René Fonck's Six-Victories-in-a-Day: 9 May 1918

René Fonck After the Armistice

René Fonck was born in France on 27 March 1894. On the outbreak of the First World War he joined the French Army, but in early 1915 he transferred to the French Air Service. He flew with a reconnaissance unit on the Western Front, and it was not until April 1917 that he became a fighter pilot.

Flying a SPAD S.VII, Fonck soon developed a reputation as an excellent shot. On two separate occasions he shot down six enemy aircraft in a day. A pilot who did not take unnecessary risks, Fonck had scored 75 victories by the time the war ended in November 1918.  His most remarkable day as an air ace came as the result of a bet on 9 May 1918.

Rene Fonck was a serious character, and a heated disagreement between the Frenchman and two American squadron-mate pilots, Edwin C Parsons and Frank Baylies, led to perhaps the single most spectacular day in his career. Perturbed by Fonck’s lectures on aerial success, the two Americans bet Fonck a bottle of champagne that one of them would shoot down an enemy plane before Fonck. Baylies took off despite hazy weather and shot down a Halberstadt CL.II. 

Back at the airfield, he expected Fonck to honor the bet. He did not. Rather than pay off the bet, a sulky Fonck badgered the Americans to change the terms of the bet so that whoever shot down the most Germans that day would win. Lingering fog kept Fonck grounded most of the day. It was well into the afternoon before it cleared enough for him to take off at 1500 hours.

Fonck with the SPAD XIII He Was Assigned in May 1918

Between 1600 and 1605 hours, he shot down three enemy two-seater reconnaissance planes. A couple of hours later, he repeated the feat. Thus becoming “ace-in-a-day” for the first time. Understanding the importance of reconnaissance planes, with their potential to direct intensive artillery fire onto French troops, Fonck concentrated his attentions upon them; six shot down within a three-hour span proved it. He would duplicated his feat of six-in-one-day on 26 September 1916, the first day of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive

After the war, Fonck teamed up with Igor Sikorsky to try and win the Orteig Prize for the first nonstop flight between New York and Paris. Sikorsky built an aircraft, the S-35, specifically for the purpose. However the aircraft was grossly overloaded and on 21 September 1926, as Fonck was attempting to take off, it crashed in flames. Fonck survived, but two of his three crew members were killed. Charles Lindbergh, of course, subsequently won the prize. René Fonck died in June 1953.

Sources: Spartacus, AirPower Asia