Commandant René Mouchotte DFC was a World War II pilot of the French Air Force, who escaped from Vichy French–controlled Oran to join the Free French forces. Serving with RAF Fighter Command, he rose to command a fighter wing before being shot down and killed on 27 August 1943. His diaries were published in 1949 and later translated into English.
René Mouchotte and Sqn Ldr "Jack" Charles at RAF Biggin Hill in May 1943
Hurricanes of 615 Squadron land at RAF Northolt in November 1940
Mouchotte's tomb at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris
Rue du Commandant-René-Mouchotte in Paris, 2011
French Air and Space Force
The French Air and Space Force is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. Formed in 1909 as the Service Aéronautique, a service arm of the French Army, it became an independent military branch in 1934 as the French Air Force. On 10 September 2020, it assumed its current name, the French Air and Space Force, to reflect an "evolution of its mission" into the area of outer space.
"Company of aviators", September 1914, by Jules Gervais-Courtellemont
French aircraft during World War I, flying over German held territory (1915)
Nieuport-Delage NiD.29 C.1 fighter used in the early post-WWI period.
Dewoitine D.510 monoplane fighters from the mid-1930s
