Rene Fonck

Rene Fonck , born the March 27th 1894 with Saulcy-on-Meurthe (the Vosges) and dead the June 18th 1953 in Paris, was a Aviateur French.

Wire of a sagard, workman of the Sawmill S Vosgean, accidentally dead when it was only four years old, Rene Fonck is initially Tisserand then apprenti-mécanicien. Called under the flags on August 22nd, 1914, it is versed with the 11 {{E}} Régiment of the Genius of Épinal where it makes its classes. Fascinated by the exploits of the aviators for a long time, it succeeds in being made pour in aviation with the beginning of the year 1915. He is pilot pupil at the school Caudron of Crotoy. He begins finally his aeronautical career as a pilot from a flotilla of observation, C 47, based close to at his place with Corcieux.

The hero of the First World War

Rene Fonck is the Ace of the aces French and Combined First World War, with 75 approved victories and 52 probable.

August 6th, 1916, with the orders of a Caudron G4 of observation, it forces a reconnaissance aircraft German Rumpler C-III to land behind the allied lines. After this exploit, already titular of other victories, it is versed with the Group of combat 12 or “Groupe of the storks”, more precisely with the Flotilla 103. L was not rare than it cuts down several planes in one day, up to six the May 9th then again the September 26th 1918. It never will however be touched by unfavourable fire. As a fighter pilot, it develops little by little a technique of combat which will primarily consist in surprising the adversary, to carry to him a decisive blow to more close and with a minimum of ammunition, and to be withdrawn from its response. It should be said that its method of combat consisted with " tirer" the enemy pilot and not his plane, which made it possible to use only some cartridges instead of around fifty. Its physical shape, maintained by a good hygiene life and the practice the Yoga, enables him to support the constraints of altitude and to attack the enemy while plunging on him. It will not have of cease to profess its method, to train young pilots all as a practitioner solitary hunting. Its planes, SPAD VII, SPAD XIII and SPAD Xii-gun will be always the object of all its care and those of its mechanics, by a development meticulous and the installation of astute technical improvements.

Guynemer disappears on September 11th, 1917 and the Germans announced that it had been cut down by Kurt Wisseman on his Rumpler. Recent studies tend to probably prove that lieutenant Fonck is not the avenger of Guynemer and that it thus did not cut down Wisseman, victim of a pilot of the Royal Flying Corps. However, this " doute" by no means calls in question the exceptional qualities of pilot, tactician and man of the French, largely helped by a physical condition (seen, endurance) and mental (self-control) out of the commun run. Rene Fonck finishes the war with all the honors, raising a Military Cross 1914-1918 enriched by 28 palms and a star, more " chargée" to date.

Inter-war period

The policy tightens to him the arms as with his/her comrade Alfred Heurteaux: it represents the the Vosges like deputy within the Chambre Blue Horizon of 1919 to 1924, writes its memories entitled My combat , and its sights on the military aviation and civil are synthesized in the work aviation and French safety .

Envoy officially on mission on several continents (North Africa, Latin America, Central Europe, the United States), it joined in 1925 an American project of crossing of the Atlantic in the plane. Making team with the engineer Igor Sikorsky, it takes the orders of a twin-engine, the S-35, for which it asked for number of improvements whose principal one is the addition of an engine. After various drives, the crew Fonck-Curtin-Keyboard-Islamoff painfully makes take off three-engined on September 21st, 1926. A bad dropping of the train annexes, an unequal ground, an exceptional responsibility of fuel and the plane is crushed on takeoff killing two members of the crew. Before it can retenter the crossing on S-37, Lindbergh had carried out the exploit and had empoché the Prix Orteig of 25.000$.

Under the Occupation

Colonel of aviation and war veteran, the Ace of the ace, faithful to the historical figure of the " Winner of Verdun" , And also because the Pétain Marshal was the only senior officer who saw a future in aviation, between without official function with the service of the government. On the instructions of Pétain, it makes the round of the escadrilles and recruits nearly 200 French pilots, voluntary, dice July 1940, to make the war with the English, combined in Germany. Very opposite with Pierre Laval, there remain " eyes and oreilles" of Pétain among Germans, auprès of which it kept its entries. Finally repudiated by the Marshal, it takes little by little his distances with Vichy. However, in the month of August 1942, the American magazine Life publishes a list of French “traitors” to eliminate after the victory from the Allies. Rene Fonck appears there in company of Sacha Guitry and Maurice Chevalier. Some also reproach him for having signed the foreword of a book of 1941 heading the sabotage of our aviation, main cause of our defeat , in which André Maroselli denounces the role of the Communists into 39-40. Fonck declares in its foreword, greeting the memory of the French aviators killed in the Bataille of France: “ What is lacking in France, they are not the intrepid and valorous aviators, but the modern material which our aviators needed to fight and overcome. ”

Become also suspect with the eyes of the Germans by its interventions with the profit of resistant and its opposition to Laval, Fonck will not be less stopped in September 1944, internee with Health and - on the intervention of Edgard Pisani - will be released from it only with the end of the year, without load in its opposition. It also profited from a " certificate of participation" with Resistance, signed on September 28th, 1948 with the mention: “Mr Fonck, Rene, member without uniform of the fighting French forces, took part in occupied territory by the enemy, with the glorious combat for the release of the fatherland”. Its precise actions, its relationships to Germany and its projects are still the subject of historical research. He then wanted to give an account of this period through a work, new to date: In the shade of the stars .

Fonck was a tactician, methodical and courageous. It looked after the body and the spirit, did not drink and did not smoke. It was the best gunner among the pilots of the aviation of the time. Its hygiene of life enabled him never not to receive only one ball on its aircraft and to survive the war. It was the Carry-flag of French aviation at the time of the procession of the victory on July 14th, 1919. Will have acquired in Guynemer by its death with the field of honor probably explains that its reputation eclipsed that of Rene Fonck, although it had only 54 victories with his credit whereas its rival counted finally 127,75 official (enemy fallen into the French lines) and 52 not approved.

Withdrawn of any public life after the Release, it is devoted to the management of its Vosgean company of manure and dies in 59 years, on June 18th, 1953, in its Parisian residence of the street of the Circus. He was the husband of Irene Brillant, member of the Comédie-Française, and father of two children, Edmond and Anne-Marie. He is buried with Saulcy-on-Meurthe, his native village.

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