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A major difference is, of course, that France was in a battle for its existence. No post-WWII US military action was."The French Air Force In 1940: Was It Defeated by the Luftwaffe or by Politics? Note 4"
I believe the same could be said, although to a lesser degree, for the French Army. Note deployment of armor for instance. It wasn't just about faulty doctrine and tactics although that played the larger role.
I also believe that quoted statement could be applied to any US engagement after WWII (although, politics certainly played a huge role there as well).
A major difference is, of course, that France was in a battle for its existence. No post-WWII US military action was.
France had many internal political problems and had so many of its men killed 20 years prior that its potential leadership pool was pretty shallow
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RAF Victories
Hurricane MkI 29
Blenheim MkIV 1
FAF Victories
Curtiss H75 8
Morane 406 7
DeWoitine 520 1
Unkown type 4
The Spitfire doesn't appear in any of your statistics yet the Hurricane suffered. Was it that good it was evading losses?
Dowding called it the Hurricane tap, he was careful to ensure it didn't become a Spitfire tap too.No Spitfire squadrons were deployed to France and hence were not involved in the Battle of France.
It's worth reflecting that the Germans too were fighting for their existence. It's often hard to put oneself in the shoes of the Germans. The anxiety must have been far worse for Germans and the call to desperate action greater. The Germans were engaged in a simultaneous two front war war France, Britain and Poland. The French received massive and direct British Army and RAF help. France had successfully captured 12 German towns and 20km of territory unopposed but for mine field and held them for 6 weeks without a single German solider setting foot in France. They withdrew after the surrender of Poland. They then had 7 months before the German offensive began.
The Germans then had to deal with not only French and British Army and Air forces but the very powerful and large Royal Navy which had a capacity to not only completely cut of Trade in critical raw materials but invade neautrals such as Holland, Belgium, Denmark and Norway denying access to critical for raw materials (Iron Ore) o and the RN, with neutrals denying Luftwaffe over flights could control access of the Germany Navy to the North Sea.
As in WW1 the German Military significantly out performed the Allies with superior tactics, drills and strategies. German Generals in WW1 killed far less of their own soldiers. During WW2 German combat effectiveness ratios were somewhere between 4:1 and 2:1 over the western allies whether on the offense or defense even dealing with the impressively organized US and UK Armies.
The tactics that made this possible were
1 Germans were organized for a fluid aggressive frontline war with frontline commanders empowered to make decisions. A German commander who discovered the enemy was trained to instinctively attack rather than telegram to a central command for a decision. This occasionally lead to needless losses as inferior German forces engaged superior enemy forces. This had been the case at least since the Franco Prussian war but overall it worked better. Nevertheless German Army was well equipped with radios and cryptography gear to communicate . Modell pointed out that an armies success depended on its decision making rate. Guardian pointed out that a bad decision is better than no decision.
This in part comes out of the humiliating defeat Prussia and the German states suffered not only under Napoleon but various French kings. The military and political strategies developed by von Clausewitz are still taught today.
During WW2 French were still sending telegrams to a central command and awaiting a decision, a decision which went through an in and out tray system. Likely to produce well reviewed but completely out of date decisions.
2 The Germans had an 'all or nothing' philosophy because they realized that long terms conflicts do not favor them. Germany is surrounded. Both the Poles and French held back resources and aircraft to preserve them. German aircraft were in front line airfields where they could produce high mission rates. Many Luftwaffe officers had been in the German Army and believed in ground support with a passion. The embedding of Luftwaffe FLAK down to 20mm with the Army maintained a strong connection.
The biggest failure in German history came with the death of Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm I. I don't dislike Wilhem II but he probably only had an IQ of 120 (top 10%) not the staggering intelligence of the first Wilhelm and Bismarck. Bismarck had maintained good relations with Russia. Had this good and friendly and natural relationship between Germany and Russia been maintained it would have countered France and particularly Britain and made the world a far better place.
The Spitfire doesn't appear in any of your statistics yet the Hurricane suffered. Was it that good it was evading losses?
Not sure what you are trying to say here. The MS 406, Hawk 75, Dw 520 and Bloch 151/2 were not used as fighter bombers or night fighters, at least not specifically, as at this point in the war most any fighter was also a night fighter, it just flew at night instead of daytime and hopefully had a few flares it could drop to help illuminate the landing field. obviously actual success at intercepting anything was extremely rare.The French types seem to have first flights 1 year latter than the German ones (36 instead of 35/34) and entry into service around 1938 so they should have been ready but it appears these aircraft were variously equipped as bombers, fighters and night fighters.
The decision to place French aircraft in backline airfields may have been based on a lack of anti aircraft defenses.
The Luftwaffe not only had FLAK for its own airfields but was tasked with advancing with Wehrmacht combat troops with half track towed FLAK 37 8.8cm as well as 2.0cm guns in some cases mounted on the half track.
, that the LW did not enjoy air superiority. British and French fighters were inflicting considerable damage on the Luftwaffe.
The weakness of allied flak, the inherent weakness of low flying level bombers flying tactical support and the ferocious efectiveness of the German flak defences of their front line army formations were what tore the heart out of the allies airborne forces. German flak is known to have shot down 586 allied planes in the first four days of fighting, out of a total loss of six hundred and odd planes
Conversely allied planes inflicted a steady attrition on German bombers.
Principal Source:
The War in the Air- France 1940
AS has been said the Spitfire was not deployed to France and only became involved when the ground fighting came within range of the bases in England. Spitfires were lost over France but not until the last few weeks.
Not sure what you are trying to say here. The MS 406, Hawk 75, Dw 520 and Bloch 151/2 were not used as fighter bombers or night fighters, at least not specifically, as at this point in the war most any fighter was also a night fighter, it just flew at night instead of daytime and hopefully had a few flares it could drop to help illuminate the landing field. obviously actual success at intercepting anything was extremely rare.
Both the British and French armies were woefully deficient in light AA guns, although the Germans use of halftracks is perhaps over stated.
I am not sure how many light AA guns were moved by trucks and German light AA was also the province of the MG 34.
This mount being used on a variety of car and light truck chassis and is one reason the MG 34 and MG 42 had the high cycle rates they did.