Armand de Turenne

Capitaine Armand Jean Galliot Joseph de Turenne was a World War I flying ace credited with 15 aerial victories.^[1]

The Marquis de Turenne was a pre-war cavalryman who transferred to aviation after the war began. In June 1916, he was assigned to Escadrille 48 as a Nieuport pilot.^[2] He scored his first victory on 17 November 1916; by 30 September 1917, he had half a dozen to his credit. Five of them were shared, with fellow aces Jean Matton, Gilbert de Guingand, and René Montrion.^[3]

De Turenne then transferred to Escadrille 12 as its commander.^[4] In his nine victories with this squadron, he continued teamwork in combat and branched out to become a balloon buster by downing two observation balloons. He not only shared victories with fellow aces Marcel Marc Dhome and Emile Regnier, but with several other pilots. An interesting sidelight on de Turenne's victory list is that he had only two solo victories, and there were no fewer than fifteen other pilots sharing one or more of the other thirteen triumphs.^[5]

He died on 10 December 1980.^[6]

Honors and awards

Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur citation, 22 July 1917

Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur

"A very courageous pilot who gives daily the highest example of boldness and initiative. The 6th of July 1917 he downed, in the course of one flight, his third and fourth German planes, one of these in our lines. Cited in orders three times."

Sources of information

References

Nieuport Aces of World War 1. Norman Franks. Osprey Publishing, 2000. ISBN 1-85532-961-1, ISBN 978-1-85532-961-4.