Pierre Clostermann

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Pierre Clostermann

Pierre-Henri Clostermann (born February 28, 1921 in Curitiba , Brazil , † March 22, 2006 in Montesquieu-des-Albères , Pyrénées-Orientales , France) was the French fighter pilot of the Second World War with the most kills. After the end of the war he worked as a member of parliament , manager and writer .

Life

Clostermann was born in Curitiba in 1921 as the son of the French consul general of Rio de Janeiro . His family was of Alsatian origin. He graduated from the Ecole Notre-Dame de Boulogne-sur-Seine . He obtained his first flight license in Brazil in 1937 and then studied engineering at the California Institute of Technology until 1940 . He graduated with a diploma and a US commercial pilot license .

Military career

He volunteered in the Forces aériennes françaises libres ( Free French Air Force / FAFL) in 1942 and was assigned to the Alsace Fighter Wing (Squadron n ° 341 Free French) after training. Later he moved to squadron n ° 602 “City of Glasgow”, n ° 274, n ° 56 and ended the war in squadron n ° 3. In the first years he flew a Spitfire and later the Tempest .

Clostermann scored 33 confirmed kills, making it the most successful French fighter pilot of World War II.

After the end of the war, he collided with another aircraft over Wilhelmshaven on May 12, 1945 , but was able to save himself by parachute . On August 27, 1945 Clostermann was retired from the army.

Civil career

After his discharge from the army, Clostermann worked as an engineer for a Paris company until 1947. From 1947 to 1956 he was general secretary of Reims Aviation and later vice president of Cessna Aircraft Company in the United States. He also worked for Dassault Aviation and held board positions at Air France and Renault .

Political career

From 1946 Clostermann was a member of the French National Assembly with interruptions . First for the Bas-Rhin department , from 1951 for the Marne department and from 1956 for the Seine department .

In 1956 he volunteered for the Algerian war . Since he was not allowed to take part in combat missions as a member of the National Assembly, his tasks there were limited to observation missions of the French Air Force. By 1957 he carried out a total of 116 reconnaissance flights and was finally retired as a lieutenant colonel .

From 1958 he represented the Seine-et-Oise department and the Yvelines department from 1967 to 1969 .

From 1963 until he left the National Assembly in 1969, Clostermann was deputy chairman of the National Defense Commission and the Armed Forces Committee.

Writing activity

In 1948 he reported on his war experiences in the book Le grand cirque (Eng. The great arena: memories of a French fighter pilot in the RAF (1951)). The book has been translated into thirty languages ​​and has sold over three million copies. Other works on deep sea fishing and episodes from his life followed.

In the post-war period, Pierre Clostermann had a close friendship with Hans-Ulrich Rudel , the most highly decorated German soldier of World War II for his combat mission , which lasted until Rudel's death in 1982. Clostermann wrote forewords and forewords to the German and French editions of several of Rudel's books ( e.g. Stuka-As Hans-Ulrich Rudel: Biographie in Bilder (2005)), which are dedicated to the reconciliation of the war generation.

Private

On July 24, 1947, he married Jacqueline Renaudat, with whom he had three sons.

Clostermann was a passionate deep sea angler as well as a founding member and first president of the French section of the International Game Fish Association . From 1977 until his death he was also a member of the foundation board of the association.

Clostermann spent the last years of his life in seclusion in Montesquieu-des-Albères in the eastern Pyrenees near Perpignan .

He died on March 22, 2006 at the age of 85 and was buried with military honors. The memorial service took place on March 27, 2006 in the presence of the President of the National Assembly Jean-Louis Debré , the former Prime Minister Pierre Messmer and high-ranking French military in the Cathédrale Saint-Louis-des-Invalides in Paris.

Awards

Works

  • Appui-feu sur l'oued Hallaïl. Flammarion, Paris 1960
  • Feux du ciel. Edition Ananké, Brussels 2001, ISBN 2-87418-041-6 . German edition Brennender Himmel , Bern (joke) 1952.
  • Le Grand Cirque 2000. Memoires d'un pilote de chasse FFL in the RAF. Edition J'ai Lu, Paris 2002, ISBN 2-290-32430-2
  • L'histoire vécue. Un demi-siècle de secrets d'Etat. Flammarion, Paris 1998, ISBN 2-08-067586-9
  • Memoires au bout d'un fil. Arthaud, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-7003-1040-3
  • Des poissons si grands. La grande pêche sportive en mer. Flammarion, Paris 1963
  • Une sacrée was. Daniel Costelle questionne et enregistre les responses de l'auteur sur sa vie, sa guerre et ses aventures. Flammarion, Paris 1990, ISBN 2-08-066445-X
  • Spartacus l'espadon. Flammarion, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-08-066421-2
  • Une vie pas comme les autres. Mémoires. Flammarion, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-08-068824-3

Web links

Commons : Pierre Clostermann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ordredelaliberation.fr
personal data
SURNAME Clostermann, Pierre
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Clostermann, Pierre-Henri
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French fighter pilot and politician, member of the National Assembly and industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Curitiba , Brazil
DATE OF DEATH March 22, 2006
Place of death Montesquieu-des-Albères ( Pyrénées-Orientales department )