Georges Marie Ludovic Jules Guynemer was born in Paris[1] to a wealthy and aristocratic family.

He was originally rejected five times for military service due to frailty, but was accepted for training as a mechanic in late 1914.

[citation needed] On 26 January 1917 Guynemer forced down an Albatros C.VII of Flieger-Abteilung (A) 226 whose crew was captured for his 30th credit.

[citation needed] On 8 February 1917, flying a SPAD VII, Guynemer became the first Allied pilot to shoot down a German Gotha bomber,[6] his 31st victory.

[citation needed] His highest scoring month was May 1917, when he downed seven German aircraft including a quadruple credit on 25 May.

[7] By July, he began to fly the Spad XII; his avion magique was, at his behest, armed with a 37 mm (1.46 in) cannon whose barrel fired through the propeller shaft.

[9] The latter triumph made him the first French ace to attain 50 victories, with headlines such as "Fifty machines destroyed!

[11][12] Guynemer was confirmed missing in action by his squadron commander Major Brocard; it was officially announced in Paris by the French War Department on 25 September 1917.

[13] Unofficial confirmation came from a captured German pilot who was shot down behind Canadian lines the evening of 29 September.

[14] A German sergeant from the 413th Regiment swore he had witnessed the crash and identified Guynemer's corpse; he also certified that he had died from a bullet through the head, with other injuries including a broken leg and a finger shot away.

[12] The 25 September details released by the French War Department were unclassified and became public knowledge as described by one of his flying comrades (name withheld due to security reasons):[14] Guynemer sighted five machines of the Albatros type D-3.

At that moment enemy patrolling machines, soaring at a great height, appeared suddenly and fell upon Guynemer.

According to an American Red Cross communique from the French front, the death of Guynemer was determined to be "definitely confirmed".

The French Government has been invited to place in the Pantheon, where many great Frenchmen are buried, an inscription to perpetuate the memory of Captain Guynemer as 'a symbol of the aspirations and enthusiasm of the Army.'

The French government encouraged the publicity to boost morale and take the people's minds off the terrible losses in the trenches.

This was quite different later in 1918 with the French top ace René Fonck, who despite having 75 confirmed victories, had bad publicity for his arrogance and shameless self-promotion.

[citation needed] The episode "The Last Flight" (1960) from season one of the American television series The Twilight Zone was loosely based on the disappearance of Guynemer put to fictional speculation as to what happened to him.