Warplanes of France: Dewoitine D.520

‍Dewoitine D.520

(L'Armée de l'air française Photo)

The D.520 was designed in response to a 1936 requirement from the French Air Force for a fast, modern fighter with a good climbing speed and an armament centred on a 20 mm cannon. At the time the most powerful V-12 liquid-cooled engine available in France was the Hispano-Suiza 12Y, which was less powerful, but lighter than contemporary engines such as the Rolls-Royce Merlin and Daimler-Benz DB 601.

The Dewoitine D.520 was a French fighter aircraft that entered service in early 1940, shortly after the opening of the Second World War.  Unlike the Morane-Saulnier M.S.406, which was at that time the Armée de l’Air’s most numerous fighter, the Dewoitine D.520 came close to being a match for the latest German types, such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109.  It was slower than the Bf 109E but superior in manoeuvrability.  Because of a delayed production cycle, only a small number were available for combat with the Luftwaffe.

The D.520 was designed in response to a 1936 requirement from the Armée de l’Air for a fast, modern fighter with a good climbing speed and an armament centred on a 20-mm cannon.  At the time the most powerful V 12 liquid cooled engine available in France was the Hispano-Suiza 12Y, which was less powerful, but lighter, than contemporary engines such as the Rolls-Royce Merlin and Daimler-Benz DB 601.  Other fighters were designed to meet the specifications but none of them entered service, or entered service in small numbers and too late to play a significant role during the Battle of France.

By 10 May 1940, when Germany invaded France and the Low Countries, 228 D.520s had been manufactured, but the Armée de l’Air had only accepted 75, as most others had been sent back to the factory to be retrofitted to the new standard.  As a result, only GC I/3 was fully equipped, having 36 aircraft.  They met the Luftwaffe on 13 May, shooting down three Henschel Hs 126s and one Heinkel He 111 without loss.  Four more Groupes de Chasse and three naval Escadrilles rearmed with the type before France’s surrender.  GC II/3, GC III/3, GC III/6 and GC II/7 later completed conversion on the D.520.  A naval unit, the 1er Flotille de Chasse, was also equipped with the Dewoitine.  But only GC I/3, II/7, II/6 and the naval AC 1 saw any action in the Battle of France.  GC III/7 converted to the D.520 too late to be involved in combat.

In air combat, mostly against Italians, pilots flying the Dewoitine 520s claimed 114 air victories, plus 39 probables.  Eighty five D.520s were lost.  By the armistice at the end of June 1940, 437 D.520s had been built with 351 delivered.  After the armistice, 165 D.520s were evacuated to North Africa.  GC I/3, II/3, III/3, III/6 and II/7 flew their aircraft to Algeria to avoid capture.  Three more, from GC III/7, escaped to Britain and were delivered to the Free French.  A total of 153 D.520s remained in mainland France.

One of the most successful D.520 pilots was Pierre Le Gloan, who shot down 18 aircraft (four Germans, seven Italian and seven British), scoring all of his kills with the D.520, and ranked as the fourth-highest French ace of the war.

In April 1941, the German armistice commission authorized Vichy authorities to resume production of a batch of 1,000 military aircraft for their own use, under the condition that 2,000 German-designed aircraft would later be manufactured in France and delivered to Germany.  As part of this agreement, 550 examples of the D.520 were ordered to replace all other single-seat fighters in service.  The plan was to have the Dewoitine eventually equip a total of 17 Groupes with 442 aircraft, three escadrilles of the Aéronautique navale with 37 aircraft each, plus three training units with 13 aircraft.

In 1941, D.520s of GC III/6, II/3 and naval escadrille 1AC fought the Allies during the Syria-Lebanon campaign.  The Vichy French Air Force (Armée de l’Air de Vichy) was already relatively strong, but several units were sent to reinforce it.  D.520s were the only French single-seat fighters capable of making the trip to Syria.  The GC III/6 was sent first.  Flying over mountainous terrain for long distances, of the 168 French aircraft (of all types) sent to Syria, 155 accomplished their mission and successfully arrived.  The Vichy Air force was numerically strong, but with very few ground crew and spare parts, so the operational flying time for the D.520s was very limited.  D.520s of GC III/6 first saw action against British aircraft on 8 June 1941, when they shot down three Fairey Fulmars, losing one D.520 with its pilot taken prisoner).  Over the following days several escort missions were made to protect Martin, LeO and Bloch 200 (3/39 Esc) aircraft from British Royal Navy fighters.  On 9 June, two Hawker Hurricanes were shot down (with another D.520 lost).

In total, during the Syria campaign 266 missions were flown by the Vichy French Air Force: 99 of them were made by D.520s, nine by MS.406s, 46 by Martin 167s and 31 by LeO 451s.  The D.520s were therefore the most active of the French aircraft in the campaign, where they claimed 31 kills over British and Australian units while losing 11 of their own in air combat and a further 24 to AA fire, accidents and attacks on their airfields..  On 10 July, five D.520s attacked Bristol Blenheim bombers from No. 45 Squadron RAF that were being escorted by seven Curtiss Tomahawks from No. 3 Squadron RAAF (3 Sqn).  The French pilots claimed three Blenheims, but at least four of the D.520s were destroyed by the Australian escorts, including two by F/O Peter Turnbull.  The following day, a Dewoitine pilot shot down a P-40 from 3 Sqn, the only Tomahawk lost during the campaign.  This Dewoitine was in turn shot down by F/O Bobby Gibbes.  The initial advantage that the Vichy French Air Force enjoyed did not last long, and they lost most of their aircraft during the campaign.  The majority of the lost aircraft were destroyed on the ground where the flat terrain, absence of infrastructure and absence of modern anti-aircraft (AA) artillery made them vulnerable to air attacks.  On June 26, a strafing run by Tomahawks of 3 Sqn, on Homs airfield, destroyed five Dewoitine D.520s of Fighter Squadron II/3 (Groupe de Chasse II/3) and damaged six more.

By the end of the campaign, the Vichy forces had lost 179 aircraft from the approximately 289 committed to the Levant.  The remaining aircraft with the range to do so, evacuated to Rhodes.  The known French losses of fighter aircraft were 26 in air combat and 45 in strafing and bombing actions.  Allied forces lost 41 planes, 27 of those shot down by French fighters.  During Operation Torch, GC III/3 (previously known as GC I/3) was engaged in combat with the Allies over Oran.  Flotille 1F saw action versus the United States Navy F4F Wildcat squadron VF-41 (from the carrier USS Ranger), over Casablanca.  One D.520 was among 14 US victory claims, with the only Allied losses being due to ground and friendly fire.  Other Dewoitine-equipped units in North Africa such as GC II/7 or GC II/3 did not to take part in the fighting.  Overall, the known D.520 air strength in North Africa was 173 D.520s (143 combat ready) of GC II/3, III/3, III/6, II/7 and II/5, another 30 were in Senegal with GC II/6.  The Navy had Esc 1AC and 2AC. Many D.520s were destroyed on the ground by Allied bombing.  The French Air Force lost 56 aircraft, among them 13 D.520s.  The Navy lost 19 D.520s aircraft.  Among the 44 kills that the French scored overall, there was an entire squadron of nine Fairey Albacore, from the HMS Furious, all shot down by D.520s of GC III/3.

A very small number of D.520s were briefly operated by Free French Forces for training purposes.  Along with the three examples that had flown to Britain in June 1940, two other D.520s were recovered from retreating Vichy forces in Rayak, Lebanon.  These D.520s were flown by pilots of the Normandie-Niemen unit before the unit was sent to the USSR, where they flew the Yakovlev Yak-1 that had many similarities with the D.520.

In December 1942, as French forces formerly under Vichy sided with the Allies, there were 153 D.520s left in French hands in North Africa.  They flew a few patrols during the Battle of Tunisia, but were considered obsolete, and their radio sets were incompatible with Allied equipment.  From early 1943 on, they were relegated to training duties at the fighter school in Meknes, and progressively replaced by Spitfires and P-39s in combat units.  During the liberation of France, a few D.520s abandoned by the Germans were used by ad hoc units in ground attacks against the isolated German pockets of resistance on the Western coast.

As German forces invaded Vichy’s so-called “free zone” in November 1942, they captured 246 D.520s; additionally, a batch of 62 was completed under German occupation.  The captured Dewoitines were to be delivered to the Axis Balkan Front, although some were used by the Luftwaffe for training purposes while 60 were transferred to Italy and 96, or 120, to Vozdushni Voiski, the Bulgarian Air Force, for use in combat.

Numerous sources have mentioned use of the D.520 by the Romanian Air Force, but no evidence has ever been provided.  One source claims the so-called Romanian Dewoitines were, in fact, in transit to Bulgaria and only flew over Romania in order to get to their final destination.  This seems the most reliable explanation, viewed against the numbers of Dewoitines actually available.

About 60 D.520s were acquired by Regia Aeronautica.  Italian pilots appreciated the aircraft’s capabilities and Hispano-Suiza HS.404 cannon, at least by 1940–1941 standards.  The first three D.520s were assigned to 2° Stormo based at the Torino-Caselle airfield, where they were used for the defence of Torino’s industrial area.  Other D.520s were captured in Montélimar, Orange, Istres and Aix-en-Provence.

At the beginning of 1943, the Italian ace Luigi Gorrini ferried D.520s taken as prizes of war to Italy to be used for defence.

During the type's later life, it was used as a trainer aircraft. On 3 September 1953, the last D.520s were finally withdrawn from service. (Wikipedia)

(L'Armée de l'air française Photo)

Dewoitine D 520 Escadrille GCB I.8 White 2 Vendee, 1945.

(L'Armée de l'air française Photo)

D.520 n°. 277 of GCIII/6, the personal plane of French ace Pierre le Gloan, in flight in French North Africa during the early months of the Vichy regime. One can observe the identification arrow, which in this case extended all the way to the propeller hub, but on other aircraft stopped around or slightly in front of the cockpit.

(L'Armée de l'air française Photo)

Dewoitine D 520 Escadrille GCB I.8 White 6 No. 689 Vendee 1945.

(L'Armée de l'air française Photo)

D.520.

(L'Armée de l'air française Photo)

A D.520 of squadron 2AC of Flottila 1F on the runway in French North Africa, 1942.

(L'Armée de l'air française Photo)

French pilot Marcel Albert over Algeria in his Dewoitine D.520.

(L'Armée de l'air française Photo)

A Vichy D.520 of an unidentified squadron in French North Africa, 1941.

(L'Armée de l'air française Photo)

Vichy D.520 in the markings which were now standard by 1942, with the white identification line no longer featuring an arrowhead, and yellow-and-orange stripes on the empennage and engine fairing.

(G. Garitan Photo)

A D.520 after crash landing. This aircraft is wearing Vichy France markings, therefore the crash happened after July 1940,  and before June 1941.

(L'Armée de l'air française Photo)

GC I/18 “Vendée” D.520s in flight in the spring of 1945.

(L'Armée de l'air française Photo)

GC I/18 “Vendée” D.520s in flight in the spring of 1945.

(L'Armée de l'air française Photo)

D.520.

(L'Armée de l'air française Photo)

Dewoitine D.520 fighters in flight over Morocco in August 1943.

(L'Armée de l'air française Photo)

Free French Dewoitine D 520 FFI Dorset at Toulouse France Sep 1944.

(Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace Photo)

D.520 of the Corps Franc Pommiès, a Free French unit, in August 1944.

(Anidaat Photo)

Dewoitine D.520 F-ZWVB at the Sion Air Show 1986.

Surviving Dewoitine D.520 fighters:

Dewoitine D.520a No. 408 was restored to flying condition in the 1970s.  Delivered in 1940, it fought against Allies in 1942, survived the war and many years later was rebuilt as the N.90, a famous D.520 flown with GC II/3  It was overhauled in 1977-80, and it flew at Le Bourget airshow in 1980.  It performed at various airshows in Europe, but was destroyed in a fatal crash in 1986.

Dewoitine D.520 No. 603 is on display at the Conservatoire de l’air et de l’espace d’Aquitaine in Bordeaux-Mérignac.

Dewoitine D.520 No. 655 is undergoing restoration at the Naval Museum in Rochefort.

(PpPachy Photo)

(Toshonenov Photo)

(Alan Wilson Photo)

(Eric Salard Photo)

Dewoitine D.520 No. 862 is on display at the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace, Le Bourget, Seine-Saint-Denis, Île-de-France, France. It has been repainted as No. 277 flown by GC III/6 in June 1940. c/n 862 Built in occupied France during 1943, this D.520 was captured during French liberation in 1944 and then entered service with ‘Groupe Doret’ of the Free French Air Force. Retired in 1953, it was used for ground instruction at Amiens-Glisy before going on display at Luxeuil Saint-Sauveur (BA 116). Returned to ground running condition in around 1974, it was then removed for a potential return to flight. Main spar damage sadly meant she would never fly again, so she was statically restored and replaced D.520 No408 on permanent display at Le Bourget. No.408 was restored to fly instead, but sadly crashed in July 1986, killing the pilot. Now painted to represent No.277 as flown by Pierre Le Gloan of GC.III/6 during the Battle of France.

(Luftwaffe Photos)

D.520 n°95 of JG 101 at Pau airfield, France, 1944. The German D.520s were repainted in a camouflage fairly similar to what could be found on other German aircraft by that point in the war.

(Bulagarian Air Force Photo)

Bulgarian D.520 flying with the Luftwaffe, in the III (Bulg.)/JG6 based at Bojourishte, February 1944. The camouflage used by the Bulgarian air force was similar to the Luftwaffe’s, but using Bulgarian markings and stripping their aircraft of any garish yellow paint.

(L'Armée de l'air française Photo)

A trainer variant of the D.520was designed and produced. The D.520 DC, double commande (dual control.) As the name suggests, this was a D.520 with an extended cockpit to the rear, intended for two men, a cadet and an instructor. The plane would receive dual controls allowing the instructor to take over control of the plane.