The RAF's French Foreign Legion: De Gaulle, the British and the Re-emergence of French Airpower 1940-45This book examines and analyses the relationship between the RAF, the Free French Movement and the French fighter pilots in WWII. A highly significant subject, this has been ignored by academics on both sides of the Channel. This ground-breaking study will fill a significant gap in the historiography of the War. Bennett's painstaking research has unearthed primary source material in both Britain and France including Squadron records, diaries, oral histories and memoirs. In the post-war period the idea of French pilots serving with the RAF seemed anachronistic to both sides. For the French nation the desire to draw a veil over the war years helped to obscure many aspects of the past, and for the British the idea of French pilots did not accord with the myths of the Few to whom so much was owed. Those French pilots who served had to make daring escapes. Classed as deserters they risked court martial and execution if caught. They would play a vital role on D-Day and the battle for control of the skies which followed. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
The Debacle of MayJune 1940 | 6 |
Free France in Africa | 19 |
The Battle of Britain and the 13 Apostles of Charles de Gaulle | 33 |
Growth of the Free French Air Force in 1941 | 45 |
The Birth of 340 Ile de France Squadron | 61 |
War from the Desert to the Atlantic | 73 |
War by Attrition and the Raid on Dieppe | 81 |
Survive Evade Escape | 135 |
DDay Preparation and Execution | 146 |
Liberation | 164 |
War to the Bitter End | 176 |
Aftermath | 191 |
Conclusions | 206 |
Appendices | 217 |
Notes | 235 |
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The RAF's French Foreign Legion: De Gaulle, the British and the Re-emergence ... G. H. Bennett No preview available - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
342 Lorraine Abwehr Air Ministry aircrew airfield Allied Alsace American Andrieux Armée Armée de l'Air armistice army arrived attack August aviation Battle of Britain bomber bombs British Brittany casualties Churchill combat crash D-Day Dakar death Dieppe enemy aircraft England escape FAFL Fayolle Fighter Command fighting fire flak flying Focke-Wulf 190 France Libre Fraval Free French Air Free French airmen Free French forces Free French movement Free French pilots French Air Force French Fighter Pilot French fighter squadrons French headquarters French squadrons Frenchmen Gaulle Gaulle’s German Gibraltar ground crew groupe Hauchemaille Ibid Icare Ile de France Jacques July June killed Lafont landing later London Luftwaffe Middle East military mission Mouchotte Normandie-Niemen Normandy North Africa November officer Operations Record Book parachute Paris Pétain Pierre Clostermann port prisoners RAF squadrons Roosevelt Scheidhauer Scitivaux shot Spitfire targets TNA AIR took Training Units trans troops United Kingdom Valin victory volunteers wing