Military Air Power in Europe Preparing for War: A Study of European Nations’ Air Forces Leading Up to 1939 by Norman Ridley

Author:Norman Ridley
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi
Tags: Europe, Non-Fiction, Italy, Illustrated, Military History, Poland, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Aviation, History, Soviet Union
ISBN: 9781399066877
Publisher: Air World
Published: 2023-01-23T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

French Air Power before 1939

‘This is not peace. It is an armistice for twenty years.’

French commander-in-chief Marshal Ferdinand

Foch commenting on the Treaty of Versailles.¹

France came early to the table of air power theory with the writings of Clément Ader, an aviation pioneer who had built three ‘bat-like’ flying machines driven by steam power, the first one in 1886. Alongside his machines, Ader wrote a treatise describing three main types of aircraft: éclaireurs (scouts); torpilleurs (bombers); and avions de ligne (aircraft of the line). Predicting the role of an aircraft carrier, he even called for ‘an airplane-carrying vessel [with] all the deck cleared of all obstacles’. His book went through ten editions and the French word for aircraft, ‘avion’, is attributed to him.

Throughout the First World War and during the two decades that followed, all the major European powers had acquired varying levels of experience in aerial warfare, but few had any clear concept of how to enshrine that experience in doctrine. France is an excellent example of how a failure to learn the fundamental lessons from the conflagration relegated it from the pre-eminent air power in Europe in 1918, to one that was destroyed in a matter of weeks during the German invasion in 1940. Its defeat then was the result of a senior military leadership having little understanding of air power and its capabilities. During the First World War, the French aircraft industry and aircraft engine industry had led the world in production and technical efficiency with the introduction of the first supercharged engine as well as the SPAD S.VII and S.XIII fighters and the Breguet XIV bomber and by the last year of that war, they had developed into a superb tactical force adept at supporting ground units with reconnaissance, artillery spotting, close air support, and interdiction attacks. They had even attempted to introduce a strategic dimension to their campaigns but the results were disappointing and did not encourage further exploitation.²

This French ascendency in 1918 had been built on a fine tradition. The French Army had first used a hydrogen-filled reconnaissance balloon, manned by Jean-Marie Joseph Coutelle, to great effect in the Battle of Maubeuge on 23 June 1794 and again on the 26th at Fleurus, making them one of the great pioneers of military aviation. They took to dirigibles with equal enthusiasm and the military had even invested in aircraft prototypes as early as 1891, but withdrew support after a few years of disappointing results. It took displays by the Wright Brothers in 1908 and a record-breaking 100-mile flight by a French Farman aircraft in 1909 to persuade the French Army to return to aviation research and buy two Antoinettes, three Farman biplanes and two Wright biplanes for trials to replace balloons as observation platforms. There was an immediate row between the Artillery, who wanted to retain aircraft for short-range observation, and Engineering branches of the army, who saw a wider, more independent role for aviation ‘without limits’.³ While the Engineers were the more vociferous in

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