Diary of an Unknown Aviator

Elliott White Springs (born 31 July 1896) was an American pilot in the Royal Air Force during the First World War. Unlike many men who were too traumatised to want to remember the details of the war, he wrote extensively about his experiences. In 1926 he brought to publication a book based on the diary entries of his pilot colleague and friend, John Mc Gavock Grider (born 18 May 1892), who had been killed in June 1918. Another pilot colleague, Clayton Knight, provided illustrations for the book. In the first edition there was no mention of Grider's diary and readers might have construed that this was a device of Spring's autobiographical musings. In the second edition, however, Springs referred to the existence of the diary but did not name Grider. His other books included Nocturne Militaire (1927), Above the Bright Blue Sky (1928), Leave Me with a Smile (1928), In the Cool of the Evening (1929), Romance of the Air (1930), War Birds and Lady Birds (1931), The Rise and Fall of Carol Banks (1931), Pent up on a Penthouse (1931) and Clothes Make the Man (1948), several of which concerned aviation.

Grider and Springs enjoyed sparring as aspiring writers. In one entry, Grider wrote admiringly about his colleague's command of language: “If Springs isn't hung first, he'll be a great writer some day.” He also records in its entirety a mock epic poem written by Springs about an affair that one of the boys was having with a young lady. Another anecdote is of Springs getting into a heated literary argument with the novelist Arnold Bennett, who was said to be “out here getting some local colour for a book”. Of Knight he wrote: “He showed me some sketches he had made of planes and flights. They were very good. That boy will be an artist some days if he lives thru it.”

Grider, from Arkansas, writes with typical Southern frankness about his own experience and that of the men around him: “About ten of the boys have given it up and just quit flying. No nerve. They never should have enlisted if they didn't intend to see it thru after they found it was dangerous. Jeff Dwyer gets them jobs at Headquarters or puts them in charge of mechanics. But yellow is yellow whether you call it nerves or not. I'm just as scared sometimes as any of them.”

Another colleague landed “after he'd been out alone and his plane had about fifty holes in it...He was as limp as a rag and had to be assisted to his quarters.” Grider added: “The wing doctor came over to see him and sent him to hospital thos there's nothing wrong with him except he's badly frightened. That's the last of his illustrious career. He'll go home and write a book on the war now.”

The final entry begins:
“War is a horrible thing, a grotesque comedy. And it is so useless. This war won't prove anything. All we'll do when we win is to substitute one sort of dictator for another. In the meantime we have destroyed our best resources. Human life, the most precious thing in the world, has become the cheapest.”