French Air Force in 1940 recorded victories

[Kelvin]

Hi, everyone, in 1940, French Air Force performed well in 1940 air war. I found that their score Ratio is very good : e.g.

Morane Saulnier 406 shot down 31 German Aircraft at a cost of 6.

Dewoitine -520 shot down 175 German warplanes for their own loss of 44.

Bloch -152 shot down 156 German planes at a cost of 59

And French US-Built Curtiss hawk 75 down 33 German Aircraft at a cost of only three.

Also French had support of RAF with Hurricane fighters, I think Hurricane may shoot down many German Aircraft.

In parachute drop over the Netherland, German also lost 280 x Ju-52 Transports out of 430 they possessed because of relative Dutch strong AA Defence with 150 x 2cm Orelikon, 42 x 4cm Bofor and 81 x Vicker 75mm AA.

German only Advantage is their number of sorties were much more frequent than those of French as the latter 's airfields were located in rear area while German 's airfields were very close to battlefields ( German 4 sorties per Aircraft per day, French only 1 sortie per Aircraft per day and British 2 sorties per Aircraft per day.)

But many books say French Air force is inferior to that of German and why German got air superiority in this Campaign, any one have ideas on that ? Thank

[DrG]

Very interesting, but may you share with us your sources for these claims, please?

[Kelvin]

Hi, DrG, from book John Mosier : " Blitzkrieg Myth " Thank

[Stiltzkin]

Hi, everyone, in 1940, French Air Force performed well in 1940 air war. I found that their score Ratio is very good : e.g.

Morane Saulnier 406 shot down 31 German Aircraft at a cost of 6.

These are most likely just claims. How does a Morane Saulnier shoot something down? You mean: "The following pilot/unit..."
German losses for the french campaign are available in BA/MA RL 2 III/1025, gen. Qu. 6. Abt. (III A), "Front-Flugzeug-Verluste," 1940
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/AAF ... .html#cn68

[DrG]

Thanks Kelvin. I have a copy of Mosier's book and, honestly, I don't think it can be regarded as a reliable source for such important claims. He uses only secondary sources, and his most important source for air war in France, i.e. Kirkland's "The French Air Force in 1940", has already been debated in this forum:
The French Air Force in 1940
"The French Air Force In 1940" article

The only way to debunk WW2 myths (and God only knows how much this war is the perfect example of the say "history is a set of agreed upon lies") is through serious and time-consuming documentary research on both sides of the front, if possible, such as the excellent books by Ludovico Slongo and Michele Palermo about air war in North Africa.

[Carl Schwamberger]

...
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/AAF ... .html#cn68

Hyperwar is such a great asset.

[Stiltzkin]

Hyperwar is such a great asset.

Occassionally you will find some decent stuff there. The interpretations however, are often lacking.

[Stephan]

The only way to debunk WW2 myths (and God only knows how much this war is the perfect example of the say "history is a set of agreed upon lies") is through serious and time-consuming documentary research on both sides of the front, if possible, such as the excellent books by Ludovico Slongo and Michele Palermo about air war in North Africa.

The short way here is probably, to simply look at the german loss numbers in their own documents... In their own documents the german tended to be honest and numbers accurate.


For me, the referred numbers sounds as happy numbers. Its easy to imagine, the enemy losses are exaggerated, this is common enough. The real question is the small own losses... Small own losses on a completely disaster campain??

So yeah, more analysis is necessary before we speak for sure.