[Empiricist]

Hi again

Thank you very much for your reply. I agree that the situation in that case is not simple to describe it and the US data do not help too much in order to verify Vichy pilots possible kills. Hard to say what it was – shooting down or strafing the C-47s during their approach? The US Army War College has an interesting memoir of famous US paratrooper Lt. Gen. William P. Yarborough who was on board of one of the C-47s attacked by the D.520s. Maj. Yarborough was G-3 then in Gen. Mark Clark’s staff and he took part in this US fiasco. He told after the war:

We flew very low for a lot of reasons and consequently when we were attacked by the three Dewoitine fighters, we didn’t have far to go to hit the ground but it was enough to wash out the landing gear on the airplane I was in. We were hit broadside by the first pass of the Vichy fighters. And they made two passes, I guess. While we were in the air and they hit something every time they came over and then when we hit the ground, they flew over us one final time and peppered us as we lay on the ground there. The airplanes were a complete loss for a lot of reasons.

That is why it is hard to say what kind of victories had D.520 pilots. Many times I am not a follower of the US manner of describing the Troop Carrier-type aviation heavy losses during WWII none the less it would be extremely hard to call it “air victories” what happened over(?) / on(?) Sebkra d'Oran dry lake.

We have to remember about scale factor. In the Operation Torch circumstances an air drop of 550 paras was "giant" operation. It is not the scale of the ETO airborne actions. Shooting down five C-47s full of the GIs would be air massacre impossible to hold it under cover to date. It would be a massacre with approx. 140 killed paras at once [5 x 28]. As I wrote I hate the USAAF Troop Carrier Command methods to give general public selective loss data but on the other hand democratic system of the USA would protest against embargoed information on five downed C-47s because in the relatively small scale of Operation Torch it would be one of the greatest drama. The GIs’ families would protest against Pentagon and its treating history as a manipulation. Therefore I think that D.520 pilots’ victories are not classic kills, or if you like air victories, but a kind of on-ground destroying the C-47s with average US paratroopers loss. I do not defend my opinion as independence however – all other opinions are welcomed.

BTW -- the US revenge against G.C. III/3 came next day. What was the US paras fiasco (i.e. capturing Oran-La Sénia air base) it was elite 1st Infantry Division “Big Red One” success. The part of G.C. III/3 escaped from its base but other part of the D.520s fleet was destroyed on the ground -- who knows maybe the aircraft attacking the Americans at Sebkra d'Oran were among them? The US Army Signal Corps companies took various pictorials of captured airfields in North Africa. If I am not mistaken the pic I posted below was taken by the US 1st ID at La Sénia air base and it shows a D.520 destroyed over there. I count on the French forumers verification of this pic but digit “5” seems to be G.C. III/3 style. If I am wrong feel free to correct it.

Thank you very much for interesting discuss.

Warm regards

E.