The Rise and Fall of the French Air Force: French Air Operations and Strategy 1900-1940 - Couverture rigide

Baughen, Greg

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 178155644X ISBN 13 : 9781781556443

Editeur : Fonthill Media Ltd, 2017

Synopsis

On 10 May 1940, the French possessed one of the largest air forces in the world. On paper, it was nearly as strong as the RAF. Six weeks later, France had been defeated. For a struggling French Army desperately looking for air support, the skies seemed empty of friendly planes. In the decades that followed, the debate raged. Were there unused stockpiles of planes? Were French aircraft really so inferior? Baughen examines the myths that surround the French defeat. He explains how at the end of the First World War, the French had possessed the most effective air force in the world, only for the lessons learned to be forgotten. Instead, air policy was guided by radical theories that predicted air power alone would decide future wars. Baughen traces some of the problems back to the very earliest days of French aviation. He describes the mistakes and bad luck that dogged the French efforts to modernise their air force in the twenties and thirties. He examines how decisions made just months before the German attack further weakened the air force. Yet defeat was not inevitable. If better use had been made of the planes that were available, the result might have been different.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Greg Baughen (www.facebook.com/gregbaughen) has been researching the history of British and French air forces for over forty years. The project has involved delving through countless official files in London and Paris. His initial aim was to reassess the strengths and weaknesses of both air forces in the battles of 1940. This inevitably led to looking at how air power evolved in both countries. More recent research has taken his study of British air power into the thermonuclear age. Retirement has finally provided the time to turn this research into books. The first three in the series, "Blueprint for Victory", "The Rise of the Bomber" and "The RAF in the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain" have been published. He has also written a reappraisal of the operational career of the Fairey Battle. "The Rise and Fall of the French Air Force - 1900-1940" will be published in November 2017. This will complete the study of Allied air power in the 1940 campaigns in Europe. Subsequent books in the series will study how the RAF developed during the Second World War and how the force dealt with the challenges of the thermonuclear age. Some of the themes in his books now provide the basis for a series of lectures on various aspects of British military aviation. Baughen has also published articles in RAF Air Power Review, Air Britain's Aeromilitaria and The Aviation Historian. Show Less

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Fonthill Media Ltd
• Date d'édition: 2017
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 178155644X
• ISBN 13: 9781781556443
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 320
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible