FP_2015_05_

42 FLYPAST May 2015

194019401940

Strangely, the aero engine industry

• a vital part in aircraft production -
  escaped the process.
  During the summer of 1938
  two events galvanised the French
  Government into awarding
  contracts for new aircraft and
  powerplants – the Munich crisis
  and a highly critical assessment of
  French air
  power
  by the
  air
  force’s

Chief of Staff, Général Joseph

Vuillemin.

What the ministers were asking

for was way beyond the capabilities

of the home industry, so to help

accelerate rearmament, France

also funded facilities in the US for

the production of Curtiss fighters,

Martin and Douglas light bombers

and Pratt & Whitney and Allison

engines.

Concentrated in the north and east

of the country, facing Germany,

the French Air Force was

divided into four

SWIMMING

AGAINST THE TIDE

BATTLE FOR FRANCE

P

olitical and financial

interference hindered France’s

armed forces during the

frantic race to modernise and face

the threat of Nazi Germany. In

February 1935 the Bloch and Potez

companies merged to form Société

Aéronautique du Sud-Ouest and the

enterprise looked set to dominate

the French aircraft industry. It was

not to last long.

Concerned about the re-emergence

of German air power, the secretary

of the French Air Force (l’Armée de

l’Air) ordered the nationalisation

of all the country’s aircraft

manufacturers in March 1936. Six

companies, grouped geographically,

were created.

Below

Members of Panzer-

Regiment 35 at the crash

site of a Lioré et Olivier

451.

42-44_Blitzkrieg_fpSBB.indd 42 13/03/2015 10:11