1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,920 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:15,880 Speaker 1: Heart Radio, Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, 3 00:00:16,160 --> 00:00:19,560 Speaker 1: a show that examines notable events that happened years ago. 4 00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:24,599 Speaker 1: Today I'm Gabe Louizier, and today we're looking at a 5 00:00:24,640 --> 00:00:28,479 Speaker 1: crucial event in the early days of aerial warfare, the 6 00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:31,040 Speaker 1: time when a new kind of pilot and a new 7 00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:42,879 Speaker 1: kind of weapon both fell into the wrong hands. The 8 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:49,559 Speaker 1: day was April eighteenth, nineteen fifteen. French pilot Lieutenant Roland 9 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:53,640 Speaker 1: Garros was captured by German forces during an attack on 10 00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:58,360 Speaker 1: occupied Belgium. His target had been a train bound for 11 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:02,480 Speaker 1: the core Trek railway station and the Flanders region. German 12 00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:06,160 Speaker 1: ground troops fired at Garros as he flew overhead, and 13 00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:09,200 Speaker 1: it's believed that one bullet struck the fuel line of 14 00:01:09,240 --> 00:01:12,479 Speaker 1: his plane, forcing him to land right in the enemy's lap. 15 00:01:13,360 --> 00:01:16,800 Speaker 1: As soon as he touched down, Garros desperately tried to 16 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:19,520 Speaker 1: set fire to his plane so that it wouldn't fall 17 00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:23,240 Speaker 1: into the hands of German engineers. There was nothing all 18 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:26,360 Speaker 1: that special about the plane itself. It was a single 19 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:31,440 Speaker 1: seat front engine plane called the Moraine Solnier Type L. However, 20 00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:36,959 Speaker 1: the planes artillery was something special, indeed an experimental machine 21 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:40,240 Speaker 1: gun that could be fired between the blades of the 22 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:46,240 Speaker 1: plane's front propeller. See. Roland Garros was no ordinary aerial bomber. 23 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:50,640 Speaker 1: He was the world's first fighter pilot capable of shooting 24 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:54,320 Speaker 1: down enemy planes when he wasn't being shot down himself. 25 00:01:55,200 --> 00:01:59,440 Speaker 1: Before the Great War began in nineteen fourteen, Roland Garros 26 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:03,600 Speaker 1: had lived charmed life as a famous aerobatics pilot, a 27 00:02:03,680 --> 00:02:08,400 Speaker 1: stunt flyer. Airplanes were still new, exciting tech at the time, 28 00:02:08,680 --> 00:02:11,840 Speaker 1: and Garros made a living pushing the machines to their limits. 29 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:16,520 Speaker 1: In nineteen eleven, he set a world altitude record by 30 00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:19,280 Speaker 1: soaring to a height of five thousand, six hundred and 31 00:02:19,320 --> 00:02:24,000 Speaker 1: ten meters or more than eighteen thousand feet. Two years later, 32 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:28,320 Speaker 1: he became the first person to fly across the Mediterranean Sea. 33 00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:32,760 Speaker 1: He also won numerous European flying races, including Paris to 34 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:36,320 Speaker 1: Madrid and Paris to Rome. As if all of that 35 00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:40,440 Speaker 1: wasn't dangerous enough, Garros also worked as a test pilot 36 00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:46,160 Speaker 1: for the Moraine Solnier Aircraft Company. By nineteen thirteen, aircraft 37 00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:50,160 Speaker 1: designers had begun to look beyond the recreational and surveillance 38 00:02:50,280 --> 00:02:54,040 Speaker 1: uses of airplanes. The new goal became building a plane 39 00:02:54,040 --> 00:02:58,160 Speaker 1: that could actually engage in offensive combat. At the time, 40 00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:00,919 Speaker 1: the only way a pilot could shoot at an enemy 41 00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:04,360 Speaker 1: plane was to fire a pistol from the cockpit, and 42 00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:08,639 Speaker 1: as you might imagine, that rarely had much effect. For designers, 43 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:11,600 Speaker 1: the challenge became finding a way for the pilot to 44 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:15,560 Speaker 1: operate a forward firing machine gun without shooting apart his 45 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:21,280 Speaker 1: own propeller. In thirteen, a French engineer named Raymond Solnier 46 00:03:21,720 --> 00:03:26,000 Speaker 1: finally hit upon a solution. He mounted wedge shaped steel 47 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:30,480 Speaker 1: deflector plates to the blades of a plane's propeller. That way, 48 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:33,480 Speaker 1: when a forward facing machine gun happened to fire a 49 00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:37,400 Speaker 1: bullet into a blade, the ammunition would glance right off 50 00:03:37,520 --> 00:03:41,960 Speaker 1: with only superficial damage to the blade. Sonnier proved the 51 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:46,240 Speaker 1: effectiveness of his methods during trials for the French military, 52 00:03:46,280 --> 00:03:49,560 Speaker 1: but in the end the project was shelved because officials 53 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:53,440 Speaker 1: just didn't think it was necessary. Planes were plenty useful 54 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:57,080 Speaker 1: without heavy armaments, and since other countries like Germany had 55 00:03:57,120 --> 00:04:01,120 Speaker 1: also foregone such weapons, the French didn't think they needed 56 00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:04,640 Speaker 1: them either. When the fighting broke out in July of 57 00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:09,040 Speaker 1: nineteen fourteen, Roland Garros put his career on hold and 58 00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:12,280 Speaker 1: enlisted as a pilot in the French Army. His first 59 00:04:12,320 --> 00:04:15,480 Speaker 1: missions went well enough, but Garros quickly came to the 60 00:04:15,560 --> 00:04:19,479 Speaker 1: same conclusion as aerial engineers. To make his plane a 61 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:22,640 Speaker 1: truly effective weapon, he needed to be able to fire 62 00:04:22,839 --> 00:04:26,960 Speaker 1: straight ahead. So in December of that year, Garros went 63 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:30,800 Speaker 1: to see his old boss, Raymond Sonier. He asked the 64 00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:34,200 Speaker 1: designer to add metal deflector plates to the propeller blades 65 00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:36,520 Speaker 1: of his plane so that he could mount a machine 66 00:04:36,560 --> 00:04:40,360 Speaker 1: gun at the front of the cockpit. Sonnier gladly obliged, 67 00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:43,839 Speaker 1: and Garrows spent the early weeks of nineteen fifteen getting 68 00:04:43,920 --> 00:04:47,360 Speaker 1: used to his new firepower. The gun's rate of fire 69 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:51,120 Speaker 1: ensured that most bullets passed right between the blades, and 70 00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:53,840 Speaker 1: the deflector plates took care of the ones that didn't. 71 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:57,160 Speaker 1: It was a far from perfect system, but in the 72 00:04:57,160 --> 00:04:59,719 Speaker 1: early months of World War One, it was enough to 73 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:03,640 Speaker 1: make Garrows the deadliest pilot in the sky. By the 74 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:07,320 Speaker 1: end of March of nineteen fifteen, Garros had gotten the 75 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:09,440 Speaker 1: hang of his new set up and was ready to 76 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:13,160 Speaker 1: test the deflector plates in action. During the first four 77 00:05:13,240 --> 00:05:17,200 Speaker 1: days of April, Garros shot down a number of German planes, 78 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:20,320 Speaker 1: earning himself a citation for the Legion of Honor in 79 00:05:20,360 --> 00:05:24,799 Speaker 1: the process. All of a sudden, French military officials were 80 00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:28,839 Speaker 1: back on board with Sonnier's invention and eager to expand 81 00:05:28,839 --> 00:05:32,800 Speaker 1: its use to the rest of the squadron. Unfortunately, before 82 00:05:32,839 --> 00:05:37,200 Speaker 1: that could happen, France's new secret weapon fell directly into 83 00:05:37,279 --> 00:05:41,520 Speaker 1: enemy hands. There are conflicting reports about what happened on 84 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:45,760 Speaker 1: April eighteenth, whether Garros was truly shot down while attacking 85 00:05:45,839 --> 00:05:48,840 Speaker 1: a train, or if it was an unrelated engine problem 86 00:05:48,839 --> 00:05:52,360 Speaker 1: that forced him to land in such dangerous territory. In 87 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:56,480 Speaker 1: either case, Garros had no choice. He managed to guide 88 00:05:56,480 --> 00:05:59,600 Speaker 1: his plane away from the nearby town of Courtray and 89 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:03,200 Speaker 1: eventually set it down in an empty field. His first 90 00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:06,560 Speaker 1: instinct was to destroy his plane and everything on board, 91 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:10,159 Speaker 1: but the wooden framework and fabric on the plane's wings 92 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:13,919 Speaker 1: was too damp to catch fire. He kept trying, but 93 00:06:14,120 --> 00:06:16,400 Speaker 1: had to give it up when he spotted an enemy 94 00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:20,440 Speaker 1: patrol headed his way. In a clever move, Garros covered 95 00:06:20,520 --> 00:06:23,440 Speaker 1: himself in mud, lay down in a ditch, and heaped 96 00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:26,440 Speaker 1: clumps of grass on top of himself to hide from 97 00:06:26,440 --> 00:06:30,040 Speaker 1: the approaching troops. It was a valiant effort, but he 98 00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:32,880 Speaker 1: was ultimately caught when one of the Germans noticed a 99 00:06:32,920 --> 00:06:36,160 Speaker 1: moving clump of grass with a piece of blue uniform 100 00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:39,440 Speaker 1: sticking out of it. So, just like that, the state 101 00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:42,240 Speaker 1: of the art machine gun now belonged to the German Army, 102 00:06:42,440 --> 00:06:46,240 Speaker 1: and so did Lieutenant Garros. It didn't take long for 103 00:06:46,320 --> 00:06:49,920 Speaker 1: German troops to realize what they had. In fact, just 104 00:06:50,120 --> 00:06:53,840 Speaker 1: hours after Garros was captured, the machine gun and propeller 105 00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:56,719 Speaker 1: from his plane had been removed and shipped off to 106 00:06:56,800 --> 00:07:01,360 Speaker 1: the Fokker aircraft factory in Germany. They arrived a few 107 00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:05,640 Speaker 1: days later, and Dutch aviation engineer Anthony Fokker got to 108 00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:10,120 Speaker 1: work right away. Just like Solnier, Fokker had foreseen the 109 00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:13,720 Speaker 1: importance of forward firing artillery and had been working on 110 00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:18,320 Speaker 1: his own designs for some time. Unlike his French counterpart, though, 111 00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:21,760 Speaker 1: he'd been unable to create a working model, But with 112 00:07:21,880 --> 00:07:25,280 Speaker 1: Solnier's work to pull from, that changed in a matter 113 00:07:25,360 --> 00:07:29,840 Speaker 1: of weeks. Soon the German Air Force unveiled the Fokker 114 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:34,400 Speaker 1: E one, a single seater airplane with synchronized machine guns 115 00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:39,560 Speaker 1: and deflectors just like Solnier's. Over the next two years, 116 00:07:39,920 --> 00:07:44,560 Speaker 1: roughly three hundred Fokker E type plane saw combat. In 117 00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:48,840 Speaker 1: that time, they shot down more than one thousand Allied aircraft. 118 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:52,840 Speaker 1: The model was followed by the Fokker D seven in 119 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:56,880 Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen, an improved design that was so efficient and 120 00:07:56,960 --> 00:08:01,960 Speaker 1: deadly that the British press began calling them the Fokker scourge. 121 00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:06,040 Speaker 1: The capture of Garros plane proved to be a disastrous 122 00:08:06,040 --> 00:08:09,320 Speaker 1: setback for Allied forces, and there was no picnic for 123 00:08:09,360 --> 00:08:12,920 Speaker 1: the pilot either. He spent three years as a prisoner 124 00:08:12,960 --> 00:08:17,720 Speaker 1: of war before finally escaping in nineteen eighteen. He immediately 125 00:08:17,800 --> 00:08:20,560 Speaker 1: rejoined the war effort, but found that a lot had 126 00:08:20,640 --> 00:08:25,160 Speaker 1: changed during his imprisonment. Aerial combat had grown in complexity 127 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:28,080 Speaker 1: as both sides became more adept at the new form 128 00:08:28,120 --> 00:08:32,760 Speaker 1: of warfare. Pilots now used a variety of dog fighting tactics, 129 00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:36,360 Speaker 1: as well as formation flying and even a backseat gunner 130 00:08:36,520 --> 00:08:39,920 Speaker 1: to shoot what they couldn't see. Garros tried to keep 131 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:43,160 Speaker 1: pace with the changes to a technique that he himself 132 00:08:43,240 --> 00:08:46,360 Speaker 1: had pioneered, but in the end the new ways got 133 00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:49,360 Speaker 1: the better of him. He was shot down and killed 134 00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:53,880 Speaker 1: in action on October fifth, nineteen eighteen, one day before 135 00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:57,400 Speaker 1: his thirtieth birthday and just five weeks before the end 136 00:08:57,400 --> 00:09:01,160 Speaker 1: of the war. The events of April eighteen had come 137 00:09:01,200 --> 00:09:05,000 Speaker 1: back to haunt Garrows one last time. The pilot who 138 00:09:05,080 --> 00:09:10,760 Speaker 1: killed him was flying a Fokker D seven. I'm Gay 139 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:14,320 Speaker 1: Bluesier and hopefully you now know a little more about 140 00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:18,640 Speaker 1: history today than you did yesterday. You can learn even 141 00:09:18,640 --> 00:09:21,800 Speaker 1: more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and 142 00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:26,240 Speaker 1: Instagram at t d i HC Show, and if you 143 00:09:26,240 --> 00:09:29,079 Speaker 1: have any comments or suggestions, you can always send them 144 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:33,199 Speaker 1: my way at this day at I heeart media dot com. 145 00:09:33,200 --> 00:09:36,000 Speaker 1: Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank 146 00:09:36,040 --> 00:09:39,120 Speaker 1: you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow 147 00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:41,520 Speaker 1: for another day in History class.