Pilot Horst Rippert claimed Saint Exupéry : 31 July 1944 / 15 March 2008 !

[CJE]

Just one question nobody has been able to answer so far: where is Rippert's log-book and what story does it tell?

[Andy Saunders]

As RolandF says....lets see! Maybe they have the proof after all. Bring on the evidence,ZDF!

[Jan Bobek]

I am going to ask Mr. Rippert if he can support me with comments about July 30. His colleague Fw. Guth claimed a P-38 or B-17

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Andy Saunders

As RolandF says....lets see! Maybe they have the proof after all. Bring on the evidence,ZDF!

Or they could just get hold of a copy of Luftwaffen-Revue issue 1/93 (March 1993) and read the article «Träume und Wirklichkeit: Das Ende von Antoine de Saint-Exupéry» by Georg Pemmler. (title = Dreams and Reality: the end of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

Pemler (correct spelling) was an officer in 2./NAG 13 in Southern France in the Summer of 1944 and wrote his own memoir Route National Nr. 7.

Pemler recounts the enquiries that were made in his own unit and with JG 200 and Flak outfits when an Allied message was heard, in clear, over the emergency frequency alerting people to watch for a missing P-38 and naming the pilot. (Pemler knew the name having read some of his books). There were sighting reports from German ground echelons of a high-flying recon plane but nobody made any claim of shooting it down.

The French media could check out back numbers of Le Fana de l'Aviation (my xerox of the article doesn't have an issue number/date) for an article by Thierry Thomassin "Le P-38 de Saint Exupéry n'est probablement pas là où on le cheche." ( = Saint-Exupéry's P-38 is probably not where people are looking for it).

[Micozeman]

Originally Posted by Nick Beale

It's all available to the public but only on paper and microfilm, at the UK National Archives. Anyone can visit, you just need some i/d (like a passport) to register as a reader and be issued with a ticket.

Thanks again for you enlightenments Mr Beal!

[Tom Semenza]

Here's another bizare twist on the Saint Exupery story. I just found this quote from a caption in Osprey's "French Aces of World War 2" by Barry Ketley:

"Cleared to fly another five missions, Saint Exupery successfully completed eight from Bastia before being shot down into the sea by two pre-production Fw 190D-9s on 31 July 1944 off St Raphael." (!?!)

This seems even more incredible than Rippert's claim.

Tom

[CJE]

That was the Heichele's theory that was turned down years ago.

[RT]

Even if he turns bad in his old years, but maybe the newsscrappers are also a bit faulty, he managed to shot down an impressive bunch of 4 mot, using the poor planes of Jgr.200 he scored also in the last months at a moment of using a Bf109, was rather not a life insurance, looks to hv been among the 10 or 20 better shooters of the Lwf, for that period

Rémi

[gaynako]

That's the BIG Question ! Where is the Rippert's log book ? A pilot never part with his log book..On the log book, we will be able to find what he was doing on the 31st of July 1944. If it is said to be lost, we can consider the whole thing to be just dirty trick.

[Kutscha]

gaynako, Hartmann has he last log book missing.