French Aircraft, Vol. 2: From 1939 to 1942, Dewoitine to Potez (Planes and Pilots) Paperback – April 19, 2005

Volumes one and two of "French Aircraft from 1939 to 1942" by Dominique Breffort and Andre Jouineau are some of the few books available today devoted entirely to French World War II aircraft. As such they are a useful addition to the literature available on WW2 military aviation, although both volumes suffers from several significant shortcomings.Breffort and Jouineau begin their series with an introduction that briefly covers the French air force's history during the pre-war period, before moving on to give a quick description of the air battles that began on the Western Front in 1939 and culminated in the Battle of France in 1940. The authors focus the remainder of their books on individual French aircraft, covering the Amiot 143 to the Curtiss Hawk 75A in volume 1, and the Dewiotine D 500 to the Potez 63 in volume 2. Both volumes conclude with a brief section of "might-have-bens" (more precisely titled "Those That Never Were")--French aircraft that were produced and flown in experimental form but never entered production or service before France's fall.The books' strengths are that Breffort and Jouineau describe all of the major and most of the minor French combat aircraft, including those (such as the American Curtiss Hawk 75A, Douglas DB-7, and Martin 167-F) not produced in France but nevertheless employed by the French Air Force. The books are also generally well organized, and include lots of high-quality photos and brilliant color prints of each aircraft.The books suffer from several weaknesses, however. First, the text is translated into English from French, and in several spots the translation is poor. At times this makes it difficult, for example, to discern from the text how many of a particular aircraft were produced or when a given aircraft entered service. Second, the technical specifications for each aircraft are very brief and provide only bare-bones performance, weight, and dimensional information. Thirdly, the space taken up by the sections covering experimental aircraft would probably have been better used covering minor aircraft that entered French service but are for some reason not covered in the main text, such as the Latecoere 298, Vought V-156-F, and Liore-Nieuport LN 401. Finally, it is not clear why the series was produced in two volumes-the two books are thin enough that they probably could have been produced as a single convenient, compact book.Despite these shortcomings volumes one and two of "French Aircraft from 1939 to 1942" are some of the few concise references on French World War II military aviation, and for those searching for information on this topic they may be worth buying.

Excellent overview of French WW II warplanes, mainly from the Battle of France period. Anything in the Histoire & Collections series of books I can heartily recommend sight unseen, they really are that good!

The two volumes of this series are a fine combination of extreme usefulness and reasonable pricing. If you have any interest in the subject, they are must-haves. Even if you are just interested in WWII more generally, the histories of the aircraft give valuable insight into the micro-problems faced by the French as they prepared to fight the Germans at the opening of the war in Europe.