Air Forces as at Sept 3 1939

Could the French and the RAF have done major damage to Lutwaafe bases in the Western third of Germnay had that been the order given in the first weeks of WW2?

If so would that make an invasion to divert Nazis from Poland have been effectiv?

If both of those things happened might Stalin have just left Poland to the Nazis, or the Nazis to the allies
 
Could the French and the RAF have done major damage to Lutwaafe bases in the Western third of Germnay had that been the order given in the first weeks of WW2?

If so would that make an invasion to divert Nazis from Poland have been effectiv?

If both of those things happened might Stalin have just left Poland to the Nazis, or the Nazis to the allies

the germans only employed 4 gruppen of me-109's against poland... all the others were available for defensive duties; the british tried several raids against german naval bases in this period which were roughly handled by 109's

french and british bombers of the period where not accurate, and the germans at that point had the most developed AA network in the world

their ability to hit a pinpoint target like an airbase was fairly limited... if you want a relevent example; look at their attempts to destroy the bridges over the muese that Guderian erected in May 1940 which lead to Guderian's 2 AA regiments shooting down 252 aircraft over 7 days whilst the British and French inflicted no critical damage on the bridges or anything crossing
 
They might be able to inflict some damage, but the Germans will have home field advantage, so to speak, and Allied aircraft losses will be horrific. Two weeks of that will see their air groups gutted, and the inevitable German offensive will have it that much easier.

A fair example would be August 1940; in one month the Luftwaffe inflicted considerable damage on British airfields at the cost of several hundred aircraft, without appreciably affecting the RAF's ability to respond or making the projected invasion one whit more likely to succeed.
 
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Hoist40

Banned
Also many airbases at this time were just big square, triangular or round areas with grass cover. So damaging them was very difficult. And even the facilities were not that extensive in most case. You might be able to catch some of the planes on the ground but the airbases themselves were very hard to knock out.
 
the germans only employed 4 gruppen of me-109's against poland... all the others were available for defensive duties; the british tried several raids against german naval bases in this period which were roughly handled by 109's

french and british bombers of the period where not accurate, and the germans at that point had the most developed AA network in the world

their ability to hit a pinpoint target like an airbase was fairly limited... if you want a relevent example; look at their attempts to destroy the bridges over the muese that Guderian erected in May 1940 which lead to Guderian's 2 AA regiments shooting down 252 aircraft over 7 days whilst the British and French inflicted no critical damage on the bridges or anything crossing


The Battle and Blenhiem squadrons got slaughterd going after those damn bridges. That doesn't mean though that a properly escorted raid of Wellingtons wouldn't have succeded. The raids against the German ports suffered because they were both in daylight initially, and due to the range unescorted. When they switched to night bombing the Germans struggled to intercept them, didn't help much of course Bomber Command never trained for night ops and were lucky to hit the right country, nevermind the target.
 

Archibald

Banned
The french air force ? no way. From 1938 top priority was given to the fighter command, because it was felt fighters were defensive weapons, much like the Maginot line.
As of September 1939 the Armée de l'Air had very little fast bombers - no more than sixty LeO 451. Everything else was dinosaurs like the old Bloch MB-200, Amiot 143, and Farmans. The Amiot 350 / 354 was a modern bomber that come too late, early 1940.
As for fighter straffing German bases - same issue. Not enough machines as a whole. No reserve.
 
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