Mathieu Tenant de la Tour

Capitaine Mathieu Marie Joseph Antoine Tenant de la Tour (5 December 1883 - 17 December 1917) was a French World War I flying ace credited with nine aerial victories. He scored one of the first aerial victories over an observation balloon.

Biography Early life He was born on 5 December 1883 in Paris. On 25 January 1916, flying in a literal fog of war, de la Tour helped down a German kite balloon, setting it afire. He pressed his attack down to an altitude of fifty meters in one of the first air-to-air wins over an observation balloon. The feat earned him the Legion d'honneur.

He was wounded in action on 25 April 1916. After he healed, he was assigned to Escadrille 3 to pilot a Nieuport fighter.

Awards Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur "Sous Lieutenant of Escadrille N57. On 25 January 1916, he was surprised by a sea of fog, out of which emerged a German balloon which he decided to attack. He approached it and duelled with the passenger in the basket, succeeding in silencing the enemy's gun. He continued to fire at the balloon until he was within fifty meters of the ground. Completely lost and with his motor acting up, he returned by dint of his coolness and strength, and landed behind the British lines." (Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur citation, 1 February 1916)