Jean-MIRMAN

Site en Français

Lieutenant Jean MIRMAN

Jean MIRMAN, born in 1926, was therefore required to do his military service in 1926. However, as he was enrolled at the Ecole Centrale, he was granted a one-year deferment, which was renewed for another year, expiring in November 1928.

After completing his studies and his deferment, he did his military service and became a reserve officer.
Freed from his military obligations, he left for the United States in 1934 and 1935 to study at Harvard.
However, Jean MIRMAN, a reserve officer, was called back to France in 1937 to take part in military exercises. He did not return to the United States until the general mobilisation of August 1939...

When mobilisation began, Jean MIRMAN, a reserve mechanical engineer lieutenant, was assigned to GAO II/520.
Wishing to become a pilot, he submitted an application to the Ministry of Air, and his father, Léon MIRMAN, called on his connections to support his application. To this end, he contacted Jean RAYMOND-LAURENT, Member of Parliament for the Loire region (see document below).

After the war, Jean MIRMAN travelled to Canada and then to the United States on 28 April 1945. Demobilised in 1946, he married Sabine Mannot that same year. They had three daughters. Returning to civilian life, he became an aeronautical engineer and ended his career in 1970 at Burroughs in Pennsylvania.

Jean MIRMAN in the centre of the photograph. Date unspecified: possibly during his military service in 1937.

Jean MIRMAN, centre of the photo, becomes a pilot with GAO II/520

In 1926, Jean MIRMAN obtained a one-year deferment, which was renewed, to complete his studies at the Ecole Centrale.

In 1937, Jean MIRMAN, a reserve officer who was in the United States at the time to attend Harvard, was recalled to France to take part in military exercises.

His father, Léon MIRMAN, writes to MP
Jean RAYMOND-LAURENT

- Correspondence with Jean MIRMAN's father

Saturday, 18 May 1940:

A fews days ago, i did not fear the invasion of France as in 1914. I was too confident. The enemy, who crossed the Meuse at various points between Sedan and Namur, has driven a deep wedge intoour territory west of Sedan... Our son Jean is still with his squadron in the Ardennes; he writes to me that hes has an enormous amount of work, but his moral is good. I have already lost , at the very beginning of the war, on the 13th, one of my grandsons, Jean FOUQUES. May God protect my only son!

Wednesday, 22 May 1940:

Great joy: i just received news of my Jean. His suqadron is at the hearth of the storm. I write to him every day and he writes to me himself very regurarly. I had not received anything for eight days...I nonetheless felt a relief. His little letter is from wednesday the 13th.
The Boches have for the second time burned the library of Louvain, wich had been rebuilt by the Americans after the last war... It is the "furor teutonicus"

Saturday, 1 June 1940:

A great surprise and a great joy: my son Jean has arrived here on a 24-hour leave. His squadron having lost three screws, those remaining are sent to the rear to reconstitute: in Caen. Jean has magnificent morale; his not at all affected by physical fear; the bombardments do not move him. He has the same confidence as i do in victory.

- Correspondence with Jean MIRMAN's father


- Excerpts from the diary kept by Léon MIRMAN, his father, from September 1939 to June 1940

Saturday, 18 May 1940: A fews days ago, i did not fear the invasion of France as in 1914. I was too confident. The enemy, who crossed the Meuse at various points between Sedan and Namur, has driven a deep wedge intoour territory west of Sedan... Our son Jean is still with his squadron in the Ardennes; he writes to me that hes has an enormous amount of work, but his moral is good. I have already lost , at the very beginning of the war, on the 13th, one of my grandsons, Jean FOUQUES. May God protect my only son!
Wednesday, 22 May 1940: Great joy: i just received news of my Jean. His suqadron is at the hearth of the storm. I write to him every day and he writes to me himself very regurarly. I had not received anything for eight days...I nonetheless felt a relief. His little letter is from wednesday the 13th. The Boches have for the second time burned the library of Louvain, wich had been rebuilt by the Americans after the last war... It is the "furor teutonicus"
Saturday, 1 June 1940: A great surprise and a great joy: my son Jean has arrived here on a 24-hour leave. His squadron having lost three screws, those remaining are sent to the rear to reconstitute: in Caen. Jean has magnificent morale; his not at all affected by physical fear; the bombardments do not move him. He has the same confidence as i do in victory.
Jean writes to us every day: his letters arrive in 9 days, but they follow regularly. On the date of the 5th, he had not yet received any of our letters! For the 3rd time his postal sector is modified: S.P.262, then 27, then 40