Edward “Mick” Mannock. England
Mick Mannock was in Turkey (then the Ottoman Empire) when World War I began, working as a telephone and telegraph mechanic. He was in the process of making arrangements to travel to England to rejoin his former unit in the Royal Army Medical Corps when Turkey joined the war on the side of the Central Powers. Mannock was interned. After several months in prison he was suffering from malnutrition, malaria, dysentery, and exhaustion by the time he was repatriated to England. He reported to the RAMC in May 1915.
Mannock was displeased with the necessity of tending to wounded German prisoners of war, and was embittered by his experience in the custody of the Turks. Anxious to prosecute the war rather than attend to the sick he applied for transfer to the Royal Engineers, and finding himself equally unhappy there, the Royal Flying Corps. In flight training he learned that he was older than most of his fellow trainees, and that he was a good pilot with natural instincts over the control of his aircraft.
Mannock entered combat in the spring of 1917. Older than most of his fellows, and less well educated, he tended to remain aloof, alienating the rest of the squadron. When he did speak his views were usually considered to be low minded. In combat, his kill rates rose quickly. Mannock liked to aim at the enemy fighter’s engine, rather than the pilot, increasing the probability of sending his opponent down in flames. He wrote fifteen rules of air to air combat, which he followed assiduously.
Between leaves in England and assignment to other temporary duty Mannock’s total of enemy planes destroyed continued to climb throughout 1918. So did his leadership responsibilities, which Mannock took seriously, counseling caution to new arrivals, and repeatedly warning all pilots, even the most experienced, of the hazards involved in following a diving enemy too close to the ground, exposing oneself to ground fire from the trenches.
On July 26 1918 Mannock promised to help one of his men obtain his first victory, with his usual counsel about retaining altitude so as not to be exposed to ground fire. During the subsequent action Mannock shot down a German two seat observation plane, which he then dove over to view, crossing the trench lines in the process. Hit by ground fire, Mannock’s airplane burst into flames. Mannock had always said that he would shoot himself rather than be burnt alive, but his body was recovered with no bullet wounds. Mick Mannock shot down 61 enemy aircraft in his career.