Roland Garros was born in
Saint-Denis, Réunion, and studied at the
Lycée Janson de Sailly and
HEC Paris. At the age of 12, he caught pneumonia, and was sent to
Cannes to recover. He took up cycling to restore his health, and went on to win an inter-school championship in the sport. When he was 21 he started a car dealership in Paris.
Aviation During Garros's summer holiday in 1909, at
Sapicourt near
Reims, staying with a friend's uncle, he saw the
Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne which ran from 22 to 29 August. After this, he knew he had to be an aviator. He started his aviation career in 1909 flying a
Demoiselle (damselfly) monoplane, an aircraft that flew well only if it had a small lightweight pilot. He gained Ae.C.F. licence no. 147 in July 1910. In 1911 Garros graduated to flying
Blériot XI monoplanes and entered a number of European air races with this type of aircraft, including the
1911 Paris to Madrid air race and the
Circuit of Europe (Paris–London–Paris), in which he came second. On 4 September 1911, he set an altitude record of . The following year, on 6 September 1912, after Austrian aviator Philipp von Blaschke had flown to , he regained the height record by flying to . By 1913 he was flying the faster
Morane-Saulnier monoplanes, and on 23 September gained fame for making the first non-stop flight across the
Mediterranean Sea from
Fréjus-Saint Raphaël in the south of France to
Bizerte in Tunisia in a
Morane-Saulnier G. The flight commenced at 5:47 am and lasted for nearly eight hours, during which time Garros resolved two engine malfunctions.
Myth of first air battle Reports published in August 1914 claimed Garros was involved in the "first air battle in world history" and that he had flown his plane into a
Zeppelin, destroying the airship and killing its pilots and himself. This story was quickly contradicted by reports that Garros was alive and well in Paris. Such early reports maintained that an unidentified French pilot had indeed rammed and destroyed a Zeppelin. Later sources indicated the
first aerial victory against a Zeppelin occurred in June 1915 and earlier reports, including that of Garros, were discounted.
Development of interrupter gear In the early stages of the air war in
World War I, the problem of mounting a forward-firing machine gun on combat aircraft—without having the bullets hit the propeller—was considered by several people. As a reconnaissance pilot with the
Escadrille MS26, Garros had made several attempts at shooting down German aircraft; however, these efforts were unsuccessful due to the difficulty in hitting an aircraft with a hand-held carbine. He visited the
Morane-Saulnier works in November or December 1914 to discuss the problem. Raymond Saulnier had begun work on a synchroniser (which times the firing of the gun with the position of the propeller) before World War I and had taken out a patent for a workable mechanism by 14 April 1914. However, circumstances beyond his control resulted in its being tested with the
Hotchkiss 09/13 portative machine gun, which proved unsuitable due to an inconsistent firing rate. As a workaround, Garros, with the help of his mechanic, Jules Hue, developed protective wedges, which were fitted to the slightly narrowed propeller blades which deflected the occasional round which would have otherwise struck the propeller. With a workable installation now fitted to his
Morane-Saulnier G monoplane, Garros achieved the first ever shooting-down of an aircraft by a fighter firing through a
tractor propeller, on 1 April 1915, and two more victories over German aircraft were achieved on 15 and 18 April 1915. On 18 April 1915, the fuel line of his Morane Saulnier Type G became clogged, causing engine trouble. He came down in German-controlled territory where he was grabbed by alert German infantrymen. The intact gun and propeller were quickly rushed to the
Royal Dutch Aircraft Factory, founded by Dutch aviator
Anthony Fokker, famous during World War I for its fighter aircraft. Fokker quickly dismissed the steel deflector plates and designed a practical interrupter gear for use on the
Fokker E.I Monoplane. The interrupter gear began the "
Fokker Scourge", and for a time Germany had the upper hand in the air war.
POW camp internment and escape Garros was almost three years in captivity in various
German POW camps, including in
Kostrzyn nad Odrą and
Mainz. He managed to escape on 14 February 1918 together with fellow aviator lieutenant Anselme Marchal. They made it to London via the Netherlands and from there he returned to France where he rejoined the French army. He returned to Escadrille 26 to pilot a
SPAD S.XIII, and claimed two victories on 2 October 1918, one of which was confirmed.
Death On 5 October 1918, Garros was shot down and killed near
Vouziers,
Ardennes, a month before the end of the war and one day short of his 30th birthday. His adversary was probably German ace
Hermann Habich from
Jasta 49, flying a
Fokker D.VII. ==Legacy==