NC43,
So it's OK to talk about Bader's failings (which I would not dispute for one moment), but not Clostermann's?
While Bader may have been unbearably arrogant and egotistical, and while he may have inflated claims for his Wing (at least), he looked after his blokes and inspired enormous dedication and loyalty.
And there's a difference between exaggeration and outright lies, surely?
Moreover, while it's always been possible to find people who didn't like Bader, most of those who flew with him lionised him, or at least respected and admired him, whereas it's always been much harder to find anyone who knew Pierre who had a good word to say for him. Clostermann's colleagues seem to have viewed him as a complete tosser, and there are huge question marks over his claims.
That said, there's no doubting Clostermann's fighting spirit, and there's no doubt that he was an invaluable role model for other young Free Frenchmen who wanted to hit back against the Nazis. It's also perhaps unfair to judge a man's character based on youthful exaggeration and egotistical posturing when he was an immature twenty-something.
Perhaps all great men have great flaws as well as great strengths, and perhaps only by acknowledging both can we pay a meaningful tribute? Perhaps burying the negative points in the interests of 'not speaking ill' serves only to turn remembrance into meaningless and fundamnentally dishonest sentimentality.