"Saint-EX" finally found!

[C-2]

Not lomg ago some guys found at the bottom of the sea,the P-38-F5b of Antoine De Saint Exupery.

[Victor]

Apparently there were no bullet holes, so teh theory of the German coming out of the sun and shoting him down doesn't hold.

[C-2]

I red a while ago,about Saint Ex,that he was not a good pilot and was use to fly transport planes.
The American comandor was very angry because he was ordered to let SE to fly a P 38.He said that if SE wants to kill himself,he should't do it in a multi milion $ plane.
It seems that he crashed into the see because of incapability to fly the plane...

[Victor]

WWII era planes were hardly million dollar airplanes. The price was much lower.

[C-2]

134,284$ by 1944.
That's a few milions today.....

[Victor]

QUOTE

134,284$ by 1944. That's a few milions today.....

I think you exagerrate a bit here. It is only 1.3 million.
Anyway, he did not flew it now, but he flew it then, so the US general could not have said "multi million dollar airplane" because it wasn't a multi-million dollar airplane.

[C-2]

:shock: :? 8) :x :oops: :cry: :evil: :twisted: :roll: :wink: :!: :?: :idea: :arrow: :| :mrgreen: :mad: :beer: :laugh: :blbl: :cheers: :cry: :drunk: :guns: :keep: :loool: :nope: :question: :ro: :rollroll: o:) :zzz: :smg: :down:
Where have you seen a first line fighter at the price of 1.3 mil.$????!!!!

[Victor]

1 1944 US dollar= 10 2004 US Dollars.
If you multiply the price in 1944 by 10 you will see how much a P-38 was worth in today's money.

[Bernard Miclescu]

Sorry C-2 but from different sources all the pilots told that he was a great pilot. Don't forget that he start piloting the obsolete Breguet 14 of the Aeropostale in the middle and ending 20s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Like Mermoz, Guillaumet and other brave pilots he was one of the pioneers of the aviation. He worked hardly over France, Spain, Marocco, Senegal (and other french colonies of that time) then Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay etc. Only someone who travelled alot, working hard with its planes knowing everything about the fields and planes could write famous book like" Terre des Hommes". Even Kessel couldn't recreate the same atmosphere in it's biography about Mermoz. Remember that their work was 12 even more hours of flying in every time. No rest, six hours and another raid.

After the entrence of France in WW2, he wanted to fight for France (he was telling, like all big patriots, that every person has to fight for its country) At that time he was 40 and only helped by friends he arrived at the GR 2/33 as captaine. He trained on the Potez 63-11 and had the chance to pilot (?) the Bloch 174. In the Battle of France he took off when it was his turn (though its superiors want to spare his life) Beeing pilot at 40 yo on a high range and high attitude recon airplane was something. Try to read his famous "Pilote de guerre" where he is speaking about a difficult mission. After the the end of the war for France only a third of the crews where still in operation. They went to N Africa but the groupe couldn't be restored. St-Ex goes to America trying to make the americans to enter the war. He opposed to De Gaulle who was a tyran in his way. He wanted to fight for France, an effective fight. After the Casablanca confference he relied Giraud. But Giraud had the incapacity to be a chief so he was very oppressed by the French "gaullistes" (free french forces !!!!!)beeing treated as fascist and friend of Pétain. (Endeed in 41 when he was in USA he was asked by the Vichy gvt to take a place in the ministery of Air. He never answered to that cf"Ecrits de guerre 1939-1940) Helped by American generals he eventualy reached his GR 2/33 with its old comrades but this only in the spring of 44. At that time the GR was flying the famous and faster Lighting P38. He wanted so much to do something for France, to fight for it. That was his second religion. Fight and die for France, for his family still there, friends and comrades dead in the war .


He made only 6 recon missions. On the seventh was the crash.

I agree that he was also too absent-minded (once in mai 40 he made a recon mission with the landing gear on all the flight, once he forget to put the landing gear in normal position before landing so... plane damaged. But not only once helped his comarades with his inventions. Once he was preparing to land and he didn't saw a supply truck. He was too low to avoid it. He had no time to take air but he made the command to struck the field before the truck so the plane jumped over it.)

He never wanted to admet that he was too old for that type of plane (P38). Every friend told him to stop. That's why he made so many mistakes. And do not forget his accidents. It seemed that quite all the bones of his body were at least once broken. In the Anzi mountains he had a difficult accident resting on a hospital bed more than a year.

St-Ex was a good pilot, but too old (44 yo) to pilot recon missions on modern planes. He loved France so much. I compare its passion for France to Iorga's for Romania.

BM

[Dénes]

QUOTE

St-Ex was a good pilot, but too old (44 yo) to pilot recon missions on modern planes.

Cpt. c-dor av. Ioan V. Sandu, C/O of Grupul 1 vânatoare, was also 44 when he not only flew fighter airplanes in combat, but engaged numerically and technically superior USAAF warplanes in his I.A.R. 81.
He was shot down and killed in air combat in June 1944.

Of. ech. cl. III av. Ion Milu, the third ranking ARR ace, was 43 years old when the war ended. Yet, he managed to shot down many enemy airplanes in air combat (true, he was flying a Bf 109G).

Age is not always the deciding factor (although important, nonetheless). Incompetence, or combat fatigue are more dangerous, I believe.

However, as it was the reality all over the skies of Europe in 1944/1945, numerical and technical superiority is what actually decided the outcome of an air battle.

[C-2]

I red about Saint Ex in the Mai nr of VOLARE.
They were very serious about the fact that SE flew only because the American comander was ordered from above to let him fly.He could not handel the plane and was an awful P 38 pilot.

[Carol I]

On BBC World Service there is an article which states that Saint-Exupery's ban from flying with the Free French air force was the result of backstage manoeuvres caused by his distrust in de Gaulle. It seems that Saint-Exupery was branded a traitor which led him into depression. The article further suggests that there is evidence which indicates that his disappearance was in fact suicide.