Copy of 'Vieux Charles,' the 1916 Spad VII of French ace Georges Guynemer, landing at Olde Rhinebeck Aereodrome, Rhinebeck, New York, September 15, 2013. © 2013 John M. Shea
Vieux CharlesOld Charles
"January 23rd.—Lateral telephoning has been cut out: there are festoons of wire in the trenches. In the morning two French planes attacked three Germans: by their speed and manœuvre they shot down one in flames and one crippled in a few minutes; the third escaped. Great flying by the Frenchmen. After dark we took over the front of Clery Left.January 24rd.—What a night! I have not been so cold, or for so long, since bivouacking on the Basuto Border. We are on the top of a bare 1200-foot down among downs. Mont St. Quentin, a truncated sugar-loaf peak is half right; beyond it the steeples of Péronne (seen from our right) are features of a wonderful panorama. . . . But the delight of it doesn't warm chilled bones."
Extract from the entry for January 8, 1917 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J.C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and fellow soldiers who served with him. The Battalion was then serving in the Somme sector. The planes flown by the French pilots may have been Nieuports or the newer Spad VII, introduced in September, 1916. The winter of 1916–1917 — Germany's 'Turnip Winter' — was bitterly cold. Dunn had served in South Africa in the Boer War where he bivouacked 'on the Basuto Border.'
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 292, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
1917-01-23, 1917, January, dogfight, aerial combat, Spad VII
