{"id":8157864,"date":"2026-07-31T11:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T09:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/?p=8157864"},"modified":"2026-09-04T09:11:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T07:11:16","slug":"pierre-clostermann-french-ace-raf-big-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/de\/pierre-clostermann-french-ace-raf-big-show\/","title":{"rendered":"The French Ace Who Wrote &#8216;The Big Show&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\n\n<style>\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid #0F1720;background:#fff;color:#0F1720;font-family:inherit;font-size:14px;font-weight:700;line-height:1;letter-spacing:0;text-transform:none;cursor:pointer;box-shadow:none;transition:background .15s,color 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He would end the war a wing commander in the Royal Air Force at the age of twenty-four, and General de Gaulle would call him \"France's First Fighter.\" Then Pierre Clostermann did something even rarer than becoming an ace: he wrote a book about it that has never gone out of print.<\/p><p>His memoir, <em>Le Grand Cirque<\/em> \u2014 \"The Big Show\" \u2014 has sold more than two and a half million copies. William Faulkner called it the finest aviation book of the Second World War. And yet the exact number of aircraft Clostermann shot down remains, to this day, a matter of genuine debate.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px 24px;margin:24px 0;border-radius:8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:17px;color:#222\">Quick Facts<\/p><table style=\"width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;font-size:15px\"><tr><td style=\"padding:5px 10px 5px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Name<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:5px 0\">Pierre-Henri Clostermann (1921-2006)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:5px 10px 5px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Born<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:5px 0\">Curitiba, Brazil, to an Alsace-Lorraine family<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:5px 10px 5px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Service<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:5px 0\">Free French Air Force with the RAF, 1942-1945<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:5px 10px 5px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Aircraft<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:5px 0\">Supermarine Spitfire, then Hawker Tempest Mk V<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:5px 10px 5px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Squadrons<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:5px 0\">341 \"Alsace\", 602, 274, 3 Squadron RAF<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:5px 10px 5px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Victories<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:5px 0\">Credited with 33 (modern historians estimate 15-18)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:5px 10px 5px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Decorations<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:5px 0\">DSO, DFC & Bar; de Gaulle's \"France's First Fighter\"<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:5px 10px 5px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Famous for<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:5px 0\">The best-selling memoir The Big Show (Le Grand Cirque)<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">From Curitiba to the cockpit<\/h2><p>Clostermann grew up in a French diplomatic family in Brazil, fluent in Portuguese, and as a boy met the legendary Aeropostale pilots Jean Mermoz and Henri Guillaumet. He trained as an aeronautical engineer in San Diego and already had more than 300 flying hours when he reached England to join the Free French Air Force in March 1942. By January 1943 he was a sergeant pilot with No. 341 \"Alsace\" Squadron RAF, flying the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/supermarine-spitfire\/\">Supermarine Spitfire<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QLYjVu7h6J8\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Spitfires, D-Day, and home soil<\/h2><p>Moving to No. 602 Squadron, he flew fighter sweeps, bomber escorts, high-altitude patrols over the Royal Navy's Scapa Flow anchorage, and attacks on V-1 flying-bomb sites along the French coast. On D-Day he flew cover over the Normandy beaches, and on 11 June 1944 he became one of the first Free French pilots to set his Spitfire down on liberated French soil, at a rough forward strip near Bazenville. For a young Frenchman who had come the long way round to fight for his country, it was the moment of a lifetime.<\/p>\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/07\/supermarine-spitfire-mk-ix.jpg\" alt=\"Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Clostermann flew the Spitfire with the Free French \"Alsace\" squadron and later with 602 Squadron RAF. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;France's First Fighter.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>General Charles de Gaulle<\/strong> &mdash; on Pierre Clostermann<\/div><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Le Grand Charles<\/h2><p>In December 1944 he returned to combat on the powerful new Hawker Tempest Mk V with No. 274 Squadron. He named his aircraft <em>Le Grand Charles<\/em> \u2014 a double tribute to Georges Guynemer, the First World War ace whose fighter was called \"Vieux Charles,\" and to the towering figure of de Gaulle. Over northern Germany he flew punishing sweeps, airfield strikes, and \"rat scramble\" interceptions against the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/messerschmitt-me-262\/\">Messerschmitt Me 262<\/a> jets as they took off and landed \u2014 the most dangerous game in the sky.<\/p><p>He was wounded by flak, belly-landed a shot-up Tempest, and rose to command a flight, then a wing \u2014 Wing Commander (flying) of 122 Wing at twenty-four. On 12 May 1945, during a victory fly-past, a mid-air collision sent his formation tumbling; three pilots died, and Clostermann bailed out with his parachute snapping open just metres above the ground.<\/p>\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/07\/pierre-clostermann-portrait.jpg\" alt=\"Pierre Clostermann, c. 1945\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Pierre Clostermann, around 1945 \u2014 DSO, DFC and Bar, and a wing commander at 24. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sihvtZmdnQM\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The number that won't settle<\/h2><p>Officially, across 432 sorties, Clostermann was credited with 33 aerial victories, 19 of them solo. But the figure has never rested easily. Some of the tally may fold in aircraft destroyed on the ground, and recent, careful re-examination of his combat reports and squadron records suggests his confirmed air-to-air score was more likely somewhere between 15 and 18. Clostermann himself maintained the British had validated 23.<\/p><p>It is a debate that will probably never be fully resolved \u2014 and, in a sense, it hardly diminishes him. Whatever the exact count, he flew hundreds of the war's most dangerous missions, was decorated by two nations, and survived when so many of his friends did not.<\/p><h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The book that outlived the war<\/h2><p>In 1951 Clostermann published <em>Le Grand Cirque<\/em>. It was one of the first great fighter-pilot memoirs, and it became a phenomenon, translated worldwide and selling in the millions. He went on to a second career as an engineer, served eight terms in the French National Assembly, and even flew ground-attack missions in Algeria in the late 1950s. He died in 2006, in the Pyrenees, at 85.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;The finest aviation book to come out of World War II.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>William Faulkner<\/strong> &mdash; Nobel laureate, on The Big Show<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sWqEAqQMVRE\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p>De Gaulle gave him a title; Faulkner gave his book a crown. But Clostermann's own legacy is simpler than either: he made a generation of readers understand what it felt like to fly and fight at the sharp end of the sky \u2014 and to come home when the men beside you did not.<\/p><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;font-style:italic;margin-top:24px\">Sources: Wikipedia; Aces High (Shores &amp; Williams); Typhoon and Tempest Aces of World War 2 (Osprey); Daily Telegraph obituary.<\/p>\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\n\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\n\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/adrian-warburton-malta-recon-ace\/\">The Ace Who Vanished Over Bavaria<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/roald-dahl-raf-fighter-pilot\/\">Before the Chocolate Factory, He Flew Hurricanes<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Share this story He was born in Brazil, to a father from Alsace and a mother from Lorraine, and learned to fly at a club in Rio. He would end the war a wing commander in the Royal Air Force at the age of twenty-four, and General de Gaulle would call him &#8220;France&#8217;s First Fighter.&#8221; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":8157576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8157864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pierre Clostermann: France&#039;s First Fighter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pierre Clostermann flew Spitfires and Tempests for the RAF, earned de Gaulle&#039;s title &#039;France&#039;s First Fighter&#039;, and wrote the classic memoir The Big Show.\" 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