...Vous eclatiez, avec des rayons jusqu’aux cieux, Dans une preseance eblouissante aux yeux; Vous marchiez, entoure d’un ordre de bataille; Aucun sommet n’etait trop haut pour votre taille, Et vous etiez un fils d’une telle fierte Que les aigles volaient tous de votre cote....

His feats exceeded all hopes, and his appearance in the sky fairly frightened the enemy.  On June 5, after bringing down an Albatros east of Berry-au-Bac, he chased to the east of Rheims a D.F.W., which had previously been attacked by other Spads.  “My nose was right on him,” says Guynemer’s notebook, “when my machine-gun jammed.  But just then the observer raised his hands.  I beckoned to him several times to veer towards our lines, but noticing that he was making straight for his own, I went back to my gun, which now worked, and fired a volley of fifteen (at 2200 altitude).  Immediately the machine upset, throwing the observer overboard, and sank on Berru forest.”  However, Guynemer’s day’s work was not done to his satisfaction after these two victories (his forty-fourth and forty-fifth):  he attacked a group of three, and later on a group of four, and came back with bullets in his machine.

Meanwhile he had been made, on June 11, 1917, an Officer of the Legion of Honor with the following citation: 

A remarkable officer, a daring and dexterous chaser.  Has been of exceptional service to the country both by the number of his victories and by the daily example of his never-flagging courage and constantly increasing mastery.  Careless of danger, he has become, by the infallibility of his methods, the most formidable opponent of German flyers.  On May 25 achieved unparalleled success, bringing down two machines in one minute, and two more in the course of the same day.  By these exploits has contributed to maintaining the courage and enthusiasm of the men who, from the trenches, have witnessed his triumphs.  Forty-five machines brought down; twenty citations; twice wounded.

This document, eloquent and accurate and tracing facts to their causes, praises in Guynemer at the same time will-power, courage, and the contagion of example.  Guynemer loved the last sentence, because it associated with his fights their daily witnesses, the infantrymen in the trenches.

The badge of an Officer in the Legion of Honor was given to him at the aviation camp on July 5 by General Franchet d’Esperey, in command of the Northern Armies.  But this solemn ceremony had not prevented Guynemer from flying twice, the first time for two hours, the second flight one hour, on a new machine from which he expected wonders.  He attacked three D.F.W.’s, and had to land with five bullets in his engine and radiator.