April 5, 1943. Two French fighter pilots, Lieutenant Albert Preziosi and Second Lieutenant Albert Durand, escort a societic P2 bomber on a deep reconnaissance mission in the Roslav region, south of Smolensk. On the way back, they were intercepted by two German Focke-Wulf 190 fighters. One of them, fired straight back and at a short distance by Albert Preziosi, dived and struck the ground. The second, shot three-quarters forward by Albert Durand, suffered the same fate.
Thanks to these two victories, the name of a hunting unit appears for the first time in the press releases recently created French Fighter Group No. 3 "Normandy"
A new concept
For Albert Preziosi and Albert Durand, as for their "boss", Commander Joseph Pou liquen, for the twelve other fighter pilots, the two liaison pilots, the doctor, the interpreter and the forty-two mechanics - i.e. sixty-and one people in total - the story begins, without them, at dawn on June 22, 1941, when the Wehrmacht invaded the USSR.
Eight days later, the Vichy government broke off diplomatic relations with Moscow and recalled the members of its embassy who were returning to France, via Turkey. Among them, Colonel Charles Luguet, air attaché, who decided to join the Free French Forces. In December 1941, he arrived in London where he was immediately received by General de Gaulle. The leader of Free France, anxious to assert his country's presence with the Allies at war, agreed to detach a French fighter group to the Soviet air force.
Negotiations began in February 1942 with the delivery by General Martial Valin, head of the Free French Air Force, to the Soviet mission in Great Britain, of a note proposing the sending of a fighter squadron to the USSR. The talks lasted a long time:the idea of French participation in combat alongside the Soviets was a new notion that the leaders of the Red Army had to assimilate.
On September 1, by order of General de Gaulle, Commander Joseph Pou liquen was appointed commander of fighter group No. 3 "Normandy".
The first volunteers, who left London on August 17, were joined on October 7 in Rayak, Lebanon, by others from the Middle East. On November 12 - the Soviet visas were finally granted - it was the big departure for the USSR. A long wandering by plane, train, truck which, for 17 days, will successively take the French to Baghdad, Basra (Iraq), Ahwaz (Iran), Tehran and Baku. The first detachment arrived in Ivanovo, northeast of Moscow, on November 29 and immediately began training on Yak 7.
On February 22, 1943, Commander Pouliquen, having put the group on track, was transferred to Great Britain and Commander Jean Tulasne took the reins. The history of Normandy” (it only became Normandie-Niemen on July 31, 1944) begins. It revolves around three campaigns:March-November 1943; May-December 1944 and December 1944-May 1945.
First campaign:disappearance of Commander Tulasne
On March 22, the group left for the front and settled on the Polotniani-Zavod field, 20 km north of Kaluga (south-west of Moscow). After the victory, won on April 5 by Preziosi and Durand, the Russians are definitively fixed on the aptitudes of the French in combat.
On April 13, a triple patrol - six planes in total - took off on a free chase mission. In patrol-guide:Commander Tulasne and Lieutenant Derville; on medium patrol:second lieutenant Mahé and midshipman Bizien; on high patrol:second lieutenant Durand and lieutenant Poznanski. At
3:09 p.m., the high patrol saw four FW 190s to the right and 500 meters above.
At 3:10 p.m., the planes were in contact . In a few minutes of combat, three German planes were shot down, but it was a dearly paid victory because three French pilots:Raymond Derville, Yves Bizien and André Poznanski did not return
not. This is the group's first bereavement. On May 7, another pilot, Yves Mahé, shot down by the DCA in the SpassDemiensk region, was taken prisoner. “Normandie”, which only has ten pilots left, moved to the Kathiunki site at the beginning of June. On the 9th, Commander Pierre Pouyade and six other pilots arrived as reinforcements.
Apart from reconnaissance missions on the front and free hunting, the month of June was calm. This calm lasts until
10 July:at 10 o'clock in the evening begins a fantastic artillery preparation which lasts all night, all day of
11 and the night of the 11th to the 12th. The battle for Orel had just begun. In less than a week, the French pilots carried out 112 sorties and shot down 17 German planes, but six of them did not return Jean Tedesco shot down on July 14; Albert Littolf, Noël Castelain, Adrien Bernavon on the 16th; Firmin Vermeil on the 17th. On the same day, Commander Jean Tulasne, who had commanded the group since February 22, 1943, also disappeared. Pierre Pouyade. He took command of the group, which only fielded nine pilots:Pierre Pouyade, Albert Preziosi, Joseph Risso, Marcel Albert, Albert Durand, Jacques Mathis, Paul de Forges, Maurice Bon and Gérald Léon.
August saw the German front break from Orel (liberated on the 5th) to the Black Sea. Seven new pilots arrive and the group receives new planes:15 Yak 9, more powerful and faster than the Yak 1. The French mechanics, replaced by Soviets, leave for the Middle East.
On October 11, "Normandy" was made a Companion of the Liberation by General de Gaulle, and when, on November 6, 1943, it was withdrawn to Tula (180 km south of Moscow) to spend the winter there, the group already totals 72 victories. But of the first core of pilots, only six survived.
Second campaign:the group becomes the "NormandieNiemen" regiment
The group remains in Tula until May 26. Fifteen reinforcement pilots arrive from North Africa, which will increase the number of squadrons to four:Rouen, Le Havre, Caen, Cherbourg. On February 7, the group became a regiment, according to the name in force in the Soviet air force.
On May 25, the regiment left Tula for the field of Dubrovska, a small village of about twenty isbas with thatched roofs 50 km west of Smolensk. The front is 20 km away.
On June 23, the French pilots were awakened at dawn by intense artillery fire. The White Russia offensive begins:on a front of 600 km, the simultaneous attack of the Soviet armies of the central front is triggered. Opposite them, sixty German divisions.
Minsk was liberated on July 3.
The German command no longer has the necessary means to contain the Soviet thrust:in three weeks, thirty of its divisions have been destroyed. The Niemen is crossed at several points.
380,000 Germans were killed; 150,000 taken prisoner. All of Belarus, part of Lithuania and Poland were liberated.
On July 29, the regiment moved to Alitous, a small town on the banks of the Niemen. The French pilots, who fought their first battles over Prussia, impatiently awaiting their new planes:Yak 3s to replace the very tired Yak 9s:during the first phase of the 1944 campaign, the French flew with them 1,015 war missions and added twelve more victories to the record of the young regiment.
On July 31, as a reward for the part taken by the French pilots during the battles for the crossing of the river, the regiment "Normandy" becomes, on Stalin's orders, the regiment "Normandy-Niemen"
The new planes arrive at the beginning of the second half of August. Constructed of duralumin, plywood and canvas, the Yak 3 is thinner than models 1 and 9.
It slightly outclasses the FW 190s and ME 109s, especially at altitudes below 4,000 meters. It climbs and turns well. On the other hand, it is not very well protected and its range is limited to one hour.
Missions resume on August 20. On the 23rd the pilots learned of the liberation of Paris. Marseillaise, taken over by the Soviets, then vodka, vodka, vodka...
During the month of September, air activity slowed down.
Ground attacks and free hunting missions. On October 12, the “elders” prepare to go on leave for three weeks in France. The departure, scheduled for 8:30 a.m., was postponed due to bad weather. But, the same day, at the end of the afternoon, Colonel Pouyade is informed by the Soviets of the imminence of a very important offensive. In the evening, during what was to be a farewell dinner, he told his comrades of his intention to stay so as not to miss the offensive. The other leavers, like one man, unpack their bags.
On the 15th, Pierre Pouyade gathered his men and revealed to them the goal of the offensive:Kônigsberg, in Eastern Prussia. The attack began on the 16th at 10:30 a.m. with the usual deluge of iron and fire. The French pilots flew a hundred sorties during the day, protected 126 Allied bombers and shot down 29 planes:16 FW, 8 ME 109, 5 JU 87. Without any loss. During the following days, the rhythm does not slow down:
17:109 outings, 12 wins. A plane does not return to the field, that of Jean Emonet. This one, who jumped by parachute, will be saved by Soviet tankers.
18:88 sorties, 12 victories (7 FW 190 and 5 ME 109).
22nd:56 starts, 14 wins.
The 23rd:56 outings and 9 victories.
The 27th:32 outings and 2 victories.
If the offensive made it possible to make a breach 140 km wide by 30 deep in East Prussia, the final objective, Kônigsberg, could not be reached.
And, on November 4, the first French pilot landed - freely - on German soil:it was Jean de Pange, the regiment's liaison pilot. The complete "Normandie-Niemen" landed there in turn on November 28.
1944 ended with the departure on leave of Colonel Pierre Pouyade. He has commanded the unit for eighteen months and has not seen France for four years. When Commander Louis Delfino took over on December 12, "NormandieNiemen" had 199 victories, 4,000 missions and 700 battles to his credit.
Third campaign and flight over the Champs-Elysées
The last days of December bring the 200th and 201st victories won by Robert Marchi and Robert Iribarne respectively.
Beginning of January:the weather is blocked. But on the 16th, the fog that dissipated allows the planes to take off and extend the regiment's record. On the 25th, the Russians were only 28 km from Kônigsberg, but the capital of Prussia Orienta le, university town and homeland of Rosenberg, theoretician of Nazism, resisted until April 9. From April 15, not much happened and the pilots confusedly felt that the end of the war was near.
May 9. It's finish. In tribute to the feats of arms accomplished by the pilots of "Norma n-d ie-N ieme n" (273 approved victories), the Soviet Government allows them to return to France at the controls of the planes on which they fought.
June 15:heading west, via Po-sen, Prague, Stuttgart.
June 20:they are over France. Here are the Rhine and Strasbourg, the Vosges, Saint-Dizier, the Marne, the Seine and... Paris. At 6:15 p.m., their noses glued to the canopy of their Yak 3, the pilots flew over the Champs-Elysées. Twenty-five minutes later, the forty aircraft touched down on the runway at Le Bourget.