The author of 'The Little Prince' disappeared during a wartime aerial reconnaissance mission in July 1944. In 2004, wreckage from his plane was found off the coast of Marseilles, but there was no indication of how he died. Now former German pilot Horst Rippert says he fears he may have shot down the author - though he cannot be sure.
French newspaper Le Figaro has published extracts of a book in which the former Messerschmitt pilot describes spotting a twin-tailed Lightning P-38 plane flying below him. He went in pursuit and shot him down. "I didn't see the pilot and even so, it would have been impossible for me to know that it was Saint-Exupéry. I hoped and I still hope it wasn't him," he said.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was best known for his book 'The Little Prince', a fantasy about a prince from an asteroid who explores the planets. But his other works focused largely on his experiences in aviation. Although he moved to New York after the Nazis occupied France in 1940, he returned to join the Free French air force in Corsica. His disappearance became one of the most enduring mysteries in post-war France. Eventually, a bracelet belonging to him washed up in a fishing net off Marseille in 1998 and debris from his plane was later found by French diver Luc Vanrell. With the debris was the engine of a German plane shot down a few months earlier. Mr Vanrell then set to work with Lino von Gartzen of the Bavarian Society for Underwater Archaeology.
Mr
von Gartzen told the BBC News website that he made 1,200 phone calls to
former Luftwaffe pilots and their families in search of the man who
shot down the French writer.
Finally,
he was told about a man who had a clear memory of the events of 31 July
1944, the date Antoine de Saint-Exupéry disappeared. "I presented
myself as doing research and he said: 'You can stop researching now
because I shot down Saint-Exupéry'."
Lino von Gartzen said it came as a big shock: "I never thought I would find who shot him down. I was quiet for some minutes as this was too much for me". For another two years he continued to check Horst Rippert's story and is convinced by it. "He feels guilty and very, very sorry about it. He was very scared that the cheap press would massacre him."
In the published extracts, Mr Rippert describes being a fan of de Saint-Exupéry's work. "In our youth, at school, we had all read him. We loved his books," he said.
After the war, Mr Rippert became a sports journalist. He is now 88.March 17, 2008
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