Unflinching Zeal

Author: Robin Higham
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612511120
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Book Description
This consequential work by a pioneer aviation historian fills a significant lacuna in the story of the defeat of France in May-June 1940 and more fully explains the Battle of Britain of July–October of that year and the influence it had on the Luftwaffe in the 1941 invasion of the USSR. Robin Higham approaches the subject by sketching the story and status of the three air forces--the Armée de l’Air, the Luftwaffe, and the Royal Air Force--their organization and preparation for their battles. He then dissects the the campaigns, their losses and replacement policies and abilities. He paints the struggles of France and Britain from both the background provided by his recent Two Roads to War: From Versailles to Dunkirk (NIP, 2012) and from the details of losses tabulated by After the Battle’s The Battle of Britain (1982, 2nd ed.) and Peter Cornwell’s The Battle of France Then and Now (2007), as well as in Paul Martin’s Invisible Vainqueurs (1990) and from the Luftwaffe summaries in the British National Archives Cabinet papers. One important finding is that the consumption and wastage was not nearly as high as claimed. The three air forces actually shot down only 19 percent of the number claimed. In the RAF case, in the summer of 1940, 44 percent of those shot down were readily repairable thanks to the salvage and repair organizations. This contrasted with the much lower 8 percent for the Germans and zero for the French. Brave as the aircrews may have been, the inescapable conclusion is that awareness of consumption, wastage, and sustainability were intimately connected to survival.

Potez 63 Family

Author: Jose Fernandez
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 9788389450654
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
The Potez 63 and its variants was a significant part of the French Air Force’s equipment in 1939/40, serving in the light bomber, fighter, and reconnaissance roles. The development and operational use of these elegant twins is described in this new book, illustrated with many photos, including a large selection of those previously unpublished. With 1/72nd scale plans, color artwork illustrating the colors and markings, and text by a noted French aviation historian, this book is essential reading for WW2 aircraft enthusiasts.

Air Pictorial

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Aeronautics
Languages : en
Pages : 468

Book Description

Vichy Air Force at War

Author: Jonathan Sutherland
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 178346125X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 253

Book Description
At the beginning of World War II the French faced the German invasion with 4,360 modern combat aircraft and 790 new machines currently arriving from French and American factories each month. When the phony war finally ended, some 119 of 210 squadrons were ready for action on the north-eastern front. The others were reequipping or stationed in the French colonies. Of the 119 squadrons France could bring into action only one-fourth of the aircraft were battle-ready.With France overrun by June 1940, what remained of the French air force was either concentrated in the unoccupied zone or had been hastily redeployed to the colonies. Nonetheless, in retaliation for the British attack on the French fleet in Oran, French bombers, based in French Morocco, carried out retaliatory air raids over Gibraltar. The Arme de l'Air de Vichy was born and would fight to the best of its ability against the Free Frenchs allies in theatres as distant as north-west Africa, Syria, Lebanon, Madagascar and the Far East. Not only would they take to the skies against the British and later the Americans, they would also willingly take part in aerial duels against Free French pilots.Only a handful of books have been written on French aircraft, but never has there been a complete history of the operations of the Vichy Air Force and its fratricidal war. This title literally spans the globe, examining forgotten air combats. It is also important to note that many of the Vichy pilots that survived the air combats later volunteered to join the Free French and would fight with great courage and distinction alongside the very pilots that they had been trying to kill.rnrnThis book describes all major theatres of combat, examines the aircraft flown and lengthy appendices cover operational units, victory credits and the Aronautique Navale.

Fall Gelb 1940 (1)

Author: Douglas C. Dildy
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1782006451
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 98

Book Description
Never in the history of warfare has the clash between such great and apparently equal forces been decided so swiftly and conclusively as the German conquest of France and the Low Countries in May and June of 1940. Not deigning to spend itself against the extensive fortifications of France's Maginot Lines, Hitler's Wehrmacht planned to advance its 136 (of 157) divisions through Belgium and northern France in order to destroy the Allied forces there and gain territory from which to prosecute continued combat operations against France and England. Beginning on 10 May 1940, this title follows the fortunes of Heeresgruppe A as its three Panzer Korps moved stealthily through the dark, hilly, and thickly forested Ardennes in southern Belgium before forcing a passage across the river Meuse and racing through France to the Channel in one of the most daring campaigns in history.

The Battle Of France

Author: Peter Cornwell
Publisher: After the Battle
ISBN: 1399076892
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 592

Book Description
Peter Cornwell tells the story of the greatest air battle of the Second World War when six nations were locked in combat over north-western Europe for a traumatic six weeks in 1940. He describes the day-to-day events as the battle unfolds, and details the losses suffered by all six nations involved: Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, Germany and, rather belatedly, Italy. As far as RAF fighter squadrons in France were concerned, it was an all-Hurricane show, yet it was the Blenheim and Battle crews who suffered the brunt of the casualties. Every aircraft lost or damaged through enemy action while operating in France is listed together with the fate of the crews. The RAF lost more than a thousand aircraft of all types over the Western Front during the six-week battle, the French Air Force 1,400, but Luftwaffe losses were even higher at over 1,800 aircraft.

Two Roads to War

Author: Robin Higham
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 161251085X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 450

Book Description
Noted aviation historian Robin Higham has written this comparative study of the evolution of the French and British air arms from 1918 to 1940 to determine why the Armée de l’Air was defeated in June 1940 but the Royal Air Force was able to win the battle over Britain in September. After analyzing the structure, men, and matériel of the air arms, and the government and economic infrastructure of both countries, he concludes that the French force was dominated by the Armée de Terre, had no suitably powerful aero engines, and suffered from the chaos of French politics. In contrast, the independent RAF evolved into a sophisticated, scientifically based force, supported by consistent government practices. Higham’s thorough examination, however, finds the British not without error.

England's Last War Against France

Author: Colin Smith
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN: 0297857819
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 607

Book Description
Genuinely new story of the Second World War - the full account of England's last war against France in 1940-42. Most people think that England's last war with France involved point-blank broadsides from sailing ships and breastplated Napoleonic cavalry charging red-coated British infantry. But there was a much more recent conflict than this. Under the terms of its armistice with Nazi Germany, the unoccupied part of France and its substantial colonies were ruled from the spa town of Vichy by the government of Marshal Philip Petain. Between July 1940 and November 1942, while Britain was at war with Germany, Italy and ultimately Japan, it also fought land, sea and air battles with the considerable forces at the disposal of Petain's Vichy French. When the Royal Navy sank the French Fleet at Mers El-Kebir almost 1,300 French sailors died in what was the twentieth century's most one-sided sea battle. British casualties were nil. It is a wound that has still not healed, for undoubtedly these events are better remembered in France than in Britain. An embarrassment at the time, France's maritime massacre and the bitter, hard-fought campaigns that followed rarely make more than footnotes in accounts of Allied operations against Axis forces. Until now.

Foreign Planes in the Service of the Luftwaffe

Author: Jean-Louis Roba
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 178340986X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 331

Book Description
This pictorial history shows the full extent of captured foreign aircraft used by Nazi Germany during WWII. No air force in the Second World War would make more use of captured planes than the Luftwaffe. With this in mind, military historian Jean-Louis Roba has tracked down hundreds of such aircraft with rare images that illustrate their uses, careers, and eventual fates. Foreign Planes in the Service of the Luftwaffe covers the complete history of this practice from its inception in the prewar years to the end of the Second World War. Roba’s significant research on the topic debunks myths about how prepared for war the Germans were in 1939. This volume demonstrates how important captured planes—a decidedly unreliable resource—would become to the Luftwaffe. Translated into English for the first time, Roba’s investigative work is supported by more than a hundred pictures of the planes themselves, and gives a rare opportunity to see British and American planes repainted in German colors and symbols.

Churchill's Secret Invasion

Author: John Grehan
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1781593825
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Book Description
In the spring of 1942 Britain's far-flung empire was in the greatest peril. North Africa was being overrun by the German Afrika Korps and in south-east Asia the forces of Imperial Japan had captured Singapore and were threatening India. Only the most urgent reinforcement of both war fronts could prevent disaster. But Britain's shipping routes to Egypt and India passed the island of Madagascar. If the Japanese Navy, operating out of Madagascar, could severe Britain's communications with Cairo and Delhi, then the whole of North Africa and the Indian sub-continent would be at the mercy of the Axis Powers. In a desperate race against time, and under conditions of the utmost secrecy, at Churchill's instigation Britain planned to seize Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world, before the Japanese could strike. An overwhelming force was assembled and despatched as part of the largest convoy ever to have left Britain's shores. Yet the expedition's commanders were faced with not just military but also political obstacles, because the forces occupying the island were not those her enemy's but those of her former ally - France. The Secret Invasion is the first book to examine in detail this crucial campaign which was Britain's largest amphibious assault since the First World War and the first large-scale combined air, sea and land operation Britain had attempted.