Georges Guynemer: Knight of the Air Part 18

Chief Adjutant Fonck 11 " "

_sous-lieutenant_ Lufbery 10 " "

[Footnote 32: List made September 11, 1917.]

These names will become more and more glorious--some have already done so--and others will be added to the list which you will learn also. But however tenacious your memory may be, you will never remember, n.o.body will ever remember, the thousands of names we ought to save from oblivion, the names of those whose patience, courage, and sufferings have saved the soil of France. The fame of one man is nothing unless it represent the obscure deeds of the anonymous mult.i.tude. The name of Guynemer ought to sum up the sacrifice of all French youth--infantrymen, gunners, pioneers, troopers, or flyers--who have given their lives for us, as we hear the infinite murmur of the ocean in one beautiful sh.e.l.l.

The enthusiasm and patience, the efforts and sacrifices, of the generations which came before you, little boy, were necessary to save you, to save your country, to save the world, born of light and born unto light, from the darkness of dread oppression. Germany has chosen to rob war of all that, slowly and tentatively, the nations had given to it of respect for treaties, pity for the weak and defenseless, and of honor generally. She has poisoned it as she poisons her gases. This is what we should never forget. Not only has Germany forced this war upon the world, but she has made it systematically cruel and terrifying, and in so doing she has sown the seeds of horrified rebellion against anything that is German. Parisian boys of your own age will tell you that during their sleep German squadrons used to fly over their city dropping bombs at random upon it. And to what purpose? None, beyond useless murder.

This is the kind of war which Germany has waged from the first, gradually compelling her opponents to adopt the same methods. But while this loathsome work was being done, our airplanes, piloted by soldiers not much older than you, cruised like moving stars above the city of Genevieve, threatened now with unheard-of invasion from on high.

Little boy, do not forget that this war, blending all cla.s.ses, has also blended in a new crucible all the capacities of our country. They are now turned against the aggressor, but they will have to be used in time for union, love, and peace. _Omne regnum divisum contra se desolabitur; et omnis civitas vel domus divisa contra se non stabit._ You can read this easy Latin, but if necessary your teacher or village priest will help you. The house, the city, the nation ought not to be divided. The enemy would have done us too much evil if he had not brought about the reconciliation of all Frenchmen. You, little boy, will have to wipe away the blood from the bleeding face of France, to heal her wounds, and secure for her the revival she will urgently need. She will come out of the formidable contest respected and admired, but oh, how weary! Love her with pious love, and let the life of Guynemer inspire you with the resolve to serve in daily life, as he served, even unto death.

_December_, 1917, to _January_, 1918.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX

GENEALOGY OF GEORGES GUYNEMER

In _Huon de Bordeaux_, a _chanson de geste_ with fairy and romantic elements, Huon leaves for Babylon on a mission confided to him by the Emperor, which he was told to fulfil with the aid of the dwarf sorcerer, Oberon. At the chateau of Dunotre, in Palestine, where he must destroy a giant, he meets a young girl of great beauty named Sebile, who guides him through the palace. As he is astonished to hear her speak French, she replies: "I was born in France, and I felt pity for you because I saw the cross you wear." "In what part of France?" "In the town of Saint-Omer," replied Sebile; "I am the daughter of Count Guinemer." Her father had lately come on a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre, bringing her with him. A tempest had cast them on sh.o.r.e near the town of the giant, who had killed her father and kept her prisoner. "For more than seven years," she added, "I have not been to ma.s.s." Naturally Huon kills the giant, and delivers the daughter of Count Guinemer.

In an article by the learned M. Longnon on _L'Element historique de Huon de Bordeaux_,[33] a note is given on the name of Guinemer:

"In _Huon de Bordeaux_," writes M. Longnon, "the author of the _Prologue des Lorrains_ makes Guinemer the son of Saint Bertin, second Abbot of Sithieu, an abbey which took the name of this blessed man and was the foundation of the city of Saint-Omer, which the poem of _Huon de Bordeaux_ makes the birthplace of Count Guinemer's daughter. It is possible that this Guinemer was borrowed by our _trouveres_ from some ancient Walloon tradition; for his name, which in Latin is Winemarus, appears to have occurred chiefly in those countries forming part, from the ninth to the twelfth century, of the County of Flanders. The chartulary of Saint Vertin alone introduces us to: 1st, a deacon named Winidmarus, who in 723 wrote a deed of sale at Saint-Omer itself (Guerard, p. 50); 2d, a knight of the County of Flanders, Winemarus, who a.s.sa.s.sinated the Archbishop of Rheims, Foulques, who was then Abbot of Saint-Bertin (Guerard, p. 135); 3d, Winemarus, a va.s.sal of the Abbey, mentioned in an act dated 1075 (_ib._, p. 195); 4th, Winemarus, Lord of Gand, witness to a charter of Count Baudouin VII in 1114 (_ib._, p.

255). The personage in _Huon de Bordeaux_ might also be connected with Guimer, Lord of Saint-Omer, who appears in the beginning of _Ogier le Danios_, if the form, Guimer, did not seem rather to derive from Withmarus."[34]

[Footnote 33: _Romania_, 1879, p. 4.]

[Footnote 34: With this note may be connected the following page of the Wauters, a chronological table of Charters and printed Acts, Vol. II, p.

16, 1103: "Balderic, Bishop of the Tournaisiens and the Noyonnais, confirms the cession of the t.i.the and patronage of Templeuve, which was made to the Abbey of Saint-Martin de Tournai by two knights of that town, Arnoul and Guinemer, and by the canon _Geric. Actum Tornaci, anno domenice incarnationis M.C. III, regnante rege Philippo, episcopante domo Baldrico pontifice_. Extracts for use in the ecclesiastic history of Belgium, 2d year, p. 10."]

Leaving the _chansons de geste_, Guinemer reappears in the history of the Crusades. Count Baudouin of Flanders and his knights, while making war in the Holy Land (1097), see a vessel approaching, more than three miles from the city of Tarsus. They wait on the sh.o.r.e, and the vessel casts anchor. "Whence do you come?" is always the first question asked in like circ.u.mstances. "From Flanders, from Holland, and from Friesland." They were repentant pirates, who after having combed the seas had come to do penance by a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The Christian warriors joyously welcome these sailors whose help will be useful to them. Their chief is a Guinemer, not from Saint-Omer but Boulogne. He recognizes in Count Baudouin his liege lord, leaves his ship and decides to remain with the crusaders. "_Moult estait riche de ce mauvais gaeng._" The whilom pirate contributes his ill-gotten gains to the crusade.[35]

[Footnote 35: _Receuil des Historiens des Croisades_, Western Historians, Volume I, Book III and XXIII, p. 145: _Comment Guinemerz et il Galiot s'accompaignierent avec Baudouin_.]

In another chapter of the _Histoire des Croisades_, this Guinemer besieged Lalische, which "is a most n.o.ble and ancient city situated on the border of the sea; it was the only city in Syria over which the Emperor of Constantinople was ruler." Lalische or Laodicea in Syria, _Laodicea ad mare_--now called Latakia--was an ancient Roman colony under Septimus Severus, and was founded on the ruins of the ancient Ramitha by Seleucus Nicator, who called it Laodicea in honor of his mother Laodice. Guinemer, who expected to take the city by force, was in his turn a.s.saulted and taken prisoner by the garrison. Baudouin, with threats, demanded him back and rescued him; but esteeming him a better seaman than a combatant on the land, he invited him to return to his ship, take command of his fleet, and navigate within sight of the coast, which the former pirate "very willingly did."

A catalogue of the Deeds of Henri I, King of France (1031-1060)[36]

mentions in this same period a Guinemer, Lord of Lillers, who had solicited the approval of the king for the construction of a church in his chateau, to be dedicated to Notre-Dame and Saint-Omer. The royal approval was given in 1043, completing the authorization of Baudouin, Count of Flanders, and of Dreu, Bishop of Therouanne at the request of Pope Gregory VI, to whom the builder had gone in person to ask consent for his enterprise. Was this Guinemer, like the pirate of Jerusalem, doing penance for some wrong? Thus we find two Guinemers in the eleventh century, one in Palestine, the other in Italy. About this same period the family probably left Flanders to settle in Brittany, where they remained until the Revolution. The corsair of Boulogne became a ship-builder at Saint-Malo, having his own reasons for changing parishes. The Flemish tradition then gives place to that of Brittany, which is authenticated by doc.u.ments. One Olivier Guinemer gave a receipt in 1306 to the executors of Duke Jean II de Bretagne. He held a fief under Saint-Sauveur de Dinan, "on which the duke had settled tenants contrary to agreements." The executors, to liquidate the estate, had to pay immense sums for "indemnification, rest.i.tution and damages," and took care to "take receipts from all those to whom their commission obliged them to distribute money."[37] The Treaty of Guerande (April 11, 1365), which ended the war for the Breton succession and gave the Duchy to Jean de Montfort, though under the suzerainty of the King of France, is signed by thirty Breton knights, among whom is a Geoffrey Guinemer. A Mathelin Guinemer, squire, is mentioned in an act received at Bourges in 1418; while in 1464, an Yvon Guynemer, man-at-arms, is promoted to full pay, and he already spells his name with a _y_.

[Footnote 36: _Catalogue des actes d'Henri I, Roi de France_ (1031-1060), by Frederic Soehnee, archivist at the National Archives.]

[Footnote 37: _Histoire de Bretagne_, by Dom Lobineau (1707), Vol. I, p.

293. _Recherches sur la chevalerie du d.u.c.h.e de Bretagne, by A. de Couffon de Kerdellech_, Vol. II (Nantes, Vincent Forest and Emile Grimaud, Printers and Publishers).]

It is somewhat difficult to trace the history of this lesser provincial n.o.bility, engaged sometimes in petty wars, sometimes in the cultivation of their domains. In a book glorifying the humble service of ancient French society, _Gentilshommes Campagnards_, M. Pierre de Vaissiere has shown how this race of rural proprietors lived in the closest contact with French agriculture, counseling and defending the peasant, clearing and cultivating their land, and maintaining their families by its produce. In his _Memoires_, the famous Retif de la Bretonne paints in the most picturesque manner the patriarchal and authoritative manners of his grandfather who, by virtue of his own unquestioned authority prevented his descendant from leaving his native village and establishing in Paris. Paris was already exercising its fascination and uprooting the youth of the time. The Court of Versailles had already weakened the social authority of families still attached to their lands.