lee: aviation and the war 227 



taught thoroiig hly it will mean the ending of these casualties on 

 the other side. What is more important, if the flyer does not 

 know how to "stunt," it will not only mean the death of the pilot 

 himself, which is relatively not so important in view of the 

 fact that so many thousands of men have been killed in this war, 

 but it may result disastrously to a great number of men on the 

 ground. When the man in the air goes down, there may be 

 batteries depending on him for spotting our own fire and the 

 enemy's artillery; there may be infantry regiments waiting to 

 know where the Germans are; and there may be whole divisions 

 waiting for certain information. It is thus absolutely criminal to 

 send a pilot to the front who does not know how to fly, and the 

 only way to make him capable is to teach him to stunt. It is 

 now taught at all the flying schools. 



The teaching of stunting is not difficult, but we must have 

 pupils who have a certain amount of knowledge and skill. I 

 will give you one or two instances which we had in the beginning 

 of the war. We were very hard pressed for apparatus and very 

 hard up for machines by the end of 1'915. A lot of pilots were 

 sent over-seas after they had been given the best training that 

 the short time would allow, but there were many casualties. 

 Some of them were due to the fact that some of these fellows 

 could not really "stunt" their machines. ^The Boche would 

 get "on their tail" and they would put their nose down. If the 

 man in the disadvantageous position puts his nose down, the 

 pilot on his tail can do the same and get him very easily. Now, 

 the fellow who can stunt will do some fast climbing, turn, and 

 maneuver himself into a better position from which to attack his 

 opponent, while the fellow who cannot stunt will put his nose 

 down and try to get aw^ay and will find himself an easy mark for 

 the enemy. This was very noticeable with raw German flyers. 



I want to make it very plain that there is no danger whatever 

 in stunting, and I could show you that with proper training a 

 pupil can be taught to stunt in twenty-five hours. The onlj^ 

 danger is in doing it too near the ground, but at 2000 feet there 

 is not a single position that the machine cannot be put into with 

 safety. 



