WAR

—
polished man of the world, a piano virtuoso, and an exhibition pilot of superlative
team.
skill.
Roland Garros and the Morane-Saulnier "N" monoplane were a splendid
The Morane machines were a racy-looking family and the "N" was no
exception. With a top speed of 100 miles an hour and an ability to climb to 10,000
feet in 12 minutes flat, it was also a racy performer. It required competent handling
because it had a high landing speed and, owing to the absence of horizontal
stabilizing surface in the tail, was extremely sensitive on the controls. Roland
Garros, with his pianist's hands, was sensitive, was capable of handling the most
cranky aeroplane.
And when war came was capable of killing.
In May 1914 Raymond Saulnier had written a letter
to the Inspector-General
for Air outlining his conception for an armed single-seat aeroplane. It was an
original idea since nothing like that existed in the air service of any country, but
it failed to evoke even a flicker of interest in the War Office. Those charged with
preparing for war care only for peace—which is either praise or condemnation,
and one is unwilling to say which. In any event the letter went unanswered and
the project received no government backing until the shooting started. Saulnier
had had the idea that a Hotchkiss clip-fed machine gun could be affixed to the
aeroplane within reach of the pilot so that he would be able to reload it and
clear it if it jammed. He had first tried to synchronize the rate of fire of the gun
with the rate of revolutions of the propeller, but soon found that the engine speed
could not be controlled precisely enough—it was always speeding up or slowing
down that minute degree which would throw the whole works out of whack.
So he tried armoring the propeller. At this point, Garros took over.
Garros had offered his services to the Service d'Aeronautique when the war
began and had been assigned to M-S 23, commanded by Capitaine Vergnette.
French
squadrons
escadrilles—were identified throughout the war by equipment
and serial number. Thus M-S 23 was escadrille 23 which at that time was
flying Morane machines.
On August 16, 1914, Garros made his first flight up to the lines. Missions
consisted of observation, photography, and the dropping of either hand grenades
or flechettes on enemy troop concentrations. The flechette was a primitive missile,
a barbed steel dart, packed in boxes and dumped over the side wherever targets
seemed to offer themselves in appropriate clusters.
The victory of Frantz and Quenault sparked his imagination and when Raymond
Saulnier wrote to him about the idea for an armed single-seater Garros
immediately obtained permission from his commander to report to Villacoublay
and work with Saulnier on the new weapon. He arrived in
November and by the
end of January 1915 had perfected a workable "deflector gear." The technique
was simplicity itself: a machine gun was bolted to the fuselage of the aeroplane,
butt end extending into the cockpit within easy reach of the pilot. Directly in front
of the muzzle of the gun, which fired straight forward along the line of flight,
steel
wedges were affixed to the rear face of the propeller, a wedge for each blade.
The wedges presented their points to the muzzle and so deflected any bullets
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