AIR FAN 74 NAS MIRAMAR USN F-14 VF F-4
A-4 F-5 / MIRAGE IVA & IVP / INDOCHINA AU-1 14F
SINGLE ISSUE OF FRENCH LANGUAGE MAGAZINE OF MILITARY
AVIATION / PHOTO CAPTIONS ARE ALSO PRESENTED IN ENGLISH
***VERY GOOD CONDITION***
FEATURED ARTICLES INCLUDE:
NAS MIRAMAR US NAVY FIGHTER TOWN (GRUMMAN F-14 TOMCAT VF-211
FIGHTING CHECKMATES, VF-24, VF-11, VF-51, VF-111 SUNDOWNERS, A-4 SKYHAWK, F-5E
TIGER II, VC-13 FIGHTING SAINTS, VF-126 BANDITS, McD F-4S PHANTOM VF-301 VF-302,
F-4N VF-154, E-2 HAWKEYE VAW-112, TA-4J SKYHAWK)
FRENCH AIR FORCE ARMEE de lAIR STRATEGIC BOMBERS (MIRAGE
IVA & IVP)
COLOMBIAN AIR FORCE FUERZA AEREA COLOMBIANA
NATO TACTICAL AIR MEET 1984 (GERMAN LUFTWAFFE F-4F
PHANTOM, USAF F-15 EAGLE, RAF PHANTOM FGR.2, FRENCH MIRAGE IIIRD
FRENCH NAVY AERONAVALE VOUGHT F4U AU-1 CORSAIR FLOTILLE
14F THE END OF THE WAR IN INDOCHINA
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Additional Information from Internet Encyclopedia
French Navy Aéronavale
After the war, the French Navy had an urgent
requirement for a powerful carrier-borne close-air support aircraft to operate
from the French Navy's four aircraft carriers that it acquired in the late
1940s (Two former U.S. Navy and two Royal Navy carriers were transferred).
Secondhand US Navy Douglas SBD Dauntless dive-bombers of Flotille 3F and 4F
were used to attack enemy targets and support ground forces in the First
Indochina War. Former US Grumman F6F-5 Hellcats and Curtiss SB2C Helldivers
were also used for close air support. A new and more capable aircraft was
needed.
First Indochina War
The last production Corsair was the 'F4U-7, which
was built specifically for the French naval air arm, the Aéronavale. The XF4U-7
prototype did its test flight on 2 July 1952 with a total of 94 F4U-7s built
for the French Navy's Aéronavale (79 in 1952, 15 in 1953), with the last of the
batch, the final Corsair built, rolled out on 31 January 1953. The F4U-7s were
actually purchased by the U.S. Navy and passed on to the Aéronavale through the
U.S. Military Assistance Program (MAP). The French Navy used its F4U-7s during
the second half of the First Indochina War in the 1950s (12.F, 14.F, 15.F
Flotillas),[1] where they were supplemented by at least 25 ex-USMC AU-1s passed
on to the French in 1954, after the end of the Korean War.
On 15 January 1953, Flotille 14F, based at Karouba
Air Base near Bizerte in Tunisia, became the first Aéronavale unit to receive
the F4U-7 Corsair. Flotille 14F pilots arrived at Da Nang on 17 April 1954, but
without their aircraft. The next day, the carrier USS Saipan delivered 25
war-weary ground attack ex-USMC AU-1 Corsairs[105] (flown by VMA-212 at the end
of the Korean War). During three months operating over Dien Bien Phu and
Viêt-Nam, the Corsairs flew 959 combat sorties totaling 1,335 flight hours.
They dropped some 700 tons of bombs and fired more than 300 rockets and 70,000
20 mm rounds. Six aircraft were damaged and two shot down by Viet Minh.
In September 1954, F4U-7 Corsairs were loaded
aboard Dixmude and brought back to France in November. The surviving Ex-USMC
AU-1s were taken to the Philippines and returned to the U.S. Navy. In 1956,
Flotille 15F returned to South Vietnam, equipped with F4U-7 Corsairs.
Suez Crisis
The 14.F and 15.F Flotillas also took part in the
Anglo-French-Israeli seizure of the Suez Canal in October 1956, code-named
Operation Musketeer. The Corsairs were painted with yellow and black
recognition stripes for this operation. They were tasked with destroying
Egyptian Navy ships at Alexandria but the presence of U.S. Navy ships prevented
the successful completion of the mission. On 3 November 16 F4U-7s attacked
airfields in the Delta, with one Corsair shot down by anti-aircraft fire. Two
more Corsairs were damaged when landing back on the carriers. The Corsairs
engaged in Operation Musketeer dropped a total of 25 tons of bombs, and fired
more than 500 rockets and 16,000 20mm rounds.
Algerian War
As soon as they disembarked from the carriers that
took part in Operation Musketeer, at the end of 1956, all three Corsair
Flotillas moved to Telergma and Oran airfields in Algeria from where they
provided CAS and helicopter escort. They were joined by the new "Flottille
17F", established at Hyères in April 1958.
French F4U-7 Corsairs (with some borrowed AU-1s)
of the 12F, 14F, 15F, and 17F Flotillas conducted missions during the Algerian
War between 1955 and 1962. Between February and March 1958, several strikes and
CAS missions were launched from Bois Belleau, the only carrier involved in the
Algeria War.
Tunisia
France recognized Tunisian independence and
sovereignty in 1956 but continued to station military forces at Bizerte and
planned to extend the airbase. In 1961, Tunisia asked France to evacuate the
base. Tunisia imposed a blockade on the base on 17 July, hoping to force its
evacuation. This resulted in a battle between militiamen and the French
military which lasted three days. French paratroopers, escorted by Corsairs of
the 12F and 17F Flotillas, were dropped to reinforce the base and the
Aéronavale launched air strikes on Tunisian troops and vehicles between 1921
July, carrying out more than 150 sorties. Three Corsairs were damaged by ground
fire.
French experiments
In early 1959, the Aéronavale experimented with
the Vietnam War-era SS.11 wire-guided anti-tank missile on F4U-7 Corsairs. The
12.F pilots trained for this experimental program were required to manually
pilot the missile at approximatively two kilometers from the target on low
altitude with a joystick using the right hand while keeping track of a flare on
its tail, and piloting the aircraft using the left hand; an exercise that could
be very tricky in a single-seat aircraft under combat conditions. Despite
reportedly effective results during the tests, this armament was not used with
Corsairs during the ongoing Algerian War.
The Aéronavale used 163 Corsairs (94 F4U-7s and 69
AU-1s), the last of them used by the Cuers-based 14.F Flotilla were out of
service by September 1964,[1] with some surviving for museum display or as
civilian warbirds. By the early 1960s, two new modern aircraft carriers,
Clemenceau and Foch, had entered service with the French Navy and with them a
new generation of jet-powered combat aircraft.