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Old 11th December 2019, 18:54
rof120 rof120 is offline
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Fighter losses in May 1940 : RAF losses, Armée de l’Air losses

The preceding post gives some details on RAF fighter losses from 10 through 14 May 1940 (the first 5 days of the French Campaign). Let us compare the fighter losses sustained by the RAF and the Armée de l’Air during these 5 days, which include terrible May 14, 1940 (Battle of Sedan).

Fighter losses*

Date------------- RAF-------- Armée de l’Air (AA)
May 10----------16**-------12 + 20 on the ground = 32
May 11---------- 17--------- 16
May 12---------- 15--------- 13
May 13---------- 18--------- 13
May 14 (Sedan) 32--------- 21 + 1 twin-engined Potez 631 - including loss of first 2 D.520s

Totals in 5 days:
RAF 98---------AA 75 plus 1 Potez 631 + 20 on the ground totalling 96


* All figures must be considered minima for many elements are not perfectly known. Among other things, French author Paul Martin raised his loss numbers from 1991 when he published them again 2000, by as much as 56 % for Dewoitine D.520s but this is really exceptional. Other figures were raised by 1 to 18 % (for recce aircraft Potez 63.11). More on this soon, I hope. Provisionally we can imagine more accurate figures if we raise RAF losses by 10 % (but the real figure could be 0 %) and the French figures perhaps by 10-20 %. Wait and see.

** RAF: 16 including 2 lost on the ground at Le Touquet. See Franks’ excellent booklet, top of page 19.

As you possibly noticed British and French fighter losses were more or less even during these first fateful days. In particular on May 14 in the great Sedan (air) battle both air forces made a maximum effort to fight Luftwaffe bombers including Stukas, and inevitably German fighters too. But about 100 RAF fighters were left in France (this figure is just an evaluation and has to be corrected according to evidence) whereas several hundred French fighters of all types were engaged in very hard fighting against German bombers as well as against Me 109s and 110s, which were engaged in a maximum effort too, especially over and around Sedan.

Fighters’ maximum effort

May 14, 1940, saw a maximum effort by the French and British air forces, which is clearly shown by their loss and victory figures as well as the very heavy losses of RAF bombers, and a few French ones, sent to the Sedan cauldron in the futile hope of destroying bridges there. French HQ had noticed at last – but too late – that it was not at all “impossible” to have large units (in fact, seven German armoured divisions with over 41,000 vehicles of all kinds!) cross the allegedly “impenetrable” Ardennes forest. Staff exercises in France had proved that it was indeed possible but this was ignored. This keen but very risky move by the German army was made possible only by the stupidity of French generals and other Army officers who did not even believe a French tank officer when he came back from a reconnaissance flight and reported what he had seen. There was still time to stop the Huns in their tank tracks and create an incredible disaster for Germany. This French observer was laughed at and ridiculed.

The great Pétain (a retired WW I marshal…) and the great general Gamelin and others brilliant generals had stated that crossing the Ardennes forest with large units was “impossible”, forgetting the old Napoleonic phrase “impossible n’est pas français” – it was not German either. Having been unable to act properly the Army generals in full panic tried, as always in similar situations, to change the course of events by throwing all possible aircraft at the enemy – how simple, how clever. Only a few weeks earlier they would have abolished all combat aircraft (which stole the Army’s money) except those produced for (Army) reconnaissance and a few fighters to protect them.

This is why the giant air battle of Sedan took place, mainly from 13 through 15 May, 1940, reaching its climax on May 14 (see above).

At least the following French fighter units (Groupes de chasse or GC) were engaged on May 14 (and most of them on the other days) in the air battle of Sedan. The aircraft complements in brackets were those on May 10. You’ll notice that the aircraft complement of several French fighter units was 32, which corresponds exactly to TWO RAF squadrons; almost all other GCs were near this figure too:

GC I/1 (32 Bloch 152) – II/1 (32 Bloch 152) – II/2 (26 MS 406) – III/2 (26 MS 406) – I/3 (first mission, 34 Dewoitine D.520) – III/3 (28 MS 406) – II/4 (30 Curtiss H-75) – I/5 (32 Curtiss) – II/5 (30 Curtiss) – II/6 (26 MS 406) – III/6 (26 MS 406) – III/7 (30 MS 406) - I/8 (28 Bloch 152) – II/8 (20 Bloch 152) – II/10 (26 Bloch 152) – III/10 (23 Bloch 152)

MS 406 means Morane-Saulnier MS 406, also widely known as “Morane”. MB 152 means (Marcel) Bloch 152. Curtiss means Curtiss H-75, the export version of the USAAF’s Curtiss P-36, which was still deployed (together with P-40s) on Pearl Harbor’s airfields on December 7, 1941: 1 1/2 years later.

So on May 14, 1940 the French air force engaged (on request of GHQ) no less than 16 Groupes de chasse in the battle of Sedan totalling approximately 449 fighters (complement on May 10), possibly up to 19 GCs. This is about twice the aircraft complement of RAF Fighter Command’s 11 Group during the Battle of Britain in July-September (FC’s squadrons were rotated to the front and back). Only 20 GCs were available on this day and 3 more were engaged (too late for Sedan) on May 15 (GC II/3 with 34 D.520s), on May 17 (GCI/6 with 26 MS 406s) and on May 19 (GC II/9 with 26 Bloch 152s) totalling 86 fighters. It is quite possible that more GCs were actually engaged on May 14; right now I don’t have the necessary information (be patient – in a few days or weeks…) but GC III/1 (MS 406s), I/2 (MS 406s), I/4 (32 Curtisses) and III/9 (in Lyon with about 30 Bloch 152s) could have taken part in the fighting too – at least in theory it was possible for obviously the battle on May 14 was of paramount importance so they could have sent a few more units earmarked for the protection of Paris, the lower Seine River (with the cities of Rouen and Le Havre and, among other things, important oil refineries and facilities), Lyon and other important places. This they did with several GCs based in the lower Seine region, which made it possible to send formations of up to 27 Bloch 152s into combat (numerically this was exactly the same number as a whole German Gruppe, taking the serviceability rate of 40 AC into account) and there were other missions with up to about 40 French fighters of different types.

The French air force had got 6 “escadrilles” (flights) of each 12 twin-engined, twin-finned heavy fighters Potez 631, in theory 5 equipped with night fighters and 1 with daylight heavy fighters, but all of them were used almost only in daylight. These AC were much too slow for combat with enemy fighters but they were cannon-armed, a non-negligible factor. Max. speed was 442 km/h as compared to 550-560 for the twin-engined Me 110 (cannon-armed too but the French cannon were much better). One Potez 631 from ECMJ 1/16 was lost on May 14.

French fighter losses and victories on May 14, 1940

Units--------- Losses----------- Victories

GC I/1----------- 1 MB 152-------- 5 Me 110
GC II/1---------- 5 MB 152-------- 2 Ju 87 – 1 Hs 126 – 1 Me 109 – 4 Me 110 (total 8 victories)
GC II/2---------- 1 MS 406-------- none
GC III/2--------- 0 MS 406-------- 3 He 111
GC I/3----------- 2 D.520--------- 2 Do 17 – 2 He 111 – 2 Me 109 – 4 Me 110 totalling 10 victories
GC II/4---------- 1 Curtiss-------- 1 Me 110
GC I/5----------- 1 Curtiss-------- none*
GC II/5---------- 1 Curtiss-------- 1 Me 109 – 2 Me 110
GC II/6---------- 3 MS 406-------- none
GC III/6--------- 1 MS 406-------- 2 He 111
GC I/8----------- 1 MB 152-------- 1 Me 109
GC II/8----------0 MB 152-------- 2 He 111
GC II/10-------- 3 MB 152-------- none
GC III/10--------3 MB 152-------- 1 Do 17 – 5 Me 109
ECMJ 1/16-------1 Potez 631------none

* GC I/5 won no victory on this day (but certainly faced German bombers and fighters). Don’t draw any conclusions for this unit won about 8 victories during the “Phoney War” and 24 more from May 10 through 13, and ended the French Campaign on June 16 (ordered to fly to North Africa like numerous other French units) having won the by very, very far highest number of victories among all 24 GCs: 111 certain or probable victories. The three next best GCs won 77, 76 and 75. These exceptional results were made possible by capitaine Accart’s remarkable qualities as a fighter pilot (15 certain victories), a fighter leader and an ideal officer who gave his pilots the best possible training: his escadrille alone (1/2 Groupe de chasse, corresponding to an RAF flight but with 12 fighters of which a maximum of 9 could fly at the same time, 3 being kept in reserve or undergoing repairs/maintenance) won more than 70 of these 111 victories. In Peter Cornwell’s book TBOFTN, already mentioned in preceding posts, I discovered that 3 more certain victories can be added to Accart’s official score of 12 + 4 probables, reducing the number of "probables" by 1 or 2.

Allied bomber losses on May 14, 1940 (air battle of Sedan) (See Chorley's book on RAF bomber losses; details in the next post below.)

The RAF lost 33 Fairey “Battle” light bombers to German fighters and Flak as well as 17 Bristol “Blenheim” IV light bombers and 2 Handley-Page “Hampden” medium bombers.

The French lost 1 LeO 451 medium bomber, 2 old Amiot 143 and 1 very recent Amiot 354. The French bomber force was still in full development and growing fast.

According to Paul Martin's 1991 figures, which were raised 2000, the Armée de l'air lost - during the entire French Campaign (May 10 - June 24) - 56 light bombers Breguet 691-693, 47 excellent medium bombers LeO 451, 20 Glenn-Martin 167 F, 5 Bloch 200-210, 5 Amiot 351-354 (mass production had only started recently), 14 Douglas DB 7 (the future "Boston"), 5 obsolete Amiot 143, 6 Potez 633 bombers and 2 Farman 222-224 four-engined heavy bombers (total: 160).

If I remember correctly on May 14, 1940, German Flak (possibly together with fighters) claimed the destruction of 73 Allied aircraft but during part of the day only.

Last edited by rof120; 14th December 2019 at 16:50.