Deleted member 1487
'Course when they did come out to play they got slaughtered:It's important that while people can and do talk about tactics making a difference to the fall of France what was actually needed (and no tactical change can fix this) is doctrinal adjustment in the French air force.
If the French air force fighters can commit half their planes to the front and sortie twice a day and a third of the time when they sortie be in the right bit air space we can talk tactics. This isn't asking for a miracle. It's asking for a similar sortie rate to that achieved by the raf. It's significantly less than the sortie rate achieved by the Luftwaffe (high but they were all or nothing) drag the battle on for another 3 months and they would have over stretched their logistics and their sortie rate would have fallen.
If you can't do this then it's fun to talk tactics but no matter how much you talk tactics you will end up with the same result.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sedan_(1940)#Allied_air_strikes
And?Wiking,
The weight of ordnance that could be put on the ground in 1940 was nothing compared to 1944.
And they were all defeated and routed out of France in 3 months with German forces in the west shattered.And in 1944, there were still counter-offensives by the side that did not have air superiority.
If I have the Luftwaffe, I also have their aerial recon and courier system, so I have a clear picture of what is going on with hourly updates. I can direct my attack aircraft against you at will and have the benefit of the Luftwaffe AAA system (air defense on the ground was largely a Luftwaffe domain, not a Heer one). You never cross the Meuse and if anything are smashed before you get the majority of your forces through the Ardennes. When the German army approaches me with armistice request, I demand Hitler's head on a platter and parade through Berlin."Remove that air support component and the ability to win on the ground for the German in 1940 is not there."
Yeah, ok. Lets play.
You have the Luftwaffe of 1940 and the French Army of 1940, and I have the AAS of 1940 and the German Army of 1940.
I'm punching through the Ardennes with Sickle-Cut, and you're waiting two days for the couriers to arrive with where to send the orders of where to send the air.
Have fun with that.
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