Another suggestion that Guynemer made to Béchereau at the end of 1916 was for a fighter capable of mounting a cannon. Since the geared Hispano-Suiza engine raised the propeller above the cylinder heads, Birkigt was indeed able to arrange a 37mm Puteaux cannon with a shortened barrel to fire through a hollow propeller shaft. Taking matters from there, Béchereau designed an enlarged version of the Spad VII, which was designated the 12Ca.1, or type XII. Although the XII was elegant to look at, its cockpit interior was intimidating, with the cannon breech protruding between the pilot’s legs. This necessitated Deperdussin-type elevator and aileron controls on either side of the pilot instead of a central control column. When Guynemer test-flew it in May 1917, the main flaw he saw in what he called his “avion magique” was the fact that the 37mm cannon was a single-shot weapon that had to be reloaded by hand. However, the Spad XII also had a single synchronized Vickers machine gun, which could be used to help sight the cannon on a target before it was fired, or to help the pilot fight his way out of trouble after it had been fired.

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Promoted to lieutenant on the last day of 1916, Guynemer started his scoring for the new year with a double on January 23, 1917, when he sent a Rumpler C.I down in flames over Maurepas and drove another two-seater down near Chaulnes. Heurteaux and Guynemer were both credited with double victories on the 24th. Just as he was closing in on a Rumpler C.I that morning, Guynemer’s motor quit, but using what momentum he had, he got in a telling burst and forced the enemy plane down near Goyencourt. After getting his engine working again, he downed a second Rumpler.

Borrowing Adjutant Bucquet’s Spad on January 26, Guynemer intercepted an Albatros C.VII, only to find that his machine gun would not fire. In spite of that and the 200 rounds loosed at him by the German observer, he managed to bluff the pilot into landing at Monchy airfield. Landing there, Guynemer learned from the embarrassed German that the pilot of the Rumpler he had forced down at Goyancourt two days earlier had to have his leg amputated above the knee, and that its observer had been killed. That confirmation from a captured enemy brought Guynemer’s score up to 30, and added to the legend of a hero who was already the talk of France.

In a subsequent conversation, Guynemer expressed his attitude toward attacking two-seaters. “It was simply murder for the fast chasse airplanes to bring down the poor old observation planes,” he opined, “but in view of the consequences of the observation to artillery and infantry, it was necessary to repress one’s natural repugnance to engaging in such unequal combats and to attack the slower planes with all one’s strength.”

At the end of January, GC.12 moved to Manoncourt-en-Vermois in response to recent German bombing attacks on the nearby city of Nancy. On February 8, 15 twin-engine Gotha G.IIIs and seven fighters were reported crossing the lines at Moncel-sur-Seille. All the Storks scrambled up, but it was Guynemer and Chainat who managed to intercept one of the big planes. Guynemer attacked from the rear and was met by heavy machine gun fire, but managed to score hits on both of the Gotha’s engines. Soon after landing, Guynemer and Chainat learned that the bomber, riddled with 180 hits, had crash-landed at Bouconville and that its three-man crew had been taken prisoner. The Gotha was subsequently exhibited at La Place Stanislas Leczinski in Nancy.

On March 16, Guynemer became the first Frenchman to shoot down three enemy planes in one day. His first, in collaboration with Lieutenant Raymond, was an Albatros two-seater in flames at 0908 hours. Within 22 minutes of that success, N.3 engaged Roland D.IIs of the recently formed Jagdstaffel 32. Guynemer brought down a Roland, whose wounded pilot, 2nd Lt. Rudolf Lothar Arndt Freiherr von Hausen, was taken prisoner, while Deullin sent Jasta 32’s commander, 1st Lt. Heinrich Schwander, down in flames. Guynemer had a lively discussion with von Hausen in the field hospital near St. Nicolas-de-Port after the fight, but the young German later died of complications from bleeding and tetanus on May 15.

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