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"Groupe de Combat 12, 'Les Cigognes'": France's Ace Fighter Group in World War 1 (Aviation Elite Units)
by Jon Guttman (Illustrator: Harry Dempsey)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Osprey Publishing (2004-11-25)
ISBN: 1841767530
EAN: 9781841767536
Dewey Decimal #: 940.44944
Paperback: 128 pages
Release Date: 2004-11-11
SKU: 080529158
Condition: New
Comments: 1841767530 New, never read - we have a HUGE selection of NEW Osprey Military books available at great prices! New, never read, may have minor wear on cover.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
This book traces the combat history of the most famous and highest-scoring fighter group in France's World War I Aviation Militaire. Groupe de Combat 12 boasted the highest-scoring Allied fighter pilot, René Fonck, and France's most celebrated hero of the air, Georges Guynemer. Its ranks included numerous other famous aces, such as Rene's Dorme, Alfred Heurteaux, Albert Deullin, and American volunteers Edwin Parsons and Frank L. Baylies. Additionally, Guynemer was instrumental in developing France's premier series of fighter planes, the SPAD VII, XII, XIII and XVII.
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Customer Reviews
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The "Storks" - Plodding Detail but no Analysis
Rating  (3)
Date: 2005-01-17
5 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
Although fighter combat in the First World War has received a great deal of attention, most of that attention has been reserved for German, Commonwealth and American aces. In Osprey's Aviation Elite Units #18, Jon Guttman provides an interesting look into France's premier fighter unit - Group de Combat 12, nicknamed "the Storks." GC12 was formed in the Spring of 1916 from existing French fighter squadrons and pre-dated the more-famous German "Flying Circus" by a year. Guttman's research effort is prodigious and readers are presented with a wealth of information on daily operations of the group and details on individual pilots. Unfortunately, Guttman's writing style and approach quickly falls into the rut of detailing who shot down what on a given day, but fails to provide either "the big picture" or other details about the unit that would give the reader a fuller appreciation of the contributions of this unit. Perhaps the greatest failing of this volume is the complete lack of analysis; the reader is provided with bare facts and little effort is made to interpret them. Nevertheless, "the Storks" is a good reference on the French fighter force in the First World War.
The volume consists of eight chapters that cover various operational periods in the history of GC12 in 1916-1918. Fourteen pages of color plates on individual aircraft add great value to the volume. The author provides one appendix (aces who flew in GC12) and a short bibliography. There are no maps in the volume and this makes it difficult to determine what parts of the front the unit was operating on at various periods in the war.
Two items that will strike most readers of this volume is the national diversity in GC12 pilots and the fact that 37% of the groups confirmed 'kills' were scored by only two pilots. Guttman details the Japanese (!) and Russian pilots who joined the group, as well as the numerous Americans. It strikes me as odd that France's premier fighter unit - which boasted France's two top aces - included so many foreigners in its ranks; unfortunately, this is one of many issues that the author never explains. In terms of aces, Georges Guynemer and René Fonck dominated the performance of the group much more than an ace like von Richtofen did in JG-1. Another item that I noted after reading the other volume on JG-1 in this series is that the French aviation industry seemed to do a better job in supplying well-built aircraft in quantity; the Nieuport and SPAD fighters were sound designs and well-built, unlike the often poorly-built Fokker DR-1 triplanes.
Unfortunately, there is just too much missing in this volume to make it fully useful. Also from obvious omissions like the lack of a map, the author fails to provide simple details like how many aircraft were in individual squadrons or the group as a whole. There is little of no mention of how pilots or replacements went to GC12, how maintenance was conducted in the group (how much was done at unit level and how much at higher level?), how victories were "confirmed" or how GC12 coordinated with other British and French aviation units. There is virtually no discussion of French aviation doctrine in this volume (remembering that the French air arm has not been well covered before) or how GC12 coordinated with the French ground forces. Indeed, after reading this volume I am not clear who GC12's higher headquarters was since the author tends to focus too much on individual fighter actions. Indeed, it is quickly apparent that the author is only intent about providing a tedious, blow-by-blow account of daily fighter actions - the result is great detail that is not connected into any coherent pattern. The author also avoids any attempt at analysis. I was struck by the fact that GC12 had only 286 confirmed kills in three years of war, which was significantly less than the 500+ kills claimed by Germany's JG-1 in less than two years of war. Why the great disparity? The author also should have made more effort to analyze the occasions when GC12 fought JG1 and determine how France's best compared against Germany's best.
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