French Forces

Pistol practice for a pilot

Autumn 1939, Xaffévillers (North-East France). Members of the SPA 160 "Diable Rouge" ("Red Devil") squadron, part of the GC II/4 (hunting group II/4). The pilot aiming his pistol is the sergent-chef Antoine Casenobe. Casenobe is known for having scored one of the two first simultaneous french victories of the war, during the first aerial fight of the campaign on the 8th of september 1939 when he shot down a german BF109 above Auerbach-Schaidt, Germany (the other victory is by his partner Pierre Villey, not on the picture, who shot down another messerschmitt during the same fight). In 1939 and 1940 Casenobe scored a total of 7 victories. His group was transferred in Morocco just before the armistice. So Casenobe joined the fight again in 1942 after the allied landings in North Africa, in the fighter group Lafayette, and participated in the Tunisia campaign. But in february 1943 the group had to leave his airfield in a hurry and bad weather because the advance of the Africa Korps threatened it. Forced to land on an improvised and muddy airfield in Algeria, Casenobe got his spine broken in the process and died in hospital a few days after. He posthumously received the Légion d'Honneur.