History of Toulouse. Who was Alex Marty, an unknown Great War fighter pilot?
By Anthony Assemat
Published on
Georges Guynemer, Charles Nungesser, Rene Fonck…These names that spring to mind when we think of the Aces (status obtained after five aerial successes) of the Great War 1914-1918. Alex Marty is also of this caste.
“He was a knight of the sky
This Toulouse fighter pilot, unknown to the general public, Jean-Pierre Mezuredirector of French souvenir from Toulouse Centerrehabilitation with emphasis.
“He was a knight of heaven, who became an archangel for an epic”.
Probably fascinated by the war stories of his maternal grandfather Pierre-Léon Resclauze, a former active officer during the Mexican campaign (1861-1867), he in turn decided to enlist. On September 25, 1913, he was incorporated into the 8e regiment of hussars. The young rider took part with his unit in the first battles on the northern border and then in Belgium. He crossed all the ranks until becoming a second lieutenant and distinguished himself in the Meuse, in Champagne, in the Vosges, or in the Aisne.
The seesaw in Verdun
At the beginning of 1916, his destiny changed. “General Pétain (he will gain the status of marshal in November 1918), commander of the place of Verdun, launches on February 28 to the pilot Charles Tricornot de Rose: “I am blind. Rose, clean the sky for me! »
The French attack and regain control of the air. Aviation then appears to Alex, as to many people of his generation, as a new free space where man and machine are one”. Between August and December 1916, he was seconded to the aviation school ofAvard (Cher). Once his certificate was obtained, he was assigned to a reconnaissance aircraft protection section in the Verdun region.
In March 1917, he was co-opted to join the N77 nicknamed “the sports squadron”, stationed in Manoncourt-en-Vermois near Nancy then the Fere-en-Tardenois (Aisne). He rubbed shoulders with Octave Lapize, the winner of the 1910 Tour de France, the boxer Georges Carpentier and the French swimming champion (and future filmmaker) Henri Decoin.
Victory Hunter
On May 2, at the controls of his Nieuport, he won his first aerial victory against a reconnaissance two-seater.
And on July 11, he even received the Legion of Honor after three new successes. But on November 5, he blessed himself gravely during an emergency landing with a Spad VII.
After a long convalescence, he joined, in April 1918, another unit of the front of Lorraine. Two months later, on the morning of June 9, surprised by another plane from Alsace, he stung and died in the fire of his Spad VIII, at Plainfaing (Vosges). His body was subsequently transferred to Toulouse and buried in the Terre-Cabade cemetery.
Almost 22 years later, on June 8, 1940, his younger brother Georges, squadron commander at 13e GRCA (army corps reconnaissance group), will be killed in Ciry-Salsogne (Aisne).
Matthew Arnal
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