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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 1645.PDF
FLIGHT, July 24/A, 1941. a FREE FRENCH AIR FORCE How It Was Formed : Its Growth and Some Exploits : Recruits Still Joining By HENRY BAERLEIN DURING those terrible days inFrance before the signing of the. armistice the greater part of the French Air Force made its way to North Africa, while the ground staff and equipment were despatched from Marseilles and other ports to Algiers and Morocco. It was hoped that the French Empire would con- tinue in the war. But when the decision to the contrary became known to the airmen a good many of them managed to get away to Gibral- tar, Egypt, Malta or Britain. Some of them came in cargo ships, some in any small vessel that was at hand. Others flew in their aeroplanes despite all orders to the contrary and in spite of the risk of being shot down. That was the sad fate of certain of them, for the Spanish machine- guns at La Linea, near Gibraltar, were very active ; but others escaped to Tunis, Syria, Martinique or Indo-China. A typical case was that of the pilots who brought from Algiers the aeroplane that belonged to the Italian Dis- armament Commission ; another interesting example is that of Claude, a naval pilot, whose superb conduct at the front had earned him one of the highest decorations. He hap- pened to be at Casablanca, in Morocco, where he had been put in charge of the aircraft belonging to Admiral d'Harcourt, the commanding officer. Immediately after the parade at which he received his decoration, Claude took to the air and made for Gibraltar. He is now in Britain, preparing for fresh engagements. Of course, what arrived in Britain, pilots and equipment, could not there and then be formed into complete squad- rons, for there was an insufficiency of spare parts, and as yet no homogeneous groups could be constituted. Never- theless, all the aircraft that were serviceable were at once directed either to Aden or to Egypt, where the French pilots joined up with their comrades of the R.A.F. Other French pilots were then trained in British machines, and Not double-crossers, but Westland Lysanders bearing the Cross of Lorraine, theinsignia of the Free French Air Force. the first Free French squadron was sent to Africa on August 30th, 1940, -with equipment furnished by the Air Ministry. These are the squadrons whose exploits in Abyssinia, the Sudan, Egypt and Greece have been re- counted by the B.B.C. Other fighter and bomber squadrons are now being formed in Africa, while young French airmen are being trained in Britain. When their training has been completed, French air crews which have arrived in England are either formed into French squadrons or temporarily attached to British squadrons, or sent to British schools of specialised train- ing. A certain number have joined the French parachute corps formed in this country. If Goebbels proclaims that recruits are no longer coming from France to join up it is only another of his lies. As one example out of a number we may mention that of two young men, each aged twenty-one, who landed a short time ago in England from Occupied France in a German military aeroplane. At the time of the armistice these young men were being trained at a pilots' school in North Africa. They refused to be demobilised, because they believed that one day France would again be in the fight, on the side of the Allies. They asked for leave to go to the unoccupied zone with the intention, once in France, by one means or another, of getting into occupied territoiy to see their families. In this they succeeded and, without Bristol Blenheims of the Free French Sudan Squadron being attended to by African ground crews
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