Saint-Exupery

Gentlemen, Maybe Rippert is correct. he is getting older and full of remorse when he found out it was St.Ex, but needs to lay his conscience to rest otherwise the facts would be lost. I am not saying this is the answer but taking a different slant on this.

Evidently, the German television broadcaster ZDF are saying that they will come up with the “proof” of Rippert’s claim. Meanwhile, this from their website – but please excuse the excruciating Google Translate version. (Reminds of those instructions for electrical goods from the Far East…eg “Turning the button for the on and off is turning the machine in the on or to the off”

Anyway, here goes:

For years rätselte the world about the fate of the author Saint-Exupéry, created in 1944 to a reconnaissance flight was broken. Now, said the brother of the late Ivan Rebroff on ZDF that he was the creator of the “Little Prince” shot down.

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* 16.03.2008

The former fighter pilot Horst Rippert wants the French author at 31 July 1944 fetched from the sky. But he did not know who was sitting in the plane, he said on ZDF-“heute-journal”. “If I would have seen him, I knew him not personally, I would certainly not shot,” said the 88-year-old Rippert, a brother of the singer Ivan Rebroff and former ZDF sports editor.

Firing at Toulon

The French Sunday newspaper Journal du Dimanche had previously Rippert from a new book about Sains-Exupérys disappearance similarly cited. The book, this week in France in the trade. So the whole thing was in the vicinity of the southern France town of Toulon harbour happens.

Horst Rippert. Source: ZDF
ZDF
The now 88-year-old Horst Rippert was during the Second World War fighter pilot

Rippert tell in the book that he had a “hostile aircraft” targeted. Saint-Exupéry was in a P38 Lightning flown under him. “Then I saw at once that …”, Lightning Rippert described the situation in the ZDF. And then he thought: “Well, then I shall be but draufschießen times.” He had the machine shortly. “And then I am from the top down and have (…) on the land targeted and have ‘taken and then fell down. But I have not seen whether a ausstieg.” Only later did he learn that the machine of Saint-Exupéry was.

Exciting stories about flying

The Frenchman was his favorite author. “His books, which were also stimulating and well and also stimulating to aviation. With the stories, which he has shown so beautifully, we are brought up.”

Saint-Exupéry 1944 was a reconnaissance flight in preparation for the Allied invasion started and not returned. In 2000, parts of his aircraft before the Mediterranean coast found, but only 2004 were finally identified. The 1900 in the city of Lyon mittelfranzösischen born writer and pilot is illustrated with the story “The Little Prince” fame. Constructed in the year 1943 originating book has more than 80 million copies sold.

With material from Reuters and ZDF

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Caudron

Yes sorry Tangmere,but a few of us wanted to know about that Simoun accident but couldn’t understand French,and St.Ex flew them.

I have no complaint about this thread going off at a tangent if the tangent concerns les avions Caudron. Perhaps a moderator could split the thread so that there is a separate thread to deal with the crash of the Simoun and anything else Caudron!

Tony Wood’s Combat Claims site appears to have no mention of either a P-38 or a Fw Rippert in the days up to and including 31st July 1944. I have no idea how complete these claims lists are but possibly another avenue for someone to follow up regarding the attempts to discredit both the Author and the, possibly reluctant, claimant.

Regards,

kev35

The author

Quite right. He is not exactly known for his scientific reporting, although he has had programmes on the brain as well as science fiction, among many other subjects. What surprised me was to see it reported that he is a diver and pilot!
I have not seen the book yet, but one begins to wonder …
In the end, maybe this is not the last chapter of the St-Ex story. Perhaps he is enjoying what is turning out to be his literary come-back!

The author, know in France as a TV presentator (always so cheap popular shows) and can not be qualified as a serious historian. In his book, he present no evidence at all, nothing, no reference to any document, report or whatsoever… and we are trying to find out if Rippert wrote down any claim for a victory on an ennemy (I think that any german pilot that would have shot down a P-38 would have bragged about that… ?) on that fateful day. It has to be reminded that when asked, the Luftwaffe always said that no ennemy plane was shot down in that sector that day…

Yes sorry Tangmere,but a few of us wanted to know about that Simoun accident but couldn’t understand French,and St.Ex flew them.

Diverted thread

Sorry, just trying to clear up the fate of the Caudron that St-Ex liked so much and that nearly cost him his life ten years earlier.

By the way, the Geneva newspaper is also covering the Rippert story today, so they got their publicity alright.

Hopefully getting this thread back onto Saint-Ex:

http://www.morgenpost.de/desk/1804368.html

Also, The Times has a full page spread (Page 3) today. I think the claims of Rippert need to be viewed with some caution, although it remains to be seen what evidence the author presents in his book. Maybe the Roswell aliens imparted some useful and incontrevertible information to him…..:D

I Garey,thank you so much for the translations on Msr Prost. A very sad loss.

T-21: Caudron again

And here is the translation of the article on the Simoun for T-21
Albert PROST has left us, with his Simoun…

Albert PROST, director of a hat company in ROANNE, was known in the world of historic aviation collections as the owner of the last flyable Caudron Simoun. He acquired the aircraft in 1974 in the USA and restored it with a mechanic, his friend Abel MOULS, and it flew again in 1977. The aircraft, cn7865, had been hangared after serving in the 1930s and early 1940s as the aircraft of the air attaché in the USA (F-ARCH). The restoration was particularly well done and brought this famous French plane of the 1930s back to its original condition.

Monsieur Albert PROST (left) and his mechanic Monsieur Abel MOULS pose in front of Caudron C 635 Simoun n° 7865 at the end of its restoration in 1977. Photo © Collection AviMag

Monsieur PROST had a passion for fine engineering and maintained this plane lovingly and flew regularly in spite of his 87 years. He was lost on Friday 6 September 2002 at the controls of his plane, after striking a meterological pole, in the fire that destroyed the Simoun near ROANNE aerodrome where he was based. Cocardes presents his family and friends our sincere condolences.

We thank Éric JANSONNE for information.

This is our forum’s own JANNSONNE. Merci Eric!

F-AZAM accident report for T-21

T-21: here is the translation of the crash report on F-AZAM
Pilot – fatal, Aircraft – destroyed
Caudron C 635 “Simoun”,
Engine: Renault 6Q09 of 1937.
Friday 6 September 2002 at 0930
Private flight
Roanne aerodrome, France
Test flight after engine maintenance.
Persons on board: pilot
Licence and experience :
86 years old, PPL since 1955, 3219 hours of which 193 on type. None in previous 3 months
Met. at accident site: wind 030/10kt, visi 8 km, few at 3000 ft, temp 17C

The pilot, owner of the aircraft, took off to test the engine after numerous periods of maintenance. Ground witnesses saw the aircraft after take-off at about 300 feet turning left at a slight bank angle. It continued the turn descending gently until perpendicular to the runway heading. It collided with a meteorological pylon 8 m high, turned onto its back, crashed near the airfield and caught fire. The aircraft was destroyed by the fire.
Bearing in mind the damage resulting from the crash and fire, examination of the wreckage could only ascertain that the engine was delivering power and that the propellor was in coarse pitch. Witnesses who knew the pilot stated that he was in the habit of selecting coarse pitch for a few seconds after take-off to avoid overheating the engine.
The AFIS contoller on duty at the time of the accident stated that he received no messages from the pilot during the manoeuvres after take-off.

The dive recovery of St.Ex’s P-38 : http://www.aero-relic.org/English/F-5B_42-68223_St_Exupery/e-00-stexuperyf5b.htm

There would i presume have been cine-gun film of the alleged shooting down ? and someone in German authority would have raised this in post-intelligence ?

Horst Rippert is not only in the news for the recent revelations regarding Saint-Expury! He is the brother of famous Russian/German singer Ivan Rebroff who died very recently on 27 February 2008 and is a big name in Germany it seems. Herr Rippert is in the German tabloids for coming forward to make a claim on his younger brother’s vast fortune. Evidently the story is causing a bit of a stir and he is in the limelight for very much more than claiming to have downed Saint-Ex. A tangled web!

Yes I need a translation !! please and thank you for the response. I find it strange that this pilot has come forward now after all these years and the disapperance of St Ex has been well publicised in that time,but look how Adrian Warburtons P-38 had lain undiscovered on land after being shot down by flak. Events moved fast during the war so Rippert could be correct ,it will be interesting to see if this is contested. All I was doing was bringing the news and i wish i spoke fluent French !!

I just saw this from Reuters:

Extracts of the book “Saint-Exupery: The Final Secret” were published in Le Figaro magazine over the weekend, and Le Figaro quoted Rippert as saying: “It’s me, I shot down Saint-Exupery.”
However, Rippert also said in the article that he could not be certain of the identity of the French pilot whose plane he shot down. He also hoped it was not the French author as he was a big fan of Saint-Exupery’s works.

So he is not saying it was St-Ex! Maybe he is being pushed into it. Good publicity for the book, I quite agree.

It seems convenient that the victor has come to light just about on the eve of publication of a new book. I find it difficult to believe that the link with Rippert has only just now come to light and puzzled as to how Rippert knew that he had shot Saint-Ex down? Why is he only now admitting it? Adding more than a little to my cloud of doubt is the fact, unearthed in a quick Google of author Jacques Pradel, that this author had some involvement with the Roswell alien autopsy film, not to mention a good few other slighlty “interesting” stories! Maybe there will yet be a Saint-Ex/Roswell UFO link…….!

The Simoun of Albert Prost

T-21: another interesting site for the St Ex-Caudron-Prost saga:
http://www.cocardes.org/archive/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=78

T-21: St Ex’s Caudron

I presume this is the Caudron to which you are referring:
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=F-AZAM&distinct_entry=true

The entry says:
F-AZAM Unfortunately F-AZAM crashed on September 06, 2002 killing her 86 years old pilot-owner. The aircraft has been destroyed by fire.

There is also the French accident report:
http://www.bea-fr.org/docspa/2002/f-am020906/htm/f-am020906.html

Do you need a translation?