Battle of France for #valour (AS2 — 3.262.0) (v07.05.2019)

An addition, anyway.

This concerns one of the 6 pilots from the list above, Captain Maurice de Seynes.



In June 1940, he had already shot down 2 German aircraft and had been awarded the 1939 Croix de Guerre with palm.

In the Russian town of Ivanovo (where the Regiment trained on Soviet fighters) a monument to his memory was erected.



The detail of the plaque located to the right of the monument.



According to the French wikipedia (confirmed by documents from his military file that I have): on July 15, 1944, victim of a gasoline leak in the cabin shortly after takeoff, blinded then intoxicated by gasoline fumes and a start of fire, he tries in vain 8 times to land. He receives the order to jump by parachute, but he refuses out of solidarity with his mechanic Vladimir Belozub (Владир Белозуб) who is traveling with him and who does not have a parachute. He finally crashes to the ground during his last landing attempt. Their death was immediately known throughout Russia. There was talk of burying them in separate graves, but, by personal order of Stalin, they were buried in a common grave. The text of Stalin's personal order and signed by his hand is as follows "They fought together, they will rest together in their tomb".



In the same spirit, Lieutenant Bruno de Faletans crashed in similar circumstances his single-seater YAK (with onboard his Russian mechanic, Lieutenant Sergei Astakhov). Both were buried next to each other (see photo above).

http://www.ivanovograd.ru/monuments/normandie.htm