Memorial Fernand Jacquet

Fernand Jacquet (Petite-Chapelle, November 2, 1888 - Beaumont, October 12, 1947) was a Belgian ace in the First World War. He was the first Belgian to achieve Ace status and the first Belgian to shoot down an enemy aircraft.
(An ace is a fighter pilot that has shot down a significant number of enemy aircraft. It usually involves five or more aircraft. The term is rarely used in Dutch.)

Jacquet was the son of a wealthy landowner. After his studies at the Athenaeum of Chimay, he enrolled in the Royal Military Academy in October 1907. The first years he served as a second lieutenant in the infantry. In 1912 he took flying lessons at the civil aviation school in Sint-Job-in-'t-Goor and on February 25, 1913 he received his license.
On August 30 of the same year he also obtained his military license in Brasschaat.
He made his debut in the 2nd squadron in Belgrade. This squadron had to withdraw to Buc, from where Jacquet flew to Antwerp to carry out reconnaissance flights there. In 1915 he was transferred to the 1st escadrille de chasse in Koksijde. There, inspired by Roland Garros, he placed a machine gun on his Farman. Until then, these aircraft were only in use as observation aircraft.
On April 17, 1915, he celebrated his first victory: he downed a German Aviatik C over Beerst and was promoted to captain. In December 1916 he became commander of the 1st squadron and on February 1, 1917 he could call himself the first ace of Belgium. King Albert I showed great confidence in him when, on March 18, 1917, he boarded a plane with him to fly over the front. They were escorted by the entire squadron. In December 1917, Jacquet was promoted again, this time to captain-commander. In March 1918, at the request of King Albert I, he was given command of the Group de Chasse, also known as Groupe Jacquet, a new hunting squadron consisting of several squadrons (the 9th, 10th and 11th).
On November 6, he achieved his seventh and final victory east of Ghent.

After the war, Jacquet resigned from the army. He started a kite builder ACAZ in Zeebrugge and was part of the management from 1923 to 1926.
He also founded the SEGA flight school in Gosselies. This flying school became one of the five official flying schools of the Belgian Air Force.
With the arrival of the British Fairey Aviation in Gosselies in 1931, Jacquet was appointed commercial director at this aircraft factory.

During the Second World War, Jacquet joined the Belgian resistance to smuggle Allied airmen out of the country, but he was arrested by the German occupier in 1942 and imprisoned in the citadel in Huy for several months.
Jacquet died two years after the end of the war at the age of 58.

Source: Wikipedia

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Source

• Text: Marie-Christine Vinck
• Photos: Marie-Christine Vinck