Book on French AF 1939-40?

[The_Catman]

Hi

Thanks Juha, but the book is probably not easy to find.

Reter, your book looks exactly the sort of thing I am looking for, but unfortunatley my interest won't quite reach to the price. I am sure it is excellent value for money to someone with a serious interest in the events and period, but as i have amore casual interest I will have to have a look for it in a couple of years time.

Regards
Alex

[Peter Cornwell]

Alex,

Understood. Try your local Reference Library - it may hold a copy.

[Tango Echo Dog]

Alex
The French Air Force had numerous problems; fragmented command, poor pre-war training which emphasised daylight/fair-weather operations (but then so did the RAF) and a failure to achieve maximum effort, especially the fighter units which rarely seemed to average more than one or two sorties per pilot per day.
The French certainly used a great deal of comint and appear to have had their own Ultra system for they (and the British) had lots of notice of Unternehmen 'P' (Paula). They were helped by poor Luftwaffe signals security in which an Enigma signal clearly stating that Object P was Paris was sent to one Kampfgeschwader. The French also had a form of airborne early warning with Potez 631s tracking enemy bomber formations targeting Paris and providing a running commentry. The British had extended their RDF system into northern France and had begun handing over stations and sets to the French during the spring.
If you really want to know about the French Air Force go to the Chateau de Vincennes and the air force archives. Even if you speak poor French you can get by and the staff are very helpful.
I agree about Invisibles Vainquers and there is a useful background book 'The Forgotten Air Force: French air doctrine in the 1930s' by Anthony Christopher Cain. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington/London, 2002 ISBN 1-58834-010-4 which you might be able to order through your local library. There is a book shop specialising in aviation in Paris with loads of French language books but I have forgotten the name and address. I am sure other members will be able to help you.
Tango Echo Dog

The whole "ULTRA" deciphering activity in Britain, which provided the Allies with incredibly important and useful intelligence, started in Poland thanks to the Polish secret service (I presume) and in particular a young Polish mathematician who was a genius and a member of the team. They had performed all the fundamental and the most important work already when Poland was invaded. They passed the whole thing to the French, who continued the work already 1939 with the help of some Polish experts and kept the British entirely informed, with some British officers taking part in the ongoing work. Numerous German messages were decrypted already albeit they were only a small fraction of the whole coded radio traffic. They probably decrypted some decisive messages on operation "Paula" but I understand at least the French had a well-placed German agent in Luftwaffe headquarters, too (Schmidt; I think he was a relative of LW general Schmidt). Britain certainly had some good agents in Germany too.

When France was invaded too obviously the whole Enigma-business was passed on to the British, who further refined and developed it, hence Bletcheley Park etc.

There is no doubt that all this remarkable activity was started by Polish experts.

You see, it is fully possible to discuss Poland and France at the same time without wholesale insulting a whole country or a whole air force. That's a relief!