Pictorial History of the French Air Force 1909-1940

Description

«Pictorial History of the French Air Force, Vol. 1» by Andre Van Haute covers the period 1909 through May 10, 1940. It offers an excellent, in-depth look at the French air force during its formative years, through the First World War, and the inter-war years. It stops at the «Phony War» just short of the German Blitzkrieg into France on May 10, 1940. The book has an introduction followed by nine chapters. These include: (1) The Start, (2) Getting Organised, (3) The Great War, (4) The Great War: The Second Year, (5) The Great War: 1916-1917, (6) 1917: Changes in Command and Policy, (7) The Final Year: 1918, (8) Postwar Organisation and Events in the Twenties, and (9) The Thirties. The book is loaded with illustrations including photographs and four pages of color plates. It concludes with several appendices. Overall this is a good book to own on the French Air Force. The title of this book (French Air Force 1941-1974) is a little of a misnomer as it actually begins with the Battle of France that was kicked off when Germany invaded France on May 10, 1940. This is the title of the first chapter, which does a generally good job of providing a summary-level overview of the battle. This includes the heroic exploits of French fighter and bomber pilots flying generally inferior equipment to the Germans as well as being numerically overwhelmed. However all was for naught as the situation on the ground and in the air crumbled and France fell on June 24, 1940. Following this the period of the Vichy French Air Force is covered in Chapter 2, as is the Free French Air Force flying with the Allies as well as several fighter squadrons flying for the Soviets. Chapter 3 is entitled «Building up a Post-War Air Force» which covers French participation in the Indo-China war as well as the Algerian rebellion, as well as French Air Force activity in the Cold War period generally. Chapter 4 is a «Post Script» which covers the then-latest developments of the early 1970s. Finally it concludes with several appendices. Overall this is a good summary level book of the French Air Force activities during the period 1940-1974.