André Zirnheld
| André Zirnheld | |
|---|---|
| Born | 13 March 1913 |
| Died |
27 June 1942 (age 29) Benghazi, Libya |
| Allegiance |
 France,  Free French Forces
|
| Service/branch |
French Army (1939) Free French Forces (1940-1941) |
| Years of service | 1939–41 |
| Rank | Aspirant |
| Unit | |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards |
Médaille militaire Croix de guerre 1939–1945 avec deux palmes |
André Louis Arthur Zirnheld (March 7, 1913 – June 27, 1942) was born in Paris on to a family of Alsatian Jews. He was a French paratrooper, a member of the Free French Air Force, and a member of the French Squadron, Special Air Service during World War II. He is famous for being the first French paratrooper officer killed in action, and was the author of the poem "Prayer of The Paratrooper".
A licensed and certified graduate of philosophy, he was a college philosophy professor before the war. In 1937 he was appointed professor of philosophy at the Lycee Carnot de Tunis in Tunis, Tunisia. In October 1938 he served as professor at the French Secular Mission in Tartus, Tunisia.
At the outbreak of the war in 1939, Zirnheld was assigned to an Défense Contre Avions (DCA) unit in Lebanon. He tried to transfer to serve in the Metropolitan Army in France, but the Armistice was signed before he could do so. He then defected to British-held Palestine to join the Free French forces. He was assigned to the 1st Colonial Infantry Battalion as a private and served at the Battle of Sidi Barani. Because of his education, he was reassigned as the Deputy Director of the Department of Information and Propaganda in Cairo. Although in a safe billet, he requested a frontline posting. He was then sent to the Officer Candidates' School in Brazzaville, French Congo, where he graduated the 5th in his class as an Aspirant (Brevet-Lieutenant).
He was airborne trained and was assigned to the Middle East in February 1942 to the 1er Compagnie de Chasseurs Parachutistes, assigned to the Forces Aériennes Françaises Libres (FAFL) ("Free French Air Force"). This was later folded into the 3rd French Special Air Service or French 3rd Parachute Chasseur Regiment. Although an officer in the Free French forces, Zirnheld was rated as a Corporal in the SAS. This was because no officer slots were open at the time, he had just joined the unit, and had no seniority. The SAS, originally conceived as an airborne formation, had at this point been converted to a raiding force equipped with machine-gun-armed jeeps.
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