Paul Teste
Paul Marcel Teste (born October 2, 1892 in Lorient , † June 13, 1925 in Villacoublay ) was one of the pioneers of French naval aviation , the first French to land a carrier on October 20, 1920.
Pre-war career
Teste entered the École Navale , the naval officer school in Brest , in 1909 at the age of 17 . He was promoted to ensign ( aspirant ) in 1911 and to lieutenant in the sea ( Enseigne de vaisseau 2e classe ) in 1912 . He served first on the cruiser Duguay-Trouin , then on the Vauban , on which he took part in a hydrographic exploration expedition to Madagascar from 1912 to 1913 .
First World War
At the beginning of the First World War he was first lieutenant at sea ( Enseigne de vaisseau 1ère classe ). He initially served on small units in Flanders and in 1916 became first officer of the patrol boat Dragon . He began to take an interest in aviation, which, with the growing importance of submarine warfare, became increasingly important for reconnaissance tasks. In 1917 he enlisted in the Navy fliers and became an observer to the squadrons B101 and B102 under Commander de Jean Laborde in Dunkirk ordered that with light biplane - flying boats of the type FBA-H (150-hp Hispano were equipped -Motor).
On 26 May 1917 his association of four CVBS during a reconnaissance flight of German was Hansa-Brandenburg W.12 - hunters at Zeebrugge intercepted and shot down some, partly forced to land. Teste fell into German captivity and was taken to a camp near Karlsruhe . A first attempt at escape failed when he was captured again and transferred to a prison camp near Magdeburg . A second escape succeeded. He reached the Dutch border on January 14, 1918, and a few weeks later he was back in France, where he was promoted to lieutenant captain ( Lieutenant de Vaisseau ) and awarded the Croix de guerre with palm trees.
Until the end of the war he served first in Corfu , then at the Saint-Raphaël air base near Fréjus . After a visit by a French delegation to British naval aviation bases in the spring of 1918, the naval command erected a training platform for two Hanriot HD.2 biplanes in early summer and had a platform installed on the aft deck of the liner Paris . On October 25, 1918, Lieutenant for the Sea, Georges Guierre, made the first take-off from the training platform. When Paul Teste also tried to do this on November 9th near Corfu from the only 15-meter-long platform of the Paris , his machine fell into the water.
Development of naval aviators
After the end of the war, Teste was commissioned to set up a carrier-supported naval flight squadron, the so-called Aviation d'Escadre . His own experience in Flanders had convinced him that seaplanes were unsuitable as combat aircraft and that light, fast and agile wheeled aircraft would always be inferior. Hence, he was an advocate of carrier-based naval aviation. He saw the role of float planes primarily as a scout, as they were not tied to airfields, but could take off and land on any suitable surface of water. In April 1924, he therefore flew in a light seaplane FBA 17 from Paris via Bordeaux and Toulouse to Saint-Raphaël to explore a possible route for large flying boats from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. His 2000 km flight took a total of 20 hours, making 13 landings and 21 dives without incident.
Teste first started practicing starts with a few young comrades from a 15 meter long wooden platform mounted on the 700-ton Aviso Bapaume . This succeeded more and more often, but the platform was far too short to land. So in 1920, first on the bow of Bapaume built a 35-meter platform from which tests in the spring of 1920 with a Nieuport 11 to catapult tried -Start. His successful launches, which he then demonstrated to the country's military leaders, as well as a visit by the French military on the British aircraft carrier HMS Argus , which has been operating since September 1918 , led the Navy to decide in June of the same year to convert a larger ship for tests. The choice fell on the unfinished battleship Béarn , which was already scheduled for separation, and which was still missing practically all superstructures. The Béarn was on April 15, 1920 in La Seyne-sur-Mer in Toulon from the stack left, and from October 1920 began the first flight tests.
On October 20, 1920 on the roads of Toulon (the Béarn had no machinery), tests landed his plane, a single-engine biplane hanriot hd.1 successfully on a 43-meter long wooden landing ramp on the back deck of the Béarn been launched was. Ropes weighted down with sandbags across the deck helped to brake the aircraft on landing and to bring it to a stop after only 30 meters. By the spring of 1921, Teste made a series of further landings on the Béarn , first with the Hanriot HD.1, then also with a Sopwith 1A2 , a Hanriot HD.2 and a Hanriot HD.3 . Several of his comrades followed suit, and a total of sixteen pilots made 45 successful landings on the Béarn . Teste was awarded the Legion of Honor. The successful series of tests led to the decision of the naval management to convert the Béarn into a full-fledged aircraft carrier, which was confirmed with the naval construction program of April 18, 1922.
Like the later General Billy Mitchell in the USA, Teste was also convinced that air strikes could be launched successfully from large carrier ships. As early as 1921 he flew a mock attack on the battleship Bretagne while maneuvering his squadron and dropped a training bomb just 20 meters from the bow of the ship. However, his machine crashed into the sea; he was recovered unharmed. In July 1922, Teste was promoted to corvette captain.
In 1925 the new Minister of the Navy, JL Dumesnil, appointed him to his military cabinet, where he was entrusted with building up naval aviation. At the same time, Teste took care of the introduction of new aircraft and equipment and the training of his squadrons in Saint-Raphaël.
death
Despite his organizational responsibilities at the Ministry, Teste remained interested in improving catapult launches and in long-haul, night and intercontinental flights, and in particular a non-stop Atlantic crossing from Paris to New York. In preparation for this, he planned to fly the approximately 5000 km from Paris to Karachi without a stopover. The machine provided for this was a newly designed Amiot 120 three-seater with 600 hp (with benzene injection 740 hp). Lieutenant Captain Amanrich, an excellent pilot, and aircraft designer Félix Amiot were to be the other two participants in the flight. The preparations for the flight took place near Villacoublay, southwest of Paris.
On June 13, 1925, Teste and Amanrich wanted to do another test start to familiarize themselves with their machine. It was hot and the sky was cloudless, but a strong wind came up. Teste decided to start anyway. Everything was going well until suddenly a gust pushed the plane down. The machine brushed the top of a tree, fell abruptly to the ground, and seconds later went up in flames. Amanrich was uninjured, but Teste suffered severe burns and died a few hours later in Versailles hospital.
Honor
In 1929 the French Navy named the aircraft mother ship Commandant Teste after him - a high, but also somewhat strange, honor for the man who had so determinedly campaigned for wheeled and against float planes .
literature
- Paul E. Fontenoy: Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated History of Their Impact. ABC-CLIO, 2006, ISBN 1-85109-573-X , pp. 30-32.
Web links
- Paul Teste at fandavion.free.fr (French)
- Short biography of Paul Teste (French)
- Photos on the history of the French aircraft carriers
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Test, Paul |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Test, Paul Marcel |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French naval aviator |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 2, 1892 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lorient |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 13, 1925 |
| Place of death | Villa Coublay |