Andrieux, Jacques/Souffran, Many Jaco le Magnifique. Journal d'une pilote de la France Libre

This book tells a very beautiful and magnificent adventure, that of a young Frenchman humiliated by the 1940 defeat who fled aboard a Breton crayfish boat to carry on the fight for freedom. The diary of Jacques "Jaco" Andrieux tells very simply, quickly and always with emotion, the discoveries, the apprenticeship and the daily life of a Free Frenchman transplanted to England, in Fighter command. The unceasing combats he fought in the RAF squadrons, the risks, the kills, the loneliness of the hunter, the camaraderie, the fraternity, life, are all written in a simple tone, lively and effective with the impression of being in the heart of the action. Each page breathes its lot of pictures, sounds, smells but also the feelings, doubts, joys where death and life exist alongside each other simply. General Andrieux relates his combats above the Channel, Dieppe, the Normandy Landings, and in the skies of France which was being freed and above Germany in its death throes. The story of this man is part of History itself. This tale full of panache is breathtaking through and through with the breath of life, that of the Magnificent Jaco.

In simple words and full of emotion, Jacques Andrieux describes his experiences and missions in the ranks of the Royal Air Force, while also recounting his service away from combat missions, his loneliness in a foreign country and his comradeship with other French exiles, British soldiers and the local population. The diarist reports on his missions over the English Channel during the Battle of Britain, his role during the Allied landing at Dieppe in August 1942, his enemy flights during the great Normandy landings in June 1944 and the operations of his squadron in the air battles over France during the months of the liberation of his homeland from German occupation. He concludes his diary entries with comments on his flights over the Reich territory during the agonal phase of the Hitler regime.