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| Biggles Learns to Fly Image links to Amazon |
Throughout WWI Mahoney continues to act as occasional adviser (and sometimes co-conspirator) to Biggles' plans, usually depicted by Johns as the cool-headed war veteran who somehow manages to remain cheerful and calm throughout pretty much everything. Just like Mark Way, Mahoney is super nice.
It now strikes me that Mahoney (and Mac too) must be a highly exceptional pilot. Remember that Mahoney had already "had six months of it" when he first met Biggles, and Biggles was by anyone's standards a pretty good pilot for surviving for as long as he did, so Mahoney must be a seriously great pilot. (In which case, why did Raymond never ask him or Mac for help on his secret missions? Great Biggles mystery here?)
One great Mahoney moment for me is when a German pilot drops a note on 266 informing Biggles that he has bombed a wine cellar and inviting him to pay for the wine or meet up for a duel. Biggles is all ready to go for the duel, but he is "shouted down" by Mac and Mahoney. I don't know why that moment stuck with me, other than that it's really sweet.
In "The Packet" when Biggles goes off to retrieve a packet of documents for Raymond, it is Mahoney (and Mac) who comes to meet him and escort him home, "grinning derisively" as he scares off the Huns chasing Biggles.
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| Biggles and the Rescue Flight Image links to Amazon |
In Rescue Flight when Biggles and his flight come home without waiting for Mahoney's flight (who are backing up the rescue mission), Mahoney comes home indignant and, in Biggles' words, "cursing like a trooper, I bet, because we gave him the slip"!
Are you a Mahoney fan? Share the love in the comments below!
To be perfectly honest I never quite warmed to the character of Mahoney can't say why really. He was clearly a very capable pilot, brave beyond a doubt, a chap who wouldn't hesitate to risk his own neck to help out a friend and of course,a very good pal to Biggles.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet to me he always lacked a certain something - maybe compared to Biggles, Algy and The Professor, he was just too serious.
I can see him staring moodily into his drink after a patrol, snapping at anyone who annoys him...( no hang on that's Biggles on a bad day isn't it?)
Oh well, I'm sure there must be lots of Mahoney fans out there to support him. I feel a bit mean now for not liking him.
Sopwith wondered why Raymond never asked Mahoney or Mac to help out on one of his secret missions.
ReplyDeleteI think that when it came to secret missions Raymond was looking for more than just a good flyer to carry out the job.
I don't think Raymond hand-picked Biggles for secret missions merely because he was such a good pilot.
Don't forget Biggles is also a genius! Biggles notices things. Biggles works things out. Biggles sticks at things until the job is done - no matter what the cost....
I think Raymond recognized Biggles' other skills early on in the books. In 'The Thought Reader'
he, Raymond, asks Biggles to investigate some suspicious activities (reported to him by Biggles in the first place.)"I don't know what to tell you to look for," he says. "You'll have to put two and two together and you're pretty good at that!"
I know there are other incidents where Raymond points out Biggles'
counter-espionage skills but I can't think where at the moment : (
Oh, JJ, love your insightful comments into Biggles' character. Sums him up wonderfully. He IS a genius :)
ReplyDeleteI still think it's somewhat unfair on Mac and Mahoney that they never got to "volunteer" for secret missions. Part of being a good (aka surviving) pilot would have been one's ability to observe and deduce things and know when to stay and fight and when to go home. I don't think Biggles was by any means brighter or brilliant than his fellow flight commanders (and he was the youngest of three as well) but since he had done some work for Raymond before in 169 Raymond kept using him simply out of habit.
ReplyDeleteWho knows, they may have declined the opportunity :)
ReplyDeletethey were the sensible ones!
ReplyDeleteMaybe they DID do some special missions but WEJ never bothered to tell us about them.
ReplyDeleteSomebody must have had to do the SMs while Biggles was Palestine sorting out the army's intelligence problems for them. And it couldn't be Algy as he went to Palestine with Biggles (naturally...).
I was under the impression that people didn't "refuse" secret missions? It would have been thought cowardly or something, wouldn't it?
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