Medicine: Aircraft and Alcohol

Ever since World War I, the tales of fighting pilots’ half-drunkenness in action have been proverbial. In April 1918, Captain A. Roy Brown shot down famed German Ace Baron Manfred von Richthofen. Said he, later describing his victory: “Milk and brandy were my only food [for two weeks].”

Last fortnight the Lancet confidently asserted that British nerves were now strong enough and British planes good enough to make drink unnecessary. “During the war of 1914-1918,” said the editor, “heavy drinking became almost a convention among flying men, and this convention lingered afterwards. It had arisen at a time when the inferiority of our machines compared with those of the enemy was felt to justify an infusion of Dutch courage, but now that its underlying cause has been removed it exists no longer.”

As a further, more realistic precaution against “Dutch courage,” junior officers in the Royal Air Force are allowed only a “strictly limited” amount of wine. Bars in flying schools are now closed all day, treating is banned in messes and drinks are forbidden in private rooms. Penalty for breaking these rules: court-martial.