Antonin Brocade

Description

It is often difficult to be “the son of…”

Pierre Brocard is the “son of…” General Antonin Brocard, to whom aerial glory would have been acquired anyway if he had remained in the rank of commander under which all those who have an interest in him know him, for this high-class pilot, this trainer of men, this founder, this initiator and, dare we say, this discoverer of talents since it is at his place that the Archangel of French hunting was hatched and developed. : Guynemer. Who says Brocard thinks first - or finally? - “Storks”. The brightest and most famous of the squadrons of that time, the emblem of which still stands out on fighter jets today after being painted on Spads and other biplanes.

Brocard was such a figure that Jean Renoir staged him at the very beginning of La Grande Illusion, when Lieutenant Maréchal (Jean Gabin), learned from his squadron leader that he had to take a State officer - major, Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) fly over the lines to take pictures. This squadron leader is Brocard, with his three-striped kepi, his mustaches and the black turtleneck he loved.

But Brocard did not “limit” his career to the Great War, linked his name to the most glorious unit of that time: he devoted himself, afterwards, to his country. General of course, like many who have survived, such as Harcourt, his comrade, patron of the French hunt in 1940, but also politician, deputy. His personality, his character, marked the aviation, and more intimately, his family and first and foremost his son.