There is an error somewhere.
I know almost nothing on fighter pilot Rolf Pingel but I know that there was a terrific air battle on May 14, 1940, in the Sedan area. Almost 180 aircraft were shot down there on this day (British, German and French aircraft) including by Flak, especially bombers, mainly "Battles".
I started a long thread including precisely on this subject - the air battle of Sedan - in the Allied forum (today on page 1 again). Have a look:
http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showth...t=55141&page=5
Here is a relevant excerpt:
[u]French fighter losses and victories on May 14, 1940/U]
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 III/7----------0 MS 406---------4 Hs 126
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
So on this day alone the 6 Bloch 152 units engaged (corresponding roughly to 12 RAF fighter squadrons) lost at least 13 of these fighters. Add 3 Curtiss H-75s for both types looked very similar in flight and German aircrew including fighter pilots often misidentified one of these types for the other. So the Armée de l'Air lost at least 16 fighters equipped with radial engines on May 14, 1940, in the huge Sedan air battle. 4 more Bloch 152s were lost on May 15.
Today I added 4 Henschel 126 close-recce AC shot down by GC III/7 (Morane 406) in the Sedan area. A "French" (???) nuts claimed that GC III/7's experienced pilots including a captain and several future aces made some terrible mistakes in the course of about 31 minutes and did not shoot down one single Hs 126s but rather 3 RAF Fairey "Battles" and one… twin-engined, twin-fin French bomber LeO 45, and then falsified the official documents in order to conceal their errors (captain Bouvarre too). Peter Cornwell followed this "noted French historian" (sic) blindly and abstained from taking any victory won by GC III/7 on this day into account. I understand he came round in the meantime, understood that this false historian was nuts and regretted his terrible mistakes - but too late. A clear statement by him would be most welcome.
As most of you know the German Hs 126 had a high wing, a radial engine, a conspicuous fixed undercarriage (NOT retractable) and no long, glazed cockpit (it had a crew of 2). It was impossible to think that a Fairey "Battle" was a Hs 126 for it had an inline-engine in a pointed, aerodynamic cowling (like a Hurricane or a Spitfire), a LOW WING, a retractable landing gear and a conspicuous long, glazed cockpit for a crew of 3. I'll make no comment on the big, twin-engined, twin-fin bomber LeO 45 misidentified for a Hs 126... What's more, the mission of GC III/7 lasted for no less than 31 minutes in the battle area and the 7 pilots had plenty of time to look at their quarries and clearly identify them as German with large time intervals, one by one.
On this same day the RAF lost 52 bombers (including 33 "Battles"), the French lost 4 (they lost much more than this on other days). The RAF lost approximately 32 fighters (the full complement of 2 squadrons) and the French 24 various fighters. German losses to RAF fighters and other AC are not known exactly (not to me) but at least 20 is a reasonable evaluation.
So the grand total of aircraft losses in the Sedan air battle on May 14, 1940, is as follows:
52 + 32 = at least 84 British aircraft
24 + 4 = at least 28 French AC
At least 45 German AC were destroyed by French fighters and at least 20 more by RAF fighters, bombers etc.
So the grand total including German losses is AT LEAST 177 aircraft of all kinds. This includes no less than 16 radial-engine French fighters (13 Bloch 152s and 3 Curtiss H-75s). As you know badly damaged AC often came back to base or were otherwise saved but actually they had to be considered unfit for combat or even destroyed. So the loss figures have to be considered the low limits.
As you can see one French unit lost five Bloch 152s and two other units lost three each, which makes Pingel's claims fully possible.
Hence it is fully possible that Pingel really won two victories on Bloch 152s. It is possible too that these victories were overclaims in good faith and were not officially confirmed by RLM, or were actually won victories but not confirmed.
Bloch 151 or 152?
Regrettably Mr. Jochen Prien keeps mentioning all Bloch fighters, be it Bloch 151s or 152s, as "Bloch 151"s (and all French Curtiss fighters as P-36s, which is wrong too for they were very similar Curtiss H-75s). Bloch 151s were clearly inferior as compared with 152s (much lower speed, much weaker armament etc.) and they were not given to first-line units, as far as possible, but a few dozen were for lack (?) of better fighter types and several squadrons (flottilles) of the French Naval Aviation were equipped with 151s, in particular facing menacing Italy. Luckily the much-improved Bloch 152s were MUCH more numerous than 151s. 144 Bloch 151s (20.7 % of the total) and 556 Bloch 152s (79.3 %) were produced before the end of the fighting (I have to look more closely at these figures but they give a good idea of reality) as well as about 10-15 Bloch 155s, a further development of the 152, much improved in all respects (armoured glass-windshield, higher speed etc.). The MB 155, a good fighter, would have been mass-produced in large quantities from July 1940 on. Only a few were used in June, scoring at least one victory.