Louis de Goÿs de Mézeyrac

Louis de Goÿs de Mézeyrac

Louis Marie Joseph de Goÿs de Mézeyrac (born April 24, 1876 in Lyon , † July 14, 1967 in Paris ) was a French officer in the air force and one of the first generals of the Armée de l'air . He is considered the "father" of the French bombing forces.

Life

Goÿs, from an old noble family , spent his youth in Vias in the south of France and in 1895 received a grant from the community to enter the Saint-Cyr military school . He began his military career as an infantryman in the 153rd Infantry Regiment in Toul and was promoted to Capitaine in 1910 . In 1911 he completed the training of the Aéro-Club de France as a civil and military pilot (No. 27). In the following years up to the First World War he served in the balloon sections of Versailles and Chalais-Meudon and as an adjutant in the associated aeronautical inspection. In April 1914 he was sent to the Ottoman Empire to help organize the military aviation there. He was recalled in July that year because of the threat of war.

In October 1914, he served a mission for the commander-in-chief, General Joseph Joffre , by delivering a message by plane to King Albert I of Belgium . Promoted to Commandant in November 1914 , he was commissioned on November 23 with the formation of a bomber group consisting of three squadrons , the Groupe de bombardement no 1 (GB1). This first unit of its kind in France was equipped with 18 Voisin bombers and carried out attacks on railway stations and military targets in Lorraine in the winter of 1914/15. When the Germans used chlorine gas as a weapon on a large scale for the first time at the end of April 1915 during the Second Battle of Flanders , Goÿs' association flew retaliatory attacks on the Badische aniline and soda factory in Ludwigshafen , which manufactured the primary products of the gas. On the return flight the engine of Goÿs' plane cut out, the pilot had to make an emergency landing in Alsace and both were captured. His captivity lasted two and a half years, during which time he made seven unsuccessful attempts to escape. In November 1917 he finally managed to escape from Regensburg , from where he made his way to the Netherlands.

After his return, Goÿs was given the command of a training group where he familiarized himself with the new Breguet 14 . From April 1918 he commanded Groupe de bombardement no 4 , and from June the Air Brigade 1 consisting of a bomber squadron and a fighter squadron . The latter was used, among other things, in July 1918 in the Second Marne Battle and in the subsequent Hundred Days Offensive . After the armistice , Goÿs was promoted to lieutenant colonel . In 1919 he made another trip to Turkey to help build an airport. In 1921 he became a military attaché in the Kingdom of Romania . In 1923 he was recalled to France to serve as Head of Cabinet with Secretary of State for Aviation Laurent Eynac . In early 1925 he took part in a trans-Saharan flight , the Paris-Tchad raid . He was also involved in setting up a seaplane line from Berre-l'Étang in southern France to Antananarivo in Madagascar .

When the French Ministry of Aviation ( Ministère de l'Air ) was set up in 1928 , Goÿs , who had meanwhile been promoted to Général de brigade , initially continued to serve under the Eynac who was appointed minister. The following year he was appointed commander of the Paris 2nd Aviation Division ( 2nd division aérienne ). In 1933 he became inspector of the air forces in metropolitan France , when he saw the establishment of the Armée de l'air in 1934. In 1937 he was transferred to the reserve and not reactivated during World War II . After the occupation of France in 1940 he took an active part in a network of the Resistance .

He died in 1967 as the oldest Général d'armée aérienne still alive at the age of 91.

Web links

• Biography on the website of the Musée d'Histoire Militaire Lyon
• Biography on ba133.air.defense.gouv.fr
• Biography on opex360.com