Quelques têtes du Pont-Long Pau 18

RARE TESTIMONY FROM THE FIRST WORLD WAR, titled "Quelques têtes du Pont-Long"(Some Faces of Pont-Long), dated 1918 in Pau and signed by a certain J. H. Chapelle. It is a collection of about fifty portraits of servicemen who worked at the Pont-Long military aviation school, a famous moor known for having hosted the world's first aviation school, that of the Wright brothers from 1908, before housing military aviation.

These few faces are first introduced by an illustrated ode to these "demigods," servants of the God Apollo, god of the Sun around whom aviators gravitate before joining Mars to "force barricades."

From the most prestigious captain, like Captain Campagne, to the simplest corporal, everyone is represented. It is a poignant testimony to military and aeronautical activity in Béarn, a pioneering territory in this field, but also a striking testimony to life far from the front lines, of those who were preparing to go there to face the enemy in the air, or returning from it, like Lieutenant Rabatel, from the Stork Squadron, a hero of the air, who shot down several German fighters before being wounded and leaving the front to train new pilots at Pont-Long.

Each portrait, reproduced in black, is accompanied by a handwritten note from the author, a witty remark intended to immortalize the subject: "Aspiras to leave his 80 horses to ride only one" or "despite his detachment from the things of this world, finds himself forced to command them."

A unique work, a warm testimony to military life in Béarn during the First World War.