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André Zirnheld
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André Zirnheld
Born 13 March 1913
Died 27 June 1942 (age 29)
Benghazi, Libya
Allegiance France, Free French Forces
Service/branch French Army (1939), Free French Forces (1940-1941).
Years of service 1939–41
Rank Aspirant
Unit 1er Compagnie Chasseurs Parachutistes
3rd Squadron, Special Air Service Brigade.
Battles/wars World War II
Awards Medaille Militaire
Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 avec deux palmes
André Louis Arthur Zirnheld (March 7, 1913 - June 27, 1942) was born in Paris on to a family of Alsatian Jews. He was a French paratrooper, a member of the Free French Air Force, and a member of the French Squadron, Special Air Service during World War II. He is famous for being the first French paratrooper officer killed in action, and was the author of the poem “Prayer of The Para”.
A licensed and certified graduate of philosophy, he was a college philosophy professor before the war. In 1937 he was appointed professor of philosophy at the Lycee Carnot de Tunis in Tunis, Tunisia. In October 1938 he served as professor at the French Secular Mission in Tartus, Tunisia.
At the outbreak of the war in 1939, Zirnheld was assigned to an Défense Contre Avions (DCA) unit in Lebanon. He tried to transfer to serve in the Metropolitan Army in France, but the Armistice was signed before he could do so. He then defected to British-held Palestine to join the Free French forces. He was assigned to the 1st Colonial Infantry Battalion as a private and served at the Battle of Sidi Barani. Because of his education, he was reassigned as the Deputy Director of the Department of Information and Propaganda in Cairo. Although in a safe billet, he requested a frontline posting. He was then sent to the Officer Candidates' School in Brazzaville, French Congo, where he graduated the 5th in his class as an Aspirant (Brevet-Lieuteant).
He was airborne trained and was assigned to the Middle East in February of 1942 to the 1er Compagnie de Chasseurs Parachutistes ("1st Parachute Infantry Company"), assigned to the Forces Aériennes Françaises Libres (FAFL) ("Free French Air Force"). This was later folded into the 3rd (French) Squadron of the Special Air Service. Although an officer in the Free French forces, Zirnheld was rated as a Corporal in the SAS. This was because no officer slots were open at the time, he had just joined the unit, and had no seniority. The SAS, originally conceived as an airborne formation, had at this point been converted to a raiding force equipped with machine-gun-armed jeeps.
On his first mission, Zirnheld commanded a team of four men who raided Luftwaffe airfield Berka 3, Libya on June 12, 1942, destroying six enemy aircraft on the ground. He then received, as all SAS after their first mission, his SAS operational wings or "Egyptian wings". His later missions included the sabotage of a railway track, attacks on Axis convoys, and taking Luftwaffe prisoners. For his actions, he was proposed for the French Médaille Militaire and British Military Cross and received the Croix de Guerre ("Cross of War" with 2 Palms (gilded Palm Branch pins worn on the medal's ribbon, signifying two Theater-level Mentions-in-Dispatches).
Contents
[hide]
1 The Sidi-Haneish Raid
2 La Prière du Para
3 Burial
4 Medals
[edit] The Sidi-Haneish Raid
Zirnheld's fourth and last mission was a raid on Sidi-Haneish airfield on the night of June 26th and the early morning of June 27th, 1942. An 18-jeep force attacked the field by driving up the runway in an inverted "vee" formation and strafing the parked planes. 37 bombers and transports were destroyed for the loss of two SAS troopers. Zirnheld's jeep had a flat, but he was picked up by Aspirant Francois Martin. He and Martin drove off, but Martin's jeep broke down, so they began traveling on foot, Three hours later, with the sun now up, a flight of four Stuka dive-bombers spotted them and strafed them. Zirnheld was hit in the shoulder and abdomen on their second pass. Zirnheld died of his wounds thirteen hours later. His last words to Martin were, Je vais vous quitter. Tout est en ordre en moi. ("I'll leave you. Everything is in order within me.")
[edit] La Prière du Para
While going through a notebook Martin recovered from his body, they found the text of the work that would be called La Prière du Para ("The Paratrooper's Prayer"). He had apparently written it before the war, while working in Tunisia in 1938. It is the official prayer of the French and Portuguese Airborne forces. Zirnheld and his prayer has also been quoted partially or had its content edited to fit its intended audience. Zirnheld himself, virtually unknown outside of France, has been adopted by Allied nations who mistake him for one of their own. He has been quoted by British and Dutch Paras and American Soldiers and Marines, making him a sort of movable "unknown soldier".
As for those who view him as a man of peace, he was once quoted as saying, "I need not complain about the war. Because of her, I have had to learn to live through anything. Because of her, you could say I have benefited, very greatly benefited even, than that of the life that I have led without her. It is on the contrary peace, that is the situation, the career that had been artificial and dangerous for my progress. After the war, the problem will be to discover a similar pace."
[edit] Burial
Zirnheld's body was first buried in an expedient grave in the Libyan desert by Aspirant Martin, who left directions and landmarks to aid in its retrieval. After the North African campaign, his remains were located and interred in the British military cemetery at Mersa Matruh, Egypt. After the war his body was disinterred and sent back to his native France to be buried at the SAS War Memorial at Sennecey-le-Grand, Saône-et-Loire.
[edit] Medals
Compagnon de la Libération - décret du 1er mai 1943 (Companion of the Liberation - Decree of 1 May 1943)
Médaille Militaire (Military Medal)
Croix de Guerre 39/45 avec 2 palmes (War Cross 1939/1945 with 2 palms)
Médaille de la Résistance avec rosette (Medal of the Resistance with Officer's Rosette)
This is a Prayer he wrote
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paratrooper%27s_Prayer The Paratrooper's Prayer
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This article is an orphan, as few or no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from related articles; suggestions may be available. (September 2008)
The Paratrooper's Prayer is a French poem found in the possession of the presumed author, Aspirant (Brevet-Lieutenant) André Zirnheld, upon his death in Libya on June 27th, 1942. The Paratrooper's Prayer has been adopted by all French and Portuguese Paratroopers, including those belonging to the French Foreign Legion. The Prayer appears before A. J. Quinnell's novel Man on Fire, the main protagonist of which is an ex-paratrooper in the French Foreign Legion. This prayer also appears in Lt. Col. Dave Grossman's book, On Combat: The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace.
The Prayer of the Paratrooper
Translation by Robert Petersen
I'm asking You God, to give me what You have left.
Give me those things which others never ask of You.
I don't ask You for rest, or tranquility.
Not that of the spirit, the body, or the mind.
I don't ask You for wealth, or success, or even health.
All those things are asked of You so much Lord,
that you can't have any left to give.
Give me instead Lord what You have left.
Give me what others don't want.
I want uncertainty and doubt.
I want torment and battle.
And I ask that You give them to me now and forever Lord,
so I can be sure to always have them,
because I won't always have the strength to ask again.
But give me also the courage, the energy,
and the spirit to face them.
I ask You these things Lord,
because I can't ask them of myself.
Original French Text Literal English Translation
La Prière du Para
Je m'adresse à vous, mon Dieu, car vous donnez
Ce qu'on ne peut obtenir que de soi
Donnez-moi, mon Dieu, ce qui vous reste
Donnez-moi ce qu'on ne vous demande jamais.
Je ne vous demande pas le repos
Ni la tranquillité
Ni celle de l'âme, ni celle du corps.
Je ne vous demande pas la richesse
Ni le succès, ni même la santé.
Tout ça, mon Dieu, on vous le demande tellement
Que vous ne devez plus en avoir.
Donnez-moi, mon Dieu, ce qui vous reste
Donnez-moi ce que l'on vous refuse.
Je veux l'insécurité et l'inquiétude.
Je veux la tourmente et la bagarre
Et que vous me les donniez, mon Dieu, définitivement.
Que je sois sûr de les avoir toujours
Car je n'aurai pas toujours le courage
De vous les demander.
Donnez-moi, mon Dieu, ce qui vous reste.
Donnez-moi ce dont les autres ne veulent pas.
Mais donnez-moi aussi le courage
Et la force et la foi.
Car vous seul donnez, mon Dieu,
Ce que l'on ne peut attendre que de soi.
The Prayer of the Paratrooper
I address you, my God, because you give
What we cannot get ourselves
Give me, my God, what remains
Give me what no one ever asks of you.
I do not ask for rest
Nor tranquility
Whether that of the soul or the body.
I ask not for wealth,
Or success, or even health.
All that, my God, you are asked so much for
That you no longer have them.
Give me, my God, what remains
Give me what others refuse.
I want insecurity and anxiety.
I want turmoil and brawl.
And that you give them to me, my God, forever
So that I am always sure to have them.
For I will not always have the courage to ask.
Give me, my God, what you have.
Give me what others do not want.
But also give me courage
And strength and faith.
Because only you can give, my God,
What we cannot take for granted.
Topic: This guy was awesome (Read 67196 times)