Greg Baughen - The Rise and Fall of the French Air Force: French Air Operations and Strategy 1900-1940

Fonthill Media Language Policy

Fonthill Media publishes in the international English language market. One language edition is published worldwide. As there are minor differences in spelling and presentation, especially with regard to American English and British English, a policy is necessary to define which form of English to use. The Fonthill Policy is to use the form of English native to the author. Greg Baughen was born and educated in the United Kingdom; therefore, British English has been adopted in this publication.

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First published in the United Kingdom and the United States of America 2018

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright Greg Baughen 2018

ISBN 978-1-78155-644-3

The right of Greg Baughen to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Typeset in 10pt on 13pt Sabon

Printed and bound in England

Acknowledgements

My thanks to the Staff of the Service Historique de la Defnse (SHD) and the former Service Historique de lArme de LAir (SHAA). Also thanks to the staff of the National Archives, the Imperial War Museum, and RAF Hendon for their help over many decades. Once again, my thanks to Tony Buttler, Phil Butler, and Ian White for their help with finding photographs. Thanks also to my wife, Lynda, for helping out on my visits to Paris.

Contents

Aders twin-engine Avion III on display in Paris in 1908.

Caudron G.3 equipped one squadron on the outbreak of war and was the basis for the twin-engined G.4.

Caudron G.4: Frances first twin-engined combat plane. (Raoul Berthel)

The Caudron R.4: the plane Bars wanted as the standard multi-purpose combat plane.

The Morane-Saulnier Type N, with its armoured deflectors attached to the propeller, was the first fixed-gun single-seater fighter to go into production.

The Nieuport 11 was the outstanding fighter of the early war period. The pilot on the left is the infamous American, Bert Hall, of the Escadrille de La Fayette, a unit of American volunteers with French officers.

Ren Fonck, Frances top fighter ace, in front of the sturdy SPAD S.XIII.

The Morane-Saulnier MoS 27/29 was the lighter, more manoeuvrable alternative to the SPAD.

The Breguet 14 proved to be a versatile and rugged reconnaissance bomber.

The smaller Salmson 2 was an equally rugged, short-range reconnaissance/observation plane.

At the end of the war, some night bomber squadrons were still equipped with the Voisin 10 pusher.

The Caudron C.23 was one of the early, less successful attempts to develop a long-range twin-engined bomber.

The large and cumbersome Amiot 122 was an early twenties attempt to develop a long-range single-engined bomber.

The Lior et Olivier LeO 20 was the first successful French twin-engined bomber.

The remarkable four-engined Schneider Henri-Paul low-level ground attack plane.

In the early twenties, the four-engined Lat 6 multi-seater was seen by many as the multi-purpose combat plane of the future.

The large twin-engined Farman F.63 was used in the low-level attack role during the Rif campaign.

The Army wanted smaller more specialised aircraft like the Breguet 19. (Peyot)

With its rakish lines, the Nieuport-Delage 29 put France at the forefront of fighter development.

The Breguet LE showed a willingness to experiment with low-wing monoplanes and was impressively fast at low altitudes.

The emphasis on performance at altitude resulted in fighters like the Nieuport-Delage NiD.62 but the price paid was relatively low speeds at medium altitudes. (