THE CHINA MAIL' FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, NOVEMBER 15, 1940.
The Strength & Weakness Of The French Air Force
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LET us go back in thought to strength and the weakness of the always try to find scapegoats. The
the month of August 1939. French Air Force. Public opinion was then trying to foresee how the Allied armies would renet when faced by the 'German forces. People said: the weak point will be the French Air Force
in
First, in 1936 and 1937, the traditions will enable France to fault, it was said, lies with the credits granted for the Air Force redeem the mistakes and the 'er- Ministers of Air". ..including were less than £50,000,000. These rors of the old and incapable men and credits represented 18 per cent. of who directed her military policy. the author of this article
the whole credits allotted to Na- with the Popular Front.
tional Defence. During this same (World copyright 1940 by "China Everywhere where it was
Rc- action in more or less normal con- The truth is otherwise. At the period, the credits granted to the Mail" and Cooperation.
production, in whole or part ditions, the French Air Force root of our inferiority in the air, British Air Force were between
strictly forbidden). showed itself superior to the Ger- there is an error of military con- two and three times higher, and Events have not confirmed this man Air Force. This superiority ception. We did not have more those granted to the German Air forecast. It is not the German arose from two causes: the worth planes, just as we did not have Force were probably five times; planes which have conquered of the men and the quality of the more tanks, because for too lung higher. It was only in 1938 and France, it is the mechanised and material.
a period our important military 1989 that the credits 'granted to Armoured divisions. It is not the
leaders believed neither in the the French Air Ministry
increased and brought up to weakness of the French Air Force
Air Force nor in tanks.
about £200,000,000: It. will be which has astonished the world. but the weakness of the French
seen how unjust it would he to
Land forces.
Hold the Air Ministers of 1936 and state of 1937 responsible for a affairs against which they them selves unremittingly protested..
and
The worth of the men is unden- iable On the whole, French air- men had a better moulding
The obvious proof of this error better training than the German of conception is provided by the airmen. We must praise not only insufficiency of French anti-air- The weaknesses of our strategie their courage but their technical craft defence. This anti-aircraft The crews defence (and in particular anti- and tactical conceptions, the end military value. archaic character of our arma- were excellent, the young officers the pents, the Insufficiency of train- did wonders. If we except
(which was dis- ing and above all the
of High Command creative_imagination on the part tinctly beneath its task) the chiefs, of our General Staffs have been from: General Tetu down to brought to light on land, rather squadron leaders, were well up to
their job. than in the air.
lack
Following this general observa- tion. we must explain
TOO TIRED TO ENJOY A REST?
the
By M. Pierre Cot
Similarly, the material in sér- the vice at the beginning of the war -
was of good quality. The Potez 63 and the Morane 405, without mentioning the American machi- More ines, did excellent work. casily manoeuvrable than the aircraft artillery) was the province German planes, they enabled our not of the Air Ministry, but of Fairmen to carry out their missions, the Ministry of War,
2w do you feel towards the end of The day enger to get the washing
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So much for the qualities, but let us consider the defects.
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4
The French Air Force suffered from insufficiency in two tions.
If our chiefs of the General Staff had believed in the Air Force, they would have taken measures
attack by
were
Secondly, at the end of 1936, the French Air Ministry created grotips of Air Infantry (parachu- tists). These troops, admirably.
New!
Tho
trained by a most competent of- PENCIL YOU CAN cer, played a successful part in
the manoeuvres. of 1937. In spite
of this, in 1939 the credits neces-
SHARPEN WITH
sary for their maintenance were YOUR THUMB! withdrawn, the greatest of our Just press the top of this new military leaders having said that Eversharp Repeating Pencil and these were merely circus stunts! out comes a new point of just The German use of parachutists the right writing length. And. has proved what the conceptions when one lead is used, just press of our important military leaders the top with your thumb and a were worth where the Air Force new lead shoots into place!; was concerned.
Feeds lead continuously.
*
Fill It Only Twice à Year! The new Eversharp Repeating
to defend their troops and territory In reality,
with insufficient, Pencil holds a six months against aerial-
the means, the French Air Ministry supply of leads for an average enemy. They failed to do this built up a good Air Force. It writer. Just lift the top and direc- because they did not believe in was not the fault of the Air Min- drop them in.
the Air Force. Further: in Dec-istry, nor that of its leaders, if Six beautiful models ember 1936, the Air Ministry sub- the Ministry of National Defence
at your dealer's First, the insufficiency of French mitted to the Higher War Com- and War, on the one hand, and. EVERSHARP SQUARE LEXC un aircraft defence. Most of mittee a plan providing that the the Chief of the General Staff, one sted, that ate tile penoll- the airfields were not sufficiently anti-aircraft defence services the other hand, refused from 1936 is any stephanical pencil protected against enemy air,
at should be doubled. The "Com- to 1930 to believe in the Air tack. The same state of things mittee considered that there Was Force, from 1936 to 1989 to inake applied in the case of French fac-
no need to take this plán mto sufficient effort in anti-aircraft defence, and from 1938 to 1940. turies, towns, bridges and railway consideration. stations. We lacked anti-aircraft
to believe in parachute-troops artillery.
། དས་༴་མོ་རྣས་ཝཾཔཙི But let us leave anti-aircraft defence and come to the Air Force properly so called.
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All French authorities bear their part of responsibility in the French debacle. But the heaviest res- ponsibility remains that of anilit
Beycheverite bladkos
and swgather,
EVERSHARP
ALD TOP
taste by thb fikirs of £o. Lámat. Wäld-Eytralorp Ten the only pen sib Set Fit Points
my chiefs who were too old, who VERSHARP.
This resulted in two weaknesses for our Air Force: at the airfields we lost far too many planes on the ground and in the land battles against the armoured units or the
It was not until 1938, that is to prepared for a war on the lines of German columns our Air Force, hindered by the excellent German say, too late. that the French 1918, instead of boldly adopting General Staff appears to have those. modern maments, the realised the importance of the Air aeroplane and the tank, on which Force. Up to this time, it had our enemies built up their Army. invariably preferred to devote to and based their strategy. the land forces and to the Maginot Line the credits voted by, Parlia- ment. The following facts show this.
defence, could not take part as effectively as did the German Air Force' against our own troops.
man
Secondly, our Air Force was a great deal smaller than the Ger- Air Force, Undoubtedly France had the right to count on the support of the R.A.F. This (1) The French Air Force was support was given generously. It created in April 1933. Before this exceeded the anticipations of the date, France had only a coopera- General Staffs, and all Frenchmen tive air arm, an auxillary force at are grateful for the admirable tached to the land forces. efforts of the British airmen in creation of the Air Force was de defending French towns and cided upon against the advice of Generál Staff, French troops. But in the whole the Chief of the
The
French military, machine, the Air who was then General Woytand. Force, like the tanks, represented
too small a part
Let us seek the causes of this double inferiority.
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(2). In June 1936, the plan for organising the Air Force, drawn up by the military authorit
les, provided for a force of 1,000 first-line 'plands with 20 per cent.. Vin reserve, making 窳 total of
As always in France, an effort 1,200 machines. This plan was
has been made, to fix the respon- only carried out to half its ex-
sibility politically: The French tent. By August of that year, in
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reply to the German effort, we Thad, adopted a 'plan for 1,300 first-line planes with 40 per cent. in reserve, that is a total of 2,400) 'planes to be built in three years. In addition, in December 1936, the Ministry of Air laid; a s pro- posal before the Higher War Com- mittee to double this 'plan (and to double the anti-aircraft artil-i Tery). By a decision of January. 1937, the Higher War Committed Préfused to consider this Increase: of the Air Force. It was midt'un- til the spring of 1938 that scheme could be taken up again
the
(3) In August 1937, the Min- istry of Air had its requests for credits cut by 20 per cent, try the Ministry of Finance.
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i k
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We could quote other instances. But these are suincient to show that up to 1988 nothing/coħald¬ crable or in ehrrest wash-under-!| taken to reply to the German hir effort, und that, despite the pfforts and the requests of the Air Ministry.
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Two observations will complete this impressiott:
Let us hope that in the future, chiefs who are young and worthy of the French people and French
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