Dealing With War
Mannock was deeply affected by the number of men he was killing. In his diary, he recorded visiting the site where one of his victims had crashed near the front-line:
The journey to the trenches was rather nauseating - dead men's legs sticking through the sides with puttees and boots still on - bits of bones and skulls with the hair peeling off, and tons of equipment and clothing lying about. This sort of thing, together with the strong graveyard stench and the dead and mangled body of the pilot combined to upset me for a few days.Mannock became especially upset when he saw one of his victims catch fire on its way to the ground. His fear of "flamerinoes" meant that from that date on, he always carried a revolver with him in his cockpit. As he told his friend Lieutenant MacLanachan,
The other fellows all laugh at me for carrying a revolver. They think I'm going to shoot down a machine with it, but they're wrong. The reason I bought it was to finish myself as soon as I see the first signs of flames. They'll never burn me.Read more about this topic: Mick Mannock
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