Zitate von Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

I ask the indulgence of the children who may read this book for dedicating it to a grown-up. I have a serious reason: he is the best friend I have in the world. I have another reason: this grown-up understands everything, even books about children. I have a third reason: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs cheering up. If all these reasons are not enough, I will dedicate the book to the child from whom this grown-up grew. All grown-ups were once children– although few of them remember it. And so I correct my dedication:

To Leon Werth
When he was a little boy

Since the war he had read in a magazine an account of Saint- Exupéry's last flight, and on referring back to his war diaries had discovered that, on 31st July, 1944, a Focke-Wulf pilot on patrol over Ajaccio in Corsica reported the destruction of a re connaissance machine which fell into sea in flames after combat. This incident had occurred at about midday, when the Focke- Wulf was patrolling at between fifteen and sixteen thousand feet, at which height it is slightly faster than the Lightning. Korth's theory was that it had shot down Saint-Exupéry's plane as he was dropping off height before re-crossing the coast to return to base; the sun, too, would have been full in his face, and might have blinded him to the approach of the enemy plane. Korth's account ended: I am only a pariah, but I beg you to send my good wishes to the comrades of Saint-Exupéry's Squadron; they won't despise the greetings of a veteran German pilot writing from a Germany in despair, and who has French blood in his veins, for my mother, born in Lorraine, was a Frenchwoman.