Interview de Pierre Clostermann

Interview de Pierre H. Clostermann devant son Hawker Tempest
Court extrait de "Histoire de l'Aviation" - Episode N°6 "Le ciel en Feu" de Daniel Costelle

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Pierre
• Clostermann

[oldeafcoot]

A brave French patriot. His book 'The Big Show" is superb. RIP

[xyz7199]

" Chevalier du Ciel "

un héros

[tempest62000]

un vrai héros et un grand homme.Merci Pierre,moi je ne t'oublierai jamais

[AndyBsUTube]

My French was only good enough t o understand 50% although I got the gist of it- thank you for the translation.

Pierre Clostermann - awesome combat pilot and I highly recommend 'The Big Show' - one of the most engaging personal accounts of WW2 in the air I have read in a while.

RIP

[chenoir]

the aircraft was covered with mud - I landed on the belly, naturally - and I got out of this plane like a crazy. I untied my parachute, slid on the wing and fell on the mud and I saw him arrived and thought "he is going to shoot me", without being able to believe he could do this - I would not have done so - And he didn't shoot.

- He had not shot you, but were there other pilots that did so?

- You know, there are always people wo need to make war more horrible than it is. So yes it happened.

[chenoir]

and I saw this explosion, I felt the shock when the engine stopped, and I thought "That's it, he will kill me". I was too low to open my parachute, so I turned, he passed by and I saw the pilot very distincly - his aircraft was upside down 10m above me - starring at me. He was desperately trying to slow down, maybe afraid that I may shoot him - as he was faster than me with my dead engine - so he slid around me and got off. I landed the aircraft near the Lac du Maire (Mayor's lake) in a swamp ..

[chenoir]

, in a state of overwhelming fear, when you think "that's it, I'm dead" by a german pilot. We were 8 aircrafts, he was alone, and in 3 manoeuver we were all downed.

- Who was it?

- I don't know. He could have killed me, because an explosive shell exploded just in side of the aircraft, near the crosses, and destroyed my engine. But this day, I wasn't piloting my aircraft, because curiously each time I was forced, for any technical reason, to fly another aircraft than mine, some shit happened...

[chenoir]

And when you felt, during a fight, their was one of those pilots, all you could do was avoid him at all cost. And two times I haven't been able to avoid it.

Yes, I've been shot done twice. First time May 12 1943, and the second time Avril 21 1945. This day I wasn't on my best state but I was totally follhardy because when you're tired, their is a kind of doping in a war that makes you unthinking. So I was everything but modest. And in 35 seconds, I've been sent back to absolute modesty ..

[chenoir]

... because she made her pilot fly until death. Us, we did 80, 100, 110 missions and were sent to rest. German never stopped. When they survived, they acquired an absolutely fabulous experience. So, you had no choice, when you met such an experienced pilot, you had absolutely no chance to survive. Your only chance was to guess if their was one somewhere near you. You know, you can feel when a tiger is hunting, and you lock yourself in your house. It's the same with these pilots

[chenoir]

Small Translation :

"... Pierre Clostermann, french fighter ace have fought these german aces. He know the answer (which one thou???)

"You can say yes, but it was on the eastern front, the russian had less advanced aircrafts. No, because they were many german aces on our front. And the reason is that, I know german pilots who survived who began to fight in 1936 in Spain then fought the Polish campagn, the French campaing, the Battle of Britain because the Luftwaffe was very cruel...

[dunedain101]

4:00

"You know.. there are always people eager to make war more atrocious than it is... It happened, in all sides."

Reminds me of my grand father talking of the bombings near Brest and how Americans at the end of the war used to gun strafing people and column of children going to school, while Brits were actually flying low to alarm people instead of shooting them. As much as people were grateful to be liberated there was some really trigger happy sick bastards in the US military.

[PlainNumber6]

@martinguess Pierre Clostermann was a Frenchman born in Brazil who fought with the RAF against the Nazis.

You know The Nazis, don't you? Your country let lots of the worst ones live there.