g a V shape. To the rear and above were two other planes and at the back was the sub-leader. However, when in combat, the pilots operated in pairs, one to attack, and the other to defend. German pilots preferred larger formations and these were later known as circuses.
One of the most important figures in the development of dogfight tactics was Major Mick Mannock. Between May 1917 and his death in July 1918, Mannock became Britain's leading flying ace with seventy-three victories. When attacking, the best tactic was to dive upon the target out of the sun. This strategy reduced the time that the pilot being attacked could bank or dive and avoid being hit. Later in the war some observers fixed mirrors in line with their gun, which could them be used to reflect the rays of the sun back into the eyes of the attacking pilot.
Fighter pilots also made good use of cloud-cover. This enabled a pilot to attack the enemy and quickly return to the safety of the cloud. Pilots did not have long to destroy their target. Fighter aircraft at that time only carried enough ammunition to fire at the enemy for about fifty seconds. Therefore pilots had to make sure they used their machine-guns wisely. René Paul Fonck, the French flying ace, usually took no more than five or six rounds to down an enemy aircraft.
"There are certain rules about a war and rule number one is young men die."
-Henry Blake, *M*A*SH*
The more experienced pilots would train and send young men into combat after only 30 hours of instruction. Unfortunately most of them were between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. The death rate was very high because hands on training had to take place at the battlefronts.
I can't write much these days. I'm too nervous. I can hardly hold a pen. I'm all right in the air, as calm as a cucumber, but on the ground I'm a wreck and I get panicky. Nobody in the squadron can get a glass to his mouth with one hand after one of these decoy patrols except Cal and he's got no nerve - he's made of cheese. But some nights we both have nightmares at the same time and Mac has to get up and find his teeth and quiet us. We don't sleep much at night. But we get tired and sleep all afternoon when there's nothing to do.
From the journal of a pilot based on the Western Front dated July 28th 1918.
Mick Mannock, probably the most talented, adept and famous flying ace in the Royal Air Crops began as a corporal in the Royal Scots. He was a quick study mastering the aircraft and its maneuverings in a matter of hours and went on to become a mentor and hero to many. Friend and student H. G. Clements wrote an account of Major Mick Mannock in 1981.
The fact that I am still alive is due to Mick's high standard of leadership and the strict discipline on which he insisted. We were all expected to follow and cover him as far as possible during an engagement and then to rejoin the formation as soon as that engagement was over. None of Mick's pilots would have dreamed of chasing off alone after the retreating enemy or any other such foolhardy act. He moulded us into a team, and because of his skilled leadership we became a highly efficient team. Our squadron leader said that Mannock was the most skillful patrol leader in World War I, which would account for the relatively few casualties in his flight team compared with the high number of enemy aircraft destroyed.
A second testimony by Lieutenant Dolan in a letter that he wrote just before his death in May 1917, describes dogfight tactics used by Major Mannock:
Mick goes down on his prey like a hawk. The Huns don't know what's hit them until it's too late to do anything but go down in bits. He goes down vertically at a frightening speed and pulls out at the last moment. He opens fire when only yards away and zooms up over the Huns and turns back for another crack at the target if necessary.
The Germans were not to be outdone by any tactics and had their own ideas and set of rules. A transcript of Germany's leading flying ace Oswald Boelcke wrote these instructions in 1916 on how to attack enemy aircraft.
- Always try to s