Dewoitine D.520

The Dewoitine D.520 was a French fighter aircraft that entered service in early 1940, shortly after the opening of World War II. Unlike the Morane-Saulnier M.S.406, which was at that time the Armée de l'Air's most numerous fighter, the Dewoitine D.520 came close to being a match for the latest German types, such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109. It was slower than the Bf 109E but superior in manoeuvrability. Because of a delayed production cycle, only a small number were available for combat with the Luftwaffe.

The D.520 was designed in response to a 1936 requirement from the Armée de l'Air for a fast, modern fighter with a good climbing speed and an armament centred around a 20 mm cannon. At the time the most powerful V 12 liquid cooled engine available in France was the Hispano-Suiza 12Y, which was less powerful, but lighter, than contemporary engines such as the Rolls-Royce Merlin and Daimler-Benz DB 601. Other fighters were designed to meet the specifications but none of them entered service, or entered service in small numbers and too late to play a significant role during the Battle of France.



The Groupe de Chasse I/3 was the first unit to get the D.520, receiving its first aircraft in January 1940. These were unarmed and used for pilot training. In April and May 1940, operational units received 34 production D.520s; the type proving to be very popular with the pilots. In comparative trials on 21 April 1940 at CEMA at Orleans-Bricy against a captured Bf 109E-3, the German aircraft had a 32 km/h (20 mph) speed advantage owing to its more powerful engine. However, the D.520 had superior maneuverability, matching its turning circle, although displaying nasty characteristics when departing and spinning out of the turn repeatedly during the tests. The Bf 109, owing to its slats, could easily sustain the turn on the edge of a stall.



By 10 May 1940, when Germany invaded France and the Low Countries, 228 D.520s had been manufactured, but the Armée de l'Air had only accepted 75, as most others had been sent back to the factory to be retrofitted to the new standard. As a result, only GC I/3 was fully equipped, having 36 aircraft. They met the Luftwaffe on 13 May, shooting down three Henschel Hs 126s and one Heinkel He 111 without loss. Four more Groupes de Chasse and three naval Escadrilles rearmed with the type before France's surrender.

In air combat, mostly against Italians, the Dewoitine 520s claimed 114 air victories, plus 39 probables. Eighty five D.520s were lost. By the armistice at the end of June 1940, 437 D.520s had been built with 351 delivered. After the armistice, 165 D.520s were evacuated to North Africa. GC I/3, II/3, III/3, III/6 and II/7 flew their aircraft to Algeria to avoid capture. Three more, from GC III/7, escaped to Britain and were delivered to the Free French. A total of 153 D.520s remained in mainland France. One of the most successful D.520 pilots was Pierre Le Gloan, who shot down 18 aircraft (four Germans, seven Italian and seven British), scoring all of his kills with the D.520, and ranked as the fourth-highest French ace of the war.

A very small number of D.520s were briefly operated by Free French Forces for training purposes. Along with the three examples that had flown to Britain in June 1940, two other D.520s were recovered from retreating Vichy forces in Rayak, Lebanon. These D.520s were flown by pilots of the Normandie-Niemen unit before the unit was sent to the USSR, where they flew the Yakovlev Yak-1 that had many similarities with the D.520.

After the war, the D.520s that remained in France were used as trainers. One example was field-modified as a two-seater in late 1945. In March 1946, after further experiments, the Armée de l'air ordered a further batch of 20 D.520s to be converted; however, only 13 of these D.520 DC conversions were completed. The last flight of an operational D.520 was made on 3 September 1953 with EPAA (Esquadrille de Presentation de l'Armée de l'Air). Initially this unit had flown Yak-3s, formally of the Normandie-Niemen fighter squadron; these were later replaced with seven D.520s, three of them being two-seaters.


General characteristics

• Crew: 1
• Length: 8.6 m (28 ft 3 in)
• Wingspan: 10.2 m (33 ft 5? in)
• Height: 2.57 m (8 ft 5 in)
• Wing area: 15.87 m² (171 ft²)
• Empty weight: 2,123 kg (4,680 lb)
• Loaded weight: 2,677 kg (5,902 lb)
• Max takeoff weight: 2,785 kg (6,140 lb)
• Powerplant: 1 × Hispano-Suiza 12Y-45 liquid-cooled V12 engine, 690 kW (930 hp)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 560 km/h (302 kn, 347 mph)
• Range: 1,250 km (675 nmi, 777 mi)
• Service ceiling: 10,000 m (33,000 ft)
• Rate of climb: 14.3 m/s (2,820 ft/min)
• Wing loading: 167 kg/m² (34.2 lb/ft²)
• Power/mass: 257 W/kg (0.156 hp/lb)

Armament

• 1 × 20 mm Hispano-Suiza HS.404 (60-round drum) cannon
• 4 × 7.5 mm (0.295 in) MAC 1934 (675 rpg) machine guns

** Dewoitine D.520 - Warbird Fare

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Morane-Saulnier M.S.406

The M.S.406 was a French Armée de l'Air fighter aircraft built by Morane-Saulnier starting in 1938. Numerically it was France's most important fighter during the opening stages of World War II.

Although sturdy and highly maneuverable, it was under-powered and weakly-armed when compared to its contemporaries. Most critically, it was out-performed by the Messerschmitt Bf 109E during the Battle of France. The M.S.406 held its own in the early stages of the war, but when the war restarted in earnest in 1940, 387 were lost in combat or on the ground for 183 kills in return. The type was more successful in the hands of Finnish and Swiss air forces who developed indigenous models.



In late 1930s a war with Germany was clearly looming, and the Armée de l'Air placed an order for 1,000 airframes in March 1938. Morane-Saulnier was unable to produce anywhere near this number at their own factory, so a second line was set up at the nationalized factories of SNCAO at St. Nazaire converted to produce the type. Production began in late 1938, and the first production example flew on 29 January 1939. Deliveries were hampered more by the slow deliveries of the engines than by lack of airframes.

By April 1939, the production lines were delivering six aircraft a day, and when the war opened on 3 September 1939, production was at 11 a day with 535 in service. Production of the M.S.406 ended in March 1940, after the original order for 1,000 had been delivered to the Armée de l'Air, and a further 77 for foreign users. Additional orders for Lithuania and Poland were canceled with the outbreak of the war.

The MS 406 equipped 16 Groupes de Chasse and three Escadrilles in France and overseas, and 12 of the Groupes saw action against the Luftwaffe. The aircraft was very manoeuvrable and could withstand heavy battle damage, but was outclassed by the Bf 109 and losses were heavy. After the armistice, only one Vichy unit, GC. 1/7, was equipped with the MS. 406.

Germany took possession of a large number of M.S.406s and the later M.S.410s. The Luftwaffe used a number for training, and sold off others. Finland purchased additional M.S.406s (as well as a few 406/410 hybrids) from the Germans, while others were passed off to Italy and Croatia. Those still in French hands saw action in Syria against the RAF, and on Madagascar against the Fleet Air Arm. Both Switzerland and Turkey also operated the type; the Swiss actually managing to down a number of both German and Allied aircraft, 1944-1945. During the Pacific campaign, Vichy authorities in French Indochina were engaged in frontier fighting against Thai forces from 1940 to 1943. A number of M.S.406s stationed in Indochina downed Thai fighters before the French Air Force's eventual abandoning of the theatre in March 1943. Some examples of the M.S.406 were captured by the Thai Air Force.


General characteristics

• Crew: one pilot
• Length: 8.17 m (26 ft 9 in)
• Wingspan: 10.62 m (34 ft 10 in)
• Height: 2.71 m (8 ft 10 in)
• Wing area: 17.10 m² (184.06 ft²)
• Empty weight: 1,893 kg (4,173 lb)
• Loaded weight: 2,426 kg (5,348 lb)
• Powerplant: 1 × Hispano-Suiza 12Y31 liquid-cooled V-12, 640 kW (860 hp)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 486 km/h (303 mph) at 5,000 m (16,400 ft)
• Range: 1,000 km (620 mi)
• Rate of climb: 13.0 m/s (2,560 ft/min)
• Wing loading: 141.9 kg/m² (29.1 lb/ft²)
• Power/mass: 260 W/kg (0.16 hp/lb)

Armament

• 1× 20 mm Hispano-Suiza HS.404 cannon
• 2× 7.5 mm MAC 1934 machine guns

** Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 - Warbird Fare

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Potez 630

The Potez 630 and its derivatives were a family of twin-engined aircraft developed for the Armée de l'Air in the late 1930s. The design was a contemporary of the British Bristol Blenheim and the German Messerschmitt Bf 110.

The Potez 630's engines proved so troublesome that most units had re-equipped with the Potez 631 before World War two began. The latter was an ineffectual interceptor, slower than some German bombers and 130 km/h slower than the Bf 109E, although it continued in service until the armistice.




The Potez 633 saw only brief operational service with the Armée de l'Air in Europe when aircraft from two units undertook a sortie near Arras on May 20, 1940; two days later the aircraft was withdrawn from front-line service. The Potez 633 exported to Greece and Romania saw more extensive service, in limited numbers. The Romanians used them against the USSR and the Greeks against Italy. A small number of Potez 633 originally destined for China were commandeered by the French colonial administration in Indo-China and saw limited action in the brief French-Thai War in early 1941.

More than 700 Potez 63.11 were delivered by June 1940, of which more than 220 were destroyed or abandoned, despite the addition of extra machine gun armament; the heaviest losses of any French type. The Potez 63.11 continued in service with the Vichy air force and with the Free French forces in North Africa seeing action with both. Production was resumed under German control and significant numbers appear to have been impressed by the Germans, mostly in liaison and training roles.

All members of the family (possibly except the Potez 63.11) shared pleasant flying characteristics. They were well designed for easy maintenance and later models had a heavy armament for the time. They were also quite attractive aircraft. Although not heavily built they proved capable of absorbing considerable battle damage. Unfortunately the Potez 63 family, like many French aircraft of the time, simply did not have sufficiently powerful engines to endow them with an adequate performance. In the stern test of war they proved easy meat for prowling Messerschmitts, like their British contemporaries the Fairey Battle and Bristol Blenheim. Their similarity to the Bf 110 (twin engines, twin tail, long "glasshouse" canopy) was sufficient that some were apparently lost to "friendly fire".


General characteristics

• Crew: three
• Length: 10.93 m (35 ft 11 in)
• Wingspan: 16.00 m (52 ft 6 in)
• Height: 3.08 m (10 ft 1 in)
• Wing area: 32.7 m² (352 ft²)
• Empty weight: 3,135 kg (6,911 lb)
• Loaded weight: 3,845 kg (8,488 lb)
• Max takeoff weight: 4,530 kg (9,987 lb)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 425 km/h (264 mph)
• Range: 1,500 km (932 miles)
• Service ceiling: 8,500 m (27,885 ft)
• Rate of climb: 500 m/m (1,640 ft/min)
• Wing loading: kg/m² (lb/ft²)

Armament

• 1x fixed, forward-firing 7.5 mm MAC 1934 machine gun
• 1x fixed, rearward-firing 7.5 mm MAC 1934 machine gun
• 1x flexible, rearward-firing 7.5 mm MAC 1934 machine gun
• 4x 50 kg (110 lb) bombs

** Potez 630 - Warbird Fare

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