[keith A]

I believe the French pilots made their claims honestly, as did the RAF and Belgian airforces, and an element of hope was, as always, included as to the fate of their opponents. The Polish pilots who flew the Caudron CR714 may indeed have shot down several LW aircraft but in the absence of confirmation I sincerely doubt this was the case. The Caudron was underpowered, undergunned and unmanoevreable. The fact that Polish pilots took to the skies in these abominations says a great deal for their bravery. They fought hard, and perhaps if they ganged up on a German bomber would succeed but the Bf109 pilot who was shot down by this aeroplane 9if that ever happened) is not the well-trained, well-armed fighter pilot we know they had in 1940.... by the end of the Battle of Britain, faced with no territorial advantage and a fighter force that at least could match them, this was a very different case. In fact after 1940, although they were defending their conquests and faced with demands on several fronts where they did not have such an advantage the LW was playing with a deck of cards with less aces, and a lot of jokers....