Okla-homey
4/1/2006, 08:55 PM
THIS IS NOT AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE:
This guy was prolly the coolest French d00d in the last 220 years.
http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/6195/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz24.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Pierre Clostermann Dies at 85; Ace French Pilot in World War II
By WOLFGANG SAXON
Pierre Clostermann, an ace fighter pilot who flew for de Gaulle's Free French forces in World War II, engaging in fierce combat in the Battle of Britain and over Normandy on D-Day, died March 22 at his home in Montesquieu des Albères in southwestern France. He was 85.
After the war, Mr. Clostermann became a pillar of Gaullist politics.
French newspapers, from the national Le Monde and Le Figaro to the regional press, registered his death as the passing of one the country's last true war heroes. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin eulogized him as a "legend and an example" to all citizens.
After France fell to the Germans in 1940, Mr. Clostermann heeded de Gaulle's call for the French to continue the fight on the side of the Allies. He trained with the Royal Air Force and fought in the Battle of Britain and over Continental Europe. In three years he flew more than 420 combat sorties, shot down 33 enemy aircraft and possibly more, and rose to command a fighter wing.
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/8648/clostermann1hr.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
After the war, he worked as an aeronautical engineer and became a vice president of the Cessna Aircraft Company headquartered in Wichita KS. He also entered politics and spent 23 years as a high-profile Gaullist in the French legislature until giving up his seat in 1969.
The son of a diplomat with family roots in Alsace, Pierre Clostermann [hence his Germanic surname] was born in Brazil. He learned to fly in South America to prepare for studies at the Ryan School of Aeronautics in San Diego, from which he received a diploma.
After the fall of France his father, Jacques Clostermann, defected from the Vichy government of Pétain and joined the Free French in Africa.
Pierre Clostermann went to Britain to enlist in the Free French air force, flying alongside the RAF. Starting with the fighter squadron Alsace, and later with the City of Glasgow squadron, he logged 2,000 hours at the controls of Spitfire and Hawker Tempest fighters, hundreds of them in direct combat, including dogfights and fighter sweeps over the Normandy beachhead and strafing raids over Germany.
His own account, "Le Grand Cirque" was an international best seller in many languages and claimed sales of three million copies around the world.
Its American edition was published by Random House in 1951 as "The Big Show: Some Experiences of a French Fighter Pilot in the RAF." Orville Prescott, writing in The New York Times, called it a "truly remarkable book" and a very personal war history, with the most gripping descriptions of aerial combat that the reviewer had ever read.
The narrative, he noted, was confined almost totally to combat action in "a succession of desperate air battles" in which the author saw his comrades "shot down, blown apart and burned to cinders in flaming planes."
The book was reissued most recently in 2003 as "Big Show: The Greatest Pilot's Story of World War II," by Cassel Military Paperbacks.
Mr. Clostermann's exploits earned him high decorations from France and Britain. He later wrote another successful book, "Feu du Ciel" (1957), and books about deep-sea fishing, one of his pastimes.
He is survived by his wife and three sons.
http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/6577/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz25.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
RIP Pierre Clostermann
This guy was prolly the coolest French d00d in the last 220 years.
http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/6195/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz24.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Pierre Clostermann Dies at 85; Ace French Pilot in World War II
By WOLFGANG SAXON
Pierre Clostermann, an ace fighter pilot who flew for de Gaulle's Free French forces in World War II, engaging in fierce combat in the Battle of Britain and over Normandy on D-Day, died March 22 at his home in Montesquieu des Albères in southwestern France. He was 85.
After the war, Mr. Clostermann became a pillar of Gaullist politics.
French newspapers, from the national Le Monde and Le Figaro to the regional press, registered his death as the passing of one the country's last true war heroes. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin eulogized him as a "legend and an example" to all citizens.
After France fell to the Germans in 1940, Mr. Clostermann heeded de Gaulle's call for the French to continue the fight on the side of the Allies. He trained with the Royal Air Force and fought in the Battle of Britain and over Continental Europe. In three years he flew more than 420 combat sorties, shot down 33 enemy aircraft and possibly more, and rose to command a fighter wing.
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/8648/clostermann1hr.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
After the war, he worked as an aeronautical engineer and became a vice president of the Cessna Aircraft Company headquartered in Wichita KS. He also entered politics and spent 23 years as a high-profile Gaullist in the French legislature until giving up his seat in 1969.
The son of a diplomat with family roots in Alsace, Pierre Clostermann [hence his Germanic surname] was born in Brazil. He learned to fly in South America to prepare for studies at the Ryan School of Aeronautics in San Diego, from which he received a diploma.
After the fall of France his father, Jacques Clostermann, defected from the Vichy government of Pétain and joined the Free French in Africa.
Pierre Clostermann went to Britain to enlist in the Free French air force, flying alongside the RAF. Starting with the fighter squadron Alsace, and later with the City of Glasgow squadron, he logged 2,000 hours at the controls of Spitfire and Hawker Tempest fighters, hundreds of them in direct combat, including dogfights and fighter sweeps over the Normandy beachhead and strafing raids over Germany.
His own account, "Le Grand Cirque" was an international best seller in many languages and claimed sales of three million copies around the world.
Its American edition was published by Random House in 1951 as "The Big Show: Some Experiences of a French Fighter Pilot in the RAF." Orville Prescott, writing in The New York Times, called it a "truly remarkable book" and a very personal war history, with the most gripping descriptions of aerial combat that the reviewer had ever read.
The narrative, he noted, was confined almost totally to combat action in "a succession of desperate air battles" in which the author saw his comrades "shot down, blown apart and burned to cinders in flaming planes."
The book was reissued most recently in 2003 as "Big Show: The Greatest Pilot's Story of World War II," by Cassel Military Paperbacks.
Mr. Clostermann's exploits earned him high decorations from France and Britain. He later wrote another successful book, "Feu du Ciel" (1957), and books about deep-sea fishing, one of his pastimes.
He is survived by his wife and three sons.
http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/6577/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz25.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
RIP Pierre Clostermann