[rof120]

In my preceding post (above Stig Jarlevik's) I remarked that J. Prien systematically mentioned "Bloch 151s" instead of the much better and much more numerous Bloch 152s (see JFV, purple cover, volume # 3). Sorry but my memory possibly failed me for I now wonder if Prien mentioned Bloch 150s not 151. I'm not sure (my copy of this book is still buried in some ol' moving box in spite of my heroic efforts to unearth it - they should award me at least the VC for this).

I still believe that Pingel could perfectly well have shot down two (2) MB 152s on May 14, 1940, in the Sedan area. A total of 13 fighters of this type were shot down there on this day. Conversely Bloch 152s belonging to 6 Groupes de chasse or GCs (each having a fighter complément of about twice an RAF squadron) shot down at least 16 German fighters: 7 Me 109s and 9 Me 110s, as well as 6 other German AC types: 2 Ju 87s "Stuka", 1 Hs 126, 2 He 111, 1 Do17.

CORRECTION:

I discovered that most GCs equipped with Bloch 152s had not got 25-36 aircraft but rather approximately 20-26.

So on this day, in numerous fierce air battles, Bloch 152s lost at least 13 of their number and shot down at least 16 German fighters and 6 other German AC. This fighter type was clearly not as good as the Me 109 E but obviously this does not mean that it was quite useless… The high proportion of German fighters shot down vs other types can most probably be explained by the fact that the German fighters were protecting their own bombers against Allied fighters (their presence there had no other purpose) and attacked these on any occasion but at a cost.

MB is short for Marcel Bloch (after WW II he changed his name to Marcel DASSAULT.). By 1940 he had created about half a dozen modern aircraft, of which most were absolujtely remarkable designs and gave an excellent account of themselves in combat: Bloch 152, 155 (a strongly improved 152) and 157 (1940 a fighter prototype with astounding performance like a top speed over 700 km/h measured later under German supervision; see William Green's booklet), Bloch 174, 175, 176 and 178 twin-engine recce, light bomber or assault AC (each new type being improved). As a Jew Marcel Bloch was sent by the Germans into a concentration (death) camp in Germany because he had refused to work for the German aero-industry (what a luck for the Allies). They offered to make him an "honorary Aryan" (= non-Jew, a white "nordic" person) - how ridiculous can nazis get? Other French inmates managed to make sure that he would survive because he was so important to his country and they succeeded in this. After WW II he designed the very succesful fighters Ouragan, Mystère IV, Mirage III, Mirage F1, Mirage 2000 and Rafale, thousands of which were/are used by many countries in the whole world including South America, Israel, India, Egypt and more.

The MB 152 fighter was not perfect yet (the 155 succeeded it and began equipping fighter units; it was still slightly too slow but as a whole nearly perfect) but clearly aircraft design genius Marcel Bloch had given it some excellent features even though the Me 109 was clearly better (not against Bloch 155, Arsenal VG-33 and Dewoitine 520 any more). The Sedan air battle on May 14, 1940, is an excellent example for this: Bloch 152s suffered some non-negligible losses but as a whole they put up a very good fight and shot down more German "superfighters" than they lost themselves. The MB 152 had still somewhat insufficient performance in speed etc. but this was the result of its engine's insufficient power. Marcel Bloch never designed nor produced any aero-engines (other aircraft firms in France and the UK did not either) so he was not responsible for this and his aircraft became remarkable as soon as they received good engines (Bloch 174-175-176 alresady 1940, Bloch 155 also 1940, etc.).

As compared with Bloch 151s about four times more Bloch 152s were produced (they were significantly better than 151s): approximately 556 MB 152s (roughly 79 %) vs approx. 144 MB 151s (21 %). As far as possible only 152s were sent into combat (but this was not always possible yet).

A short sidenote: even today's successful French fighter "Rafale", which is competing with all other top combat AC in the world, was designed by Marcel Bloch/Dassault before his death. He watched her roll-out and her first official presentation.