Mannock, VC

Edward ‘Mick’ Mannock, VC, DSO (2 bars), MC (& bar), officially shot down 73 enemy aircraft in the First World War and, unofficially, nearly a hundred – yet he was blind in one eye. Mannock was not only an aristocrat of the air he was also a real man of the people, a constant rebel against authority and regimentation who, nonetheless, gained the respect of superiors and subordinates alike. A great and inspirational leader of men, a master of air strategy and the innovator of aggressive formation flying, Mannock was also one of the most mystifying enigmas of the RFC. Until the day of his death, he never conquered his fear of being burned alive in the cockpit and this recurrent horror – encouraged by the fact that First World War pilots were not permitted parachutes – colored his career considerably. Here is the full story of that career, set against a period when air power depended not upon remotely-controlled missiles but on men of imagination, daring and outstanding personal courage.