Armee De l'Air Losses

[Jim Oxley]

Just interested if anyone has figures of total losses by the Armee De l'Air upto the fall of France.

I've found figures for both the Luftwaffe - approx 1,400, and the RAF - approx 1,000.

[Ruy Horta]

According to Blitzkrieg-Legende, by Frieser the loss figures are:

Luftwaffe
1236 (+ 323 damaged)

Armée de l'Air
892

Royal Air Force
1029

Although limited one should add the figures of the Dutch and Belgian AFs too.

Dutch figures from De Luchtverdediging in de meidagen 1940, by Molenaar:

ML
34 ground
43 combat
17 operational
----
94 total lost (of 139 operational a/c)

Luftwaffe losses against Holland

231 100%
+42 >60%
+55 <60%

note the majority of Luftwaffe losses against Holland were Ju 52s

I have no figures for the Belgian AF, at least that I know of.

[Jens]

According to Groehler:

Out of 725 french fighter pilots, 410 were killed or heavy wounded.

[Ruy Horta]

Jens,

According to Paul Martin in his book Invicibles vainqueurs or the later Ils étaient là the French figures are as followed:

Total
Killed: 737
Wounded: 549

Combat:
Killed: 569
Wounded: 465

Fighter pilots:
Killed: 151
Wounded: 191

The total fighter pilot casualties of 342 is significantly less than given by Groehler, but given the source I'll put my money on Martin.

Just to add some color, here are the figures given by Prien et al in Die Jagdgfliegerverbände der Deutschen Luftwaffe Teil 3:

83 KIA or MIA
56 POW (of which 36 returned after the fall of France)
51 WIA

Bf109s damaged or destroyed
284 60-100%
178 10-60%

Jackson gives some differing numbers in Air War over France 1939-40:

Armée de l'Air
total a/c lost 892
total casualties 1493

fighters
250 in action
135 destroyed on ground
123 accidents etc
508 total

fighter crew
187 killed
70 missing
218 wounded
475 total

RAF
AASF 299
Air Component 279
FC 219
BC 166
CC 66

Total losses 1029
Personnel casualties 1526 (KIA, MIA & WIA).

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Martin's Invincibles vainqueurs is the best source on French losses available on the book market but is listing only air losses (no number given for ground losses) and only for first line units. The DAT patrols (territory defences) are not included even if they were combat units.

I have not yet reached this point in French archives (and have no more time to return to SHAAT) so can't give you an overall figure.

To have the complete view of Allied losses, you should also add the naval air arms: French "Aéronavale" and British "Fleet Air Arm". Both should add about 50-100 losses to the total number.

And if you want you can count Switzerland as Allied, as their arcraft fought againts the Luftwaffe several times in June. If I remember well they lost 2 planes.

For Belgian losses, I found on the Net that 53 of the 179 Belgian aircraft were destroyed on 10 May.

[Juha]

Hello,
Peter Taghon’s article 'The Belgian ”Aéronautique Militaire” during the May-June 1940 campaign' in Fighters over France and the Low Countries. Mushroom Model Magazine Special No 5104. Sandomierz 2002. (Pp. 19 – 35) seem to give at least most of the Belgian losses in the text, but sorry, I don’t have time to reread the article and count the losses but the book seems to be good and the articles cover all the combatants (Belgians, Dutch, French, RAF, Polish, Czechs and LW). I think that book is well worth of its price. I paid for it 17€ in 2002 here in Helsinki. There is 152 pages, the last 27 pages are purely photo and colour profile pages and there are at least 150 other photos among the text on those 126 first pages .


Juha

[Jim Oxley]

Excellent information guys, thanks muchly.