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Albert Durand was born on the 16th of September 1918. He joined the air force in April of 1938 he showed great promise early on as a young pilot. Posted to his first operational unit GC III/I in August of 1939 equipped with the MS.406, soon after the unit was moved to Chantilly with the task of protecting the capital. Durand scored his first victory on the 10th of May 1940 by forcing a HE 111 to crash land on the beach north of Calais, victory's followed quickly after this. Posted to Oran in March of 1941 flying the D.520 Durand found this situation far from satisfactory the thought of having to shoot down British fighters did not bode well with him. Durand arrived in England on the 19th of June 1942 he retrained with the RAF before joining number 340 Sqn, here he flew mainly fighter sweeps over the Channel and Northern France, soon after Durand embarked for Russia bound for the Normandie regiment. By now flying the Yak-1, Durand was branded an exceptional pilot by his training officer Jean Tulasne who was responsible for training Normandie pilots. Durand scored 6 victories in his short time in the Russian campaign, on the 1st of September 1943 while flying on a mission Durand simply disappeared, he was 25 years old. Albert Durand finished the War with 10 confirmed victories. |
