Free French air force formally receives a Curtiss P-40Fs

The newly reconstituted Free French air force formally receives its first frontline combat aircraft, Curtiss P-40Fs, on January 8, 1943, at Casablanca from the U.S. Army Air Forces. This was the first of 1,000 combat aircraft promised by President Roosevelt to General de Gaulle. This is Groupe de Chasse GC II/5, which had just adopted the designation Lafayette Escadrille as a reciprocal tribute to the World War I French squadron of American recruits that had fought the Germans before the U.S. entered WWI in 1917. Less than two months earlier, these P-40s had been catapult launched from a U.S. carrier with U.S. Army Air Forces pilots during Operation Torch, the U.S. invasion of North Africa, while the French pilots of GC II/5 were fighting U.S. Navy Grumman F4F Wildcats under the flag of Vichy France, allied to Germany. The hostilities lasted for only three days, when, on November 11, 1942, the Vichy French forces in North Africa swore allegiance to Free French commander General Charles de Gaulle, resulting in Germany occupying all of Vichy France.

Source :
National Archives and Records Administration, 342-C-K-91
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
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