Mannock: The Life and Death of Major Edward Mannock VC, DSO, MC, RAF
192
Mannock: The Life and Death of Major Edward Mannock VC, DSO, MC, RAF
192eBook
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Overview
Although he was arguably the highest scoring RAF fighter pilot of the First World War, Edward “Mick” Mannock’s life, particularly his death, is still shrouded in mystery. Did he achieve as many victories as are sometimes ascribed to him? How did he die? Where did he die? And more pertinently, where do his remains now lie?
Investigative historians Norman Franks and Andy Saunders have assessed all the evidence and cut through the speculation to build a complete picture of the man and his achievements as a fighter pilot. Having unearthed much new and enlightening information, they present a truly balanced overview of his life—and also reveal for the first time exactly where he fell in battle a century ago.
Includes photographs
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781909166851 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Grub Street |
| Publication date: | 07/01/2018 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 192 |
| File size: | 8 MB |
About the Author
Andy Saunders has been involved with historic aviation for over thirty years and is well known in the aircraft preservation and restoration field. His specialist area of interest is in the air war over Europe, 1939–1945. One of the cofounders of Tangmere Aviation Museum, and its first curator, Saunders is also respected as a serious researcher and author and is a prolific contributor to the aviation press. He is passionate about flying and history, regularly traveling in search of historic aircraft and artifacts. He also acts as adviser or consultant to film and television companies and currently lives in East Sussex. He is the editor of Britain at War magazine.
Andy Saunders has been involved with historic aviation for over thirty-five years and is well known in the aircraft preservation and restoration field. His specialist area of interest is in the air war over Europe, 1939-1945. One of the co-founders of Tangmere Aviation Museum, and its first curator, Andy is also respected as a serious researcher, author, and editor and is a prolific contributor to the aviation press. He is passionate about flying and history, regularly travelling in search of historic aircraft and artefacts. He also acts as adviser or consultant to film and television companies and was past editor of Britain at War.
Norman Franks is a respected historian and author. Previous titles for Pen and Sword include InThe Footsteps of the Red Baron (co-authored with Mike OConnor), The Fighting Cocks, RAF Fighter Pilots Over Burma, Dogfight, The Fallen Few of the Battle of Britain (with Nigel McCrery) and Dowdings Eagles. Over the course of his career, Frank has published some of the most compelling works on First World War fighter aviation, being one of the worlds leading authorities on the subject. He lives in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
From Modest Beginnings
For years, even before starting to research Mannock's life in detail, we were always aware that his birth place and date, appeared to be uncertain. In various publications one can read that he was born in Brighton, Canterbury, Aldershot, India, and Cork. The reason for this was due to his father being in the army and having been stationed in various places during the late 1880s.
Ira Jones wrote his biography of Mannock in 1934, stating 24 May 1887, in the Preston Army Barracks, Brighton. In 1963, in their book Ace with One Eye, Frederick Oughton and Vernon Smyth quoted the same place and date. (Apparently this book was written by Oughton from information supplied mainly by Smyth.) However, Oughton, in his book covering the entries in Mannock's diary, in 1966, appears to have either made a typing error, or disagreed with Smyth's date, and recorded 1889 as the year of birth.
In a Canterbury newspaper in 1978, the date 21 May 1887 is recorded, and again Brighton, but the writer quotes the Ministry of Defence as showing 1888, and that they believed he was born in Aldershot. James M Dudgeon in his book Mick, in 1981, records 24 May 1887, with Cork as the birth place. Chaz Bowyer, in his book on Air VCs in 1992 says Brighton on 24 May 1887, while in 2001, Adrian Smith in his book Mick Mannock Fighter Pilot, shows 21 May 1888, Brighton.
A search at Somerset House has thus far not revealed a birth date or place. Children born to fathers in the army were often recorded separately, but there is no record of his birth there either. Perhaps Cork is the correct location, where a mention in UK records would not be made. Mannock himself confused the issue by recording both Brighton and Cork on documents.
Mannock's father, Corporal Edward Mannock, had joined the 2nd Dragoons – Royal Scot Greys – under his own mother's maiden name of Corringhame, for reasons best known to himself, and is described as being a soldier of fine physique. In 1881, the 2nd Dragoons had been stationed on the outskirts of Cork, in southern Ireland, where he had met and courted Julia O'Sullivan, then married her in 1882. Julia had lived in a suburb of Cork, the village of Ballincollig.
The couple moved with the regiment to Edinburgh, and soon afterwards Corporal Corringhame was sent to Egypt, Julia returning to Cork while he was overseas. While away fighting with the Heavy Camel Corps, a daughter Jessie (Jess) was born and upon her father's return the family moved into the West Cavalry Barracks in Aldershot, Hampshire in 1886. That same year a son Patrick J was born and in early 1887 another move came, this time to the Preston Cavalry Barracks, Brighton. This is how Mannock's birth place is deduced, but it may be that Julia again returned to Cork (her husband possibly on manoeuvres in Ireland), and it was here that a second son, Edward, came into the world, on 24 May 1887.
The young Edward Mannock does not help settle the matter of his birth, although he undoubtedly had reasons for leaving red-herrings around for future historians. When he joined the Territorials in 1915, he actually wrote on his entry form that his date of birth was 24 May 1888! In early 1914 on the occasion that Mannock applied for a passport to travel to Turkey, he again wrote in his own hand that he was 24 years of age, whereas he was actually 26. Confusion over his birth place is again due to Mannock. On the occasion he received his Royal Aero Club flying licence, it records his place of birth as Cork. One might have thought that to enter an incorrect age on a passport document, then to show Cork as his birth place on his flying licence if incorrect would have been rather a stupid thing to do so perhaps Cork at least is correct. Certainly when he joined the Royal Flying Corps, they noted his birth date as 24 May 1887. According to James Dudgeon, he was told by family members that Cork was correct.
Army life for Edward senior continued, with postings to Louth, Ireland, Newbridge, near Belfast, and from the latter the corporal ended his period of army service. For a while the family lived in various places around London, but the soldier's heart was still with the military, and during a visit to Liverpool, he suddenly re-joined the army, even giving his proper name of Mannock as he did so. He became a trooper with the 5th Dragoon Guards, then stationed in India, and six months later, Julia Mannock and her three children arrived in India to join her husband, and were to remain there for almost six years.
The young Mannock appeared quiet and reserved by nature and was rarely seen charging about with other children, and was more often than not found reading or deep in thought. It was in India that he first became aware of a slight defect in his right eye. For a while he seemed totally blind in that eye, but the condition gradually returned to almost normal within a few months. He liked football and cricket, and while he enjoyed target practise with an air-rifle or even a bow and arrow, never tested his skills against living targets such as birds and animals.
His father had regained his old rank of corporal by the time the regiment went to active duty during the South African war where he saw a good deal of action, although his family naturally remained in India. By now a further daughter had arrived, Nora.
At the culmination of that war, Corporal Mannock's second period of service was again nearing the end. Returning to England he went first to Shorncliffe, then to the cavalry depot at Canterbury where his wife and children joined him. Within a few months he left the army and the family took up residence in Military Road, Canterbury. Then, quite out of the blue, Edward Mannock senior left, completely abandoning wife and family. He never saw them again, nor supported them in any way at all from that day on.
Young Edward – he was often referred to as Paddy, or Eddie – was 12 years old at the time his father left. Despite this desperate turn of events, Julia dug in her heels and stoically went on undeterred, helped in part by small incomes from Jess and Patrick. The family had never been well-off, and now they existed on the bare minimum, but exist they did, and she kept them all together, long enough to have them eventually fend for themselves.
In September 1905 his sister Jess married. The Mannocks were now residing in St Peter's Street, Canterbury and the wedding took place at St Thomas's catholic church in the town. Jess's husband Edward Ainge (Ted) was in the army, his address given as Canterbury Barracks.
Another pilot who flew with Mick in 40 Squadron during 1917, was C O Rusden. He later recorded in a 1957 letter to one of Mannock's biographers (Vernon Smyth): 'He was very conscious of his social background and never sought the limelight for that reason more than any other.'
Meantime, Edward was making friends in Canterbury. He was a member of the St Gregory's cricket team, and with an interest in religion had joined the Church Lads Brigade, even though he was a catholic. They had a band, and Edward did good work with the kettle-drum. Someone who recalled Mannock at this time for Vernon Smyth in 1957, was S J Powell, then living in Whitstable, Kent.
Powell had related that he had known Mick when he was living in King's Street, Canterbury, when Mick was working for the National Telephone Company, and remembered him as being '... in poor circumstances.' Powell often took Mick home for evening meals and sometimes his mother would give him a parcel of underclothes.
Powell also related how Mick later had helped form the local Territorial Army unit and played a bugle in the band, and that while others might read the occasional book, Mick always seemed to be reading and studying a dictionary! He remembers him as tall, reticent, serious-minded, and modest. Mannock would often suddenly burst out excitedly for a few seconds over something, and then quite unexpectedly revert to his normal quiet manner. So, whether kettle-drum or bugle, Mannock had some musical talent at least, and was improving himself by reading.
* * *
Edward was going to St Thomas's School, but he needed to earn money at the earliest opportunity. Brother Patrick had got himself employment as a clerk with the National Telephone Company in the town, and he contemplated joining his brother with this firm. However, Edward did not fancy being a clerk, preferring outside work, so he become a messenger boy to a local greengrocer but after a few months moved to become a barber's assistant. This did not suit him either, so he managed to join Patrick as a clerk, but although better paid and with shorter hours, the job was not to his liking. Still longing for outside work he succeeded in getting himself accepted to fill a vacancy as a linesman, assisting the engineers. Scrambling up telephone poles had some appeal apparently. The downside to this was that the vacancy was in Wellingborough, so he had to leave the family home and Canterbury, and find himself digs in the Northamptonshire town.
Luck was with him and he fell firmly on his feet. He found lodgings with Mr and Mrs A E Eyles, 64 Melton Road, Wellingborough. (They later resided in Mill Road.) Their meeting was quite by chance, for Edward had started to play for the local Wesleyan cricket team, and Jim Eyles was also a member. Obviously living accommodation came up in conversation and Jim suggested he come and live with them, which he did. Jim Eyles and his wife 'May' (they had married in September 1908) became a second father and mother to him and remained so for the rest of his life. Eyles was the manager of the Highfield Foundry and Engineering Company in Wellingborough, and he liked Edward a lot, and took him under his wing. They too knew him as Paddy.
Later Jim Eyles was to record that Paddy was a keen cricketer and in the Wesleyan club played as wicket-keeper: '... a position needing a keen eye.' (So much for a serious eye problem!) He recalled too, Edward joining the local parliamentary debating society as well as becoming the secretary of the local branch of the labour party. He remembered also his infectious laughter, and the fact that he taught himself to play the violin.
All in all he is described as quiet and reserved, in many ways self-educated and a profound reader. He was also fond of music. One thing he abhorred was snobbery and sham. Mick also decided to join the Home Counties (Territorial) RAMC – Royal Army Medical Corps – so that despite moving up north, he would be certain to meet up with his old TA mates each year at summer camp. He achieved the rank of sergeant shortly before 1914.
With a few shillings in his pocket he opened a bank account. This was in 1912 but he quickly fell foul of the bank manager. A letter survives written by Mannock to the manager.
64 Melton Road, Wellingborough. 15 April 1912
Dear Mr Cook,
I enclose herewith postal order value 10/-which please credit to my account. This will leave a debt still outstanding amounting to 9/-which I will send you later.
I rather regret that you should adopt such a tone in your letters regarding this matter, more so in view of the fact that the account itself has only been contracted since September last, and you may have known that money was safe.
Yours faithfully, Edward Mannock
One has to smile on reading this, for it seems that the young Edward Mannock thought he must be doing the bank a service by having an account with them.
* * *
Life might have easily jogged along had it not been for Mannock's desire for some form of promotion. The job of assistant to an outside telephone engineer did not excite him especially with no immediate prospect of advancement. With so many young men of the age heading for varied foreign climes – Canada, South America, South Africa to name a few – Mannock suddenly decided that telephone engineers might be eagerly sought after in some developing countries. Why exactly he chose Turkey is unclear, but shortly after Christmas 1913, he informed Mr and Mrs Eyles that he planned to head away from England. At that stage he was happy to contemplate not only an extension of the job he knew, but again, like so many others, had tea planting or cattle ranching in his mind.
He applied for a passport, and this document survives to this day in the RAF Museum, Hendon. Unlike the passport documents we know now, this is a large 11" x 8" (29cm x 20cm) sheet of white paper, that feels like those old £5 notes that went out in the 1950s, folding to make four sides. A small snap-shot of the holder was glued to the front page, and on the back of the last page are the stamp impressions of the various countries he travelled through. This passport paper is dated 10 January 1914 and Mannock describes himself as a telephone and telegraph mechanic.
Borrowing money from Jim Eyles and brother Patrick, Mannock boarded a tramp steamer in February 1914 and worked his passage to Constantinople. After his arrival, he sought an interview with the manager of the English Telephone Company, and got a job as an outside engineer. He worked for this company during the spring and summer of that fateful year even rising to the position of district inspector, but when war was declared in August, and Turkey looked as though it would come down on the side of Germany, Mannock, along with other foreign workers, became aware of anti-European feelings, especially against the British. Work consequently dried up, as did wages and access to food that could be afforded. By October some work had started again but the following month, with sides finally taken, Mannock became interned, as a prisoner of war.
Silence followed, no letters being received from him, and finally Jim Eyles contacted the American embassy in Turkey for news. They managed to discover that Mannock was well and still in Constantinople, but the telephone company had been taken over by the Turks. Apparently he had tried several times to escape so had been put into a prison camp. He remained a constant irritation to his captors and in so doing became something of a hero to his fellow detainees. When guards told him England was finished, his invariable reply included thumbing his nose at them.
Finally, through diplomatic reasoning, the detainees were gradually selected for exchange, and it is believed that Mannock had begun conveying to his captors that he was virtually blind in one eye, and that this, together with his vast age – he was now approaching 28 – convinced them that he would be of little value as a soldier. This, and the fact that he was such a nuisance, made it easier to release him than keep him, so at the beginning of April 1915 he regained his freedom and returned to England.
In some cuttings that Mannock's first biographer Ira Jones stuck into a large RAF book, there is a loose one referring to the occasion Mannock was a best man at a chum's wedding. He signed himself A Wyler (although in correspondence to Vernon Smyth, his name appears as R Wyles), who after the war was living in Penshurst, Kent. He wrote that he had known Mannock in the Territorials pre-war and that when the war came along he had gone into the infantry while Edward went into the Royal Engineers. 'He was my "best man" and the last souvenir he gave to my wife and me was a photograph – duly signed – and bearing these words. "The path of glory leads...."'
When writing to Smyth in the 1950s, Wyles recalled Mannock returning from Turkey and meeting him again when Mannock decided to rejoin the RAMC. Mannock had entered the orderly room to find his former friend sitting behind a desk as the OR sergeant. No sooner had the two friends got over their reunion, than Wyles got Mannock a job as transport sergeant. He also recalled that while they were at Halton camp, Tring, in Hertfordshire, Mick was the life and soul of the evening debates. Wyles was later commissioned into the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.
Mannock had joined the transport section of the 3/2nd Home Counties Field Ambulance Company. Enlisted here on 25 May 1915, on the form he had to fill-in he noted his year of birth as 1888, and in answer to the question of where he would like to go, requested either the Royal Engineers, Signal Section, or the Army Service Corps, or the infantry, but mainly desired the 101st Field Company of the REs. The army was always interested in a man's ability to ride a horse at this time, and in answer to this question, Mannock confirmed: 'Yes, well.'
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Mannock"
by .
Copyright © 2008 Norman Franks and Andy Saunders.
Excerpted by permission of Grub Street.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements,
Prologue The Last Day,
Chapter 1 From Modest Beginnings,
Chapter 2 With 40 Squadron in France,
Chapter 3 Deputy Flight Commander,
Chapter 4 Flight Commander,
Chapter 5 Final Days with Forty,
Chapter 6 74 Squadron,
Chapter 7 Zenith of a Fighter Pilot,
Chapter 8 Final Weeks with 74,
Chapter 9 Commanding 85 Squadron,
Chapter 10 Regret to Inform You ...,
Chapter 11 He Must Remain Missing,
Chapter 12 Butter Lane and the Grave at Laventie,
Postscripts,
Appendices,
Appendix A Major Edward Mannock's Citations,
Appendix B Major Edward Mannock's Combat Victories,
Appendix C Major Caldwell's Diary Tally,
Bibliography,
Index,