Flight to Arras is a
memoirAs a literary genre, a memoir , forms a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable in modern parlance. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir, as listed here...
by French author
Antoine de Saint-ExupéryAntoine de Saint Exupéry was a French writer and aviator. He is best remembered for his novella The Little Prince, and for his books about aviation adventures, including Night Flight and Wind, Sand and Stars....
. Written in 1942 it recounts his role in the French air force as pilot of a reconnaissance plane during the
Battle of FranceIn World War II, the Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, executed from 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations...
in 1940.
The book condenses months of flights into a single terrifying mission over the town of
ArrasArras is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. The historic centre of the Artois region, its local speech is characterized as a Picard dialect...
. Saint-Exupéry was assigned to Reconnaissance Group II/33 flying the twin-engine Potez 637. At the start of the war there were only fifty reconnaissance crews, of which twenty-three were in his unit.
Flight to Arras is a
memoirAs a literary genre, a memoir , forms a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable in modern parlance. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir, as listed here...
by French author
Antoine de Saint-ExupéryAntoine de Saint Exupéry was a French writer and aviator. He is best remembered for his novella The Little Prince, and for his books about aviation adventures, including Night Flight and Wind, Sand and Stars....
. Written in 1942 it recounts his role in the French air force as pilot of a reconnaissance plane during the
Battle of FranceIn World War II, the Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, executed from 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations...
in 1940.
The book condenses months of flights into a single terrifying mission over the town of
ArrasArras is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. The historic centre of the Artois region, its local speech is characterized as a Picard dialect...
. Saint-Exupéry was assigned to Reconnaissance Group II/33 flying the twin-engine Potez 637. At the start of the war there were only fifty reconnaissance crews, of which twenty-three were in his unit. Within the first few days of the German invasion of France in May 1940, seventeen of the II/33 crews were sacrificed recklessly, he writes "like glasses of water thrown onto a forest fire".
Saint-Exupéry survived the French defeat but refused to join the
Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom's air force, the oldest independent air force in the world. Formed on 1 April 1918, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history ever since, playing a large part in World War II and in more recent conflicts.The RAF operates almost 1,109...
over political differences with
de GaulleCharles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II...
and in late 1940 went to New York where he accepted the
National Book AwardThe National Book Awards are among the most eminent literary prizes in the United States. Started in 1950, the awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the prior year, as well as lifetime achievement awards including the "Medal of Distinguished Contribution to...
for
Wind, Sand and StarsWind, Sand and Stars is a memoir by Antoine de Saint Exupéry published in 1939. It was translated from the French by Lewis Galantiere....
. He remained in America for two years, then in the spring of 1943 rejoined his old unit in North Africa. In July 1944 "risking flesh to prove good faith" he failed to return from a reconnaissance mission over France.
The work was adapted, by Rod Wooden, in 1998 as a radio drama by the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
Radio 4, with David Threlfall playing the role of the pilot."
This work was also adapted as a Radio Drama for American audiences by
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
Red Network and broadcast on 07-Oct-42 by
Author's PlayhouseAuthors' Playhouse was an anthology radio drama series, created by Wynn Wright, that aired on the NBC Blue Network from March 5, 1941 until October 1941. It then moved to the NBC Red Network where it was heard until June 4, 1945...
.