French Airforce on English soil May & June 1940...

[Laurent Rizzotti]

I was mistaken in the post above. GC II/8 was using BLoch 152, not Curtiss.

At least in one circunstance during its British stay, GC II/8 escorted a Potez 63.11 of GR I/14. This recon unit was based in Caen during the period.

As for the involvement of the Aéronautique Navale, the British proposed the fRench to use Tangmere airfield on 25 May and the Vought 156F of escadrille AB3 were planned to be based there to operate over Dunkirk but never crossed the Channel.

There was still one Aéronautique Navale mission flown from GB. On 1 June, the escadrille AB1 was ordered to bombard a battery near Furnes. 6 V.156F led by by the lieutenant de vaisseau Mesny landed in Tangmere at 6 a.m. In the late evening, they took off again and crossed the Channel to bomb their target, but due to the Flak and lack of data on the target launched their bombs in the general target area without any efficiency. One aircraft (flown by Mesny) landed in Hawkinge, another in Lympne and the four other came back directly to Cherbourg, the base of AB1.