In 1942 the Americans decide to take part in the war, and on the 6th of November they disembark in North Africa. After publishing The Little Prince, Saint-Exupéry goes to Algiers in order to join his 2/33 team, at that time under the command of the Americans. He joins them in May 1943. The Americans equipped the team 2/33 with a new type of aircraft, the "Lightning P.38" which reached speeds of up to seven hundred kilometers per hour.
The age limit to pilot this new type of aircraft was thirty-five. Saint-Exupéry at forty-three, and with a stiffshoulder3 realizes that he his excluded from piloting that aircraft. Nevertheless, thanks to influences, he obtains permission to do so after a strict seven-week training course.
Promoted to commander
In June he is promoted to commander. On the 21st of July he flies out on his first mission over the Rhone and Provence. Ten days later he carries out a second mission but a faulty landing serves as a pretext to the American command to remind him that his age and physical condition are a handicap for piloting the "Lightning P.38". Saint-Exupéry is withdrawn from the 2/33 team.
During eight months he uses all his powers, contacts people who might use their influence in his favour, and goes through times of depression and discouragement. Despite all this, his literary production bears fruit. He goes on writing his book The wisdom of the sands, started in 1936 and published posthumously.Finally, Colonel Chassin, who had known Saint-Exupéry for several years, manages to convince the American general Eaker to let Saint-Exupéry rejoin the 2/33 team, at that time in Sardinia.
Again he is accepted under the condition not to fly out on more than five war missions.The five missions become eight because he always volunteers for any mission. On the 31 of July 1944, at a quarter to nine in the morning, he takes off on his number nine mission to photo graph the Grenoble and Annecy areas. At half past one he has still not come back when he has only one hour's petrol left. At half past two his companions suspect the worst. The aircraft and the body of Saint-Exupéry, like the little prince's in the desert, were not found on the earth. Maybe he travelled to asteroid B 612 to join his little prince, silently, leaving no trace or, at the most, leaving behind a stream of stars.
A letter was found in his room addressed to General X, written shortly before: "I do not care if I die in the war or if I get in a rage because of these flying torpedo's which have nothing to do with actual flying, and which change the pilot into an accountant by means of indicators and switches. But if I come back alive from this ungrateful but necessary "job", there will be only one question for me: What can one say to mankind? What does one have to say to mankind?"