René Mouchotte

René Mouchotte (21 August 1914 – 27 August 1943) 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.

French Air Force
Born on 21 August 1914 in Paris, Mouchotte did his military service in 1937 with the French Air Force at Istres, where he learned to fly and was promoted to sergeant. Recalled in 1939, he was posted to training establishments at Salon-de-Provence and Avord. Despite several requests to join a fighter squadron, he was transferred to Oran in May 1940. After the Armistice, the pilots on the base were ordered not to escape to join the Free French and the aircraft were placed under armed guard. Despite this, Mouchotte and five comrades (including Henry Lafont) escaped in a twin-engined Caudron Goéland aircraft, only to find that the propellers had been disabled. However they did manage to land in Gibraltar and later transferred to the Président Houduce and sailed to England.

In Britain
After arriving in Britain Mouchotte trained at RAF Old Sarum and RAF Sutton Bridge on Hawker Hurricanes, before being posted to No. 615 Squadron RAF at RAF Northolt in northwest London. He carried out his first operational sortie on 11 October 1940. The squadron moved to RAF Kenley in December 1940 and in August 1941 Mouchotte participated in the shooting-down of a Junkers 88. In November 1941 he transferred to RAF Turnhouse, where the Free French No. 340 Squadron RAF was training on Spitfires; he became a flight commander in February 1942 and subsequently squadron commander of No. 65 Squadron RAF, the first RAF squadron to be commanded by a non-Commonwealth officer.He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on 1 September 1942.

Finally he took command of No. 341 Squadron RAF (Groupe de Chasse n° 3/2 "Alsace") with the Biggin Hill Wing. On 15 May 1943, S/L 'Jack' Charles (611 squadron) and Mouchotte both destroyed a Fw 190 of I./JG 2, as the Biggin Hill Wing's 999th and 1,000th kill claim.

He was shot down and killed in combat with Fw 190s of JG 2 during Ramrod S.8, escorting Flying Fortresses on the first daylight raid to Blockhaus d'Éperlecques in the Pas de Calais on 27 August 1943. His body was later washed ashore on 3 September and was buried in Middelkerke, Belgium. After the War in 1949, his body was exhumed, repatriated and buried in the family tomb at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris on 3 November after a memorial service with full military honours conducted at Les Invalides in Paris.

He had accumulated some 1,748 flying hours, including 408 operational hours flying 382 war sorties. He had claimed 2 ( and 1 shared) aircraft destroyed, 1 'probable' and 1 damaged.

Legacy
After the war, his diaries and flying logs were compiled into a book by Andre Dezarrois which was published in France in 1947 as "Mes Carnets"; in 1956 it was translated into English as The Mouchotte Diaries. In Paris a street Rue du Commandant Rene Mouchotte in the 14th Arrondisement of Paris and a nearby footbridge over the River Seine are named after him. There are two plaques in his memory at Eperlecques. A French Air Force base at Cambrai-Épinoy was named Base Aérienne 103 "Commandant René Mouchotte" in his honour. Cambrai Epinoy is no longer an active French Air Force Base. In his honour the French Air Force Training Base at Cazaux was named after Commandant Mouchotte in September 2012. The RAF headquarters in Gibraltar will be renamed the Mouchotte Building on the weekend of the Battle of Britain Commemorations on 14/15 September 2013.

In 2013 Mouchotte was the subject of a BBC One television investigation by Jan Leeming, shown on Inside Out on 28 January 2013. Mouchotte's British campaign medals, including the Battle of Britain Clasp, were not presented to his family after the war. As a result of the programme, Leeming was able to arrange for them to be presented to his sister and other family members in the British Ambassador's Residence in Paris on 13 July 2012.

At the Lycée Français, Kensington on 18 June 2013 a vitrine was unveiled in honour of Commandant René Mouchotte & the Forces Aériennes Françaises Libres.