Pierre Clostermann, a fighter pilot and hero of Free France, shares his account of certain historical events from the second half of the 20th century. He is a pilot and above all a modern-day adventurer, a sort of Hemingway, disillusioned by political correctness.
Through this book, he opens up his memories, notebooks, and direct testimony of historical events. Readers will be surprised by certain revelations: Rommel, Che Guevara, Salazar, the Falklands War, and many other painful episodes for France.
A Companion of the Liberation, Pierre Clostermann distances himself and often contradicts politically correct thinking. He does not use the double-speak of politicians; as a soldier, he spits out his truth, and often the truth.
The author becomes a poet and evokes fighter pilots, knights of modern times: “Brother pilots… We had to kill each other to satisfy the madness of some and the cowardice of others, those who governed us. It was these people who shuffled the cards of this tragic baccarat of which we had to pay the stakes.”
There it is said, and how many wars and bloodshed are the consequences of politicians’ greed, armchair strategists? Pierre Clostermann recalls the Falklands War with a British prime minister giving the order to sink the Argentine cruiser Belgrano, serving as a hospital ship in May 1982.
Politics and the upcoming elections required a victorious act of war to win the elections. The thousands of deaths did not matter; only the prestige of an easy victory for this prime minister, anxious to retain their lease at 10 Downing Street, was important.
Through several episodes, Pierre Clostermann provides us with another version of events. A lived history, that of a witness to the second half of the 20th century. Pierre Clostermann is not gentle; he tells the truth and two thousand years ago a man was crucified in Palestine for telling the truth.
A must-read book. The lived history will convince you to permanently turn off your television, to escape conditioning and lobotomization.
Thierry Jan.
