Brazzaville

Brazzaville is remembered as the place the narrator hoped to reach in order to see Louison after she was sent away for treatment. Its narrative significance lies less in a description of the city than in the wartime air routes and repeated setbacks that turned a planned visit into a lasting separation.

A Wartime Air Connection

A twice-monthly aircraft piloted by Warrant Officer Soubabère travelled between Brazzaville and Bangui. The route carried Louison away from the narrator after he learned of a possible treatment for her leprosy; the account does not specify her destination on that flight. A separate Blenheim, piloted by Hirlemann, maintained military liaison with Brazzaville every fortnight, and the narrator arranged to accompany it on its next trip.

The Visit That Was Postponed

The planned journey was interrupted when Hirlemann’s aircraft lost an airscrew over the Congo and crashed in flooded forest. After the narrator’s malaria temporarily incapacitated him, his trip had to wait for Soubabère’s return the following month. Soubabère and the aircraft then disappeared in the Congolese forests, closing off the other expected route to Brazzaville.

Separation and Aftermath

The narrator was ordered to rejoin his squadron on the Abyssinian front and obeyed. He never saw Louison again. For a time, friends in Brazzaville sent news that she was being cared for and that there was hope of a cure; she asked when he would return and was reported to be cheerful. That news eventually stopped, while the narrator’s inquiries and attempts to obtain information brought no answer. Brazzaville thus becomes the unrealized point of reunion in an episode shaped by uncertain communications, dangerous air travel, and military orders.