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...offensive, the Battle Arras, was to begin in less than 72 hours.
Aircrew casualties were growing at an ever increasing rate, alarming the RFC's commander, Brig. Gen. Hugh Trenchard. In the first six days of the month alone, the 25 RFC squadrons along the Arras section of the front had lost 64 aircraft shot down with 42 aircrew killed, 9 wounded, and 36 more taken prisoner. (1) This after having lost 143 airmen killed or missing in March. (2) The RFC's counterpart, the Deutschen Luftstreitkrafte (German Air Force) (3) had lost only 12 aircraft during the same period, with 10 aircrew killed, two wounded and three more becoming prisoners of war. The aggressiveness of the RFC crews in accomplishing their commander's edict of maintaining offensive operations no matter the cost was displayed daily. But also on display was the fact that the Luftstreitkrafte, outnumbered in aircraft by nearly two to one, had the technological superiority with faster, better armed aircraft and a core of highly trained pilots who were led by the likes of Manfred and Lothar von Richthofen, Ernst Udet, Werner Voss, and a host of others whose sole intent was to make the RFC pay dearly for every venture into German airspace over the Arras sector.
Whether Mannock knew it or not, once he signed into his new squadron he had joined a combat unit where the life expectancy for fledgling pilots was less than three weeks of operational flying. By the spring of 1917 the attrition rate for RFC pilots was nearing 200 a month. (4) The RFC would be hard pressed to support the ground offensive but would put every aircraft at its disposal into the sky to support Field Marshall Haig's latest attempt to break the deadlock in France. Only time would tell whether or not the newest member of Number 40 Squadron would become just another statistic or survive to make an impact in the air war over the Western Front.
Edward Corringham Mannock was born on May 21, 1888 (5) to Sergeant Edward (Corringham) (6) Mannock, a Scot and Julia Sullivan, an Irish girl from Cork. There is some argument about his birthplace. The most logical location is Preston Cavalry Barracks in Brighton, England, where Sergeant Mannock was stationed between 1887 and 1888 with the 2d Dragoons, the Royal Scots Greys. However, there is evidence that Mrs. Mannock may have returned to her family home in Ballincolig, County Cork, for some of the pregnancy before giving birth there to her third child.
Mannock's youth was spent in Highgate, England, and Meerut, India, where he grew up in and around the area where his father was stationed. The family returned to England in 1902 to the Cavalry Depot in Canterbury. Young Edward had a fertile mind and loved to read any book he could get his hands on. He was very fond of his mother but distant from his often absent father. Self-conscious of the class system prevalent within the British Army and society as a whole, Mannock could not fathom the injustices that this system fostered among its own people. As he grew to manhood an intense hatred of the class system was bred within him that he would harbor his entire life. This intensity however would drive Mannock to make something of himself and at the same time he would attempt to improve the structure of a social system he believed was flawed and corrupt. (7)
He completed his elementary education at the age of 14 but any further hopes of further education were dashed by his father. Upon completion of his military service in the Boer War (1899-1902), the senior Mannock separated from the British Army and within a few months proceeded to abandon his wife and family. (8)
To assist his mother and older brother in providing for the family, young Mannock went to work delivering groceries and then served as a lather boy at a barber shop. Bright, literate, and well traveled for his young age, Edward Mannock strove to better himself and joined his older brother as a ledger clerk for the National Telephone Company in 1908. (9) Office work was not to his liking, though, and after three years he requested a transfer (and a pay cut) to become a linesman. Leaving home in the spring of 1911, he moved to Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, a small town dependent on the iron works nearby. For the first time in his life he was truly on his own, but he relished the challenge. The work was demanding but it was outdoors and included much travel across the eastern portion of England.
It was during this period that Mannock developed a passion for cricket. During a game he ended up meeting a man who would have a major impact on him. A. E. (Jim) Eyles struck up a conversation with the younger Mannock and was impressed by his passion for the game but also his overall views on life. Finding out that Mannock was living in a rather rough section of town, Eyles asked if he wanted to move in with Eyles and his family. Mannock jumped at the chance.
During the next three years Mannock greatly developed both his mental skills and his confidence through his interaction with the Eyles, his wife and son. Nightly debates challenged his thoughts and his reasoning into organized arguments. He became politically educated as Eyles was an active member of the Independent Labor Party and Mannock was elected branch secretary of the Wellingborough Labor Club. He learned to play the violin and the piano under the tutelage of Mrs. Eyles. Athletically he developed into an excellent wicket keeper for the Wellingborough Wesleyan Cricket Club and also managed to play for the Wesleyan Football Club. (10) Baptized a Catholic, he became an active member of his faith and attended mass every Sunday at St. Mary the Virgin church.
Before leaving Canterbury, Mannock had joined a Territorial unit, the 2d Home Counties Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) which enabled him to maintain contact with many of his friends whenever they conducted training. All in all, Mannock was leading quite a full life. Of this time spent with them Jim Eyles would later write of Mannock:
He knew there was something inside him, and he wasted no time in finding it. There was something different about him, a quality which held everyone he came in contact with ... it was not mere ambition, because he was incapable of the cold ruthlessness that one finds in ambitious men; a kinder, more thoughtful man you could never meet. (11)
Keen for further adventure and primed to make his way in the world, Mannock sailed for Turkey in February 1914. Hired as a supervisor with the National Telephone Company in Constantinople, his leadership style produced results where other European managers had failed. Successful as he was, outside forces were about to bring his world to a crashing halt. When Britain declared war on Germany on August 4, the environment in Turkey changed drastically. Turkey's neutrality was in question and after several warnings of the dangers of alliance with Germany, Britain declared war on Turkey on November 5. Mannock, along with most of the British and French residents were interned.
Through the help and efforts of the American ambassador, Mannock was released on April 1, 1915, after nearly five months of imprisonment. By the time of his release, Mannock was a physical wreck, emaciated from having suffered from a poor diet, dysentery, malaria, and the harsh Turkish winter. (12)
Arriving in Britain two months later, Mannock returned to the Eyles' family who were shocked at his physical condition. Jim Eyles was surprised that the British Army accepted him when Mannock reenlisted into his old unit and within only a few weeks he was promoted to staff sergeant within the transport section. The next nine months the 3/2d Field Ambulance trained in Berkshire for deployment to the Western Front. By the spring of 1916, frustrated and anxious to get to grips with the enemy, and being told that all transport personnel would be reassigned to the Army Service Corps prior to deployment, Mannock requested a transfer to the Royal Engineers as an officer cadet. His strong leadership abilities and good service record set him in good stead. His transfer was approved and he joined the Royal Engineers on April 1, 1916.13 During his initial interview with Major J. E. Buchanan, the assistant battalion adjutant of the Royal Engineer Cadet Depot, recently promoted Sergeant Major Edward Mannock made quite an impression:
A tall, hard bitten-looking fellow stood before me, with more the appearance of a Colonial than an Englishman, blue-grey eyes, a thin clean-shaven face, and a rather grim expression. (14)
Major Buchanan was extremely impressed with Mannock and recommended he be commissioned. Two months later in June Mannock was duly commissioned a second lieutenant. After three months of initial training and with hopes of being assigned to France, Mannock had become bored with the dally training regime in England while a war was being fought across the English Channel. He was also quite chagrined to learn that he would need to undergo almost a year's worth of training before he would be assigned to a unit that specialized in digging tunnels and using explosives to destroy enemy trenches. Another factor for his growing disillusionment was his age. Almost of all of his peers were 19 to 21 years old and at 28 Mannock had little in common with his fellow lieutenants. There was a noticeable gap both in age and maturity between Mannock and the men he was training with. He rarely socialized with his peers and did not understand their views that war was a game when he knew it was not. As the days passed he became ever more anxious to get into the war and do his bit.
Possibly persuaded by the ever increasing...
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