Best French bomber of the war?

My vote goes to the Amiot 354.

Im enterested in hearing ur planes preferrences and opinions

 

Well, after the He219 you might be surprised to hear that I agree with you.

Having said that both Breguet (the 693 and 695) and Potez (the 633 I think) built some very nice and capable light/recce bombers, but yes, the Amiot was a very good looking and effective plane.

 

True,
The Lioré et Olivier LeO 451 also showed some remarkable characteristics and actually carried a heavier payload than the Amiot. However, the Amiot proved generaly superior to the LeO451.

 

Unfortunately much too few and much too late....

 

And that statement might well serve as the epitaph for the 1940 Armee de l'Air.

 

The French army de lair did accomplish quite alot of objectives during the Air of war in 1940. They downed numerous German planes and further damaged the German capapbility of waging the battle of Britain.

There efforts were not in vain....

 

They were in vain for the 1940 campaign but indeed, french air force + air defence destroyed between 780 and 960 german planes which the german lacked some weeks later over England.

 

Agreed! had it not been by the unexpected speed ot the Gemant thruts into France, and had France had been able to hold out for a few more months(after all, one of the reasons the USSR survived was the sheer inmensity of her territory-) hundreds of new and more potent aircraft would have reached the Armée d lL'Air., whose pilots fought a most gallant fight... The Leo 451 was a most impressive (and gracefull) aircraft..

 

Tough the Armée de l'air was inferior to the Luftwaffe in both, quantity and quality of the planes, it was far from being destroyed(as many believe)when the cease fire occured.
Despite heavy losses(around 800 planes), on 25 th of june, it still consisted of 580 figthers, 300 bombers and 200 recon planes.

The fact that France still had considerable air force and navy(as well as the colonial army)was a major factor in Hitlers decision not to ask for a french capitulation.

 

Well, in terms of fighters, only the MS406 proved to be inferior to the Bf109, all other types (including the Curtiss Hawk 75s) aquitted themselves very well indeed.

 

The figther force wasn't that bad indeed, but the bomber force was a mess, and couldn't take any effect on the ground operations.

 

Agreed - only Germany (and arguably the CCCP) really had an effective tactical bomber force at the time. Plus they had better fighter escort tactics - ie: they had a fighter escort!.

 

The french had some great fighters! The cauldron and some others were really great for their period.

 

I knew the french had a Potez Bomber that was used alot by the Germans after the french surrender.

if i may, on a note about the french navy, my uncle says after the Brits went in a destroyed lots of it (good people) the Vichy French got it. My uncle says they had the fleet parcked of North Africa when Operation Torch started. The Americas told them to get lots before they opened fire, Germany told them to fight. They didn't want to fight the US because we were the US, but they didn't want to tick Hitler off too much. Well, before the French commanders decided what to do, the American fleet just blasted the Frech out of the way. It was the largest navel engagment of the Atlantic.

 

Er, Wspauldo12...
Which engagement was that?

I've never heard of The Americans sinking the Vichy Fleet.
(not saying it didn't happen, just that I am ignorant!)

 

He's right, they did. It was during Operation Torch, the North African landings. Units of the French Navy attempted to oppose the landings at Casablanca and, IIRC, Oran, but were driven off or sunk by Allied air power and naval gunfire.

 

Thanks - more of Ricky's ignorance is removed!

 

My Uncle loves to talk about that. Don't ask why, but he is not very fond of french people.

Wish him well all the same. He comes home for Iraq saturday with the last of the 133 engineers of the Maine state National Gaurd! GO GAURD!

 

During the "torch" landings french navy lost 3 destroyers and 8 submarines during the figthing against the US+ british navies.
The most important fight was between an allied fleet including battleship Massachuchetts against french battleship Jean Bart(which only was fitted with half of it's main armament).

The situation during these landings was rather confusing and the commander of french battle fleet stationed at Toulon, Admiral Count De Laborde begged Pétain to allow him to attack the allied fleet with all his forces.
Fortunately Pétain refused.

Don't ask me why but I am not very fond of your oncle....

 

yeah. People tend to love him or hate him. It goes the same for my uncle brad too.