Lionel
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Originally Posted by Petitpoucet
France wanted the peace and was not prepared to the war, especially the civil population. In the army, it was not the same. They were professionnal and there were also really great french pilots, with the same motivation. It cannot be a generality, this is just why i'm not agree with you.
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Well, we talk about majority of Polish accounts from the French Campaign. Of course there were some exceptions, but we have to generalise, sometimes. Another reason, could be French society was highly communised, and it was know that communists supported Hitler in this period.
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As i said to you, GC III/2 was not the best example of a french flying unit. Motivation was one of the lacks of the squadron leaders, so i'm not really surprised. I also read the war diary of another "young pilot" (a sub-officer, René Pizon), and i saw approximately the same things.
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The problem is that it was not unique. Just off my head, GC I/55 suffered of low moral-fibre as well. Some nasty comments about GC II/10 too.
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But as you said, this is one hand. I another hand, i can speak hours about the GC I/5. Accart, Dorance, Marin-La-Meslée, Vasatko, Perina, Morel .....
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No Poles, so no Polish accounts. Perhaps David can expand a little on this unit.
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I also liked what you said about lack of discipline, to conclude that Fejfar was killed when he deliberately leaved his squadron ...
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Many disciplined pilots did. It was a stress or hot shot. Nonetheless those were individual actions, and not that common. I would say that problems of French pilots were of different nature, at least concluding from various stories.
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But how Polish and Czech pilots would have not been critical against a country that lost the war ?
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I cannot say for Czechs, but Poles seriously disliked the style of the Campaign. Further, they were most angry finding Frenchmen very eager to disarm them, and this led to further hate. Really, it is not the case of single accounts.
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June 3rd 1940 : Arnaud Gillet made a huge work, and be sure that there were no Dornier 17s detached to ground units !
Adj Benausse, A/C Balmer and Sgt Karubin attacked a flight of Do 17s from I./KG 76 near Ham (Somme). They claimed one sure each, but there were just three Dorniers ... damaged. No one seems to have been confirmed.
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The quotation of Zumbach's entry is as follows:
'Finally, we have got the Jerries, cpl Karubin hit one, but unfortunately it was credited to wt off Balmer, who fired a little from the distance of 1 km. It made us very bitter, but what else could have we do.'
I think it is self explanatory quote. I am surprised to read that Karubin was credited with the victory, especially as Polish pilots did not know about it. Hence my question about Gillet's sources.