Seeking *reliable* sources for French AF ops 1936-June 1940

[Laurent Rizzotti]

I agree that French pilots shot down tens of Stukas and hundreds of Heinkels/Dorniers/Junkers. When a French (or a British for that matter) managed to fly close by a Stuka unit it usually suffered a lot, exactly like they did during BoB later. But the fact is that many German raids on the frontline weren't intercepted at all. Raids on rear positions (airfields, railways and so on) were more often intercepted.

The Allied bomber casualty rate was far greater than the German one. One of the reasons is that German Flak was far better than Allied AA but German fighter pilots also fly more missions than French pilots.

I agree that bombing is mostly inefficient against tanks or dug-in troops... except the pyschological impact, that was very important in the Stuka case. Bombing on moving units or trains is far more efficient and many French units were hurt like that.

To be precise, no airforce in 1940 was able to protect his Army the way the USAAF and RAF were able to cover Normandy in 1944. But the Luftwaffe had never to do that as the Allied hadn't the possibility to bomb efficiently German troops.