Flirey
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox French commune
|name = Flirey
|commune status = Commune
|image = Eglise Flirey.jpg
|caption = The church in Flirey
|image coat of arms = Blason Flirey 54.svg
|arrondissement = Toul
|canton = Le Nord-Toulois
|INSEE = 54200
|postal code = 54470
|term = 2020–2026
|intercommunality = Mad et Moselle
|coordinates = {{coord|48.8764|5.8483|format=dms|display=inline,title}}
|elevation m = 21
|elevation min m = 256
|elevation max m = 332
|area km2 = 15.77
|population = {{France metadata Wikidata|population_total}}
|population date = {{France metadata Wikidata|population_as_of}}
|population footnotes = {{France metadata Wikidata|population_footnotes}}
}}
Flirey ({{IPA|fr|fliʁɛ}}) is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.
Birthplace of Rin Tin Tin
Following advances made by American forces during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, Corporal Lee Duncan, an aerial gunner of the U.S. Army Air Service, was sent forward on September 15, 1918, to Flirey to see if it would make a suitable flying field for his unit, the 135th Aero Squadron.{{cite book |last=Orlean |first=Susan |author-link=Susan Orlean |date=2011 |title=Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend |location=New York |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-1-4391-9013-5}}{{Rp|21, 28}} The area had been subject to bombs and artillery, and Duncan found a severely damaged kennel which had once supplied the Imperial German Army with German Shepherd dogs. The only dogs left alive in the kennel were a starving mother with a litter of five nursing puppies, their eyes still shut because they were less than a week old.{{cite news |last=Orlean |first=Susan |title=The Dog Star |url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/08/29/110829fa_fact_orlean |access-date=October 17, 2011 |newspaper=The New Yorker |date=August 29, 2011}} Duncan rescued the dogs and brought them back to his unit.
When the puppies were weaned, he gave the mother to an officer and three of the litter to other soldiers, but he kept a male and a female. He felt that these two dogs were symbols of his good luck. He called them Rin Tin Tin and Nanette after a pair of good luck charms called Rintintin and Nénette that French children often gave to the American soldiers.
See also
References
{{commons category}}
{{Meurthe-et-Moselle communes}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Communes of Meurthe-et-Moselle
{{Toul-geo-stub}}