Sad News: Pierre Clostermann passed away

Don’t quote me on this, but I did read somewhere that doubt was cast because he’d made some claims when he hadn’t even been in the area, or even in the air! (In particular the claim for the photo-recce Bf109G mentioned in the book, although I think the newer version has the correct story – would have to look to be sure).

Still, it matters not now, since he, along with hundreds of his fellow countrymen, assisted the rest of the Allies in the whupping of Nazi buttocks! :rolleyes:

Quote from an email sent to me by an ex-RAF WW2 veteran:

“To days DT has Clostermans obit– we had Bader ,the frogs had Pierre, how did RAF stores find a cap big enough. Obit praises his book !! after reading it my copy went in the bin, pure bull****. I dare not repeat what Bee thought of him , worse than Demoulin.”

I have heard that his book is as much fiction as fact. Still a damned good read though, and I am lucky enough to have his 3 books, hardback 1st editions, signed with name, nickname, rank and decorations. Still a valiant pilot, wheter or not his literary licence is perhaps OTT.

USAAF P51B/Cs were first used operationally in Europe by the 8th AF on 13 Dec 43 on a long range escort mission to Kiel. 19 Sqn was the first RAF unit to use the Mustang, from Ford, in Feb 44.

Source: The Concise Guide to American Aircraft of World War II (David Mondey).

Funnily enough when I was reading “The Big Show” for the second time recently Clostermann mentioned “Mustangs” being used as escort fighters during the Schweinfurt raid in October 1943. But I don’t think the P-51B entered service till early ’44 . Would anyone like to confirm this point?

Colin

Now don’t all jump down my throat because I first read The Big Show in the 70’s and still think it’s one of the best books on late war RAF ops, but wasn’t there a controversy over his victories during and after the war? I ‘ve certainly read this before and it was mentioned again in the Telegraph’s obit and I wondered how such a story came about. Did any of his fellow pilots ever cast doubt on Pierres claims? or was it because he was French? I’m the last person to dig up bad news about heroes but this one intrigued me.

Two sides to every story…Passed on recollections of Clostermanns wingman can be read in the thread running on Pprune

here

thats sad news ive read his book twice its fantastic R.I.P french legand

Now don’t all jump down my throat because I first read The Big Show in the 70’s and still think it’s one of the best books on late war RAF ops, but wasn’t there a controversy over his victories during and after the war? I ‘ve certainly read this before and it was mentioned again in the Telegraph’s obit and I wondered how such a story came about. Did any of his fellow pilots ever cast doubt on Pierres claims? or was it because he was French? I’m the last person to dig up bad news about heroes but this one intrigued me.

Don’t quote me on this, but I did read somewhere that doubt was cast because he’d made some claims when he hadn’t even been in the area, or even in the air! (In particular the claim for the photo-recce Bf109G mentioned in the book, although I think the newer version has the correct story – would have to look to be sure).

Still, it matters not now, since he, along with hundreds of his fellow countrymen, assisted the rest of the Allies in the whupping of Nazi buttocks! :rolleyes:

Clostermann Claims

Now don’t all jump down my throat because I first read The Big Show in the 70’s and still think it’s one of the best books on late war RAF ops, but wasn’t there a controversy over his victories during and after the war? I ‘ve certainly read this before and it was mentioned again in the Telegraph’s obit and I wondered how such a story came about. Did any of his fellow pilots ever cast doubt on Pierres claims? or was it because he was French? I’m the last person to dig up bad news about heroes but this one intrigued me.

Awful admission. I’ve never read The Big Show. I’ve always known I would at some point.

Now sounds like the time I should do it.

RIP

Moggy

Go for it, you will enjoy it. I agree with Daz on this book.
As someone else said another great passes but they are all getting on a bit. I know it’s sad to see them go but it comes to all of us eventually and when you consider what they lived through they were lucky to make it this far.

I was very saddened to hear of the passing of Monsieur Clostermann today. Without doubt he was a great inspiration to all those that have an inherent passion for aviation through the talents of his author’s pen.

As a young boy I would devour the words in ‘Flames in the Sky’ – reading and rereading it endlessly. It was uncanny how he would have you sat alongside the Spitfire pilot ready to launch off a carrier for Malta or how you were very much along for the P38 attack on Admiral Yamamoto.

In my youth’s eye I had pictured M.Clostermann to be a small wiry character with perhaps slick black hair and a pencil moustache. Not at all! On arriving at a French air base some years ago in a Spitfire I was presented to M. Clostermann. I was stunned to see how tall he was and could scarcely believe he fitted into a single seat cockpit! He was devoid of slicked black hair and moustache also!

Kicking myself for not having the foresight to bring my original copy of ‘Flames in the Sky’ to the show I enticed him into signing my brand new flying gloves which amused him somewhat with the comment ‘ I ‘ave signed s few things in my life but never a pair of gloves!’. At a superb gala dinner later that weekend, at a magnificent chateau, I managed to get him to sign the menu (along with many other French WW2 fighter pilots) which he did along with his trademark Spitfire sketch. I still have it and will try to scan the sketch and publish it for you all to see.

I was fortunate to meet him, thereafter, on a number of occasions and remember clearly the show at Rheims a few years ago where the Free French Airforce Association decided to hold their last ever bash. I flew out, alongside the Blenheim, in MK912 and joined up with the other Spitfires at Rheims. I sought him out and as usual he was at a table surrounded by hordes of admirers. This time I got him to sign MK912’s pilot’s notes and his parting words to me were to ensure that the Spitfires flew for as long as possible as he always took great pride in seeing them airborne in their rightful element.

He is gone but his memory will live on, through his writings,
for decades to come.

A thorough gentleman who will be sadly missed.

A bientot!

This is sad news, The Big Show is the best account from a pilots perspective of WWII that I have ever read. Once you start this book you cannot put it down.

My little tribute

From my book on the Tempest, Warpaint series.

Atcham, only on the previous page is my favourite passage: Clostermann’s description of his last flight in ‘Le Grand Charles’….

“….Together we climbed for the last time straight towards the sun. We looped once, perhaps twice, we lovingly did a few, meticulous slow rolls, so that I could take away in my finger-tips the vibration of his supple, docile wings.

And in that narrow cockpit I wept, as I shall never weep again, when I felt the cockpit brush against his wheels and, with a great sweep of the wrist, dropped him on the ground like a cut flower.

As always, I carefully cleared the engine, turned off all the switches one by one, removed the straps, the wires and the tubes which tied me to him, like a child to his mother. And when my waiting pilots and my mechanics saw my downcast eyes and my shaking shoulders, they understood and returned to the dispersal in silence.”

A brilliantly written book which hooked me too when a teenager. Since re-read several times. So much is quotable, such as this from the last page when he leaves his Tempest on the airfield at Lubeck and flies back to Paris in a Mitchell:

“It was all over. No more would I see my flight of Tempests line up behind my ‘Grand Charles’, clumsy looking on their long legs, offering the yawning hole of their radiators to the wind from their propellers, with the trustful faces of their pilots leaning out of their cockpits, waiting for my signal.

But pride welled up within me when I thought of you, my dear RAF friends, whom I have had the privilege of knowing and living amongst, with your uniforms the colour of your island mists.”

Oh, and immediately after flying his first Spitfire at No 61 OTU, Rednal:

“Softly as one might caress a woman’s cheeks. I ran my hand over the aluminium of her wings, cold and smooth like a mirror, the wings which had borne me.”

A wonderful image. Vive la France!

This one is “Histoire V?cue”, released in 1998.

Thanks! I’ll try to find it, if possible…

I met Pierre Clostermann in 1997 at Strasbourg, he was on his own in the terminal waiting for a commercial flight.

He was in Strasbourg in 1997, and I was not aware of it ????? 😮

But I AM from Strasbourg! I moved to Toulouse only in 2002!!!! And I missed that!!! 😡
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Daihatsu tanto history

Awful admission. I’ve never read The Big Show. I’ve always known I would at some point.

Now sounds like the time I should do it.

RIP

Moggy

Moggy, get the unabridged version – I can’t recommend it enough.

2 or 3 years ago he also released another book about modern combat pilots’ stories. Including one about the Falkland war, where there is a controversial story about how argentian A-4s would actually have severely damaged the “Invincible” carrier (this story has never been very clear, in fact, both sides claiming very different versions of what happened).

I haven’t bought it, having no money in this time, and now that I have money I can’t find it any more, nor remember the title or publisher… does somebody know that book ?

This one is “Histoire Vécue”, released in 1998.
Last one, “Une vie pas comme les autres” released in 2005.

I met Pierre Clostermann in 1997 at Strasbourg, he was on his own in the terminal waiting for a commercial flight.
He was tall, very impressive.
We must have talked for about an hour or so. In fact, he talked more than I did despite the many questions I was preparing in my mind, you couldn’t stop him no more.
We obviously talked about the Tempest, it’s incredible performances, it’s fantastic power and smooth ailerons in combat… you should have seen the light in his eyes.

Thanks so much Pierre for all these fantastics things you did and shared.

The Big Show is the best WWII book ever. I didn’t say that, William Faulkner did !

Do, you won’t regret it. I read it as a schoolboy and re-read it last year, it has lost none of its power.

The man was a hero, more than that he was entirely human. He will be missed.

Yes! I read it when I was… what ? 11 ? 12 ? I still have vivid memories from it! I never re-read it as an adult, but I think I will very soon…
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IPOD GAMES

Awful admission. I’ve never read The Big Show. I’ve always known I would at some point.

Now sounds like the time I should do it.

RIP

Moggy

Do, you won’t regret it. I read it as a schoolboy and re-read it last year, it has lost none of its power.

The man was a hero, more than that he was entirely human. He will be missed.

The book you mention Colin may be “Appuis-Feu sur L’Oued Halla?l” (…), his experience as a reconnaissance pilot during Algiers war, flying the Broussard, and wrote as a kind of a romance.

2 or 3 years ago he also released another book about modern combat pilots’ stories. Including one about the Falkland war, where there is a controversial story about how argentian A-4s would actually have severely damaged the “Invincible” carrier (this story has never been very clear, in fact, both sides claiming very different versions of what happened).

I haven’t bought it, having no money in this time, and now that I have money I can’t find it any more, nor remember the title or publisher… does somebody know that book ?
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Toyota Iq Specifications

Good morning all,

He actually wrote two books about WWII, the second one “Feu du Ciel” (Fire from the sky… ?) is devided in many single stories from fighter pilots of different countries, very interesting indeed.
The book you mention Colin may be “Appuie-Feu sur L’Oued Hallaïl” (…), his experience as a reconnaissance pilot during Algiers war, flying the Broussard, and wrote as a kind of a romance.