander. On August 12, 1917, he shot down and captured Leutnant Joachim von Bertrab of Jasta 30. Both flyers were aces - Mannock had shot down a balloon and four airplanes; Bertrab was his sixth "credit"; Bertrab had shot down five airplanes and was trying to bring down a balloon for his sixth "credit".
His determination, flying skill, and sense of teamwork earned him a promotion to captain and a bar to his MC in October 1917. At the end of the year, the squadron re-equipped with the SE5a. He returned to Home Establishment, tour-expired, in January 1918, with 23 claims to his credit.
In February 1918, Mannock was appointed flight commander of the newly formed No. 74 Squadron. The squadron was posted to France in March 1918. He continued shooting down Germans, but never hogging credit, letting newer pilots get credit for kills. In three months, he claimed 36 more, bringing his total to 59.
Mannock was awarded the DSO in May 1918, not long after his four-in-a-day feat, and the award of a bar just two weeks later.
By June 1918, he had made 59 kills, and had also earned a home leave.
On starting his third tour of duty in July, as CO of 85 Squadron, he confided his mortal fears to a friend, worried that three was an unlucky number.
On 26 July, Major Mannock offered to help a new arrival, Lt. D.C. Inglis, obtain his first victory. After shooting down an enemy LVG two-seater behind the German front-line, the two men headed for home. While crossing the trenches, the fighters were met with a massive volley of ground-fire. The engine of Mannock's aircraft was hit and immediately caught fire and crashed behind German lines. Mannock's body was found 250 yards (230 m) from the wreck of his machine. He did not fire his revolver but it is believed he might have jumped from his blazing plane just before it crashed (in an attempt to survive the crash). Inglis described what happened:
The exact cause of Mannock's death remains uncertain. A year later, after intensive lobbying by Ira Jones and many of Mannock's former comrades, he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
Mannock's body was not subsequently recovered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) so officially he has no known grave. His name is commemorated on the Royal Flying Corps Memorial to the Missing at the Faubourg d'Amiens CWGC Cemetery in Arras. There is also a memorial plaque in honour of Mannock in Canterbury Cathedral.
Mick Mannock's name is listed on the Wellingborough War Memorial with the other fallen men from the town and the local Air Training Corps unit bears his name - 378 (Mannock) Squadron.
Mannock is regarded as one of the leading British aces during the First World War and is often claimed to be the "ace of aces" of the British Empire, allegedly claiming 73 victories, seven behind the leading pilot of the war, Manfred von Richthofen, and one ahead of Canadian ace Billy Bishop. Mannock is officially credited with only 47, though he personally claimed 51 kills and his VC citation states he had 50.
Mannock's Victoria Cross was presented to his father at Buckingham Palace in July 1919. Edward Mannock was also given his son's other medals, even though Mick had stipulated in his will that his father should receive nothing from his estate. Soon afterwards, Mannock's medals were sold for £5. They have since been recovered and can be seen at the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon.