BOB a mistake ? --- The Battle of France

[HarryKlein]

There is a really good book that might interest some people, called
"The Sacrifice The complete story of the Breguet 693's during the Battle of France"

It's a bilingual edition Franco-English

[X]

I'll get it, thanks Harry.

[Asheshouse]

These are taken from Assignment to Catastrophe Vol 1, Sir E Spears, 1954. Edward Spears was appointed by Churchill in 1940 to act to provide liaison between himself and the French High Command and speaks with first hand knowledge or quotes direct from source.

Initial RAF strength 6 fighter squadrons, 10 light bomber squadrons and 9 army cooperation squadrons. These totalled 96 fighters, 160 light bombers and 160 aircraft of other types.

These were reinforced after the German attack by 4 further fighter squadrons raising the total fighters based in France to 160.

A further 192 UK based fighters operated over France, using French airfields to refuel and rearm. Further numbers of UK based Bomber Command aircraft were involved. (392 - E.R. Hooton) In addition there were replacements for aircraft losses sent to the squadrons based in France.

RAF lost a total of 959 aircraft of which 477 were fighters. 1192 personnel were lost. These figures appear to cover both Phase I (the breakthrough in the north) and Phase II (advance from the Somme).

Approx numbers of each aircraft type based in France are:
( source: http://france1940.free.fr/uk/raf_may.html )

Hawker Hurricane MkI 144
Gloster Gladiator MkII 16
Bristol Blenheim MkI 32
Bristol Blenheim MkIV 96
Fairey Battle 144
Westland Lysanders 80
de Havilland Dragon Rapide 16

Speaking at a meeting of the Supreme War Council in Paris on 31st May 1940 the French Premier, Paul Reynaud, stated that "he, his government, and his country were profoundly grateful for the magnificent support afforded to the French Armies by the RAF".

[FlatSpinMan]

[Asheshouse]

Very atmospheric screenshots Flatspin.

Is your campaign ready yet?
I guess those are shots of Dunkirk?

Are you just covering RAF missions or is there also some French involvement?

[FlatSpinMan]

Cheers Asheshouse, just adding some visual support to the thread.
Campaign should be out before Xmas and Im afraid is only from the RAF perspective. I have lots of French flights in the air in different missions so that if anyone wants to fly from that point of view it'll be quite easy to change the missions (it would require some rerouting of flight paths of course).
Yes, the shots below are from the Dunkirk missions. The campaign will take the player from the Phoney War through to the end of the British involvement. It's based loosely on Paul Richey's book, among other things, but is not an historical account. This allows me more leeway in making missions.

[Asheshouse]

I dont know a great deal about the Armee de l'Air involvement but the daylight raid by the Amiot 143's on the Sedan bridgehead comes to mind. You could probably make a passable recreation of that mission using the TB-3, suitably skinned. Lots of fighter support options. -- Maybe too many engines but it would "feel" right I think.

Operationally, units equipped with the Amiot 143 performed with distinction. The eight squadrons flew 551 night bombing sorties between 10 May and 16 June and lost only twelve aircraft. In addition, six of the squadrons furnished thirteen aircraft for one desperate daylight mission on 14 June against German bridges and vehicular traffic approaching Sedan. A strong fighter escort kept the loss to three Amiots.

I presume this was a high level attack, hence the low losses relative to the huge RAF losses on the Albert Canal bridges attack which were carried out at low level. I haven't read of any disruption caused by this attack from the German perspective.

quote from http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/a.../kirkland.html
taken from, Colonel Pierre Paquier, L'aviation de bombardment française (Paris: Berger-Levrault, 194, pp. 208-49

[FlatSpinMan]

Actually I've been looking for just such a skin but so far to no avail. Thanks fort the mission info though - didn't know that so I'll try and work that in.

[Spectrum]

Rumour has it that there is a Battle of France map being worked on.

[Vigilant]

Where'd you get that map from Spectrum?