Report of the commander of the Swiss Air Force

The Swiss defence against Luftwaffe incursions
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Moggy-the-Admin
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Report of the commander of the Swiss Air Force

Post by Moggy-the-Admin »

This material was provided to me by the Swiss Air Force museum:

What happened in May/June 1940:

After several conflicting situations in the air, mainly close to the Swiss-German and Swiss-French borderlines, the airforce was forced to withdraw all bases in the border regions and to operate from bases in central Switzerland (political / governmental decisions). After the general mobilisation taking place May 10th that rule was whithdrawn, this means that patrol flights were recommended along the borderline of northern Switzerland.

Squadrons were forced to change bases day after day, unfortunately no one document in our arcives keeps track to these changes.

Another important point is, that during 1940 the Swiss Air Force was built up, new planes were delivered allmost on a daily base, therefore transition courses were held. Furthermore some squadrons which were allready formed in the "order of battaille", this means existing on papers, were not operational due to lack of planes. The planes were furnished during 1940 and though these squadrons became active during the year 1940 (table 2).

The reference document concerning the history of these days is the
"Report of the commander of the Air Force and Air Defence (AAA) troupes".
The only existing table is showing the status dated Sept.02 1939.

As mentioned above, that order has been severely shaked and scrambled due to political decisions, aircraft deliveries and transition courses, this means it definetely does not reflect the status of June 08 1940, it just may give some indications... Alterations to that status must be made due to the progress in a/c deliveries:

April: Fl Kp 13, 14, 19 and 20 made transition courses to the new Morane a/c.

by end of May: Fl Kp 13 and 14 who had made the transition course on the Geneva Airfield were posted to the warbases, but no indications were made where these bases were located.

A important point is made in that report by saying that during the "hot season" May / June only Fl Kp 6, 15 and 21 were operational in defence, equipped with Me-109 E.

Unfortunately no closer indication is made upon the posting of these squadrons, but it must be assumed that they have changed the bases relatively often.

During June 1940, 84 border violations were reported, mainly by German aircraft. Within 10 sorties 37 chase patrols were engaged. 5 engagements were successful.

1.06. Bomber He-111 Lignières Shot down in air combat
1.06. Bomber He-111 France Shot down in air combat
2.06. Bomber He-111 Ursins Severly damaged, em-ldg
4.06. Bomber (?) France Shot down in air combat. One swiss pilot killed
8.06. Me-110 (6) Escaped Swiss a/c C-35 shot down, 2men crew killed
8.06. Me-110 Forced ldg Driven by air patrol into AAA fire, one swiss Me-109 E em-ldg, pilot severely hit.
8.06. Me-110 Triengen Driven by air patrol into AAA fire, shot down by AAA.
Moggy
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