Five Down, No Glory: Frank G. Tinker, Mercenary Ace in the Spanish Civil War

by Richard K Smith

Frank G. Tinker, Jr., a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, Class of 1933, flew in combat with Soviet airmen during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Flying with the Spanish Republican Air Force, he was the top American ace during the Spanish Civil War. This biography deals with his experience in combat, culminating with Tinker commanding a Soviet squadron and terminating his contract with the government of Spain. After returning to the United States, he wrote a memoir about fighting for Republican Spain and later died under mysterious circumstances in Little Rock in June 1939. While there have been other books about the air war during the Spanish Civil War, this book differs from the preceding ones on two counts. First, it is the complete biography of a most colorful and uncommon young man—based not only on his memoir, but on Tinker family papers and his own personal records. Through sheer perseverance, he rose from a teenage enlisted seaman, through the U.S. Naval Academy, to the officer’s wardroom—then pressed on to claim the wings of a naval aviator and become a superlative fighter pilot and a published author. More unusual still, he possessed extraordinary people skills—skills that allowed him to deal and move with relative ease among Navy compatriots, foreign combat pilots, left-wing literati in Madrid and Paris, and the rural folk of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, who embraced him as “one of their own.” While in Spain, Tinker socialized with Ernest Hemingway, Robert Hale Merriman, the leader of the American Volunteers of the Lincoln Brigade and his successor Milton Wolff, who led the 15th International Brigade during the Battle of the Ebro. All this he managed before his death at age twenty-nine. Second, the book focuses on the aerial tactics introduced in the Spanish Civil War that became standard military practice a few years later in World War II. Included are descriptions of the German introduction of the “Finger Four” fighter formation that replaced the “V of three or four” formation then in vogue; the first use of military airlift to move large numbers of troops and equipment into combat; the greater accuracy and destructiveness of dive bombers vice high altitude bombers; perfection of the “silent approach” used by high altitude bombers before the introduction of radar early warning; and air intelligence reports that asserted daylight high altitude bombers could not “get through” and return from enemy territory successfully without the protection of fighter cover. U.S. Army Air Corps leaders at that time had fashioned a doctrine that the high speed, high altitude, “self-defending” daylight bomber would always get through, and rejected these intelligence reports—at a subsequent cost in lives of hundreds of high altitude bomber aircrews in Europe in World War II."

402 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 15, 2011

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find that the time period between the two world wars to be immensely interested. This gap represents a breather that the nations involved took to catch their breath after the first world war to prepare to go back at it in the second. There was nearly constant warfare during this period albeit on a much smaller scale. American pilots, either with the consent of the United States government or not, flew in many of these conflicts. There were Americans who flew against the Communists during the Russian Civil War in the 1920's. Then there was a group of little known American pilots of Chinese descent from Eugene, Oregon, who flew bi-plane fighters in China against the Japanese in the mid-1930's. It was this group of pilots who provided America's first aces of what would become World War II. In the run up to World War II there were also Americans flying with the Royal Air Force defending England against the Germans. But the best known group of Americans pilots flying for a foreign government was certainly the Flying Tigers who flew against the Japanese in China (actually becoming operational after the attack on Pearl Harbor). Then there was the Spanish Civil War fought in the latter 1930's between the Republican and the Nationalist forces of that country, the conflict central to the book "Five Down, No Glory." Several Americans flew for the Republican side in that conflict. The Americans who fought in these foreign wars were a restless bunch, who loved to fly and reveled in the adrenaline rush of combat. Frank J. Tinker was one of these.

Although the book was nominally about Tinker, a rather tragic figure, it is especially valuable for its delving into the Spanish Civil War, a conflict with which historians are still trying to come to grips. Neither side during that war could be considered "the good guys" as both sides had committed numerous atrocities. The Nationalists included expeditionary forces from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, while the Republican side included expeditionary forces from Communist Russia and some Americans. The book examines all of the complexities of this difficult war and Tinker's involvement with it.

Tinker was a graduate of the naval academy at Annapolis and was then trained as a naval aviator but was forced to leave the navy after Roosevelt's military budget cuts caused that service to dismiss half its pilots. He attended flight training with William "Bull" Halsey in an interesting side story. Tinker then enlisted in the army and earned his flight wings a second time but with no future with that service he left to seek his fortune. He eventually signed a contract with the Republican government in Spain to fly with them as a mercenary. He flew with other Americans, with Spaniards and with Russians and did well, scoring eight victories and surviving the war only to die tragically in Arkansas in 1939.

Tinker knew Earnest Hemmingway among other notables of the era and the book is particularly valuable in describing life in Republican Spain.

It was a good book even though Tinker was not a sympathetic character. I liked it and recommend it to anyone interested in flying or in the time between the wars.

[Steven Hull · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five Down No Glory is the biography of an adventurer written by two excellent historians. Richard Smith was himself an adventurer of some note and likely understood what drove the book’s lead character, Frank G. Tinker. Smith’s meticulous decades-long research of Tinker’s life prior to his own death, provided the bulk of the information for the book. Cargill, a friend of Smith’s, molded this information into an engaging tale of bravery, courage, opportunism, and tragedy.

Frank Tinker’s life was short and intense. He was driven, but it was difficult to always understand what motivated him. Unable to get into the U.S. Naval Academy, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He then worked extremely hard to obtain an appointment to the Academy from the fleet. He succeeded, but was a poor performer at Annapolis, finishing in the lower quarter of his class. Unable to acquire a regular commission as a Naval Officer because of the Depression’s impact on the Navy’s budget, he was in the Army for a time before finally getting to the fleet, eventually earning the wings of a Naval Aviator along the way.

Tinker’s propensity to get into trouble ashore proved his undoing and he was forced to leave the Navy or face a second court martial. Eventually the wandering Tinker was hired as a contract fighter pilot on the side of the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. The bulk of the book chronicles Tinker’s seven-month odyssey flying fighters. This portion of the book provides an excellent narrative of the war as it progressed and the challenges faced by the disorganized and under resourced Republicans. Tinker ultimately shot down eight enemy aircraft including two of the new German BF-109B fighters. He faced death squarely every day, lost many acquaintances to combat and accidents, and returned home moderately wealthy.

While home Tinker wrote a commercially successful history of his war experiences, became involved in the life of his home town, began another book, and was researching how to join the Flying Tigers in China when he was mysteriously shot and killed in June 1939, a month shy of his 30th birthday. Throughout his life he didn’t seem to be dedicated to much beyond testing his mettle, seeking adventure, and pursuing what interested him most at the time. He seemed unafraid of dying. He sought danger and performed extremely well when his own life was on the line.

If one wants to better understand, from an individual’s viewpoint, what it was like to be a Republican fighter pilot during the Spanish Civil War, this book is a must. If one is seeking to experience an interesting, mysterious life. this book is also a must.