The Free French Air Forces (, FAFL) were the air arm of the Free French Forces in the Second World War, created by Charles de Gaulle in 1940. The designation ceased to exist in 1943 when the Free French Forces merged with General Giraud's forces. The name was still in common use however, until the liberation of France in 1944, when they became the French Air Army. Martial Henri Valin commanded them from 1941 to 1944, then stayed on to command the Air Army.
French North Africa (1940–1943)
On 17 June 1940, five days before the signing of the Franco-German Armistice, the first exodus of 10 airmen took flight from Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport to England. Others rallied to General Charles de Gaulle from France and French North Africa between June 1940 and November 1942. A contingent of volunteers from South American countries such as Uruguay, Argentina and Chile was also created, as Free French officials recruited there personally. From a strength of 500 in July 1940, the ranks of the FAFL grew to 900 by 1941, including 200 flyers. A total of 276 of these flyers were stationed in England, and 604 were stationed in overseas theaters of operation. In the summer of 1940 General de Gaulle named then-Colonel Martial Henri Valin as commander-in-chief of the FAFL. Valin was at the French military mission in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at the time of his appointment and he had to complete his assignment there by February 1941. It took him 45 days to get to London to see de Gaulle and it was not until 9 July that Valin formally took office, taking over from the caretaker commander, Admiral Emile Muselier.
All FAFL aircraft were identified differently from those of the Vichy French air force, which continued to use the pre-war tricolor roundel. In order to distinguish their allegiance from that of Vichy France, the Cross of Lorraine - a cross with two parallel horizontal arms, with the lower arm slightly longer than the upper one - was the symbol of Free France chosen by Charles de Gaulle. The cross could be seen in the same places on FAFL aircraft where the roundels had been on all French military aircraft, that is, on the fuselage and upper and lower surfaces of the wings. The FAFL was formed with one “mixed” unit at RAF Odiham on August 29, 1940, under the command of Commandant (Major) Lionel de Marmier. One of its first jobs was to try to persuade the governors-general of colonies in French West Africa to not submit to the orders of the Vichy government, and instead join the Free French in their fight against the Axis powers.
Operation Menace was an Allied plan to either persuade Dakar to join the Allied cause, or capture it by force. De Gaulle believed this was possible. Among the units taking part was the newly formed FAFL Groupe de Combat Mixte (GMC) 1, code-named "Jam", consisting of four squadrons composed of Bristol Blenheim bombers and Westland Lysander liaison/observation aircraft. The Battle of Dakar was a failure, however. The port remained in Vichy hands, the FAFL envoys were arrested and imprisoned at Dakar by the Vichy authorities, and de Gaulle's standing was damaged.
However, French forces in Cameroon and Chad in French Equatorial Africa, rallied to the Gaullist cause. Three detachments of French air force units based at Fort-Lamy (now N’Djamena in Chad), Douala in Cameroon, and Pointe-Noire in the Congo, operating a mixed bag of Potez and Bloch aircraft, which became part of the FAFL.
But Gabon remained loyal to Vichy, so, in mid- to late October 1940, FAFL squadrons set out on photo-reconnaissance and leaflet-dropping missions. The first combat between Vichy and the FAFL took place on 6 November 1940, when two Vichy air force aircraft took on two FAFL Lysanders near Libreville. Both aircraft sustained damage but made it back to base. Two days later, the first FAFL airmen were shot down and taken prisoner. Two days after that, Libreville was taken by Free French army troops, so the FAFL aircraft could now operate from the air base that had been used by their opponents a few days before. The French considered the fighting a “civil war” that Free France was winning, since now Libreville had joined the Gaullist cause. This would be the only time when opposing factions within FEA territory would fight each other openly.
Philippe de Hauteclocque, better known by his French resistance name of "Leclerc", later became one of the most famous French army generals in history, and had strong ambitions in North Africa. But he often revealed a complete lack of understanding of what the air force could actually do. When he wanted to bomb the Italian-held airfield at Koufra in Libya, he was told, matter-of-factly, that the squadrons could not carry out such a major mission, especially given their lack of experience in navigating over vast desert territory. Leclerc's reaction, based on his fury at the lack of air support during the German invasion of France, was ugly, and relations between him and the FAFL deteriorated rapidly.
A mission carried out by the recently formed Groupe de Bombardement (GRB) 1 (Lorraine), 1941, ended disastrously on February 4, 1942, when, out of four Blenheims sent to bomb Koufra, only a single one returned – and, even then, it was because of engine trouble. (One of the other three planes wasn't found until 1959.) On February 27, the Free French took Koufra airfield, and the enemy garrison surrendered two days later. Leclerc, for his part, still regarded aviation as a kind of appendage, of such minor importance that it might as well not be there to support the ground forces at all.
Following the Fall of France in 1940, there were French airmen who were determined to continue the fight against Nazi Germany. Some joined the RAF, whereas others joined the FAFL. Those who joined the RAF were fighting in the armed forces of a foreign nation, and technically breaking French civil law. They could have been considered mercenaries or filibusters, or charged with desertion in a court martial. On 15 April 1941, de Gaulle issued a formal declaration, requesting that French nationals in the RAF were to apply to be reincorporated in the FAFL by the 25th of April 1941. Any personnel making the transfer would be exempted from any wrongdoing.AIR 23/1461 folio 14 accessed at The National Archives, Kew. Not all French personnel complied with this ruling. Some that had left Syria and Lebanon had specifically done so to join the RAF, and opposed de Gaulle. The RAF considered granting British citizenship to these men, so as not to alienate them. Whilst the FAFL certainly had a number of aircrew (several of whom had flown to the allies), it was weakened by its lack of ground crew, and a lack of spare parts for their French-built machines. While the aircrew of GRB 1 were all French, the ground crew were initially British airmen.AIR 29/895 accessed at The National Archives, Kew. The arrival in the Middle East of the former Aéronavale ground crew from Tahiti in July 1941 was seen as a boost to the FAFL's maintenance personnel.AIR 8/371 accessed at The National Archives, Kew.
The Groupe Bretagne was formed on 1 January 1942, with certain objectives in mind: U.S.-built Maryland aircraft would carry out long-range reconnaissance missions, the Lysanders close-support missions and the Potez liaison and transport missions. Yet it was not until March 3 that the first operational missions were carried out from Uigh el-Kébir, which had only been captured the previous day. The very next day, however, a Lysander crashed on landing, injuring its pilot, who had to be evacuated to hospital. On March 7, the FAFL had some success when some Lysanders successfully destroyed three enemy aircraft on the ground at Um el-Aranel; one of them was chased by an Italian fighter plane, but it managed to get back to base, albeit sustaining considerable damage.
For most of 1942, the Groupe Bretagne concentrated mostly on liaison and training flights, yet, in late autumn, Leclerc wanted to count on the FAFL to support ground offensives against the Italians in the wake of the victory of the British 8th Army against the Afrika Korps at the Second Battle of El Alamein and the Anglo-American invasion of Morocco during Operation Torch. However, lack of co-operation between Leclerc's general staff based at Algiers and the Allies seemed to indicate a power struggle between him and de Gaulle since the latter was in charge of the Free French forces in London. Though FAFL airplanes from the “Rennes” squadron of the Groupe Bretagne did engage Italian forces towards the end of 1942 and the beginning of 1943, problems with both weapons and the aircraft themselves (mostly engine trouble resulting in forced-landings) dogged the efforts of the aircrews. January 23, 1943, witnessed the fall of Tripoli – and the end of the air war for the Groupe.
The Anglo-American landing in North Africa in November 1942 was the starting point for the rebirth of the French Air Force, thanks to the commitment by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, of 1,000 planes, and the French began to receive U.S.-built aircraft to replenish its squadrons. GCII/5 was the first unit organized, at first consisting of a single squadron of P-40 Tomahawk fighters acquired from the United States Army Air Forces, because of its ties to the Lafayette Escadrille in World War I. Operating from a forward base at Thelepte, Tunisia, the two squadrons of GCII/5 fought alongside American units in clearing North Africa of Axis forces in 1943.
On July 1, 1943, the Algiers-based Armée de l'Air general staff (which received its orders from de Gaulle and General Giraud) and the FAFL general staff were merged and placed under the command of General Bouscat. He conducted the reorganization of the French Air Force, incorporating all elements coming from the ex-Vichy French Army in North Africa and the FAFL. Those forces included about twenty various Groups equipped mainly with Dewoitine D.520s, LeO 45s, Glenn Martin bombers, Bloch MB.175 reconnaissance aircraft, and an assortment of Amiots, Farmans, and Potez 540 transport aircraft.
One squadron, two identities: GC 2/7 (No.326 “Nice” Squadron) (1943–1945)
Altogether, under the umbrella of the Allies (not just in North Africa, but also in Sicily and Corsica), there were nine FAFL fighter groups, three of which were designated as RAF fighter squadrons, namely No.326 (“Nice”), No.327 (“Corse”) and No.328 (“Provence”) Squadrons, with other units similarly named after regions in metropolitan France: Roussillon, Champagne, Navarre, Lafayette, Dauphiné and Ardennes. Similarly, there were six bomber groups (Bretagne, Maroc, Gascogne, Bourgogne, Sénégal and Franche-Comté), one reconnaissance group (Belfort) and one transport group (Anjou).