{"id":6100,"date":"2016-08-03T20:52:41","date_gmt":"2016-08-04T02:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/?p=6100"},"modified":"2016-08-03T20:52:41","modified_gmt":"2016-08-04T02:52:41","slug":"this-week-in-the-war-31-july-6-august-1944-author-aviator-antoine-de-saint-exupery-dies-on-reconnaissance-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/?p=6100","title":{"rendered":"This week in the War, 31 July–6 August 1944: Author-Aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery dies on reconnaissance mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Petit<\/a>

Petit Prince hot air balloon [Public domain]<\/p><\/div>This week in the war, on 31 July 1944, French author and pilot Antoine Saint-Exup\u00e9ry was flying his plane on a reconnaissance mission for the Free French. He flew from\u00a0an airbase in Corsica to gather information on German troop movements for the upcoming Allied invasion of southern France, Operation Dragoon<\/em>. His aircraft\u00a0never returned.<\/p>\n

It has long been a theory, never substantiated, that his plane was shot down by a Luftwaffe fighter.<\/p>\n

Saint-Exup\u00e9ry became a commercial pilot and a pioneer of airmail services in the 1920s and joined the French air force at the outbreak of war.<\/p>\n

\"Petit<\/a>

Petit Prince\/Saint-Exupery 50 franc banknote [Public domain]<\/p><\/div>After the fall of France, he spent some time in the United States, where he published the now world-famous children’s novel The Little Prince<\/em> (Le petit prince<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Later, after the Allied landings in North Africa, Operation Torch<\/a>, he rejoined his former unit (which by then was under US command) and flew for the Free French.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week in the war, on 31 July 1944, French author and pilot Antoine Saint-Exup\u00e9ry was flying his plane on a reconnaissance mission for the Free French. He flew from\u00a0an airbase in Corsica to gather information on German troop movements … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1011,1013,1012],"class_list":["post-6100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-war-ii","tag-antoine-saint-exupery","tag-le-petit-prince","tag-the-little-prince"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6100"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6103,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6100\/revisions\/6103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}