Age Ain’t A Factor – the elder aces of the Great War

You're never too old to look good next to an SE-5a

In the summer of 2013 R&B singer Jaheim’s monster hit “Age Ain’t A Factor” ruled the air waves. It was a look at why younger isn’t necessarily better and that good things come with those who have more experience. A case can be made that boldness is more pronounced and reflexes are quicker when a person is younger, but wisdom and experience only come with age. Acedom didn’t pass by the older pilots in World War One. Their experience paid off when they were right in the thick of aerial combat.

Called the 'old man' because he was 27, Rick was 6 years younger than Lufbery

Maybe it is the books produced in the U.S., skewed with a very American-centric view of the war, that many of the earliest accounts I read seemed to suggest that Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was the oldest ace of the war. One even states “At the advanced age of 27 he was two years older than the age limit for pilots but Rickenbacker proved a natural in the cockpit. Thanks to driving around General Pershing, he was able to talk his way into the Air Service, receive flight training and then ended up in command of the USAS 94^th Aero Squadron finishing the war with 26 victories and the Medal of Honor.”

Major Raoul Lufbery rates as the USAS combat pilot with greatest age experience

The whole idea is strange because one of the oldest combat pilots in the USAS was the man ordered to command Rickenbacker’s 94^th, Raoul Lufbery, a 17 victory ace who was born March 14, 1885, making him 33 when he and Rickenbacker first met. So Eddie wasn’t old by Raoul’s standards. Needless to say, the authors of those “America First” books were completely wrong about who was the oldest ace.

Here is the age winner, Sergeant Adolphe du bois d'Aische

   

The French can lay claim to that title for Sergeant Adolphe du bois d’Aische who was born March 17, 1874 in Brussels, Belgium. He served with the French Air Service and was 43 when he achieved acedom as a gunner aboard a variety of French observation and bombing aircraft, from the unusual Salmson-Moineau SM.1 and Letord 1A3 multi-place aircraft, to the Farman F.40 and Sopwith 1A2 two-seaters. After achieving 6 confirmed victories, and also having 6 probables, he did fly a single seat SPAD VII but was injured in a crash before he was able to take it into combat.

This is representative of what Marine Field Units looked like in 1917

The German’s oldest ace was Leutnant zur See Heinrich Wessels, a naval pilot with Marine Feld Jasta 1 who attained 6 victories. He was born April 18, 1877 and was 41 when he died from his injuries in combat on September 16, 1918.

2nd Lt. Henry Evans Cope

The Royal Flying Corp’s oldest ace was 2^nd Lieutenant Henry Evans Cope, born in London on July 26, 1879. He was raised in Canada but returned when war was declared. He was an observer in Maurice Farmans, became a pilot and flew DeHavilland DH-2s with 24 squadron where he attained 5 victories. He was 37 when he was killed by anti-aircraft fire while on a morning patrol September 3, 1916.

Oberst Adolf Heyrowsky

Austria-Hungary’s oldest ace was also their top two-seater ace, Oberst Adolf Heyrowsky, born February 18, 1882. He finished the war with 12 victories flying mostly Hansa Brandenburg and Lohner two seaters.

Major Pier Ruggero Piccio 

Italy’s oldest ace was Major Pier Ruggero Piccio born September 27, 1880. With 24 victories during his career, he was the third highest scoring Italian ace, behind only Major Francesco Baracca and Tenente Silvio Scaroni. He was 38 when the war ended and was lucky that he wasn’t killed on his final mission when he was shot down on a ground attack sortie October 27, 1918. He was briefly captured but slipped away a week later as the Austro-Hungarian forces disintegrated.

Russian ace Eduard Pulpe's photo when he was a teacher before the war

Russia’s oldest ace was Eduard Martinovich Pulpe, born June 22, 1880 in Riga, Latvia which at the time was part of the Russian Empire. He was a rarity, a college graduate who went to France and became a pilot. He was 34 when the war broke out and immediately joined the French Air Service where he achieved 2 victories flying a Morane Saulnier L in 1915 and 2 more flying Nieuports in 1916. In May, he returned to Russia, became a pilot with the 10th Fighter Detachment of the IRAS flying Nieuport 11s and scored his 5^th victory over Galicia in July. He was killed in combat on August 1 or 2, 1916 (records vary) at the age of 36.

France’s Adolphe du bois d’Aische beat the odds on several levels, not just becoming the oldest ace of the war but outliving the oldest of all the other counties. He passed away at the age of 84 in 1958.

Sgt. Adolphe du bois d’Aische receives the Croix de Guerre.

These men proved that age wasn’t a factor and while most of them gave the last full measure and died far too young, they left their mark in the halls of history. So do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many. 

d;Aische, on the right, ready to go on patrol in the three place Letord 1A3


Author's note: because records were incomplete, I did not include any Turkish pilots in this list. According to the fragments left, Oberleutnant Ali Riza scored 3 victories, but there was a possibility that he attained two more in Mesopotamia, making him potentially Turkey's only ace.

Oberleutnant Ali Riza