I've been looking for figures of aircraft losses and claims made during the Battle of France. I guess for the obvious reason that the contemporary records were largely lost the figures seem to be hard to come by.
The following is a quote from another site.
While the Luftwaffe was hard pressed to maintain air superiority, one wonders where the French Air Force was. Looking at the post campaign losses, the Luftwaffe lost 1,284 aircraft. The British RAF losing 931 aircraft, of which 477 were priceless fighters. The Armée de l'Air lost approximately 560 aircraft (235 destroyed on the ground). These figures alone speak the absence of French air power over the front.(3) They also show that Britain went out her way to protect the airspace over France. While the Luftwaffe was terrorizing French troops and actually protecting the flanks of the Panzer armies, the French AASF was nowhere to be seen. Even German fighter pilots noted that most of their air victories were over RAF aircraft.
The implication made rightly or wrongly is the the French Armee de l'Air put up a pretty poor resistance relative to its size and that particularly in the critical northern area a disproportionate effort fell on the RAF.
Does anyone have "definitive" figures for losses/claims during the battle.
The Luftwaffe losses of 1250-1400 must include losses from ground fire, not just from air combat.
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11-16-2007, 01:46 PM
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