France, air force of
Publié le 22/02/2012
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France had been a pioneering presence in the early
years of aviation, and the French military had been
in the forefront of aircraft development during
World War I. During the interwar period, however,
French military doctrine denigrated the role of the
airplane, which was seen as a secondary weapon of
far less importance than ships at sea and troops on
the ground. At the outbreak of World War II, the
French air force was nominally commanded by
General Joseph Vuillemin, who had actual direct
control over only the air reserve. Command of the
principal air units had to be shared cooperatively
with relevant ground commanders. The result was
not a successful integration of land and air forces,
but a paralytic confusion of command, as operational
air officers were often subject to command
from three or even more ground commanders in
addition to Vuillemin. Moreover, because aircraft
could not be deployed by a single overall commander,
they were distributed thinly across the
entire front during the Battle of France, which
made it impossible to concentrate air power where
needed to repulse an enemy thrust.
The French air force suffered not only from a
lack of adequate doctrine and a disastrously illconceived
and inadequate command structure, but
also from outmoded aircraft. By the outbreak of
the war, French fighter aircraft were obsolete or
obsolescent. The most important, the Morane 445,
was 50 miles per hour slower than the main German
fighter, the Me-109. Even German medium
bombers nearly outpaced it. On paper, the air force
had a reasonably impressive 2,200 aircraft. Of
these, however, only 610 fighters, 130 bombers, and
350 reconnaissance planes were sufficiently modern
to stand any sort of chance against their German
opponents. At that, many were destroyed on
the ground. Those that flew fell easy prey to the
Luftwaffe or to antiaircraft artillery.
To the credit of the French aircraft industry,
new planes were rushed into production on the eve
of war. In 1938, production stood at about 40 aircraft
per month. In May 1940, 500 were turned out.
But the production of aircraft outpaced the training
and availability of pilots. When the Battle of
France began in May 1940, Vuillemin had at his
disposal only 700 fighter pilots to fly little more
than 600 fighters.
Liens utiles
- T. C. 15 janv. 1968, COMPAGNIE AIR FRANCE c. ÉPOUX BARBIER, Rec. 789, concl. Kahn
- Air France (entreprise).
- Air France, compagnie française de transports aériens, fondée en 1933.
- air france changements
- Air France et la crise