The Echo of the Little Prince in the Mediterranean
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By: Dr. Marco V. Benavides Sánchez. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry published The Little Prince in 1943, arguably the most widely read book in the world after the Bible, and a year later he was dead at the bottom of the Mediterranean. He was 43 years old when he was allowed to fly combat missions again in World War II, an age that commanders considered too old for a fighter pilot. He had to insist, plead, and negotiate to be allowed to board a plane. On his first missions, he wrecked an aircraft upon landing and was grounded for eight months. On July 31, 1944, at 8:45 a.m., he took off from the Borgo airbase in Corsica aboard a Lockheed P-38 Lightning, an unarmed photo-reconnaissance aircraft, with the mission of flying over German positions in the Rhône Valley to prepare for the Allied landings in Provence. He had enough fuel for six hours. He never returned. At 1:00 p.m., his squadron captain reported his disappearance. At 2:30 p.m., he was declared missing. There was no radio ...