The awards, personal belonging and documents of French pilot Maurice Guido became the core of the Normandie-Niemen-75 exhibition that opened at Moscow’s Museum of Victory on Friday. Russian Culture Minister and Chairman of the Russian Military Historical Society Vladimir Medinsky attended the opening ceremony.
"The transfer of the Guido family archive is an important symbolic gesture. Tomorrow will be the 75th anniversary of the signing of the agreement to form the Normandie-Niemen Regiment-a joint international Soviet-French air force formation. Regarding today’s attempts to view the World War II history in different ways, find the allegedly forgotten ‘dark pages’ and ‘revise’ the forfeit of our grandfathers, this story becomes especially important," Medinsky said at the opening ceremony for the exhibition.
In his speech, he also said that the Normandie-Niemen Regiment was one of the most effective air force formations by the number of combat missions. The pilots performed their missions on a round-the-clock basis, showing how real patriots may fight together for a common goal, the minister said.
"This exhibition is devoted to real people. They lived with a common goal to defeat the enemy. We respect the memory of the forfeit of each hero. Each of them sacrificed their lives for the Fascism destruction and the peaceful future of our countries," Medinsky said.
On November 25th, 1942 a Soviet-French treaty to create a French fighter squadron in the territory of the USSR was signed. Pilots asked that the squadron would be named “Normandie”. It took part in the battle of Kursk in 1943 and in the offensive in Belorussia in 1944, as well as battles in East Prussia. For its special services during the assault of Niemen the squadron received its respective second name.
During their service 96 French pilots made 5240 operational flights, had 273 confirmed and 36 unconfirmed victories. Four pilots became heroes of the Soviet Union while others also received numerous rewards.
