Hi, in our history class we need to do an essay on France on ww2 My idea was to talk about the french resistance,collaboration and the french liberation army (French first army) but there is on propleme, i found very few sources citing french casulties of war. According to american and british sources up to 250,000 to 300,000 french (french pied noirs and tirailleurs included) were KIA and 390,000 were WIA, during the 39-45 operations, including 4500 dead in the vichy army plus 25,000 dead/wounded in the SS charlemagne division and 33,000 alsalcian and lorrain in the german army for the resistance i counted 200,000 deported(75,000), KIA (18,500- 20,000) and executed for a total of 512,000 dead and 390,000 wounded My main question is, i found absolutely nothing on the French merchant/naval casulties and the number of french pilots who died in ww2, and it's very frustrating to find nothing on french navy and aviation casulties. Thanks for reading, hope you can awnser it and sorry for bad english
Heres a start Scuttling of the French fleet at Toulon Casualties: 12 killed 26 wounded Mers-el-Kébir 1,297 dead 350 wounded Some may have killed during Dunkirk and its associated Operation in June/July 1940, but I do not know where the records would be - perhaps in The National Archives in France - perhaps try The Military Archives at Chateau de Vincennes TD Non-British personnel in the RAF during the Battle of Britain - Wikipedia France French volunteers and Free French forces served in 245 and 615 Squadron. 13 are recognised in the Battle of Britain Roll of Honour.[19] In addition a French squadron, No. 346 Squadron RAF, was based at Elvington.[20] No. 356 French Squadron (RAF) during the Second World War No.346 "Guyenne" Squadron was a bomber squadron manned by French personnel who had previously been serving in North Africa 346 Squadron French Air Force Crews flew from RAF Elvington during WW2
A lesser known aspect is the Normandie-Nieman group, a French fighter unit that fought under the Soviets. Here's the wiki article to get you started: Escadron de Chasse 2/30 Normandie-Niemen - Wikipedia A good book on the group is French Eagles, Soviet Heroes by John D. Clark. At the end of the war they were flying Yak-3s, one of the best fighters of the war, and the Soviets allowed them to take their aircraft with them when they returned to France.
Thanks for the reply; i've heard that by 1945 the french navy had around 75,000 men and the air force 150,000 and 40 squadrons, with up to 10,000 casulties i found a post statin that the french air force in total lost 2,700 MIA and 1,500 MIA but couldn't find nothing on WIA (Uk, lost 3,690 men and 1,200 wounded plus 607 POW's) 500 french lost their lives in the RAF Bomber command (38,000 brits, 10,000 canadians, 2700 Poles and 9,900 australians) for the Navy, according to an historian, the french merchant ship lost 20 percent of his manpower, during 1941 and 1942 , 1000 french sailors lost their lives due to U-Boats, my prediction for the navy might be 9,000 casulties, who knows?
Vichy Naval casualties through to 1 January, 1943, were 2,827 killed & 1,172 wounded. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAQegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw1BlP1fFzYxUt7LMrT-y3zL
Sorry I might be wrong here but the Germans did a straight attack towards the Maginot line in the mid-sothern section. I do have an osprey book I could if necessary check. That is 1940.