German Wartime Flying Ace Discovered He Shot Down His Hero

A German fighter ace has just learned that one of his 28 wartime 'kills' was his favourite author. Messerschmidt pilot Horst Rippert, 88, said he would have held his fire if he had known the man flying the Lightning fighter was renowned French novelist Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

The fliers clashed in the skies over southern France in July 1944. Rippert said: 'If I had known it was Saint-Exupery, I would never have shot him down. I loved his books. I knew he was a French pilot, but he was probably my favourite author at the time.'