Russian-Donated Monument To French Pilot, Soviet Hero Marcel Albert Unveiled In Florida

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th May, 2021) The unveiling ceremony of a monument donated by Russia to French pilot and Hero of the Soviet Union Marcel Albert took place on Friday at his burial place in the US state of Florida.

Albert (1917-2010) was a French pilot who flew for the legendary Normandie-Niemen air regiment during World War II. In November 1944, he was awarded the Soviet Union's highest decoration, the Gold Star and title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

"The life of this man is an example of unprecedented courage, self-sacrifice and heroism. He was one of the first French pilots who arrived in the USSR at the end of 1942," the Russian ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said in his remarks to the audience. "As the hero himself recalled, the volunteers asked General Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the Fighting France committee, to send them to the Eastern Front, 'since the Russians were fighting a real fight.

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By the end of the war, Albert had 193 combat missions and shot down 23 enemy aircraft, he added.

Memorials in honor of French pilots, who help the Soviet troops during the World War II, have been erected in five Russian cities, the ambassador noted.

During the World War II hostilities on the Soviet-German front, pilots of the Normandie-Niemen regiment made more than 5,000 sorties, conducted 869 air battles and destroyed 273 enemy aircraft. There were 97 pilots in the air regiment and 42 of them were killed. Four French pilots were awarded the title of heroes of the Soviet Union, the distinction that was rarely given to citizens of foreign countries.