Lapray, Olivier Le groupe de chasse II/5 au combat

Drôle de guerre, campagne de France. Toul-Croix de Metz, 1939-1940

During general mobilisation, Fighter Squadron II/5 moved from Reims to Toul-Croix de Metz airfield on 28 August 1939. Under the command of a former First World War ace with 12 aerial victories, the group consisted of N124 Lafayette, a squadron of American volunteers from 1916, and SPA167, a former squadron of the Les Cigognes group from 1918. On board their Curtiss aircraft, which had arrived from the USA a few months earlier, the pilots of GC II/5 played an important role in what others called the Sitzkrieg (sitting war) by supporting the Third Army in the Moselle, particularly during the victorious battle of the 9 Curtiss H-75s against 27 Messerschmitt Bf 109s and then during the fierce air battles of the French campaign in the skies over Lorraine and Champagne. As the last fighter group to be forced to withdraw from its original base, its mechanics were exposed to Luftwaffe attacks on 13 June 1940. GC II/5 was praised in the army order as an elite unit which, thanks to the vast experience of its commander, Major Hugues, and the skill and unwavering courage of its pilots, was always able to assert its superiority over the enemy and achieve magnificent results. In ten months of aerial combat, Fighter Group II/5 had indeed shot down 51 enemy aircraft, while 22 Curtiss planes had crashed or made emergency landings due to German fighter pilots, the machine guns of the bombers they attacked, and anti-aircraft fire. Seven of its pilots and four soldiers were wounded, and three soldiers and two pilots were killed: Sergeant Magnez and Lieutenant Houzé. This work is dedicated to the memory of these pilots, mechanics and airmen.