Quick Facts
VirgoBiography
Colonel Marcel Émile Haegelen (13 September 1896 – 24 May 1950), Légion d'honneur, Médaille militaire, Croix de Guerre, was a World War I French flying ace credited with 23 victories.
Biography
He was born on 13 September 1896.
After the war, he became a test pilot for the Hanriot company.In 1931 and 1932 he won theCoupe Michelin long-distance flying competition flying theLorraine Hanriot LH.41/2 aircraft. On the second one, he set a world record for 2000 kmwith a speed of 263.900 km/h.
Mobilised as fighter pilot at the beginning of World War II, lieutenant-colonel Marcel Haegelen won his 24th victory flyinga Curtiss H 75, shooting down a German airplane on 14 June 1940.
After the fall of France he became a member of theFrench Resistance, and was arrested by the Germans in 1943 and jailed in Bourges.
When he died on 24 May 1950, he was Grand officier of Légion d'honneur.
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