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Group Captain C. R. Caldwell, DSO, DFC & Bar, standing beside his aircraft in the Pacific. He was the top scoring Australian of any service in WWII. He scored 28½ victories in the Western Desert and the Pacific. (Australian War Memorial)
Australian Fighter Aces
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The First Ace
It is generally agreed that the title “ace” applies to any fighter pilot who has destroyed five or more enemy aircraft in air-to-air combat. It is also generally agreed that the term originated with the French in the early part of 1915. It is not generally known, however, that the first pilot to earn this accolade was a Frenchman named Roland Garros who was a Lieutenant in the French Air Force. At the time he was trying out a new device that was fitted to his Morane Monoplane. This was very much his own idea and allowed him to fire a fixed machine gun through the arc of his propeller. It consisted simply of fitting deflector plates to the airscrew blades. The story is told in more detail in later paragraphs, but for the present, it is only necessary to note that his success was immediate and decisive. Garros shot down five German aircraft in just over two weeks between April 1 and 16, 1915. This was a feat absolutely unheard of at the time, and seldom equalled since.
How the term “ace” came to be applied to him and to future airmen is best told by Arch Whitehouse in his book “Decisive Air Battles of the First World War” (Pub Duell, Sloane & Pearce, New York, 1963):
“Five victories in 16 days! That was the initial harvest of Roland Garros’ front-firing gun. He was cited for the Legion of Honor, and nearly every newspaper in France and Great Britain carried the astounding news of his aerial accomplishment. The gay boulevardiers screamed their cheers and toasted the newest hero in champagne. “Oh, that Garros,” they cried. “Roland Garros our aerial saviour! Five enemy flying machines he has destroyed. Garros is an ace!”
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