ROBERT IRIBARNE Metal Lunch Box

We were fascinated by the story told to us by Alexandre de La Cerda about Rober Iribarne, a pelotari and pilot from Bayonne, who fought against the German army on the Eastern Front as part of the Free French troops aboard his Yak-9, which he had named Irrintizina. This story really grabbed our attention and we thought it needed to be shared. He reached the Eastern Front in the USSR in 1944 as part of a group of pilots from Free France. Before that, he had had to escape Vichy France to be able to join de Gaulle’s troops in Northern Africa. To do so, he embarked on an epic journey, setting off from Bayonne on bicycle, then crossed the Pyrenees and all of Spain to be able to join Free France’s pilots.