Advanced French Fighters vs 1942/1943 contemporaries (9 Viewers)

[OldGeezer]

I too was bought up on inFerial (now called American in computing) measurements but have been using metric since the tail end of the 50's when my school started teaching metric. It is so much easier and more logical than measuring in 128ths or 256ths and having multiple gallons and ounces and miles and so many other measurements that have the same names but different values.

Inches and feet and gallons and pounds got mankind into controlled flight, they won WW2, they took us to the moon and created modern computers and the Internet. Not bad for an "inferior" system.

 

[andy1967]

The question is how long could Germany fight a protracted war against Britain and France without running out of money or resources without plundering France, Greece,Russia Norway and Denmark to name a few. What would happen to German forces in occupied Norway and Denmark?Would they withdraw , be reinforced or defeated by Britain and France which would allow Iron Ore shipments from Sweden to German to be disrupted.Then you have Russia, without the invasion of Russia, would the Russians annex Romania to gain control of the Oil fields.

 

[Steamed_Banana]

It gets very hard to predict what happens after we change a major thing like whether France falls. It's very hard to imagine France managing to hold out though if their military was better organized they probably could have. But in anything like a realistic scenario I can only really imagine a few more months at the most. Unless you reorganized the entire French army.

 

[ThomasP]

Another aspect of 'what if France does not fall when it did historically'.

The French Mediterranean fleet would be available. Not an overall war winner, but many of the problems the British navy faced in the MTO could be minimized. On paper and in theory, the French navy could stand off the Italian navy all by itself. The early-war French fleet combined with the British fleet could (probably would) prevent the Italians & Germans from maintaining any sizable force in North Africa.

?

 

[ThomasP]

Addition to the above.

With France still in the fight, a significant number of airbases would be available in Tunisia - not just Malta. How much would this affect the supply routes?

Most of Sicily would be reachable from airbases in Tunisia (the far side of Sicily is only about 300 miles).

 

[Bretoal2]

With LeO 451 in rapid production (749 ordered, of which 222 were delivered and 54 got into combat units before armistice) their fast ground attack plane the Breguet 693 (224 ordered, 124 delivered, 79 lost in combat before armistice), along with US types (Boston and Maryland), the French had a pretty good bomber force coming online, and with their fighters (including Wildcat, Hawk 75, Tomahawk etc.) having longer range, they could conceivably wage an operational and strategic bombing campaign of their own.

The aircraft consistently overlooked in these lists is the Amiot 351/354.

Yet, it possessed notable qualities and merits—specifically, ease of handling and a design that allowed for rapid construction—areas in which it outperformed the LeO 451. Its offensive and defensive armament were nearly identical to those of its concurrent, as were its performances. In fact, by the spring of 1940, some officials within the French Armée de l'Air were considering shifting a significant number of orders from the LeO 451 to the Amiot.

Before this, the aircraft had greatly suffered from a lack of a stable, finalized design ; throughout 1939, various Air Force evaluation committees repeatedly altered the specifications, effectively bringing progress to a standstill.

Furthermore, Félix Amiot—a private industrialist—faced immense difficulties in re-equipping his facilities with the necessary surfaces and machine tools after having his assets seized under nationalization laws - later, Amiot designed and build his own machines, there are many patents on this subject.

By the spring of 1940, however, his Cherbourg plant had completed the setup of all tooling and jigs. As the German invasion began, Amiot bombers were on the verge of rolling off the assembly line at a rapidly accelerating rate—far exceeding the production levels seen up to that point. It was too late...

 

[yulzari]

Another aspect of 'what if France does not fall when it did historically'.

The French Mediterranean fleet would be available. Not an overall war winner, but many of the problems the British navy faced in the MTO could be minimized. On paper and in theory, the French navy could stand off the Italian navy all by itself. The early-war French fleet combined with the British fleet could (probably would) prevent the Italians & Germans from maintaining any sizable force in North Africa.

?

Indeed, and that was exactly what the Marine Nationale was intended to do had France not fallen. The removal of the French fleet from the Mediterranean was a major factor in Italy joining the Axis and the hazard of the Italians getting their hands on it was a major factor in Operation Catapault.