Rene Fonck

I would like to thank our Forum Brother for the posting of the article on René Fonck and his trans-Atlantic attempt from Sunday's New York Daily News, that I read with interest. I do not claim to be a fantasically fine fanatical Fonck fan, but have any worthwhile books been written about him, besides his own?

For various reasons, not much seems to be known about even his WW I days, but what did he do in the '20s and the '30s? What exactly was his role in WW II? I have heard of him being accused of being a collaborator, but in what capacity? Or were they trumped-up charges? What did he do between WW II and his passing in '53?

Greetings Ed: My remembrance is that Fonck stayed in France during WWII; and that he was a friend of Hermann Göring, which probably kept him out of a stalag. Probably anyone that knew a German during the occupation would have been considered a collaborator, but what punishmentment they recieved depended on how seriously they collaborated. Remeber Coco Chanel, the famous French couturier? Well she stayed in Paris for the war, designed dresses, and had as lover a German general, but that was l'amour and in France they don't punish people for l'amour. Best regards, Billy H. 28 mar 00.

Billy that just ain't so. The French rounded up all of the local chippies who fraternized with the Bosche and cut off their hair right down to the bare scalp. There are many, many news pictures of these "barbering" parties. Even Coco lost some of her long time friends and clients over her fraternization. Personally, I think they should have drowned her in Chanel #5, which made her rich while others around her starved.

[Vin]

If they had barbered all the middle class businessmen who did business with and socialised with the occupying forces, there would have been a lot
of bald blokes in France in 1944.


Vin

The ones who lost their hair were the lucky ones.Thousands of people were executed in France after the war,most of them were little more than lynchings.

Glenn: Vous avez raison. But most of those girls who got trimmed were gravel agitators-ordinary streetwalkers; and the reason they had their hair cut was because the French army did not put up their usual fight against the Jerries, in 1940. Being a prostitute in France was a legal activity...But I noticed that they did not shave the hair from all of the waiters in French restaurants who served croque monsieurs to the Jerries...Another example of male discrimination?

[Barrett]

I can find no references to Fonck's WW II activities and there's little info on a few notable French aces of the Great War during 1940-45, partly because so few lived that long. Pinsard lost a leg in a bombing attack in 1940; Heurtaux was caught working with the resistance and nearly died in Buchenwald. Haegelen also was in the resistance, and that rounds out all the 20+ aces who lived to WW II. Heavy attrition between the wars.

Billy, did you do a lot of exhausting personal research to come up with the statement that "most of these girls were ordinary street walkers"? What verification do you have for that statement? You seem to imply that you knew a lot of EXTRAordinary street walkers who were not shorn.
Throwing food on the table in front of the Boche is not synonymous with committing acts of fornication with them.