The haze disappeared at 5,000 feet altitude, and at 12,000 feet the Frenchmen spotted what Bozon-Verduraz later identified as a DFW C.V northeast of Ypres. Waving to his wingman, Guynemer dived on the German from above and behind. Bozon-Verduraz followed him, fired, missed and was pulling up to make another pass when he noticed eight German aircraft approaching. The enemy formation turned away, so Bozon-Verduraz went back to find Guynemer, only to see no trace of him or the DFW. Following another indecisive combat over Poperinghe, Bozon-Verduraz returned to St. Pol-sur-Mer at 1020. His first words were, “Has he landed yet?”

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Guynemer had not, nor would anything be known of his fate for another month, when the Germans announced that 2nd Lt. Kurt Wissemann of Jasta 3 had killed the great ace for his fifth victory. Wissemann himself was not available for comment by then, having been killed on September 28 by two S.E.5as of No. 56 Squadron, flown by Captain Geoffrey H. Bowman and Lieutenant Reginald T.C. Hoidge. Other witnesses indicated that Guynemer’s luck had run out while attacking a German two-seater that was shot down elsewhere later that day. Recent research by historian Marco Fernandez-Sommerau indicates that Flieger Georg Seibert and Reserve 2nd Lt. Max Psaar of Royal Württemberg Flieger Abteilung (Artillerie) 224 were on a long-range reconnaissance flight in Rumpler C.IV 1643/17 at that time and suggests that Psaar may have shot down Guynemer. The Germans continued with their mission, but three hours later they were caught and killed near Dixmuide by Sub-Lieutenant Maurice Medaets, a Spad VII pilot of the Belgian 10th Escadrille. In any case, a sergeant of the German 413th Regiment certified that he had seen the Spad crash and identified the body, noting that Guynemer had died of a head wound, although one of his fingers had also been shot off and a leg was broken.

In his career, Guynemer had been made an Officier de la Légion d’Honneur, his Croix de Guerre was adorned with 26 palms and he also received the British Distinguished Service Order and medals from Russia, Belgium, Serbia, Romania and Portugal. Once, when asked what decoration remained for him to obtain, Guynemer had replied, “The wooden cross.” That last honor, however, was ironically denied him, for an Allied artillery barrage drove the Germans back before they could recover or properly bury his remains, which thus vanished amid the chaos that was the Western Front. Whatever the tragic circumstances of his death, however, Georges Guynemer entered French legend as its second ranking ace, who, popular myth insisted, had flown so high he could never come down. J

This article was written by Jon Guttman and originally published in the September 2006 issue of Aviation History magazine. Jon Guttman wishes to thank German reader Joern Leckscheid for the recent update on who might have killed Georges Guynemer. For more great articles subscribe to Aviation History magazine today!

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