French Bombers of World War II in Action

On I April 1933, the French Army's Aeronautique Militaire (Military Aeronautics) was renamed the Arme'e de I'Air (Army of the Air; French Air Force). (This service became inde­pendent of ihc Army on 2 July 1934.) New French Air Minister Pierre Cot asked Armee de I'Air Chid'of Staff Central Victor Denain to prepare a five-year aircraft procurement plan in May of 1933. Plan d'Equipement I (Equipment Plan One) was intended to replace all aircraft in the Armee de I'Air inventory and had several technical objectives These included the wide­spread use of radio equipment and the introduction of high rate of fire automatically fed machine guns. Financial difficulties due to the Great Depression caused the Minister* de I'Air I Air Ministry! to postpone Plan I for the moment.