Airpower over the Rhine

Airpower over the Rhine critically reexamines the air battle between the French Air Force and the Luftwaffe in the skies over France in May and June of 1940 through exploring each service's preparations for war during the 1930s and the course of battle. In the book, the author examines doctrine, equipment, politics, experiences in the Spanish Civil War, air force relations with land forces, training, leadership to explain why the French Air Force was defeated in 1940. However, the author reveals new and fresh information about the French Air Force that has long been neglected in the historiography and has not largely not appeared in previous works, especially in English. Airpower over the Rhine argues that complex internal conflicts in French leadership, both political and military, fundamentally affected every aspect of the French air battle in 1940 leading to its defeat. Further, the book argues that the long-held narrative of the French Air Force simply 'not showing up to fight' is completely erroneous and the product of a largely collaborationist cover-up beginning with the Riom Trials in Vichy France and perpetuated by post war Cold War politics and popular mythology. Airpower over the Rhine offers completely new details regarding the development of the French Air Force and reveals information sorely lacking in the historiography. The author explores long neglected archival sources in the United States, France, and Britain to paint a period view of the internal and external challenges facing the French Air Force. This work gives both internal and external views of the French Air Force in a way largely unexplored previously. Further, this book gives new details and insights into Pierre Cot, a controversial French politician largely unknown outside France. Airpower over the Rhine explains his internal and external impact on the development of the French Air Force and details what is known about his apparent efforts to spy for the Soviet Union. Lastly, this book rehabilitates the pilots of the French Air Force in English by demonstrating that fighting at virtually every disadvantage and under impossible conditions, they still managed to land decimating blows against the Luftwaffe, giving them credit long overdue and eliminating a long-held and embraced myth.