Skip to main content

Kings of the Air: Jules Védrines

Another in a series of posts on French aviation during the First World War, based on research for my forthcoming Pen & Sword book Kings of the Air.

Jules Védrines (1881-1919) was one of the most famous French aviator of the pre-war generation. He was working at the Gnôme engine works near Paris when he became the mechanic for the English aviator Robert Loraine. Védrines was bitten by the aviation bug, and became determined to become a pilot himself. He obtained his pilot's license in December 1910, and by March 1911 was taking part in what were at that time long distance flights, including one from Toulouse to Carcassonne, for which he won a prize of 500 francs (It was an event that didn't impress the council of the latter municipality, who thought aviation had no future. Oops!).

In May, he won the Paris-Madrid air race, flying a Morane monoplane, and followed this by taking part in another race from Paris to Pau. In January 1912, flying a Deperdussin, he achieved the record speed of 145 km/hr (ie abut 90mph). A short clip of him winning the Paris-Madrid race is here.
'Julot', as he was popularly known, quickly became a star. He would hold court in the Brasserie Malzéville, on the Boulevard Montmartre in Paris: 'Clad always in a black and white checked cap, worn back to front for flying, [and] a tight-fitting white woollen rollneck jumper, he set female hearts aflutter as he drove through the posh streets of Paris at the wheel of his fabulous, bright red Hispano sports car. He was a star, was Védrines.'

He tried to cash in on his popularity by standing as a candidate in the General Election of 1912 as an 'independent socialist' in the departement of the Aude, in the south-west of the country. His eloquence won him many supporters around Limoux, and local newspapers announced 'the liberator is here ... with a flick of its wings, the French bird has broken the chains imposed on her by despots'. Basing his campaign on increased government money for aviation, his rhetoric was too far to the right for much of the electorate in the Republican heartland, and he failed. He tried again in 1914, but aviation had faded in the popular imagination, and again he was unsuccessful. A song, Cançon de Vedrina, composed in support of Védrines during the campaign, is here, sung in Occitan by Claude Martí (and very catchy it is, too).

When the war broke out, Védrines was posted to DO22. His experience and skill ensured he received a different plane from the rest of the squadron. His was a Blériot 36bis monoplane, which had been fitted with armour, making it heavy and slow. Along the side, he painted its nickname La Vache - The Cow. He experimented fixing a machine gun on the machine, and on 2 September engaged a Taube over Suippes. His mechanic fired two trays of bullets at the German, which dived away smoking. Although it crashed on the French side of the lines, Védrines never got the kill confirmed, possibly because he had got on the wrong side of Captain Leclerc, his commanding officer.

'At a time when aircraft carried no insignia,' commented Védrine's observer / mechanic, Corporal René Vicaire, 'painting his nickname in big letters on the fuselage was guaranteed to provoke stuffed shirts like Captain Leclerc. By standing up to this captain, Private Védrines attracted the dislike of his superiors and they had him transferred to 2nd Reserves in Tours.'


Sent to the Air Gunnery School at Cazaux, he was given fifteen days' punishment, for saying 'he thought it useless to have sent him on a course at the School, since he was [already] very familiar with machine-guns.'

Eventually, an outlet was found for his piloting skills and individuality - he was employed on 'special missions', crossing the lines at night to land French agents on the German side, and then returning to a pre-arranged rendezvous to collect the agent. He took part in at least seven such missions.

After the war had ended, Védrines continued with exacting feats of airmanship. On 19 January 1919, he managed to land a Caudron G.3 on the roof of the Galeries Lafayette department store in Paris, even though the Prefect of Police had forbidden it (which probably only acted as a spur to Védrines). The feat prompted this bonkers idea in an issue of the magazine La Vie au Grand Air, in which cities were to be roofed over to facilitate air travel into city centres.

On 21 April, he was flying to Rome in a twin-engined Caudron C.23, to inaugurate the new airmail route from Paris. Trying to land at Saint-Rambert-d'Albon (Drôme), the aircraft crashed. Védrines and his mechanic Marcel Guillain were both killed. After a grandiose funeral, Védrine was buried in the Pantin cemetery in Paris.

Pictures: two of Védrines before the war; his plane, 'La Vache'; Védrines in the cockpit of a Morane fitted with deflectors on the propellor; Védrines with a later Nieuport, but still with a cow on the side; his feat on landing on the roof of Galeries Lafayette.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Around the First Battle of the Marne: 3 victory

The third (and last) part of visiting the 1914 battlefields of the Marne in connection with my Osprey on the First Battle of the Marne. Although the fighting had gone on for several days, the Germans had not succeeded in defeating the Allies, although they had been driven back in places with heavy casualties. But the front was too long for the number of men engaged, and gaps, small and large, began to appear. Both sides rushed to fill the gaps, but began to run out of men. The clash to the west of the town of Montmirail was the straw that broke the German camel's back. We stayed at the Hotel Le Vert Galant in Montmirail. More by chance than design, the French had found the open flank of the German 2nd Army. On 8th September, masking Montmirail itself, French infantry from 36th Division crossed the Petit Morin river and climbed the wooded slopes opposite, supported by artillery. The key combat was the struggle for the small village of Marchais-en-Brie. The German comman...
Read more

Kings of the Air: Clément Ader

This is the first of a series of biographical sketches based on the research I am doing for my new book Kings of the Air: French aces and airmen of the Great War , to be published by Pen & Sword. Clément Ader (1841-1925) was a French inventor, whose attempt at heavier-than-air flight some years before the Wright brothers was so nearly successful. Ader had a restless mind, and his inventions covered a wide range of fields. In 1868, he began as a velocipede manufacturer. Instead of conventional iron tyres, his machines used a rubber tubular tyre of his own invention, resulting in a much lighter frame, and a much more comfortable ride. The war against German in 1870 brought an end to his work. He then began working for a railway company in the south-west of the country, the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer du Midi. In 1875, he designed an engine that laid rails, that saw service for several years. He then turned to the new telephone, commercialising the inventions ...
Read more

The real Rintintin

No. No!! Yes.  Rintintin's on the right. Obviously. In 1913, the artist Francisque Poulbot created two characters, two typical children, named Nénette (the girl) and Rintintin (the boy). The drawings were turned into dolls, intended to replace the dolls in French shops that were 'Made in Germany'. While they had some popularity before war broke out, their production suffered because of the war. The characters were revived four years later, following the publication of Encores des gosses et des bonhommes: cent dessins et l'histoire de Nénette et Rintintin , published by Editions Ternois. 'Everyone loves and adores us. You can find us amongst the finest amulets, the hand of Fatima, four-leaved clover, golden pigs, scarabs, the number 13, and white elephants. ... We are the most fashionable good-luck charm, triumphing over back luck.Keep us round your neck, on your watch chain, on your bracelet, in your pocket, on the wind...
Read more