German pilot shot down Little Prince author
By Henry Samuel in Paris
Writing in The Telegraph 17/03/2008

A former German World War II fighter pilot has claimed he shot down French literary hero Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of The Little Prince, 63 years after the event.

However, Horst Rippert, 88, said he would have held his fire on July 31, 1944, had he known his victim was one of his favourite authors.
"If I had known it was Saint-Exupéry I would never have shot him down," said Mr Rippert.
"He knew admirably how to describe the sky, the thoughts and feelings of pilots", he added.
"His work inspired many of us to take up our vocation." Saint-Exupéry's 1942 memoir Pilote de guerre (Flight to War) recounts a terrifying mission above the French town of Arras as the pilot of a reconnaissance plane during the Battle of France in 1940.

Today he is widely considered to be the greatest author-pilot. The Little Prince, a children's fantasy in the form of a novella, is one of the top 50 best-selling books of all time, and has been translated into 100 languages. Mr Rippert confessed to the killing his idol after being tracked down by a French diver, Luc Vanrell, and the founder of an organisation researching aircraft shot down during the war, Lino van Gartzen. Their findings are to be revealed in a book, Saint-Exupery, the last secret, co-written with French journalist Jacques Pradel, to be published in French on March 20.
"I didn't target a man who I knew. I shot at an enemy plane that went down. That's all", he told the authors.

Mr Rippert said he spotted the author's twin-tailed Lightning P38 while flying a Messerschmitt Me-109 over the Mediterranean near Toulon, and was amazed it was flying alone.
"He was below me. I saw his markings and manoeuvred myself behind him and shot him down", said Mr Rippert, who brought down 28 planes during the war, and became a radio sports journalist afterwards.
For decades, mystery shrouded Saint-Exupéry's disappearance on what was to have been his last mission.

He had been serving with a Free French air force reconnaissance squadron based in Corsica when he failed to return from a mission to prepare for the landing of the allies in southern France.
Many believed he had committed suicide. In 1998, a fisherman found inside his fishing nets what was reported to be Saint Saint-Exupéry's silver chain bracelet.
Six years later, a diver - Mr Vanrell - found the wreckage of the plane. Debris from a German Messerschmitt was found in the same area, sparking a search for Luftwaffe pilots that ultimately led to Mr Rippert.