Charles de Tricornot de Rose

Tricornot de Rose was born in Paris on 14 October 1876, the son of Jean-Baptiste Charles Emmanuel de Tricornot de Rose and Jeanne Marie Jacobé de Naurois. Although noble titles were not recognised in the French Third Republic, the family were descended from the holders of the titles of Baron de Tricornot and the Marquis de Rose and retained these designations as part of their surname. Tricornot de Rose joined the French Army as an officer cadet at Versailles on 31 August 1895 and attended the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr. He was appointed a second lieutenant in the (9e régiment de dragons) on 1 August 1897, becoming the sixth generation of his family to have served as cavalry officers. Tricornot de Rose returned from suspension on 29 March 1909 and was assigned to the (19e régiment de dragons). He was detached from his unit in 1910 to attend a flying school at Pau airfield. He afterwards worked under Colonel Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne, an artillery officer who pioneered French military aviation as a spotting aid for his guns, at the headquarters in Vincennes. == First World War ==

aircraft painted with de Tricornot de Rose's insignia of a red rose. In November Tricornot de Rose was appointed commander of aviation with the 5th Army (Ve Armée). Nine of his twelve pilots and gunner/observers were drawn from the cavalry. Initially attacks were made by swooping onto the enemy from high altitude and shooting at them with a rifle from a range of . The unit's first kill was made on 1 April 1915 and by the end of the summer they had accounted for four German aircraft. Performance improved after the introduction of machine gun–equipped single-seater aircraft. He summoned Tricornot de Rose, by then a commandant (major), and granted him authority to do what was necessary to secure air superiority, telling him "de Rose, sweep the sky for me! I am blind!... If we are chased out of the sky, then, it is simple, Verdun will be lost". Tricornot de Rose was granted half of the French Army's fighter squadrons, equipped with the latest Nieuport biplanes, to form the first independent air unit in the French Army, the Combat Group (Groupement de combat). Tricornot de Rose ordered his men not to act alone or to seek one-on-one duels with German pilots, instead they were to operate in groups. De Rose was keen to ensure a continuous presence in the air to deter German aircraft and instigated a series of patrols, rotating with fresh crews every three hours. Tricornot de Rose quickly established air superiority and German artillery bombardments became less effective as they lost almost all access to aerial reconnaissance. Following this success many of Tricornot de Rose's squadrons were withdrawn by the end of March to support other sectors, and he was posted away to command the aviation units supporting the 10th Army (Xe Armée) on the Artois front. Tricornot de Rose cut his engine to perform a turn but found he was unable to restart it and crashed. The French air base at Dugny (now Paris–Le Bourget Airport) had a barracks named after Tricornot de Rose, it remains in use by the National Gendarmerie. The 1965 class of the École de l'air et de l'espace took its name from Tricornot de Rose. Graduates of the class, along with members of the Air Force general staff attended a ceremony at Jonchery's de Rose square on the centenary of his death. == References ==