Arming the Free French Air Force.

[tomo pauk]

Socialism/Communism was a factor in pre-WWII France. The Germans had signed a non-aggression pact with the USSR and were, after all, Socialists, too. The French Left did not want to fight the Germans. And in May 1944 the future editor of the leftist newspaper Le Monde said that the Americans were the greatest danger to France, basically because they were not Socialists.

France was certainly a political quagmire for many decades in 20th century. The far left wanted socialism now, the far right was okay with anti-semitic views.

So how do you keep the country going when you have that kind of attitude among a significant number of the people? An evacuation to North Africa of some of the military forces would have been possible, but recall that the US had to fight those forces during Operation Torch. When the Vichy Air Force in North Africa was reequipped with P-40F's by the US, one pilot promptly flew his Warhawk to Occupied France

If France decided to fight on via evacuating to N.Africa, that means Vichy as we know does not come into existence.
US was not equipping Vichy Air Force.

My high school physics teacher was a USN aviator in WWII and was transferred to Pensacola. Getting his car to his new duty station was a problem and so the captain of a USN tanker headed that way offered to let the car be carried as deck cargo. The tanker was reassigned to Operation Torch and the French shot up his car; when he got it back, it was full of bullet holes and the top had been blown off.

In a shooting war, regardless how short it was, 'soft' vehicles have nasty habit to grow holes in bodywork.

 

[Admiral Beez]

As I see it, De Gaulle could have held Brittany and perhaps Darlan not Petain could have held what became Vichy. Darlan had the balls that Petain didn't. What are we going to equip their Free French Air Force with. So evacuation of factories around Bordeaux should be feasible. IIRC that Means D520. FF can still get Mohawk, Tomahawk, Maryland, Boston. Germans will still get all the way down to Biarritz eventually, although initially they stopped at Bordeaux.
Amiot 351/4. HQ Cherbourg, Cotentin peninsula. Should be able to hold long enough for evacuation of factory.
Bloch Mb 152. SW France. Evacuation, may be feasible, but its North of Bordeaux.
Dewoitine D520. Central France. Should be okay.
LeO 451. South and South East France. Time for evacuation and in Vichy.
MS 406. East and Central France. Again okay, but not essential.
So Free France both Bretagne and Vichy could have made a reasonable collection of modern combat aircraft. Any experts here on factory evacuation?

I'd like to see some of these sent to FIC to counter the Sept. 1940 Japanese invasion. But realistically that's a logistical challenge with a very tight timelime, and necessitates a France Fights On scenario or at least one where FIC refuses to accept Vichy's acceptance of Japanese occupation. As it was, the French with the MS 406 did their best to counter Japanese attacks.

When Japan invaded FIC in Sept 1940 I don't believe the Ki-43 Oscar was in service. So it would be interesting to see what a few squadrons of Dewoitine D520 and Bloch Mb 152 make of the Ki-27 Nate.

As an aside, it's noteworthy how behind the IJAF was in fighters until 1941's intro of the Oscar. Japan's Air Force had no equal to the Spitfire, Bf 109 or D.520 until years after these types were in service. Of course with the Zero, Japan's naval had the best naval fighter in the world by summer 1940, leaving their IJAF brothers behind.