The death of the author of Little Prince in the middle of World War II remained a mystery for a long time. Thanks to the investigative work of two men, we now know what happened on that famous Monday, July 31, 1944, and above all who took his life.
See you in the cinema! A new film about Antoine de Saint-Exupérytitled “Saint-Ex“, directed by Pablo Agüero, arrives in cinemas this Wednesday, December 11. The brilliant Louis Garrel slips into the skin of the writer alongside Diane Kruger and Vincent Cassel to introduce spectators to a lesser period. known from the writer’s life, when he worked in 1930 for Aéropostale in Argentina.
The opportunity for I’m interested to return to the life of the author of Little Prince and in particular his last moments.
His death, a mystery for 60 years
For decades, the last days of the life of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was only known by two men. The writer himself, taking his story to the grave, and his killer, walled in silence and guilt for years.
Eighty years after the disappearance of the man of letters, the truth was finally revealed in broad daylight in the 2000s. And this, thanks to the excavation and research work of archaeologist Luc Vanrell and the founder of an association for searching for planes lost during the war, Lino von Gartz. Investigation which will be described with passion in the book Saint-Exupéry, the ultimate secret. Investigation into a disappearance by French researcher and journalist Jacques Pradel.
What happened on July 31, 1944?
Monday July 31, 1944, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who works alongside the Free French Air Forceis assigned to a reconnaissance mission. At the helm ofun Lockheed P-38 Lightningit took off from Corsica to fly over several occupied French areas in the south-east, even going up to Annecy, in preparation for the Allied landings in Provence. While it is above the surroundings of Toulon, his machine is spotted by a German who was returning to his base. His name: Horst Rippert. The fighter pilot then follows the Frenchman’s aircraft. He understands that it is an enemy on a scouting mission. Its mission is clear: neutralize it. The plane flies low, and does not seem to notice that it is being followed.
“I said to myself: ‘Dude, if you don’t leave, I’m going to shoot you'”remembered Horst Rippert, who testified years later and whose passages are transcribed in the reissue of the investigation by Jacques Pradel and Luc Vanrell. “I dove in his direction, and I shotnot on the fuselage, but on the wings. I touched it. The zinc is damaged. Straight into the water. He crashed into the sea. Nobody jumped.”
By opening fire, Rippert does not suspect that he is fone of the most famous writers disappear of the world. One of his favorite authorsAlso. “In our youth, at school, we all read him. We loved his books, along with those of Karl May, his adventures in the southern hemisphere and beyond. He was a fanatic. He admirably knew how to describe the sky, the thoughts and feelings of the pilots. His work sparked the vocation of many of us.
The pilot, who embarked on a career as a journalist on German television after the war, put years before confiding.
“If I had known, I would not have shot”
After the Lightning is eliminated, he shares what just happened by radio to his superiors. The position where the plane was shot down is given. The message is intercepted by the Americans. Soon after, the rumor of the disappearance of the writer runs on the French airwaves, also listened to by the Germans. Horst Rippert takes the information in the face. He understands. It was he who killed the novelistat least, he is almost convinced of it. The man will go years without saying a word.
The dawn of the 21st century is changing the situation. In 1998, a bracelet in the name of “Saint-Ex” is found in fishing nets off the coast of Marseille. Two years later, it is the carcass of the Ligthning which is discovered in creeks near the Phocaean City and autopsied by Luc Vanrell. When Lino von Gartzen finds the trace of the German pilot, he confesses everything to herputting an end to a sixty-year-long mystery. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have shot. Not at him!”
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