Alfred Heurteaux

Alfred Heurteaux, around 1917

Alfred Marie Joseph Heurteaux (born May 20, 1893 in Nantes , † December 30, 1985 in Chantilly ) was a French officer and fighter pilot in the First World War .

Life

Heurteaux was born the son of an officer and attended the Saint-Cyr Military School from October 1912 .

When the First World War broke out, he was assigned to the 9th Hussar Regiment as a second lieutenant . Heurteaux, wounded by a German lance lance, was praised for bravery in front of the enemy on 23 August. On December 6th, Heurteaux came to the Aviation Militaire , where he was initially employed as an observer on the Escadrille MS 26. He passed his pilot's examination on April 17, 1915 and scored his first aerial victory the following month.

On June 7, 1917, he came to the Escadrille des Cigognes (first N3 then SPA3), where he developed into one of the most successful fighter pilots alongside Georges Guynemer and René Fonck .

In November 1916 he was appointed squadron leader. With his Nieuport 16 , which was equipped with two Lewis machine guns, he achieved 21 confirmed and another 13 unconfirmed aerial victories. On November 25, 1916, he shot down the successful German fighter pilot and knight of the Pour le Mérite Kurt Wintgens , who had already achieved 18 confirmed aerial victories.

Heurteaux was wounded twice. On May 5, 1917, on the hand and leg, and on September 3, 1917, it hit him so hard on the left thigh that he was no longer fit for the front. He was made a knight in 1916 and an officer of the Legion of Honor in 1917 and was awarded the Croix de guerre .

In 1919 Heurteaux was deactivated as a captain because of his war injuries and worked until 1924 as a member of the Seine-et-Oise department as a left-wing Republican in the patriotic block "Chambre Bleu Horizon"

He then worked in the automotive industry and became a manager at Ford in the USA , then at General Motors in Europe and finally at Renault in France.

Heurteaux was actively involved in the war veterans movement and led the "Association nationale des As de 14-18", then the "Association des officiers de réserve de l'Armée de l'air". He also remained active as a reserve officer, was promoted to Commandant in 1931, Lieutenant Colonel in 1935 , and was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Legion of Honor in 1936. During this time he was reactivated and worked as a fighter pilot's inspector.

Deactivated after the French defeat in World War II in 1940, Alfred Heurteaux initially joined the Vichy regime , but through his contacts soon came into contact with the Resistance , was imprisoned and transferred from prison to prison in Germany - Düsseldorf , Hanover , Berlin and Potsdam were stations of his odyssey, which only ended on March 13, 1945 with the uprising in the Buchenwald concentration camp , where the Allies liberated him on April 11.

After his return from deportation he was promoted retrospectively to 1942 to colonel of the reserve and on July 5, 1945 to brigadier general. In 1956 Heurteaux was awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor.

Back in civilian life, he worked as an engineer and technical consultant.

literature

• Arch Whitehouse: Aviator Aces 1914-1918 . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1970, pp. 333–336, (as: Albert Heurteaux )

Web links

Commons : Alfred Heurteaux  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Biography (fr)
• Heurteaux in the "Storchenstaffel"
• Heurteaux as MP (fr)
• Heurteaux in the Resistance (fr)
• Heurteaux in the resistance movement (fr)