Charles Nungesser (French Ace)

A much bemedalled Charles Nungesser is seen wearing both French and foreign decorations, including the British Military Cross (via Norman Franks)

 Charles Eugene Jules Marie Nungesser was born in Paris on 15 March 1892. Dropping out of school, he travelled to Brazil to work in his uncle's sugar plantation, but ended up finding employment in Argentina as a car mechanic. He then started racing cars professionally in South America at the age of 17, where he met another Frenchman who had access to an aeroplane. Nungesser talked his friend into letting him take the Bleriot into the air by himself, and after flying it around for a few minutes, he made a successful landing. Within two weeks he had refined his flying abilities and started his career in aviation.

Returning to France following the outbreak of war, Nungesser joined the 2nd Hussars as a private. He requested, and was approved for, a transfer to the Service Aeronautique at around this time. Receiving his brevet on 2 March 1915, Nungesser was sent to VB106, then moved to N65, having achieved one victory in a Voisin two-seater. However, soon after arriving at his new unit he took off without permission, so although he received the Croix de Guerre, he was also placed under close arrest for eight days! Gaining his second victory in December, Nungesser became a Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur. Badly injured in a crash on 6 February 1916, which saw both of his legs broken, he returned to be commissioned, and in April began scoring victories. Wounded in combat on 19 May, he was back in action within a few days. By the end of 1916 Nungesser had claimed 21 victories, but had been injured again in June. He had also received the Military Cross from the British. In early 1917 Nungesser had to return to hospital because of his earlier injuries, but he managed to persuade his superiors not to ground him. Getting himself attached to V116, with his own Nieuport, he added nine more confirmed victories to his tally by August 1917.

In December Nungesser was injured yet again, this time in a car crash, but after treatment, and a month as an instructor, the ace returned to his old unit - now SPA65. Although the rest of the escadrille now flew SPADs, he still continued with later versions of the Nieuport adorned with his distinctive fuselage insignia of a black heart, as well as large red, white and blue stripes on the wings and top decking. In May 1918, with his score at 35, Nungesser was made an Officer of the Legion d'Honneur. By mid August he had claimed a total of 43 victories, plus 11 probables. Post-war, Nungesser flew many crowd-pulling aerial shows, and then came the chance to fly the Atlantic with old friend Francois Coli. The pair took off on 8. May 1927 in a Levasseur PL 8 but were never seen again. At one stage it was said he had had every major bone in his body broken at least once, and he often flew before previous injuries had properly healed.

Nieuport 17bis N1895 of Lt Charles Nungesser, V116, May 1917
While almost all of Nungesser's aircraft carried the famous black heart, with skull and crossbones and coffin and candlesticks, on the fuselage sides, he also had broad red, white and blue bands applied across the uppersurfaces of all wings and on the fuselage top decking. A number of French Nieuports carried these because the wing configuration of the aircraft was often confused with the Albatros Scout.

Werner Voss (German Ace)

The great ace Werner Voss watches an aircraft being demonstrated alongside legendary fighting scout designer Anthony Fokker. Voss, with his 'Blue Max' worn around his neck, would soon claim his final kills in an early pre-production example of Fokker's famous triplane scout

Werner Voss was born in Krefeld on 13 April 1887. When he was 27, he enlisted in his local militia, then went to war with the 2. Westfälische Husaren Regiment Nr 11 - a unit known as the 'dancing hussars'. Like so many other cavalrymen, the stalemate of trench warfare failed to meet his expectations, and he transferred into aviation in August 1915. Once trained, Voss was assigned to Kasta 20 of Kagohl IV, and he began his career as a pilot in the Verdun area. He was happily transferred to Jasta Boelcke on 21 November 1916, and opened his account with two victories six days later.

Voss scored rapidly in February and March 1917, and on the 17th of the latter month he received the Knight's Cross with Swords of the Royal Hohenzollern House Order (the 'Hohenzollern'). With his tally at 24, he received the 'Blue Max' on 8 April. This was followed by routine leave, during which Voss missed most of the killing time of 'Bloody April'. In May 1917 he returned to Jasta Boelcke and brought his score to 28 (12 of them being hapless BE 2s), but the young fighter ace - he had just turned 20 - was dissatisfied with his Staffelführer, the veteran Hauptmann Franz Walz. Along with another misguided young pilot, Werner Voss submitted charges to his superiors that Walz was 'war-weary', and that an elite unit like Jasta Boelcke required a more dynamic leader. Their blatant disregard for the military code of conduct and the chain of command saw both pilots posted out of the prestigious Jasta. Voss received a severe, but private, reprimand, his youth and record saving him from harsher punishment.

Voss was given acting command of Jasta 5 on 20 May, then a scant nine days later he moved to Jasta 29. His time as Staffelführer only lasted five days, whereupon he went to command Jasta 14. Voss seems to have cared little for the responsibilities of command, and despised paperwork. At the end of July 1917 his old comrade Manfred von Richthofen called upon him to take command of Jasta 10, and Voss was soon building up the score of this previously lacklustre unit. Issued with one of the first Fokker FI triplanes to reach the front in early September 1917, Voss saw considerable action in the machine up until his death in action in the storied clash with seven SE 5as of the crack No 56 Sqn on 23 September 1917. Aged just 20, Voss had been credited with 48 victories prior to his death.

Albatros D III of Leutnant Werner Voss, Jasta 2 Boelcke and Jasta 5, mid-1917
Werner Voss, during his period with Jasta Boelcke, flew this much-decorated Albatros D III. When interviewed by historian Alex Imrie (circa 1960), Voss' motor mechanic Karl Timm recalled that the ace instructed him and Flieger Christian Rüser (the airframe mechanic) to paint a red heart with white border on both sides of the fuselage, and there are photos of Voss himself touching up the white border. Then Voss had them add a white swastika (merely a good luck symbol at this time). Timm told Voss he thought this looked a bit bare, and suggested that he add a laurel wreath around the swastika, which the pilot agreed to. Voss continued to fly this D III in these markings at Jasta 5, but it almost certainly did not follow him to Jasta 10.

Roderic S Dallas (Australian Ace)

Born on 30 June 1891 in Mount Stanley, Queensland, Stan Dallas joined the Australian Army in 1913 and received a commission several months later. Following the outbreak of World War 1 in August 1914, he applied for a transfer to the RFC in the UK but was rejected. Unperturbed, Dallas then approached the Royal Navy, and was appropriately accepted by the RNAS. Starting flying training in June 1915, he had his wings by November and joined 1 Naval Wing in Dunkirk on 3 December. Piloting two-seaters and single-seat Nieuport 11 Bébé scouts on reconnaissance patrols over the North Sea, often in terrible weather, Dallas' flying abilities quickly developed to the point where he claimed his first three combat victories in April and May 1916 flying the diminutive French Bébé.

Sub-Lt Dallas officially achieved 'acedom' in the prototype Sopwith Triplane N500 on 9 July 1916 when he sent a Fokker E III down 'out of control' over Mariakerke. By February 1917 his score stood at seven, he had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and he was now a flight commander in the newly-established 1 Naval Squadron (formerly 1 Naval Wing). With the unit now fully equipped with Triplane, it was sent to the Somme front in April to help hard-pressed RFC squadrons deal with the Fokker 'scourge'. Dallas made the most of this opportunity by claiming eight victories between 5 and 30 April, followed by two more in May.

Given command of 'Naval 1' on 14 June, with his official score then standing at 17 victories, Dallas had boosted his tally to 23 by the time he left the unit in March 1918 - having flown Camels during his final eight months with 'Naval V, Dallas became a SE 5a pilot when he was made CO of the RAF's No 40 Sqn in early April.

On 1 June 1918, with his overall score having reached 32 (some sources claim that it could be as high as 56), Dallas took off alone on a mid-morning patrol over the front line. Flying west of the Allied trenches, he was attacked out of the clouds by a trio of Fokker Dr I triplanes from Jasta 14. Australia's second-ranking ace was fatally wounded when shots fired by Staffelführer Leutnant Johannes Werner hit the cockpit of his SE 5a, and he crashed to his death near Lievin - Dallas was Werner's sixth of seven victims.

Triplane N5436 C of Sub-Lt Roderic Dallas, 1 Naval Squadron, La Bellevue, France, April 1917
Australian ace Roderic Stanley Dallas of 'Naval 1' flew this aircraft between December 1916 and May 1917, during which time he used it to claim 11 victories. Future ace C B Ridley then flew the veteran fighter in August and September 1917, scoring a further two victories with it. Very much a 'plain Jane' Triplane, it had a metal cowling and a clear-doped fin and wheel covers