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March 17, 2008
"I shot down Saint Exupéry" says German ex-pilot
The disappearance of Antoine de Saint Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince has always been a mystery. He was flying a P-38 Lightning over the coast of occupied France on a reconnaissance mission when he disappeared on July 31, 1944. His flight was sort of a gimme. They threw him a bone and let him fly the sporty P-38 Lightning on a "reconnaissance" mission largely in deference to his celebrity status as a famous author. Unfortunately, he was flying too low and not paying attention and was shot down by Horst Rippert, a German aviator in a Messerschmitt 109.
Rippert, whose story is told in Saint Exupéry, L'Ultime Secret, described how he was patrolling in his Messerschmitt 109 and found the lone Lightning heading along the Mediterranean coast from German occupied Toulon to Marseilles. The pilot was flying carelessly, as if enjoying himself, at a vulnerable 6,000 feet rather than the safer high altitude used for reconnaissance, he said.
"If you were used to hard combat flying, that was not normal... He was looking around," Rippert told the authors. "A piece of cake. He was wasn't bothered about my presence. I said to myself, 'Ok old chap, if you don't clear out, I'm going to pot you. I dived towards him and fired, not at the fuselage but at the wings. I hit him. The kite ditched, hit the water, smashed up. No-one baled out.
"It would have been impossible to know that it was Exupéry. I hoped and still hope that it was not him," Rippert continued. "In our youth, at school, we all read him and adored his books.. He knew admirably how to describe the sky, the thoughts and feelings of pilots. His work drew many of us to the profession. They told me later that it must have been Saint Exupéry. What a disaster. What have you done, I said to myself."
http://timescorrespondents.typepad.com/charles_bremner/2008/03/one-of-aviation.html
Posted by Rob Kiser on March 17, 2008 at 9:51 AM
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