Laurent, I think, is right on almost all points but NOT on his claim that French fighters were unable to protect the ground troops against German bombers. This they did very well indeed and they shot down dozens of « Stukas » (the RAF Hurricanes too) as well as hundreds of twin-engined bombers.Very often, too, German bombers which they were not able to shoot down jettisoned their bombs harmlessly in the countryside in order to escape the French fighters. Of course the latter did not shoot down 100 % of the attackers so most of these got through and bombed their objectives (but often precisely this, or at least accurate bombing, was prevented by French fighters). You almost never can destroy 100 % of the enemy bombers ! You never can wage war without receiving any blows : it began with stones, sticks, arrows, swords etc., later bullets, artillery shells, then bombs. This is totally inevitable, you never can prevent the enemy from trying to harm your own troops and often to succeed in this. If you are at war you’ll suffer losses. « Even » the USA had almost 300,000 men killed during WW II (far less than half the total French losses including civilians, which means mainly women and children).

It is well-known by now that Stuka attacks on Allied troops – at least 1940 – were very ineffective. Even very accurate bomb drops were not good enough if a bomb exploded 10 m away from dug-in soldiers, who remained unscathed. There is a famous example reported by a French officer whose unit (hundreds of men) were bombed by HOWLING Stukas for approx. 20 minutes IIRC. When it was over they slowly rose from their holes and shelters. Everybody was convinced that he was the sole survivor but in fact – IIRC – nobody had been killed ! Possibly there were a few wounded, I don’t know. But the PSYCHOLOGICAL effect had been terrific. Those who were shelled by artillery for several days without any serious effect were demoralised by a 10, 20 or 30 minutes’ Stuka attack ! But even this effect disappeared after a while, the troops got used to it and the Stukas were not more terrifying than artillery any more. Stukas often WERE very effective for destroying pin-point, small targets or making them useless : pillboxes (casemates) and the like, bridges, crossroads, railways, troop concentrations in the open etc. They also achieved success, like at Sedan, in forcing French troops to take cover while German troops were attacking and disabling French pillboxes or tanks (without outright destroying them, which was unnecessary).

Actually the main protection of French and British ground troops ought to have been their own, mobile (and also fixed) AA including AA-machine-guns against low-flying E/A. No country in the world could protect all ground troops against air attack at any time with own fighters, this was and is impossible. Even in the 1944 Normandy Campaign German fighter-bombers managed to get through and attack Allied ground forces in spite of over 15,000 Allied planes (including many bombers – which bombed German airfields, aircraft and hideouts in the woods). I think 1940 British troops were well-equipped in AA. The 1940 French had got excellent AA weapons (20 and 25 mm, Bofors 40 mm, 75 mm, 90 mm, machine-guns…) but often too few. In any case it happened only in rare instances during WW II, including in May-June 1940 over France and Benelux, that bombers were forced to abandon their attack competely. You could shoot down part of them but rarely scare them off.

Look here : during ground battles nobody expects the own ground troops to annihilate the enemy entirely, preventing him from inflicting losses on friendly troops. Likewise nobody expects the own artillery to entirely destroy the enemy’s artillery, preventing it from shelling own troops. Everybody would just love that but everybody knows it’s not possible. So why should it be possible, and demanded, in the field of airpower ? Nobody claims that French artillery failed 1914-18 just because German artillery kept shelling Allied troops. Whys should we be harsher to the fighters ? They did fight as best they could, the results prove it (and just ask German bomber veterans – those who survived…).

French AC destroyed on the ground BY GERMAN AIR ATTACKS were never really counted except perhaps on 10 May 1940 but you can make an evaluation, probably about 300. More or less the same number was destroyed by the retreating French (often just because there was no petrol left to fly them away, or they didn't have a spare wheel etc.) or just left behind. These are just rough evaluations.