An unexpected turn in the case of the disappearance of Antoine de Saint-Exupery (7 photos)

Antoine de Saint-Exupery had two passions - literature and aviation. One elevated him, and the other ruined him.





The death of a writer during World War II the time period remained a mystery. And only at the beginning of this century the picture started to become clearer.



The first time a guy tried to become a conqueror of heaven back in 19 years. But the attempt failed: he could not enter the flight school. The next one was successful. And Saint-Exupery was able to get a license.

But after a year of practice, seven whole years of routine followed. earth. After a specified period of time, the man was finally able to get a job for work related to flights (postal delivery). He made flights between France and North African countries. And since aviation took only the first timid steps on the path of development, then emergency landings were commonplace. And later this moment was reflected in writer's works.



Antoine has several inventions in the field of aviation. He took part in rescue operations. But this did not help: when World War II began, he was rejected and not allowed to go to the front because health status. The man received the position of an instructor in the flight school. But his soul was eager to fight. After repeated attempts, he still reached his goal and got into intelligence. And even made several dozen combat missions.

But soon followed by the decision to surrender France to Germany. At the end of 1940, he moved to the States to fight on side of the allies. There appear his “Letter to a hostage”, “Military Pilot" and the famous "Little Prince".



By this time, Saint-Exupery had already become famous writer. Therefore, the military leadership did not want to risk such man and send him into battle. With great difficulty, he obtained permission for 5 sorties. Then 3 more followed. In the last of which the writer died.

It was the last day of July 1944. Delivered the task was to collect information about the troops of Germany for subsequent landings. But the pilot did not return from the mission.



Saint-Exupery bracelet

Repeated attempts to find the crash site proved to be fruitless. 50 years have passed, and by pure chance, diver Luke Varnel managed to find a bracelet that belonged to the writer. In this area organized a search operation. The result of which was discovery of fragments of an aircraft that crashed.



Horst Rippert in his youth

And a few years later, in 2008, the public shocked by the unexpected announcement. It was made by the German Horst Rippert, who served as a fighter pilot during the war. He reported that shot down a Lockheed P-38 Lightning piloted by a Frenchman. Airplane entered the water almost vertically and exploded at the moment contact with it, which formed a huge number of fragments. The pilot was killed either immediately or seriously wounded, which did not allow him neither continue driving nor jump out with a parachute.

He did not see the pilot, but that it was famous French writer, learned the next day from intercepted negotiations of French airports. He decided to make a confession in order to to whitewash the name of Saint-Exupery, who has long been accused of desertion.



Aircraft wreckage

However, regarding Rippert's version, the experts had doubts, because, if it were true, why did he not report this to his leadership, as it should?

Rippert has been dead for a long time. Accordingly, find out details are not possible. But the main version remains technical failure that caused the fall. Aircraft wreckage exhibited at the Air and Space Museum at Le Bourget. A writer continues to live in his amazing works.