Roland Garros (aviator)

Eugène Adrien Roland Georges Garros (French pronunciation: ​[ʁɔlɑ̃ ɡaʁos]; 6 October 1888 – 5 October 1918) was a French pioneering aviator and fighter pilot during World War I and early days of aviation.[2] In 1928, the Roland Garros tennis stadium was named in his memory; the French Open tennis tournament takes the name of Roland-Garros from the stadium in which it is held.[3]

Roland Garros
Birth nameEugène Adrien Roland Georges Garros
Born(1888-10-06)6 October 1888
Saint-Denis, Réunion, France
Died5 October 1918(1918-10-05) (aged 29)
Vouziers, Ardennes, France
AllegianceFrance
AwardsChevalier de la Légion d'honneur (1913)
Officier de la Légion d'honneur (1918)[1]

Biography

Eugène Adrien Roland Georges Garros[4] was born in Saint-Denis, Réunion, and studied at the Lycée Janson de Sailly and HEC Paris.[5]

At the age of 12, he contracted pneumonia, and was sent to Cannes to recuperate. He took up cycling to restore his health, and went on to win an inter-school championship in the sport.[5] He was also keen on football, rugby and tennis.[6]

When he was 21 he started a car dealership in Paris.[5] He was a close friend of Ettore Bugatti and in 1913 became the first owner of a Garros Bugatti Type 18, later christened Black Bess by its second owner, British racing driver Ivy Cummings, which survives today at the Louwman Museum in the Netherlands.[7][8]

Aviation
Garros photographed in an aircraft cockpit

During his summer holiday in 1909, at Sapicourt near Reims, staying with a friend's uncle, he saw the Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne which ran from 22 to 29 August. After this, he knew he had to be an aviator.[9]

He started his aviation career in 1909 flying a Demoiselle (Damselfly) monoplane, an aircraft that only flew well with a small lightweight pilot. He gained Ae.C.F. licence no. 147 in July 1910. In 1911 Garros graduated to flying Blériot monoplanes and entered a number of European air races with this type of aircraft, including the 1911 Paris to Madrid air race and the Circuit of Europe (Paris–London–Paris), in which he came second.[10]

On 4 September 1911, he set an altitude record of 3,950 m (12,960 ft). The following year, on 6 September 1912, after Austrian aviator Philipp von Blaschke had flown to 4,360 m (14,300 ft), he regained the height record by flying to 5,610 m (18,410 ft).[11][12][13]

By 1913 he had switched to flying the faster Morane-Saulnier monoplanes, and on 23 September gained fame for making the first non-stop flight across the Mediterranean Sea from Fréjus-Saint Raphaël in the south of France to Bizerte in Tunisia[14] in a Morane-Saulnier G. The flight commenced at 5:47 am and lasted nearly eight hours during which Garros had to solve two engine malfunctions.[5] The following year, Garros joined the French army at the outbreak of World War I.

Myth of first air battle

Reports published in August 1914 claimed Garros was involved in the "first air battle in world history" and that he had flown his plane into a Zeppelin, destroying the airship and killing its pilots and himself.[15] This story was quickly contradicted by reports that Garros was alive and well in Paris.[16] Such early reports maintained that an unidentified French pilot had indeed rammed and destroyed a Zeppelin,[16] however, German authorities denied the story.[17] Later sources indicated the first aerial victory against a Zeppelin occurred in June 1915 and that earlier reports, including that of Garros, had been discredited.[18]

Development of interrupter gear
Main article: Synchronization gear
Garros' propeller, with its bullet deflectors, after being recovered from his downed aircraft

In the early stages of the air war in World War I the problem of mounting a forward-firing machine gun on combat aircraft was considered by several people. So-called "interrupter gear" came into use when Anthony Fokker developed a synchronization device which had a large impact on air combat, after Garros used deflector plates.[19]

As a reconnaissance pilot with the Escadrille MS26, Garros visited the Morane-Saulnier Works[20] in December 1914. Saulnier's work on metal deflector wedges attached to propeller blades was taken forward by Garros; he eventually had a workable installation fitted to his Morane-Saulnier Type L aircraft. The Aero Club of America awarded him a medal for this invention three years later.[21] Garros achieved the first ever shooting-down of an aircraft by a fighter firing through a tractor propeller, on 1 April 1915; two more victories over German aircraft were achieved on 15 and 18 April 1915.[20][5]

On 18 April 1915, Garros's fuel line clogged or his aircraft was hit by ground fire, and he glided to a landing on the German side of the lines. Garros failed to destroy his aircraft completely before being taken prisoner: most significantly, the gun and armoured propeller remained intact.[20] It was reported that after examining the plane, German aircraft engineers, led by Fokker, designed the improved interrupter gear system. In fact the work on Fokker's system had been going for at least six months before Garros's aircraft fell into their hands.[22] With the advent of the interrupter gear the tables were turned on the Allies, with Fokker's planes shooting down many Allied aircraft, leading to what became known as the Fokker Scourge.[23]

POW camp internment and escape

After almost three years in captivity in various German POW camps Garros managed to escape on 14 February 1918 together with fellow aviator lieutenant Anselme Marchal. Via the Netherlands they made it to London, England and from there back to France where he rejoined the French army.[24][25] He settled into Escadrille 26 to pilot a SPAD, and claimed two victories on 2 October 1918, one of which was confirmed.

Death

On 5 October 1918, he was shot down and killed near Vouziers, Ardennes, a month before the end of the war and one day before his 30th birthday.[26][2] His adversary was probably German ace Hermann Habich from Jasta 49, flying a Fokker D.VII.[27]

Legacy

Garros is erroneously called the world's first fighter ace. In fact, he shot down only four aircraft; the definition of "ace" is five or more victories. The honour of becoming the first ace went to another French airman, Adolphe Pégoud, who had six victories early in the war.[28]

Eponyms

A tennis centre constructed in Paris in the 1920s was named after him, the Stade Roland Garros. The stadium accommodates the French Open, one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments.[29] Consequently, the tournament is officially called Les Internationaux de France de Roland-Garros (the "French Internationals of Roland Garros").[30]

According to Vũ Trọng Phụng's urban novel, Dumb Luck, (1936), during colonial times the Hanoi government named the city's main tennis stadium after Roland Garros.[31]

The international airport of La Réunion, Roland Garros Airport, is also named after him. There is a monument to Garros in Bizerte at the site of his landing, which is called "Roland Garros Plaza".[32] The town of Houlgate in Normandy has named their promenade after Roland Garros in celebration of his altitude record breaking location.

The French car manufacturer Peugeot commissioned a 'Roland Garros' limited edition version of its 205 model in celebration of the tennis tournament that bears his name. The model included special paint and leather interior. Because of the success of this special edition, Peugeot later created Roland Garros editions of its 106, 108, 206, 207, 208, 306, 307, 406, and 806 models.[33]

See also

References
  1. Certificate of the legion of honour culture.gouv.fr . Retrieved 18 April 2019
  2. "Roland Garros Killed. Famous French Aviator, Reported Wounded, Died Oct. 5" (PDF). The New York Times. 1 November 1918.
  3. "Roland Garros: a venue open all year long. Past Winners and Draws". ftt.fr. Archived from the original on 8 August 2007. Retrieved 7 August 2007.
  4. Archives Nationales: Extract of state registers- certificate of birth culture.gouv.fr. Retrieved 18 April 2019
  5. "A trailblazer for aviation and a war hero: Roland Garros". Fédération Française de Tennis (FFT).
  6. Jean-Pierre Lefèvre-Garros (2001). Ananké/Lefrancq (ed.). Roland Garros. La tête dans les nuages, la vie aventureuse et passionnée d'un pionnier de l'aviation. p. 32-33. ISBN 9782874180125.
  7. "Black Bess, famous Bugatti Type 18 goes under the hammer". New Atlas. 30 January 2009. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  8. "Bugatti Type 18 Sports Two-Seater 'Black Bess'". Louwman Museum. 4 August 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  9. Fleury, Georges (2009). Bourin, François (ed.). Roland Garros. Un inconnu si célèbre. p. 44. ISBN 978-2849411230.
  10. Judges' Report in European Circuit Flight 22 July 1911
  11. "Aviator Rises to 16,400 feet". The Sun. New York. 7 September 1912. p. 5. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
  12. "FAI Record ID#15888". FAI. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
  13. "FAI Record ID#15889". FAI. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
  14. "Flying the Mediterranean". Flight. 5 (39): 1078. 27 September 1913. Retrieved 24 September 2014.
  15. "First air battles in History". United Press. 3 August 2014.
  16. "The War in the Air". The Literary Digest. 49 (7): 283. 15 August 1914.
  17. Reynolds, Francis J.; Churchill, Allen L.; Miller, Francis Trevelyan (1916). The Story of the Great War. New York: P.F. Collier and Son. p. 592.
  18. "Zeppelin Loses Battle with Monoplane". Popular Mechanics: 196. August 1915.
  19. Volker, Hank. "Synchronizers Parts 1–6" in WORLD WAR I AERO. (1992–1996), World War I Aeroplanes, Inc. Part 1, pp. 49–50
  20. van Wyngarden, Greg (2006). Early German Aces of World War I. Bloomsbury USA. ISBN 978-1-84176-997-4.
  21. "Aero Club Honors Garros. Aviator Gets Notice That a Medal Has Been Awarded to Him" (PDF). The New York Times. 9 March 1918.
  22. Woodman, Harry (1989). Early Aircraft Armament: The Aeroplane and the Gun Up to 1918. Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-87474-994-6.
  23. Robertson, Linda Raine (2003). The Dream of Civilized Warfare: World War I Flying Aces and the American Imagination. U of Minnesota Press. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-8166-4270-0.
  24. "Garros To Train Anew in the Art of Air Warfare. French Airman, Back From Germany, Finds He Must Learn How All Over Again". The New York Times. 9 March 1918.
  25. Evan Gershkovich (10 June 2017). "Who was Roland Garros? The fighter pilot behind the French Open". The New York Times.
  26. "Garros Is Killed, Berlin Reports. Famous French Airman Was Shot Down on Oct. 4, Says Message" (PDF). The New York Times. 17 October 1918.
  27. Guttman, Jon (2002). SPAD XII/XIII Aces of World War 1. Bloomsbury USA. ISBN 978-1-84176-316-3.
  28. Franks, Norman L. R. (1992). Over the Front: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the United States and French Air Services, 1914–1918. Grub Street. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-948817-54-0.
  29. Who's Who—Roland Garros. FirstWorldWar.com. Retrieved 3 August 2011
  30. Clarey, Christopher (23 May 2013). "A Puzzler in Paris: French Open or Roland Garros?". The New York Times.
  31. Vũ, Trọng Phụng (2002). Dumb Luck: A Novel. Translated by Zinoman, Peter. University of Michigan Press. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-472-06804-3.
  32. "CENTENAIRE – Bizerte fête Roland Garros". Le Petit Journal (in French). 16 September 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  33. "La saga des Peugeot Roland Garros en photos". L'Argus (in French). Retrieved 16 April 2018.

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