The air service in particular is one of such peril that membership in it
is of itself a high distinction. Physical address, high training, entire
fearlessness, iron nerve, and fertile resourcefulness are needed in a
combination and to a degree hitherto unparalleled in war. The ordinary
air fighter is an extraordinary man; and the extraordinary air fighter
stands as one in a million among his fellows. Guynemer was one of these.
More than this. He was the foremost among all the extraordinary fighters
of all the nations who in this war have made the skies their battle
field. We are fortunate indeed in having you write his biography.

Very faithfully yours,
(Signed) Theodore Roosevelt.

M. Henry Bordeaux,
44 Rue du Ranelagh,
Paris, France.




PROLOGUE


" ... Guynemer has not come back."

The news flew from one air escadrille to another, from the aviation
camps to the troops, from the advance to the rear zones of the army; and
a shock of pain passed from soul to soul in that vast army, and
throughout all France, as if, among so many soldiers menaced with death,