321
June 29th, 1940
Meknès - The pilots of the Béarn air group begin training on Brewster B-339 and SBC-4 at the fighter school. Among them, a very young pilot, Yvon Lagadec, who had been appointed as a midshipman a few months earlier after passing his "landing qualification".
He had the joy of being released on a B-339.
"Of course, we immediately nicknamed these machines "Belgian Buffalo", which we owed to the understanding of the government of Outre-Quiévrain [1]. But we were delighted. Low-wing monoplane, steel construction, retractable landing gear and closed canopy... In short, real modern aircraft! Even kids like me could see the difference with the dusty biplanes or the parasol monoplane (Dewoitine 373 and 376) which were more like kites and with which the Aéronavale had to be satisfied for a long time. We forgot the terrible news that arrived every day from the front. With these planes, give up the fight (as a rumor had let fear, around June 12th) was no longer an option!"
(Above the Seven Seas - Memories of a Sailor of the Sky, by Rear Admiral Yvon Lagadec, Editions France-Empire)
Soon, thanks to the navalized Brewster B-339s that the Normandie has just landed in crates, the old Béarn will be able to return to the fleet, with a brand new air group.
[1] Remember that these aircraft were originally destined for Belgium. On June 20th, the 48 Brewster B-339 (equivalent of the F2A-2 Buffalo), ordered by Belgium at the end of 1939 and already delivered (to the United States) or being manufactured, were sold by Belgium to France. The French Navy indeed claimed that they could be used to equip its aircraft carrier (the naval groups of the Béarn had been sacrificed to the German advance in May 1940). Three examples, including the prototype, arrived at Bordeaux-Mérignac on May 28th, were evacuated to North Africa and started to be used as operational conversion aircraft for the Aéronavale pilots, while the Normandie transported the 40 other B-339s, refitted in the meantime by the US Navy and Brewster (the operation is very simple) and landed them on June 28th at Casablanca.
Meknès - The pilots of the Béarn air group begin training on Brewster B-339 and SBC-4 at the fighter school. Among them, a very young pilot, Yvon Lagadec, who had been appointed as a midshipman a few months earlier after passing his "landing qualification".
He had the joy of being released on a B-339.
"Of course, we immediately nicknamed these machines "Belgian Buffalo", which we owed to the understanding of the government of Outre-Quiévrain [1]. But we were delighted. Low-wing monoplane, steel construction, retractable landing gear and closed canopy... In short, real modern aircraft! Even kids like me could see the difference with the dusty biplanes or the parasol monoplane (Dewoitine 373 and 376) which were more like kites and with which the Aéronavale had to be satisfied for a long time. We forgot the terrible news that arrived every day from the front. With these planes, give up the fight (as a rumor had let fear, around June 12th) was no longer an option!"
(Above the Seven Seas - Memories of a Sailor of the Sky, by Rear Admiral Yvon Lagadec, Editions France-Empire)
Soon, thanks to the navalized Brewster B-339s that the Normandie has just landed in crates, the old Béarn will be able to return to the fleet, with a brand new air group.
[1] Remember that these aircraft were originally destined for Belgium. On June 20th, the 48 Brewster B-339 (equivalent of the F2A-2 Buffalo), ordered by Belgium at the end of 1939 and already delivered (to the United States) or being manufactured, were sold by Belgium to France. The French Navy indeed claimed that they could be used to equip its aircraft carrier (the naval groups of the Béarn had been sacrificed to the German advance in May 1940). Three examples, including the prototype, arrived at Bordeaux-Mérignac on May 28th, were evacuated to North Africa and started to be used as operational conversion aircraft for the Aéronavale pilots, while the Normandie transported the 40 other B-339s, refitted in the meantime by the US Navy and Brewster (the operation is very simple) and landed them on June 28th at Casablanca.