TBF Avenger and other planes

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by nic727

List of french aircrafts in WW2 :

Didn't know they used german planes...

Germany built a number of low-performance aircraft (i.e., liaison and trainer) types in French factories after France fell. Additionally, the Luftwaffe had to leave many German built planes behind when France was liberated.

So, in late 1944-45, and in the immediate post-war period, France operated a lot of captured German planes or French-built versions of German designs.

From 1940 on, the Free French Air Force used British and American types. After the war, they retained the best of the lot (e.g., F6F, P-51, Spitfire, Gloster Meteor, A-26 Invader).

So, the Armee de l'Air order of battle for 1945 or for the battles in Vietnam is a very interesting mix of planes, few of them French.

Prior to 1940, France was attempting to use just French-built planes, but when it became obvious that the French aircraft industry wasn't up to the task, they started purchasing from British and American sources. There are so many missing from the IL2 order of battle, that you'd almost need to design a whole new simulation to properly represent them.